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Web
Design
(my experiences)
I thought that I
would give a little exploration of how I ended up working this
whole monstrosity out for people who are interested in starting
or even updating their own page. It goes something like this...
I knew what
software I wanted to use (a WYSIWYG HTML editor - back in those days, most
people actually wrote their own code; there were only a few editors around), and had a fair
idea of what I wanted my site to contain, so while I was saving
up to get it, I decided to plot out my ideas.
Then I went
really looking at other peoples pages. I looked at their ideas
with formatting, fonts, backgrounds, links within their site,
sounds etc.
In Word, I did a
basic outline, with page titles and content, so that I knew how
many pages I was looking at doing, and to help with linking the
pages.
Then I went in
search of. I went to a site that had everything I could've wanted
to include. I went through and selected a heap of backgrounds,
rules, bullets, graphics. I knew I wanted a mail icon, and some
previous/home/next icons. As I was going through, if I saw
anything that I liked, I tried to figure out how I could use
them, sometimes further adding to my outline. As yet, I hadn't
decided what I was going to use where, but at least I had them.
Try to choose things that are relevant to the subject or text
though. (For example, on a friends page, I put an animated gif of
a dog peeing. It suited his character, but wouldn't be
appropriate most other places.) Graphics come under a category of
there own. Like ClipArt, they tend to become repetitious and
unoriginal. And of course, you want your site to be original.
Then I started
typing away, page by page. I found a proper document editor like
Word better in the long run, because you can format the text much
better. When I pasted it into the HTML editor, it got converted
to HTML format and didn't come out too much differently. I
couldn't do a lot of the formatting that I wanted to otherwise.
Within the
document I was typing up, I added little bits to show where I
wanted to place a graphic, link, rule etc.
For instance,
<bullet graphic> this is what my original<link
to Word> document would've looked like.
<rule>
That was it until
I got my editor. Once I inserted the text, next came putting in
the add-ons. Wow, my site was looking great, and I was feeling
pretty good about it. I couldn't wait to get it published and out
there for all to see. But I just wasn't ready to do it yet. There
is nothing to say that you can't put something up under
construction, but I preferred not too. I find it a little
annoying when I see a site with little content and 'Under
Construction' all the time. So I just plodded along, night after
night, making sure everything was going to be perfect.
Now when I
previewed the pages, they usually showed up a little different to
how I designed them (ie. in the browser they were wider). I found
that a little annoying at first, but got used to it. Actually, in
one instance, it helped me create the effect I couldn't with my
editor. Bizarre.
to be continued...
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Try this
link on for size. You visit, type your homepage address,
and it gives you a performance rating on various aspects. |
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Use this
link to register your site on at about 8 search engines |
General
Design Guide
Through my job as a forms
analyst & designer, I
know a lot about readability.
So here are a few tips for general
formatting:
-
Try not to
use too many fonts. Try not to go overboard on fancy ones
too. They are ok for headings and stuff, but not for
general text. Sans Serif (eg Arial) is good for headings
and basic text; Serif (eg Times Roman) is good for large
amounts of text.
-
Try to keep
to a few colours for text. Using one colour for headings,
one for text and another for notes and the like isn't
such a bad idea. That way, your readers can instantly
identify with what you are portraying. Try not to use
colours that are too bright or too dark (especially
against a background). People don't want to have to
strain to try and read what you wrote.
-
Try not to
underline. Most people will look at it as a link. Use
bold for emphasising. Use italics for notes and the like.
If you feel the need for underlining a heading - don't.
Increase the font size and bold.
finish it off...
Gay Links |
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Counter and referral only.
Tuesday, 12 February 2002
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