10 Tips on designing a fast loading web site

Tips and tricks on effective web design

The Number 1 rule that every web designer should follow is to create a fast loading web site. You might have a great design but very few people are going to see it if it takes a long time to load. While designing a web site always think about how long it will take to load. Try out our tips to build a great looking web site that also loads fast

1. Minimize the use of images - The key to a fast loading web site is to minimize the use of images. Images do enhance a page but don't make 80% of your web site only images. Instead break it down as much as possible to simple HTML. Notice the popular sites like Yahoo, Google, Ebay, Amazon etc., they have very few images because the load time is more important. Very often simple designs are the best.


2. Optimize images for the web - Once you have decided on the images that you need on your site, make sure that it is optimized for the web. They should be in the gif or jpeg format. You can also minimize the size of the image by choosing the number of colors you need, from the color palette. The less the colors you choose, the less the size of the image. You can also use online tools like Gif Wizard to optimize your images or to get a recommendation on how to cut down the size of an image.


3. Use Tables creatively - You can get some great looking designs by using tables creatively . Tables load very fast because it is just HTML code. Tables can be used in the homepage, menus or anywhere you like.
Read more on Using HTML Tables Creatively


4. Cut down the use of animated gifs - Don't use animated gifs unless it is necessary. Animated gifs take a long time to load and can also be very irritating. But since they catch your attention you could use small animated gifs to draw a visitor's attention to a particular section of your site.


5. Design simple icons - Instead of using big, bulky images use simple and small icons that add a little color and draw the attention of a visitor.

6. Use background images instead of big images whenever possible - Use background images whenever possible. This is usually a very useful tip for headers and footers. Instead of using an image of width 580 which is a uniform design you can use just a part of that as a background fill. This reduces the size of the web page as the image is small. The code will look like this :


7. Try out CSS Styles - Have fun with CSS styles to get some cool text effects. Again, a CSS Style is simple HTML code so it loads very fast. You can create cool rollovers using CSS Styles.
Check out our CSS Styles tutorial for more cool tips on CSS Styles


8. Use Flash sparingly - There seems to be a lot of hype about Flash but I recommend that you minimize the use of Flash on a site. Don't make entire sites using Flash. It may look great but it takes hours to load and can really put off visitors. If you do want to use Flash use it within an HTML site and make sure it loads fast.


9. Design most of your site in HTML - As much as possible try to design your site using HTML. You can create great designs by just using HTML code. Use tables, CSS Styles and simple fonts to design your site. Minimize the use of animated gifs, Flash, bulky images etc.


10. Keep checking your load time - Last but not least, before you decide on the final design of your web site, check its load time on NetMechanic. This site gives you a free analysis of your web site which is extremely useful.

How to Avoid the 12 Common Web Design Mistakes

Are people visiting your web site but not buying? This may be a
sign and the time to do some redesign of your web site. Often
you are so close to what you have created, that you can’t see
obvious design mistakes. I often do the same when writing an
article – everything looks fine when I have finished, yet when I
review it the next day and I’m amazed at how many mistakes I
have made.

Let’s look at some of the most common Web Design mistakes:

1. Sloppy Web Site Copy – your heading and first paragraph should
clearly indicate the purpose of your web site. “Content is King”
on the Net, so make sure there is plenty of focused information
for your visitors. The content should draw the visitor through
the site to take action in the end. Include contact information
on every page in case people have questions.

2. Bad Color Coordination – avoid using dark text on a dark
background. Use dark text on a light background, such as black
on white. Use colors that blend well together – observe nature
or look at paintings to get some idea of good color
combinations.

3. Pages Load Too Slowly – using too many images or inserting
large images on a web page, slow down the loading time of your
web page. Optimize your images (reduce their size) before you
insert them on your site, otherwise your visitors will leave
before your site is loaded.

4. Poor Navigation – this means visitors can’t easily find the
information. They experience broken links, error pages or
discover too many moving objects (animations, flash, scrolling
text, marquees) – all these will annoy the visitor and cause him
to click elsewhere. Keep your navigation simple by creating
clear links on all web pages.

5. Orphan Pages – these are pages other than your homepage, where
the visitor has no idea how it fits in with the overall
structure of your web site. You should always have a link to the
homepage, so visitors know where they are on your web site.

6. Long Scrolling – the visitor has to scroll horizontally, or
many pages vertically to view the whole web page. Create the
width of your web page to fit on one screen, to avoid horizontal
scrolling and have a maximum of 3 pages to be scrolled
vertically.

7. Meta Tags Missing – without optimizing your web page with a
description or keywords, people can’t find you on the search
engines. Research key words or phrases relevant to your site
content. Include them in your title, description and Web Site
copy.

