First impressions are the best impressions and hence the first impression of the site can be got from its graphic and layout designing. The Professional Website Design should be simple and lucid. All the pages need to be consistent in background, color usage, text format and screen layout. A detailed understanding can be seen below.
Background and Text Colors-
The color schemes express the characters of the website and make it unique and attractive. The selection of the set of colors for background & text has to be done very carefully. It is recommended to use the dark color Vs light color combination, In other words, light text against a dark background or dark text against a light background is suggested. It would be a blunder if a background pattern that has both dark and light colors is used, as this would make it difficult to choose a text colorthat is readable against such a background. Background image or texture chosen should contrast well with the text color, so that it is easy to read on screen.
Selection of Fonts-
One of the most important parts of a web page is text. It can make the page look very professional or very unprofessional. Consistency in fonts is required; In other words, using varied fonts throughout the pages should be avoided. The standard fonts used on the Internet are Arial and Verdana as they are most readable on computer screen and as for headlines Georgia is used most extensively, as it has a slightly larger display.
Formatting Pages-
Lay out of the page should be with tables, and the width should be in percentage terms (100% to window size) instead of a fixed number of pixels. If done so, the content of the page will be flexible even with changes in browser window size, without the need to scroll horizontally. Tables enable displaying the contents in sections like a newspaper.
Links should be well organized, properly interlinked and easy to detect by using appropriate colors. Links should be underlined & a different color can be used for visited links, a link to the homepage should be displayed on all the internal pages. It should be ensured that there are no broken links simple text navigation links at the bottom of long pages should be provided, so that users don’t need to scroll up.
Optimize pages to be viewed at 800x600 (the most popular resolution).
Contents of the Pages-
The content of professional website should be in bulleted or numbered list with direct to the point in short paragraphs, as long blocks of text passages can be boring for the reader. The intention of the web pages should be made clear.
Top of the individual pages are to be loaded with most important and essential content with a brief header. This will quickly let the user know, your web page is the page what he is looking for, helping the user easily identify his/her requirement.A simple logo with captivating tag line on the top of the page acts as an identity of the website. Common names for menu options: Home, About Us, Contact Us,
Help, and Products, a copyright statement at the bottom of the each web page are to be used.
Limit File Size-
Web page size is defined by the total size of text, images and supporting files (including JavaScript, flash etc.) within the page to be downloaded from the server. So, the size of a web page should be kept small to open up fast. If the page has too many items to load and is slow to display, it should be broke into smaller pages and linked to a new web page, with link back from the second page.
Limit the size of an image inserted in a web page. Large image takes longer time to display hence, the size of image is to be limited. Adobe Photoshop can be used to slice the image and call it in a table. Bulky contents such as video, audio, flash animations etc, which slow down the display of the page should be avoided.
