subject: How Important Is It For Your Webpages To Look Right? [print this page] The Importance of Reading Composition The Importance of Reading Composition
As humans that are trained to read and write expect to see reading medium laid out the way we are taught. Granted, there are written languages throughout the world that have variations of reading formats that differ from the known Western standard of reading left to right and top to bottom, but when it comes to International transmission of messages via the Internet, even people of multi-lingual backgrounds are taught that the English language and the Western reading style is a standard.
If you are making your own website, regardless of your purpose, there are a few things you'll need to apply to maintain comfort for your audience when they visit your website.
1) Use the English Language: Mainly as the primary base for your web page language, unless your website is specifically directed to a particular audience culture. Even if you "market" your website to a specific audience, if it is on the Web, it's going to be seen by anyone. Keep your web pages readable with a universal language.
2) Web page composition: This is tricky because the format of the page will need to accommodate the content of the web page. Since there are so many varieties of web page layouts that can be used to create the over all look of the web site, sticking with a standard composition instead of experimenting would be your best bet. The "standard layout" is something you see most of the time, which makes it easy to find usable components of a website. The "Header" will always be across the top. The "Navigation" should be easy to find either across the bottom of the header or vertically to one of the sides of your web pages. The "Footer' should always be on the bottom and the "Body" is what you want to have in the center of each web page.
(a) The "Header" is usually a logo and title for the website which may include a decorative image that is the most predominate feature of your web pages. Think of it as a "branding image" for your web site. It is a good idea to use the same Header for all of your web pages and a hyperlink in your header image to link back to the first page of your web site. One of the main reasons for this is that search engines may pull up one of the pages of your website because it contains a specific set of words. If someone lands on that page they can easily reference your whole website by clicking on it.
(b) "Navigation or the navigation bar" should be very easy to find with the topic title of each of your pages listed. This particular feature needs to be graphically identifiable by appearance and not to be similar to any other hyperlinks that you may put on your web pages. What ever navigation element you chose to use for your landing (first) web page, you should use the same look in the same location for all your other web pages. Remember, if you invite people in to see your home, put things exactly where they expect to see them or they will be uncomfortable and leave. Think of it this way, If you walk in your neighbor's home and all of the furniture placed in every room is on the floor in a corner and then you enter the kitchen and you see a lawn chair attached to the middle of the ceiling, would you feel comfortable being there?
(c) The "Body" is the context or your written message, you want to keep this as close to the middle of your web pages as much as possible. Of course, if you chose to use a sidebar navigation element or have advertisements on one side of your web pages, your body will need to be shifted to make room for this. The best thing to do when you have to split your pages between advertisements and body context is to shift your body to the left of the page and make it two-thirds the size of the space you will dedicate for your ads and navigation element. Remember, people learned to read left to right, so start your context that way to make the context seem more natural for reading. Even though your body context may be mixed between text and pictures, the position of it needs to be in the same place on every page.
(d) The "Footer" is the lowest part of your web page. If you look on many professionally made web pages, you'll see the footer contains links to the privacy policy, information about the business, copyright information, FAQs and contact information or link. This information needs to be in the exact location on every single page of your web site. Most people that are designing personal web sites usually just have a copyright symbol, name of the web site, year and maybe a contact link in this location.
3) Use of Pictures: Images make any web site more attractive, but the use of too many could easily make your website look like a woman with way too much make up on. It is a rookie mistake to add an abundant of images to their web pages when they are designing their first web site. Even if you have a photography web site, it is better to categorize your images using a single link and then hyperlink to a page on your website that uses thumbnail images that will hyperlink to a larger image (ex. Landing page: image subject: Animals>hyperlink>web page named "Animals": thumbnail image listing of animals>hyperlink>larger image of each image when clicked on).
Another thing you need to understand about images is that it takes much longer to upload on a visitor's computer than text. You want to economize your web site's load time so your visitor wont become frustrated and leave before they enter the door. You can see a image's size by right clicking on it and looking at "properties". You really want to stay away from images that require a lot of megabytes on your web pages. Try to use links when you can and keep images at a maximum of 3 in the body of your web pages.
4) Advertisements: Be mindful of any advertisement banners you chose to use also. As much necessity it may be for you to use them to make a little extra money, you can easily lose a reader if they become too overbearing. Try to place heavily colored banners and ads on the bottom of your web pages above the footer. The effect of someone staying on your website to read your context should be more important than looking at glaring advertisements.
Conclusion
Designing your on web site is really a trial and error experience. Choosing the right colors, fonts, design elements and even content material will be difficult at first. Don't be discouraged or expect to get it right on you first attempt. Expect your web pages to go through an evolutionary process as you begin to discover better ways to present things. My solid advice is If you remember to stay with the basic elements that people have been acclimated to seeing, you will have a good place to start.
