From the all-text beginning to today’s Flash and AJAX based website, website designing has come of age. Many things have changed in these years, but what hasn’t changed is the focus on usability. Usability of a website was at top of the priority list, back then, and it is at top of the priority list even now. The question now arises, what makes the website more functional?
There are certain elements that go into making or breaking the users’ experience of a website. The web design Professionals know these things, and beginners should aspire to know these things. Let’s make it clear: It does not matter how great your website looks, or how great a concept you have, if your website is not easy to use, it will not cut.
Let’s put the elements that go into making a user-friendly website in order here, so that the beginners can refer back to it when executing their projects. These elements will help the professionals as well in finding the missing part.
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Navigation and navigational structure: This is the most basic thing. Navigation and navigational structure is stairs and an elevator for your website. Visitors will use it to go from one page to another. Make the navigation structure as flat as possible. Do not use too many layers.
Apply 3-click rules: The 3-click rule means that the visitor to your website should reach wherever he or she wants to go in no more than 3 clicks.
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Page Layout and structure: The structure of a page and the layout you will employ should not look cluttered. Give as much breathing space as you can. The more whitespace you will leave on your web page the easier your web page will go on the visitors. You can use other colors as the background color, instead of white, for your website as well, but I prefer to keep it white. It makes the web page look serene, calm, and non-obtrusive.
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Loading time: the website’s loading time is another factor one should care about while designing a website. A website that loads faster gets more visitors. You can improve the loading time by removing unnecessary lines of codes, optimizing images, flash, JavaScript, etc.
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Screen Resolution: Let’s accept it, you might have the latest screen, but not everyone own the same screen that you have. Hence, do a little bit of research to see that what screen resolution is in fashion now and make your website compatible to that. There is nothing like standard screen resolution. The screen resolution changes with changing technology.
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Browser Compatibility: Your website should look the same across the browsing platform. At least make it look good on Internet Explorer, and Firefox. I would also not suggest ignoring Opera and Chrome.
Tags: 5 Elements, Ajax, Background Color, Breathing Space, Colors, Designing A Website, Elements Of Web Design, Elevator, Loading Time, Many Things, Navigation Structure, Page Layout, Priority, Stairs, Usability, Users Experience, Web Design Professionals, Web Page, Website Designing, Website Visitors
Google’s Adsense program is a ridiculously good way to make money online through advertising, without having to go through the daunting task of trying to solicit advertisers yourself. The problem is, most people don’t use Adsense properly, and so don’t see as much of a return from the program as they should. If you figure, it’s a good idea for everybody to have a personal blog in the first place, whether for professional reasons, or just for the sake of putting your ideas out there for other people to read. But if you’re going to go to that trouble, why not make a few dollars from your efforts, all you need is a few pointers on how to make the most of Adsense.
First and foremost, target your audience. Go through Google’s Adsense options and choose categories that have something in common with your blog. So obviously if you’re here reading this, you’re either an IT professional or in the field, so you want computer/internet products and services first and foremost. After which, make sure you pay close attention to which sorts of ads are receiving the most attention, as you can use that to your advantage by replacing any banners that nobody pays attention to, instead adding ads that are more likely to get clicked.
There’s no point in wasting ad space on something that’s not doing anything positive for you.
Be careful in picking your Adsense banner colors also, as there’s a huge mistake that most people make when formatting Adsense content for their blogs. And that huge mistake is, you do not want your ad banner to match your blog’s background color scheme. It’s a proven fact that a contrasting vibrant color will attract more attention to the advertisement, increasing the likelihood that Dave Websurfer will click on the banner, netting you some money for your trouble.
But the main attraction, as I always say it, is writing relevant intriguing content. That’s your blog or website’s lifeblood. The longer that Billy Interweb-Browser stays on your site, reading whatever it is you choose to write about, the more likely he is to notice an advertisement. And that’s the whole purpose of using your blog to generate any sort of cash flow.
Tags: Ad Space, Background Color, Color Scheme, Computer Internet, Daunting Task, Google, Internet Products, Intriguing Content, Lifeblood, Likelihood, Main Attraction, Mistake, Personal Blog, Pointers, Professional Reasons, Sake, Sorts, Target Your Audience, Vibrant Color, Websurfer
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