| Graphical Design |
This includes consistency of graphical design (icons, buttons, background), consistency of text and links fonts.
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Tip: Good images comes from good sources.
Designing them yourself is one of them. Add more of your own images rather than relying on others. You should really be proud of your own work rather than getting others to do the work and display their work on your page. An amalgamation of images might be that important, but most users can find their own way to the respective sites that offers the original versions of these images.
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Tip: Use image palette reduction tools.
This would ensure faster downloading time of your images, especially those banner images. You could use the minimum 8-bits color instead of going for the maximum. Anyway browsers use dithering to maximize colors on different screens and computer systems.
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Tip: Use a recurring background or image
A background should be unique to your site alone. Use a graphical design and layout that is conspicuous throughout your pages. Think layers, e.g. for background: Black for the major entry pages, gray for those underneath, etc. The background must be in such a way that it highlights the text on whatever they are employed, not the other way around, i.e., the background appears to steal the show from the text.
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Tip: Mind the size of your fonts.
Instead of delimiting them to the tags <font size= . . .> you could use the <h> tags. But be also consistent in using this attribute, say <h1> for all headings, <h3> for all subheadings, <h4> for all body text and <h6> for footnotes. You could also use the bold fonts tags to emphasize those small prints.
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Tip: Use consistent font faces, too.
Provide alternative face types on all fonts used, and at least one of them should be viewable on different browsers. I suggest you use Arial, Helvetica. You could experiment using other face font types as long as you use them consistently on all your pages. Use the same fonts and their attributes for all similar links or text. If you used bold letters for the main entry points, then use them all throughout your pages.
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Tip: Minimize the use of alternating fonts, like HeLlo . . WeLcOmE tO ThE CoNfuSiNg WoRld oF AnImE.
Although some would prefer these types of fonts, majority find this revolting. It also causes headache and dizziness. It is better to follow the conventional way of writing: capitalize your headings, and the initial letter of the first word in a paragraph.
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