Increasing Website Credibility: 7 Do-It-Yourself Web Design Tips for Non-Designers
Need to clean up your web site image fast but don’t have a budget for a designer? Following these 7 web site design tips should go a long way towards scraping off the cheese and increasing the credibility of your business web site.
1. Lose the clip art, no matter how cute or clever. Use a nice-looking photograph instead. Preferably a photo that shows your product in use or a satisfied client, but even a well-chosen stock photo would be better than clip art. And animated clip art? Unless you’re a real design whiz, just say “never”.
2. Reduce the size of large photos. If a any single photo is over 350 pixels wide or 300 pixels high it’s probably too big for your business web site. Hint: use your photo-editing software, not your HTML editor, to reduce the size.
3. Unless you really know what you’re doing, remove any patterned web page backgrounds. Choose a nice solid color instead.
4. Remove these special effects (unless they’re part of a Flash piece):
- text or graphics that slide into position
- blinking text or graphics
- spinning text or graphics
- page transition effects
- sound effects
5. Keep extra-large type to a minimum.
6. Remove underlining from any text that is not a link.
7. Use bold, italics, exclamation points, and ALL CAPS very sparingly.
This article may be re-published for free provided the entire author’s bio, along with all active hyperlinks, is published with it.
Keita Del Valle is the owner of Crafty Pixel, a Corona website design company which operates from Southern California’s Inland Empire. Her site is updated weekly with small business website news, tips, articles and opinions, including her Hollaback blog.
