Useful Web Design Tips Word Count: 574 Summary: There are many aspects to designing an effective web site. Whether you own a company and are looking for advertise, promote, and sell your products and services, or you just simply want to create a web page that will tell others more about you, you want to be sure people will notice it. That is why effective web design is essential to the promotion of yourself, your product, and, of course, your site. The first thing people are likely to notice when they visit your site is... Keywords: Web Design Article Body: There are many aspects to designing an effective web site. Whether you own a company and are looking for advertise, promote, and sell your products and services, or you just simply want to create a web page that will tell others more about you, you want to be sure people will notice it. That is why effective web design is essential to the promotion of yourself, your product, and, of course, your site. The first thing people are likely to notice when they visit your site is its appearance. It is a good idea to make sure the content is clear and concise so there won’t be any confusion about where to find information. That will save visitors time, and can mean the difference between their continuing to browse your site, or simply finding another like it. The following are some tips that will help you effectively design your site, and can help promote you as well as what you have to offer. Loading time is probably the most crucial aspect of web design. Just because you have a great looking web site does not mean others will see it if it takes a long time to load. The design you choose should be optimized for the web, and should generally take no more than 15 seconds to load. If the load time is longer than this, people are likely to click on another site instead. While pictures, graphics, and sound can definitely make it appealing, they can take a while to load, so you don’t want to have too many on the front end. The same goes for each individual page on your web site. If a particular page takes too long to load, the person perusing your site may decide to go elsewhere for the information. Clear navigation is another important aspect of good and effective web design. If your site is easy to get around, users are less likely to become confused. If information is too difficult to locate, they will more than likely go elsewhere to find it. Be sure the links and information are placed so that they make sense to those visiting your site. If there is a logical order, be sure to follow it. Design your site in terms of percentage, not pixels. This is important because of the many different screen resolutions available for computers today. You want to be sure yours will work for these various resolutions so that more people will be able to access your site and view its contents. Web browser compatibility is also a very important aspect of good web design. When creating your site, don’t stop when it looks good and works well with one browser. Make sure it works with commonly used browsers such as Internet Explorer and Netscape. This is important because what is compatible with one browser may not be with another. Since the object is to draw as many people as you possibly can to your site, making sure they are able to access it is important. There are many other features you can add to your site to make it more appealing. Keep in mind that the people who visit your site will come from a wide variety of computer backgrounds, and will own different computer equipment. Be as diverse as you possibly can, and remember that the web is constantly evolving, and in order to keep up, you must evolve with it.