How to Make Web Pages Look Better
Web pages are the gateway to your content and make a first impression on your visitor when he brings up your site. While you work hard to provide useful data, make sure that your presentation is aesthetically pleasing so that viewers do not leave and miss out on what you have to offer. Page elements, such as color and layout, play an important part in ensuring that your content is successfully read. Evaluate your own website to take steps that make your pages look better.
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Instructions
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Look at the page layout of your website. Check to see if you have large blocks of white space between content. View your page on different computer monitors to note whether you have to scroll horizontally to access all of the text. These factors are annoying to visitors and a sign of sloppy page design. Use a "" break tag rather than a "<p></p>" paragraph tag to tighten up unnecessary space and set your page width to 760 pixels or smaller to create a width that is accessible to most computer resolutions.
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Note the background of your page to determine whether the design is complementary to the rest of the overall site. For example, examine the background color against the color of the content to see if it your work is harder or easier to read. If your background displays patterns, look to see if this style is too busy and distracts the viewer from the rest of the page elements. Locate your "<body>" tag or Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) "body" rule to make the appropriate changes.
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View your font to assess whether your content can be read effectively. Check the size of your text to see if this is too small and note the style of the font to determine whether it makes the content difficult to read. An appropriate font size is 12 pixels (px) or larger. A handwriting font, such as Edwardian Script, is harder to read than a typeface such as Arial. Make edits to the font face in your "<font>" element or CSS "body" tag.
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Check your navigation bar area to evaluate whether this location is appropriate. A navigation bar is a menu of your site pages, such as "Home" and "About," that your visitors use to get around your website and is typically positioned at the top, left or right of your pages. If your menu is in other areas, copy and paste the navigation bar to a top location to ensure that your users have better access to this feature.
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Pay attention to your page elements to determine whether these features are distracting to the rest of the site. For example, flashing banners attract the eye of your visitors and makes it difficult for them to discover the content on your page. If you require these enhancements, consider moving them to another location away from important text, or select graphics that do not contain animation.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit website layout image by 6922Designer from Fotolia.com
