“The Overview”
The Internet is chock full of webpages, and it is growing at an amazing rate, but I think that most people can agree that not everyone has an eye for good web design. I bet you have run across many webpages that just made you cringe and click the ‘X’ as fast as you could.
In the late 90’s everyone was following the ‘more is better’ concept. Remember all the webpages filled with butterflys floating across the screen, a bouncing rabbit in the corner, a spinning ‘@’ for email, images of books flipping open repeatedly wanting you to sign the guest book, and little space stars following your mouse pointer around — all on one page? *smiles* I remember it too, but thankfully, only in nostalgia for what we have moved past.
Some things are easier to give up than others. We have all this neat stuff! So much technology, and we want to use it all! It reminds me of the 80’s, when it was about how much jewlery and makeup we could wear, and how big we could spike our hair out. 😛 Admittedly, I do miss some of the things about the 80’s, and I do think it was a great time of growth, but much like that we have to look at how things are in technology now, and see the mistakes we made then as growth.
There are several elements to really good webdesign, but I will be focusing on what I feel are the most vital:
- Standards Compliant Code
- Accessibility Compliance
- Complimentary Color Scheme
- ‘User-in-Mind’ Navigation/Layout (*coming soon*)
- Useful Content (*coming soon*)
Now, these things may seem basic to some people. Sure, you want to use code that doesn’t break, you want it to be something that people can access, you don’t want the colors to look awful, nor do you want to make it hard to use, and of course your content is useful!
However – you may be surprised exactly how much more goes in to designing a truly good website. Each of these elements listed means so much more than it may seem at first glance, and this will be the start of a new article and tutorial series on how to make a really good site.
Please feel free to comment along the way.
~Nicole
