Web Design Made Easy with Handy Clues

By: JohnBenjamin Click author's name for more of his/her articles

Web design is a lucrative field nowadays as online business is on the rise with plenty of growth opportunities. Many new websites are coming up every now and then enhancing the role of web designers. To be a good web designer, one must have excellent creative skills as well as technical competence. Novice web designers sometimes commit undesirable mistakes that affect the website negatively. There are a number of handy clues available for web design that can improve the end results to a great extent.

Web surfers generally use various types of web browsers to access websites. The ongoing tussle between browsers has made users the biggest casualty. So, web designers should steer clear of browser-specific functions in web design. The reason is if a specific function is supported by one browser, it is not going to be supported by another in all probability. Even if you continue with some browser-specific functions in your website, make sure that other browsers will be able to render your web pages adequately in the absence of such functions. In other words, your web pages should degrade with poise.

It is the sole discretion of users to create new browser windows while clicking on the links. Don’t attempt to take that liberty away from users by filling their screen with unnecessary windows. All links in web design must be programmed to open in the same window by default. However, an exception to this rule is made for pages consisting of a links list. By opening the links in new windows, users can easily revert to the links page. Even in such cases, users must be given a prior note about the opening of links in a new window.

The fonts used in web pages can pose a challenge to users too. When you resort to some ultra flashy fonts that are very rarely used on your user’s machine, you’re degrading the quality of your web pages considerably. So instead of using hard-to-find fonts, designers should make use of fonts like Arial, Tahoma, Verdana and Courier in their web design assignments. Your desired flashy fonts can make their way into an image on your web page.

A popular web design trick that has been massively used over the Web is the practical navigation bar that guides you through all probable paths present in your site. It looks like this:
Home > Section > Sub-Section > Page

This particular way of navigating between pages can enhance site usability and let the users know where they are without stressing their minds.

Though Java is a high-end programming language with multipurpose qualities, it must not be used as a graphics front-end in web design for your images. You can however improve your backend performance with Java. Java applets run slower, thereby hampering user experience to a great extent. The use of Java has also adverse impact on specific browsers. That is the reason why it is not liked by everyone in web design. Use
Java only when you are not left with any other option or when you feel the greatest need of it.