8. Lack of Marketing Strategy – a beautiful lawn without sun or
water will soon die. A Web Site without visitors will soon die
also. They are the life blood for your website. Create numerous
marketing strategies to attract visitors to your web site – you
never know which one will be the most effective.

9. Poor Layout and Design – create an aesthetically pleasing
design to keep the visitors on your site. Create enough white
space between your text and images by using margins. Don’t
overlap text and images and avoid capitalizing all text – it
gives the impression you are shouting at your visitors. Use
font type such as Arial or Verdana to make it easier to read on
your computer screen.

10. Avoid Using Frames – frames don’t allow you to bookmark the
page or return to it and sometimes the URLS stop working.

11. No Cross Browser Compatibility – you may be losing many
customers if your Web Site is not compatible to the browsers
most people are using. Internet Explorer (IE 4, 5, 6) is
currently the dominant browser, and most users are displaying
800x600 pixels or more, with a color depth of at least 65K
colors. (http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp) .
Therefore check your design with these statistics in mind.

12. Outdated Information – your web site is like a garden. If you
allow weeds to block out the sun and take over your garden, it
will be destroyed. Attracting and keeping web site visitors,
means continually adding new information (i.e. latest news),
deleting irrelevant, outdated information and removing broken
links.

Continuous maintenance of your web site is crucial to
attracting and retaining visitors. If you don’t have time to do
it yourself, hire a Web Gardener (Web Designer), to keep your
site looking fresh, clean and fast loading.

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Herman Drost is a Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW)
owner and author of iSiteBuild.com
Low Cost Hosting and Site Design

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Annoying Website Design

Have you ever considered that your website may be annoying? When it’s comes to website design, knowing what visitors hate most is a must, unless you don’t want them to visit you again. This article describes what you should exclude from your website. If you know about an annoying website, feel free to send this article to its webmaster.

A few weeks ago I received an email from a colleague asking me to check one of the website he had developed. He is a web designer and his client wanted a nice attractive flash header. The flash header was great. You can’t miss it at all. Some nice graphics elements were flying in while sound effects created just the right atmosphere. However, after starting to explore the website, the header became very annoying because every time you clicked on the website the header restarted. What was pleasant initially became very annoying very quickly, disturbing your concentration and making it difficult to read what was on the page.

He is not the first to create what I like to call – "annoying website design". Many webmasters, especially new webmasters are totally “in love” with their ideas and tend to go overboard with their design in one way or another. It’s nice to have an attractive header, but is it really necessary to assault the visitor’s mind with it? In my opinion, absolutely not!

Webmasters sometimes forget that their website design should send a message to the visitor that should reflect the website topic and not the programmer’s skill level.

Is Your Website Design Annoying ?

Well…. It’s not that hard to be annoying. However, some webmasters are much better than others at annoying their visitors. Check my top 5 list and decide for yourself whether you have been annoying your visitors.

Background music – Unless you are operating an online internet radio station or sell music CDs, why play a midi/wav file in the background continuously on every page?

Huge font size – If you are designing a website for people with a disability then you are doing the right thing, but if not then you are shouting. People don’t like it when someone shouts at them.

Small font size – Do you want to be heard? Keep a normal tone, don’t shout but "speak" in a reasonable volume.

Overlapping layers – Layers can be very useful up to the point. But not when they are being used to put an annoying message in the visitor’s face. Don’t try to force your visitor to read your messages. Try persuasion instead of brute force.

Popup windows – Even though popup windows are now blocked by many add on tools, webmasters keep using them. The annoying part of popups is sometimes we actually miss important information because of those anti popup tools. Haven't you heard the old phrase "if you can’t beat him, join him”? Don’t use pop up windows. Put your important messages in a central place on your website.

Most likely each one of us has our own private top five lists. You probably have many more annoying design cases in mind. Well, you’re right, the list is much longer then that. I just wanted to describe some of the highlights in order to bring this important subject your attention.

Some of you are probably reading those lines and smiling while some others have a feeling a deja-vu. Keep in your mind that as a webmaster the last thing you want to do is put lots of effort into your website and then find out that your visitors hate it. It's not a matter of taste, it's more about being the same polite person we all try to be when we go to a party.

I tried to point out a few things that might be useful to some web designers and webmasters. I don’t know about you, but I’m going to send this article to my friend, hopefully he’ll send it to his client :)

About the Author:

Warren Baker is an Internet business consultant for WebDesigners123.
WebDesigners123 connects the Freelance Web Designer with Webmasters who need their services.