Samantha Vartiamaki

Creating a Construction Website: Website Design
February 22, 2008

The best website design is one that is clean, simple, easy to use and loads quickly. Although it is important to keep your website simple, it is also important for it to look professional.

Your site is a reflection of your company and the quality of your services. There are many factors to website design. These Include;

• Layout
• Browsers
• Loading time
• Consistency
• Navigation
• Fonts
• Backgrounds
• Graphics

Layout/Navigation

• Make sure you have your homepage and all other pages linked together for easy navigation.
• Include headers and footer that give your site name (header) and page information, so the visitor always knows where they are.
• Include a site map (this way it acts as a table of contents).
• Include a sidebar that links to all your pages at the top or side of the page for easy navigation.
• Place the most important/interesting information at the top. It is the first think people see and read.
• Place information that supports the most important information in the middle of the page. This will get visitors to scrolls through the page.
• Place information that links to other pages at the bottom, so readers will visit other pages of your site.
• Include both pictures and text on each page. If you have too much of just one the visitor may get bored.

Browser/Loading Time

• Make sure the page works with the most popular browsers. Some popular browser include; Firefox, Opera, Internet Explorer and Netscape.
• Make sure the website is the same resolution as the average screen. Average screen resolutions include; 1024x768, 640x480 and 800x600.
• Don’t include images/files that are too large, because it will take too long to load.
• When using pictures, ensure they are GIF files because these load quicker on websites.

Fonts

• Some fonts that are safe to use include Times New Roman, Arial, Georgia, ect.
• Make sure you use a popular font so it works on all computers. If the visitor doesn’t have the font you are using installed on their computer, the text on the page will automatically show up as the visitors default font. This may change the way your website is viewed.
• Use a font that is easy to read, not everyone has great vision.
• Make sure the font size is large enough to read, but not too large.

Backgrounds/Graphics

• Only use GIFF, JPG or PNG files for backgrounds.
• Keep it simple so as not to take away from the content of the page.
• Most of the time the background will be tiled across the screen so pick something that looks okay tiled.
• Keep all graphics as low in size as possible so it will load easily & quickly.

Consistency

• Make sure all pages have the same background to give a uniform, professional appearance.
• Make sure to use the same font throughout the entire website.
• Make sure all navigation buttons, menus and bars are the same throughout

Essentially you want to create a “brand” where your site is recognizable as your site no matter what page they start on. As well, the more consistent your site is the more professional it will look.

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Creating a Construction Website: Content Planning
Creating a Construction Website: Analyizing Competitors
Creating a Construction Website: Site Structure
Creating a Construction Website: Keywords for Search Engine Optimization

Creating a Construction Website: Writing the Content

Creating a Construction Website: Website Design

Creating a Construction Website: Website Builders

Posted by Samantha Vartiamaki on February 22, 2008 | Comments (0)