[web] Professional Website Design

To me, proffesional sites are sites that work well. They do not need to look good.

Website design is about structuring (often big amounts of) information, and making this information availible. There's a rule of thumb that goes by the name "three click rule", i.e. the visitor should be able to reach any information with just three clicks.

Given that you only posted an image of the website, and not any content, I guess you define "proffesional website" by looks [smile]

Here's just a few examples of proffesional sites which doesn't have any advance graphics. They are still great sites:
http://slashdot.org
http://www.imdb.com
http://www.bbc.co.uk

There are tons of other sites and I'm sure you know a lot of other great sites aswell.

If you want to read about webdesign, I can recomend a great book on the subject by Jakob Nielssen Designing Web Usability. I've read it myself, and it almost completly redefined the way I look at webdesign.

There's also a really nice list at his site (which BTW is a real ugly one :/) listing things to avoid while designing a site.
Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 2005

Keep in mind that a headers just that, a header, and unless you have a specific need for a huge one, you dont want it...

The left bar is by standard reserved for a navigational panel if it is availiable, i would NOT put a logo their. Why dont you try a subtle splash in the background of the white rather then put it there if you want a repeat of it.

Keep in mind general art principals apply, even in a monologus color scheme. That circle is way to big and has way too much focus(large , high contrast, and close to a presentation point). I would make the circle stand out less, possibly remove it.

You really didnt do much of a layout, just a header and then a bar i would remove. That is a very BLUE design.

Here is a design I have been working on for a product I am about to release

www.rpcesar.com/sitetonic

notice that i repeat colors and utilize a scheme which BRINGS OUT the content, which is, I believe, what enselic was trying to get at. I would make the text (logo) stand out more by making it a hotter color, white perhaps, cut the circle. Right now the focus is on the circle and not the logo. Also it wouldent hurt to wash out your design just a tad i think.

Richard

http://www.freeimagehosting.net/fb15197b54.png

It is my new design for my business page. Because the theme is to attract people to my page i was going for a more visual appeling and less factural webpage more of an easy reading. The text isnt completely done but that is how my layout and text looks like. Thanks for the previous post i looked into the websites and I believe this does have a good feel.

Quote:

Original post by Supaflyfrank http://www.freeimagehosting.net/fb15197b54.png It is my new design for my business page. Because the theme is to attract people to my page i was going for a more visual appeling and less factural webpage more of an easy reading. The text isnt completely done but that is how my layout and text looks like. Thanks for the previous post i looked into the websites and I believe this does have a good feel.

The buttons look too cramped, and the word "TAMPA" at the top looks out of place, but other than that I like it.

Thanks Gunslinger RR. I know the menu looks a bit bunched up but thats due to how i am still working on creating the menu using &#106avascript and yea tampa text does seem out of place. any other suggestions or tips. Would you consider this a professional webpage and how is the layout?

If you want to get visitors to your site, the visuals isn't that important. It is userfriendlyness.

While you read this, keep in mind that I am an absurd psycho perfectionist.

• First you should link to the actual site instead of an .png of it. With a .png one can't judge how it scales for diffrent resolutions and how well it supports diffrent browsers


• (This remark assume fixed width design.) You should make the site scalable. At my current resolution, the part of the site that contained information wasn't even half of the layout. And if you include the spaces that contains nothing at all (due to my high resolution and the fixed width design) the information consist of approximitly only 10% of the screen space! That is a very waste of space


• The information the site presents doesn't seem like priority #1. There's alot of quite neutral art, that doesn't improve presentation, but rather makes it difficult to sort out. The first few seconds I had to sort out the design from the content. You can fix this for instance by changing the proportions of layout space and content space.


• Don't forget to make the menu stand out. One should immediatly be able to tell what is a menu and what is content.


• It looks like you are using an iframe for the pages. iframes are evil. They mess up the 'Back' button. I know, they are comfortable for the designer, however, for the user they just complicates navigation and bookmarking.

So unfortunatly, the answer to the question "Does the site look professional" is a "I'm afraid not" from me.

I strongly advice to get some books on Graphical Design and Website Design. I am sure they will help you alot.

[Edited by - Enselic on December 1, 2005 2:27:54 AM]

Quote:

Original post by Enselic I strongly advice to get some books on Graphical Design and Website Design. I am sure they will help you alot.

Can you recommend a god book on graphic design for websites? One that focuses on making the graphics and layout, not one that focusses on implementing your photoshop design in XHTML/CSS.

I belive that if you would like to read about graphics design for
websites, you should read a book written on general graphics design and
not a book for websites exlusivly.

I'm just guessing here, but I am afraid
that website-only graphics design books don't cover the basics, like where
to use which font, where to put text relative to an image and so on. There
probably are good books that covers only website design, but I
think there are more good general books that books that only applies to a
certain medium. The general rules of graphics design applies to any kind of
thing you want to design. Websites, ads, newspapers etc etc.

The book I read while taking a course was a swedish book, so I guess it
has not so much value for you :).

But a general graphical design book would be a couple of hundred pages. I searched Amazon for 'graphics design' and there seems to be some of these books. I have not read any of them, so I cannot recomend a certain one, but you could read reader-reviews to sort them out.

Concerning website design, and some graphics design, I, again, recomend www.useit.com. The site is quite ugly, but it contains really interesting points on website design.

Try these sites if your trying to make some good nifty graphics that will blow off peoples socks:
http://www.eyeball-design.com (might not work with firefox)
http://www.tutorialoutpost.com/photoshop-effects/

One thing I always notice is that I am forever trying too hard to make it look good.

I was chatting to Dave about this the other day, and kind of concluded that the more plain websites look much more professional.

I was involved with the early developement of this site;
CFAM Website

Have a look, and notice how simple it is.

In my opinion, keep it fairly plain, have a simple logo like GameDev has, and try and create some "realistic" and unique buttons of your own for your interface.

I'm currently working on a new home page for my site, with the same problem you mentioned in the beginning of this thread.

Under Construction
NOTE: This acts and looks differently on IE and Netscape web browsers, have a look on IE for a better idea for what I'm doing.

Daed.

Basically, if you want your site to be "proffessional" forget about "creative," "unique," and "visually stunning" because there is little room (most often none) for that in "proffessional" web design. I personally like keeping things a little playful :)