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Context is the whole picture of your site: What it's about, how you navigate through
the different pages, the information about your business, and of course the graphics.
You are creating an environment for the visitor through your choices for these
aspects of a website. This environment you create determines the message you are
sending and how a visitor might experience and feel about your site. The type
of business or site subject in part determines what context is best for you. Context
is often the least considered factor for new designers. Context is the "glue"
that builds your site into one significant message to impart to your visitors
and how that message is understood.
This glue holds together all the aspects of your site: the usability, download
times, text, graphics, the look and feel, interactivity, and other aspects.
Some expamples of context are the differences between a site for a bank and
a site for computer games. A bank site is usually conservative with formal textual
content and very businesslike graphics whereas a game site will be upbeat, usually
a lot of neons and flashy bright colors and informal textual content. Getting
the idea? These sites work well within their contexts but never shall the twain
meet. Banks are serious business, game sites are all about fun. You want your
bank to take you seriously don't you? Whereas you want to be entertained on
a game site.
When planning your website, the best place to start is with a text document
or pen and paper if you are more comfortable with those instrument, and design
it from the top down. Designing from top down gives you the opportunity to decide
what message you want to impart to your readers for the end result. After you
have decided that, you can begin to fill in the steps from the overall picture
to the smallest detail of your site. This part of site building can take weeks
of planning before the first web page is ever made while other sites start out
with an initial ideal and evolve from that ideal.
Items to consider when planning your website are:
Font color and type
Should be consistent and appropriate to the site. one thing I hear a lot
among designers about this issue is the use of comic sans font this font is
generally regarded as unprofessional and while it has appropriate uses such
as in fun sites it's not a very good font overall. For most sites it's best
to stick to something that is easily readable such as sans serif. Color is also
a sticky point. I've seen sites that can use bright colors and it works and
other sites where it fails abysmally. For instance, using a bright bright yellow
text color on a black background.. it hurts the eyes and is guaranteed
to send your visitors away sooner than you might want them to leave.
Linking and navigation
Links should be in the same place on each page. Whether you use buttons,
drop down menus, or text links they should be consistent and in the same place
throughout your site. Include links that your visitors can use, not just links
you find interesting.
Logo
Your logo is your brand or trademark for your company whether it is product
or service oriented. Each page should have the same logo.
Textual Content
Site Title: The site title shows at the top of the browser bar when a visitor
comes to your site. A site's title should not only contain the full name
of a site(if it differs from your domain name but also some descriptive information
about your site. For instance, Designers Edge's title not only contains
the site name but also that is it a site about web design, free graphics, and
3d art. Should contain what you want the readers to understand about your site.
Headings and descriptions. Headings are your way of drawing attention to a particular
section of textual content. They should be simple, complete, and consistent.
They should give a good summary of the textual content over which they preside.
Graphical Content
Backgrounds and other graphics used should fit with the textual content. Think
back to the bank and game sites comparison. Finding free graphics or making
your own is easier when you think about what will fit your site and the message
you are trying to send.
Do looks counts? In a word: YES.
The way your page looks is vital to how effectively it does its job. Think about
sites in the following contexts:
Plain = uninteresting: If the site is too plain, people won't be interested
and may not stick around long enough to get to the important information.
Busy = disorienting: If the page is a riot of images and colors, people may
be overwhelmed and visit another site just to give their eyes a rest. Likewise
for lots of animations no matter how they are colored or the topic of them.
They distract the eyes from the important stuff of your site.. what you do,
why you do it, and why you do it online.
Pastels can be positive or negative. Pastels generally are associated with
the feminine or with babies. Think about colors and meanings associated with
them. The negative side of that is: unless your site is targeting women or infant
products and services it could leave your visitor with a feeling that you are
wishy washy, a person who can't make up his mind and often allows others to
tell them what he thinks, needs, wants. In reality that may not be the way you
are but perception is 100% of the total picture here. People don't want to do
business with someone who might not be the person they need to be dealing with..
they want to know who is in control. Others might try to take advantage of these
people thinking that if they are forceful enough they can get more for less
than the going rate.
Dark colors can also be positive or negative. They can be percieved as shady
and dishonest, or used as backgrounds to pull out the textual and graphical
content of the page while blending into the background as they are intended
to do. Too much dark leaves a person in the dark, while a healthy blend of dark
and light(light not bright, there's a difference) brings out the lighter qualities
to a better effect sometimes and adds depth to pages that use one main
color in the theme.
Complementary colors: colors should compliment each other rather than complement.
Putting the wrong colors together can be just as disorienting as a busy site
and often construed the same way. Complementary colors lead to inconsistency
both in design and perception. Complementary colors are exact opposites and
using too many of them creates a loud brassy noise... who are you yelling at?
Why are you yelling? Won't your product stand on it's own value or are
you trying to distract from the fact that it's substandard but you still want
to make dollars? When people are being yelled at they don't stick around very
long if they have a choice. Contrasting colors on the other hand can compliment
each other
and give depth to your pages. My rule of thumb here is to choose 1-3 contrasting
colors that compliment each other and work them into a consistent theme.
At this point you can see why some sites are weeks in planning before the first
page is ever made. Even with all that, you still have to live with the site
as you will visit it yourself at least once a day. Hopefully you'll visit
it more often than that but do so at least once. Also after all this planning
and careful mapping out just what you want your site to be, you will continually
tweak and update the look and feel of your page. Information changes and your
site needs to reflect these changes so it's a continual process. In addition,
some sites need to make seasonal changes as their products or services change
with the seasons.
About the Author:
Stephanie Cordray is owner of http://www.totalweb-inc.com and http://www.jc-hosting.net
. She can be reached by emailing: scordray@totalweb-inc.com .
In addition she operates several free resource sites:
http://www.writingwise.com
http://www.designer-edge.com
http://www.v-chatterbox.net
http://www.webmastersforum.org |
