Designing a web site is defined as the arrangement and creation of web pages that in turn make up a web site. A web page consists of information for which the web site is developed. A web site might be compared to a book, where each page of the book is a web page.
Due to the rapid development of the Internet, new aspects emerge for designing concerns. For non-commercial web sites, the goals may vary depending on the desired exposure and response. For typical commercial web sites, the basic aspects of design are:
The content: the substance, and information on the site should be relevant to the site and should target the area of the public that the website is concerned with.
The usability: the site should be user-friendly, with the interface and navigation simple and reliable.
The appearance: the graphics and text should include a single style that flows throughout, to show consistency. The style should be professional, appealing and relevant.
The visibility: the site must also be easy to find via most, if not all, major search engines and advertisement media.
Today, there’s a Web 2.0 term you may encounter upon browsing the world of web designing and development. Web 2.0 simply refers to a large set of ideas and techniques behind many new web sites and services which encourage user interaction, communication, and collaboration.
Let’s get into basic!
1. Hosting
Building a site on the World Wide Web requires more than simply learning the HTML(HyperText Markup Language) language and starting out. You need to get a place to put your Web pages. A Web Hosting is where you put your website and all the Web pages. While it’s possible to build a website on your personal computer and never move it online, it’s somewhat pointless. No one but you will ever be able to see it. So the first thing you’ll want to do is find a Web hosting provider.
Here are a list of some noticeable web hosting services that rocks the internet nowadays (There’s so many of them to be on the list, you may try to add if you like what’s the best for you but here for a quick list):
For a beginner, you’re not required to go for a paid hosting. Look for a free webhosting on your favorite search engine, ie. Google or Yahoo, and signup for a free web hosting service. Readers of this post may comment/recommend some good free web hosting and it’s up to you to decide which one you choose.
For a quick list:
2. Plan Your Website
Once you have your free webhosting, you can start now planning your site. To begin with, plan out the basic structures of your site.
A. The Navigation
– putting up good navigation on your Web sites allows your readers to easily find their way around. These articles and links will help you create the best possible navigation on your site. Example of good navigations for a basic web site are:
Home (the main or first page of a web site, typically with hyperlinks to the other pages.)
About (the page where you put the information about you should be linked on this navigation)
Portfolio (if you are giving services like graphic & web designs or any other type of services, it is a good idea to put those finish works here)
Contact (and for them to keep in touch!)
B. The Design
– This is one of the main factors that could attract your viewers. It is the atmosphere of the viewers, so having a good atmosphere for them makes them feel at home.
C. The Content
– Coming up what to write about is the most sticky part. Here’s a site covering some hard points about how to write effectively for your website.
3. Design your site
Design is more than just slapping HTML tags up onto a page, and using these principles will help you build more pleasing and useful designs. Following the principles of design will help you practice the professionality of a good designer.
- A. Balance is the distribution of heavy and light elements on the page. Larger, darker elements appear heavier in the design than smaller, lighter elements. The principle of balance shows you how to lay out your pages so that they work.
- B. When most people think of Contrast, they typically think of colors or black and white. But there is more to contrast than color. You can have contrasting shapes (square vs. circle), or contrasting sizes (large vs. small), or contrasting textures (smooth vs. rough).
- C. Emphasis is what the eye is drawn to in a design. It’s tempting to give everything equal emphasis or try to emphasize everything in a design, but this ends up making the design bland and flat. Instead, as a designer you should determine the hierarchy of the page and then apply the emphasis to the elements based on that hierarchy.
- D. Rhythm is also called repetition. Rhythm brings an internal consistency to your Web designs. Patterns are easy for humans to comprehend, and repetition provides patterns that make your site easier to comprehend.
- E. Unity is also called proximity. It is the principle of keeping like elements together and diverse elements further apart. Unity pulls elements together.