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Looking Good on the Web, by Ruth McIntyre-Williams

There's a lot of websites out there floating around in cyberspace, screaming for attention. When you cast your site out into the void, will you be able to catch viewers and hold on to them? Will they click through — or click off?

You have the content. You have a message. You need to present it in a professional and attractive manner quickly, before the viewer hits that return key. A few basic design skills will help you along.

1. The first important step is to provide a CENTER OF INTEREST to catch the viewer's eye. This can be your logo, a heading graphic, a gripping photograph. This should be at the top left or center of your site page. Say you have an online nursery business. You might splash a stunning photo of billowing red begonias across the top of your page. Right under it you could have your logo and business name. Or, you could have the logo and/or name printed right on the photo, just make sure it's VERY legible. Nothing spoils a photo more than faint unrecognizable smears on it.

2. From your center of interest object, you need to make sure people quickly see/read what you think is most important for them to know. Don't put paragraphs of text. They won't bother with it, and may even leave your site. Think poster. A web page is like a poster. Present information briefly and design it so the whole poster can be read quickly. To do this, you need to have EYE TRAVEL. This means planning graphics, tables, or short text snips to be placed on the page in such a pattern as to lead your viewers along the page to see what you want them to see without their making a conscious effort. Remember people read left to right, top to bottom. This is natural. Make use of it.

And, don't be afraid of blank space!! Did you hear me? Don't be afraid of blank space! Give your text and graphics room to breathe! <p> things apart. Make your table cells big. Put in spacers. A star in a black sky is more visible than the same star in the Milky Way.

3. Unify your site. Use REPETITION. Keep the same background color/image from page to page. Put your logo on each page in the same place. Use the same text color from page to page. If you have those billowing begonias on your index page, use a begonia flower for all your navigation buttons. Whatever you choose as navigation buttons, use the same ones on each page. If you use a text graphic for navigation, repeat that from page to page. Whatever. Repetition is comfortable. It holds the site together.

4. Of course, the same thing all the time could be boring to the viewer. So you do need some VARIETY. Back to the nursery business. Perhaps all the bulbs pages would have a green background, while all the herbs pages could have a blue background, and the annuals a yellow background. But they might all have the same basic layout otherwise. When you introduce variety into your design, make it logical. Have a reason for it. All of your navigation buttons could be flowers, different for each section. Balance out repetition and variety so that your site is unified, but interesting.

5. Be kind to your viewer. Restrain yourself from obnoxious animation. Use it sparingly and carefully, if at all. Keep the music minimal, if at all. Make the font big enough to read easily. Contrast the colors of the font and of the background so that the text shows up clearly. If you use a splash page, tell the viewer what to do to get into your site.

Good visual design keeps a viewer at your site. It inspires confidence in your product. Go to a search engine and bring up sites similar to yours and critique them. Get ideas. Then use them. Be a designer. Make your site a Presence on the web.



Ruth McIntyre-Williams holds a Master of Arts in art, and has been a computer graphics design specialist for the National Park Service. She is now retired, and does free-lance website design. You can check out her website at: http://www.clovenstone.com

Expert in your field? We're looking for ARTICLES on web site design and development, promotion, positioning, and e-commerce. Articles should be in the 700 to 800 word range and include a 2 line promotion of the author's site. Send submissions to: info@jayde.com

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