Web Design Layout - Nov 2004

Web design Sunshine Coast

, Brisbane or New Zealand is about laying out the content of a web page so that the website is:
  • attractive
  • well-organized
  • easy for visitors to absorb
  • creates that great first impression

This is really what good web design is all about - having a logical, good looking, easy to follow online information source. This is true for the Sunshine Coast, Brisbane, Australia or any of the other areas that need good web designers.

Here are four top tips to help you in creating effective layouts:

1. Use contrast.

Employing contrast will help organize your page as well as make it more attractive. You may like to do some research into the web design for your target market and determine the types of contrast to use.

At 12website we have conducted extensive market resaerch in the Sunshine Coast and Brisbane areas. You can use contrasts in colour, size, value (which refers to the relative lightness or darkness of an object), and weight.

The heading of each section of a web page may be bolded (which gives it a heavier weight than the text underneath), in addition to being a bigger size and a different color than the rest of the copy. This helps make the page look very organized and easy to scan at a glance. Your preferences may be discussed with us as we are a web designer that listens.

2. Don't centre everything in web design.

Centering all the content tends to make a page look more disorganized, since there isn't strong alignment on either the left or right margins. This gives the page a "scattered" appearance and does not allow for a consistent area of website links.

Centering also tends to waste space. It is more efficient to left-align the content and add an additional column on the right. The new column could be used to display more content, which would prevent visitors from having to scroll down so far to read everything on the page. More info on your website homepage.

3. Visually distinguish each section of the page from other sections.

You can do this in several different ways. First, you can use different background colors to separate various parts of the page. For example a web designer may have half of the page with a white background and the other half with a grey background.

Second, you can use thin dividing lines to distinguish different sections. This technique may also use contrasting background colours as mentioned above. More on good web design function.

Placing a border around various sections is also a good way to employ the concept of dividing lines.

Finally, you can use blank "buffer zones" in between various sections in order to separate them. This is similar to the concept of dividing lines, except you create an invisible line by physically separating two parts of the page, rather than using an actual line.

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4. Keep information tight.

In order for a layout to really be effective, you need to be as efficient in your use of space as possible.

Although you don't want to make your pages look crowded, DO make good use of all your screen real estate. Be very aware that your web page will look different depending on the type of monitor that you and your customers are using. Use multiple columns in order to display information side by side.

Also, avoid stacking elements in a narrow column on top of each other if it means leaving blank space to the side.

If you keep these four principles in mind, you'll be well on your way to creating great layouts.


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Disclaimer

12website.com has prepared the supplied information as a voluntary service to the online community. The information is necessarily web design and small business in nature and is not intended to be relied upon other than as general background material. This should not be used as specific advice, recommendations or guidance, and specialist assistance should be sought by anyone in need of such help. 12website.com accepts no liability under any circumstances for any loss, expense, damages or costs whether direct or indirect (including loss of profits / damage to business) which may be incurred by any person as a result of relying on or using in whole or in part any of the supplied information.