Tips on Design and Page Layout

http://www.aksi.net/website-design-tutorial4.htm

If you want to make your pages more effective and pleasing to the eye, you must follow these 5 basic principles:

1. Create a Visual Theme that is consistent.
   
   ->Choose a combination of colors that you will use throughout your site.
   ->Try to choose color combinations that are high contrast and easy on the eyes.
   ->Choose a set of colors that are consistent with the atmosphere you are trying to create.
   
2. Align elements on the page.
   
   ->Never place elements and text on the page in a haphazard way
   
3. Use contrasting color and text weight effectively.
   
   ->use contrast between the text and other elements and easy to read
   ->mixing type faces of different weight can often create contrast and help to separate sections of your page
   ->avoid textured backgrounds that make text hard to read
   
4. Group elements together so that the reader can more easily grasp the information you are presenting.
   
5. Make intelligent use of images including images that display text.
   ->not everyone has the same fonts available to them on their computer. The only way you can make sure that look of text is the same for every user is to create an image consisting of text.

use link:

http://www.layouts4free.com/template/52/

-> many free layout for download, after you download, just need to edit a little bit then can build your own website.

something about layout~

Before we have read some web site from exam must read, which is about the basic design, and when i search for layout, some web relate to the basic design are shown and i think it is must simplier for you to have a quick review before exam. The web site use a very simple example and simple sentense to explain what is the meaning of proximity, alignment, repetition and contrast.

• http://kurucz.ca/tutorials/layoutdesign/index.html

This week we need to hand in the web prototype. As i have not used css before, i search some css feature for doing the web site redesign. If those classmates is not familiar with the css, you can visit to these css website to get some idea to do your project.

• http://www.layouts4free.com/

from this web site, you can download many free layout and there are also other free material for you to download, e.g. FREE WEB GRAPHIC, FREE LAYOUT, FREE WALLPAPER.

• http://www.hsiu28.net/style/style_11.php

These is a chinese web site to teach css , and i think it is useful for those who do not familiar with css like me.

Web site navigation - importance and tips

Good web site navigation Tip 1
Always link the logo on a web site to the homepage.

Good web site navigation Tip 2
Place navigation system on the left or the top, just below the header. Do not try to design out of the box unless you are sure of what you are doing.

Good web site navigation Tip 3
Have consistent navigation throughout the web site. For example, do not have the navigation system placed horizontally on one page and vertically on the left in another. An exception to this rule can be the homepage which can differ from all other pages.

Good web site navigation Tip 4
In addition to linking the logo to the homepage, be sure to have a link called "Home", "Homepage" or equivalent in the web site navigation menu. Ideally a web site navigation menu consists of links to the homepage, "About Us", "Contact Us", "Site Map" and other important pages of the web site.

Good web site navigation Tip 5
A good site map and navigation menu on a web site will cut down the number of clicks required to move from one page to another. A thumb rule for good web site navigation is to keep the number of clicks from one page to another at 3.