7 quick, easy tips to make your web design more effective

Here are some essential web design tips that every web site should follow. Design your web site by following these tips and it is guaranteed that visitors will have a great first impression of your site.

At The Computer Guyz we have done hundreds of website designs over the years, from simple four pagers to full e-commerce and everything in between. Looking for a great website design - contact The Computer Guyz today!

Fast loading web site designs – This is the number 1 tip that every web designer should follow. You might design a web site that looks fantastic but few people are going to see it if it takes a long time to load. Your designs should be optimized for the web and should not take more than 15 seconds to load. Remember, you might have a great design but very few people are going to wait around for it to load.

Clear navigation – Once a visitor has come to your site you need to make them go through your site. To do this you need to have clear navigation. Make sure all your important links are in prominent places. Preferably on the top right– that's usually where a visitor first looks. Make use of menus on the right and the left. Try to link to as many pages of your site. Let your information be accessible from all parts of the site. You never know what a visitor may be interested in. Try to also use the footer for your important links. 

All resolutions – Today, there are computers with all kinds of resolution. They range from 640 x 480 to 1024 x 768 and go even higher. Your job is to design your site for all these resolutions. The best way to do this is to design your site in terms of percentage and not pixels. 

Browser compatibility – Make sure your site is browser compatible. Your web site should look good on Google Chrome as well as in Internet Explorer. Don't stop designing your site as soon as you find that it looks great on IE.

Readable and professional looking fonts – Majority of people will click out of a site if they see Comic Sans and bright pink or green. Just by looking at the font you feel that the site is not a professional site. Don't use Comic Sans and other fancy fonts that may not be available on most computers. If the font you use is not available in a visitors computer the web site will use the default font of your computer which is much worse. So try to keep to common and professional web fonts.

Minimize the use of images – Sometimes simple designs are the most effective for the web. Keep your site simple but neat. Don't clutter your page with big, bulky images that take ages to load. Instead use tables creatively and design eye - catching icons that will draw a visitor's attention to a particular section of your site. Tip - Visitors are usually more interested in content than in design.

Use of white space – Try not to clutter up your page with too many images, backgrounds and colourful fonts. Again use the Keep It Simple principle by minimizing the use of graphics and using a lot of white space. White space gives a sense of spaciousness and overall neatness to a site. Notice the spacing on The Computer Guyz' website.