Here is some additional information to think about as your plan your web design.

Bad color combinations can destroy the best of sites. Most people know they have trouble making different colors work together. My suggestion is think about a primary color for your site - for this site it is white. Then think about what you would like as secondary or accent colors. For this site the secondary color is soft blue and the accent color is deep orange. These secondary and accent color may come from existing materials such as logos or stationary.

I'm sure its possible to make a site look good when the primary color is purple and the secondary color is green with yellow accents. I just don't know how. This is the reason I usually stay with softer or neutral tones as primary colors, pastels for secondary colors and leave the bolder colors for accents.

Patterns and textures should be subtle and never distract a visitor from your content or make the content hard to read. I generally reserve patterns and textures for the secondary background of a page or banner. Unless your business is along the lines of a nightclub or rock band textures and patterns should be used very sparingly in the main design.

Dense text and content that is pushed together unnaturally can ruin a design. I like using generous margins around my content and a good deal of line spacing in paragraphs and around headings. Images should be nicely spaced from text and other images.

Text appears on your site in three forms - body text, headings and decorative text styles found in images or artwork.

Body Text. The type (font) you use for your body text needs to be clean and easy to read. In addition it must be a standard Windows or Macintosh font because if your visitor doesn't have the font, the text will be displayed in the browser or pages backup font. I suggest you use either Arial / Helvetica or Times New Roman / Times for your body font. Here are samples:

Samples Here

Headings should be in a clean easy to read font that contrasts well with the body text that it heads. Heading type styles that are more decorative than functional should be avoided unless their is a logical link between the style of the font and the subject of the website. For example if your site is about granite counter tops, a heading font that has a "granite" texture appearance may be appropriate or a cabinet maker may want a specific font because it has a "wooden" appearance. Headings that use unusual fonts can be created as graphics to avoid the problem of visitors not having the font style. This site is an example of images being used for headings.

Samples

Decorative fonts used in images or artwork can be used as part of the image.

A good image on a website is worth much more than a thousand words. Good photos give you the chance to put a "face" on your words. This face might be you and your staff or it might be photos of work you have done or photos of your store or products. Likewise tasteful artwork, icons and images can bring a site to life.

In many cases actual photos taken by you will not be the best option. There are many great stock photo and image sites with excellent images for sale. They can seem expensive at first, but quality images make a huge difference in your website. See our Resource page for links.

If you are going to take photos for your website I would encourage you to consider using the services of a photographer. Many professional photographers have very reasonable rates for small jobs, but a serious hobbyist will do very well for web photography. Remember buying an expensive camera does not make a person a photographer. Ask to see samples of their work and consider three things about the photos - how is the central subject of the photo presented within the entire photo, how does the lighting contribute or detract from the image and do the colors look natural and crisp?

 

I hope this helps you think through the process of creating a small business website. If I can be of assistance, please feel free to contact me.

Recent News

05.12.2011

I have released two new video series on the basic skills needed to use Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 to create a small business website. The second series covers intermediate level skills needed to create table and CSS based layouts.

07.01.2011

I have released a series of Start to Finish web design tutorials. In these courses you will see how to create a website from scratch for a small business or organization.

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"Timothy Web Design took the time to listen to what we needed in a website and the image we were trying to present to our customers. The end product was exactly what we were hoping for and more."