8 principles of good web design
Although it can seem that web design is nothing more than playing and stacking different elements and colors, the reality is that we should think of quite number of things to make the final result a design that is both functional and visually appealing. Everything is made more difficult by the fact that most web designers are self-taught.
Moreover, as technology is changing, the practice changing as well, which means you should constantly monitor the news and virtually every day to learn something new. However, on the Internet there are many useful tips, but also those who really are not, and based on them, and we made this list of 8 basic principle that every web designer should narrow into consideration when developing web sites.
1) GUIDANCE
What you want to achieve when people come to the site, is to follow a logic of seeing and reading the content in a way that you imagined. For instance, if a page of a company, the first thing that should be noted logo, so it must be large enough and located in the most observed place (eg, in the upper left corner, because that is where most people look first). Designer specifies how much some elements of the site will weight, and thus alleges visitors in a way that passes through the site. Certain elements of the site will be pointed out by combining techniques such as position on page, color or size.
2) PITCH
Rookie mistake by many web designers is the view that every possible void has to be filled with some elements, and that the empty space is a waste of time. This of course is not the case, since no gaps between elements of certain site has no visibility. You need to think about three things: the spacing (which directly affects the readability of the content), the distance between image and text (rule of thumb is that it should always be a gap between image and text), and a blank space on the page.
3) NAVIGATION
No one is enjoying browsing badly organized site, on which after a few clicks is lost no idea where is he or how to get back to where it was before. There are two basic rules that should be considered: the navigation buttons should at all times be in a visible place (at the top) and that clearly and accurately describe where they lead. Second, every time a visitor needs to know on which part of the site is located, which is achieved through the menus, buttons and / or the site map.
4) DESIGN IMPLEMENTATION
CSS made pretty easier the development of web sites, but still when working in Photoshop we have to think about the design, implementation, and development of the website. A web designer needs to think about this: can you really make as intended (exotic font is not a standard HTML font and therefore can not be used, the design looks great, but the width of 1500 px and most of the visitors will see only a part, or will have to be used horizontal scrolling, and nobody likes), which is the page size, or what happens when you view the page in a browser, and whether some minor changes in the design would highly facilitate the development site.
5) TYPOGRAPHY
There is no website without a certain amount of text and font selection is an important issue of web design. We should think about the kind of font (must match the content, so modern or retro font, etc., in any case - must be legible and must fit into the rest of the site, and should not exaggerate the font type on the site, all through the three exaggeration and generally bad taste), font size (large enough font to be easily read, and the headings and sub-headings should stand out from the rest of the text), spacing and length of the row (if it is too long, it is hard to read), font color, and text organization in paragraphs (a longer text passages in mandatory breaks, including a space, otherwise there is no chance that a visitor to read the text).
6) THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE ELEMENTS OF THE WEBSITE
Website is composed of several parts (header, section, illustrations, ..) and each needs to be independent, but all should be well organized, and in regular relations. So the order must be, and elements should be placed on the site by a rule. In this way makes it easier for the visitors to navigate, and everything and looks much better.
7) THE PRECISION AND CLARITY
The simplest way said, everything has to be precise in the pixel. Check the edges, are equal, there is a clear contrast between the parts of the site, and that the boundaries are clearly defined.
8) CONSISTENCY
This means that everything has to fit with each other and makes eye-catching visual whole. So, the size of the title and subtitle, selected font, color, style buttons, spacing, selection of images, all of which we have mentioned, and all of this should be a uniform style, both on one side, and on all other mutually. Only in this way the design looks professional and quality. This is most easily achieved by the very start, choose the basic style settings and the basic concept, and then it is applied during the complete development of the site. Of course, this does not mean that certain ideas will not be changed when creating the site, but the basic idea should be clearly defined and should not be changed too often. Be sure to specify whether that is what the customer exactly wants, to prevent doing it all over again.