Tips for the Burgeoning Web Designer, part 1

There are a few things people forget when they decide they would like their own website. Some are forgivable and can be written off as rookie mistakes, but others are loathsome and horrifying beyond all human comprehension. For this first entry, I'll just highlight a few of the things that have most perplexed and bewildered me. Let's get started, shall we?

1. No one cares about your flash introduction.
   There is a mistaken belief amongst individuals who want websites that everybody and a half wants to see the super awesome flash animation that you made before your lunch break. This is a delusion of the highest order. No one wants to see your flash introduction. Having a flash introduction already sets you at an enormous disadvantage. It's the philosophical equivalent of a commercial break. It's something you're obligated to do before you're allowed to watch your scheduled programming. Remember when your friend's cat died and how for weeks afterward you had to listen to her tremblingly tell you about all the cute things it did and how now her life is empty and she'll be forever alone? That's the effect your flash video will have on everyone who sees it.
   
   • If you really want or need a flash video intro, try to include a skip button in basic html that lives on the page and is immediately accessible.
   • Don't include any music or sound effects, even if there's volume control or a pause button. Just don't do it � which leads me to my next point�
   
   

2. Avoid absolutely any and all kinds of autoplaying media.
   Imagine you're in your room, lounging about half-naked as you listen to your hip Indie music, snack on some grub, watch a YouTube video from your favorite channel and update your Facebook status to: �Bein awesome.� You open up a few new tabs from your bookmarks, and just as you're reaching down to grab another Dorito, your senses are overwhelmed by the screech of howler monkeys singing Christmas jingles. �WHERE IS THAT COMING FROM?� you shout, as you scramble from tab to tab, trying to find the source of that horrifying abomination. After minutes of desperate searching, you finally see it: buried at the very bottom of a page with a tiny volume button and an even tinier pause button is an auto-playing video from your ex-friend's terrible website that you'll remove from your bookmarks and never ever visit again.


3. Don't overload on graphics.
   Even some of the best looking websites - in fact, a huge number of good looking websites that have been intricately designed - tend to go way overboard on high quality graphics. It doesn't matter how wonderful your website looks if a person has to wait ages to see it. The attention span of individuals on the Internet is at an all time low, and if your website navigation or text readability depends on an enormous image file to load, you're going to lose traffic.


4. Don't use black backgrounds.
   Unless you frequent porn sites, the main content of most legitimate, decently trafficked web pages you look at are probably shades of pastel or white, highlighted by bold, mid-tone colors. Very dark backgrounds set designers out at a disadvantage because it's difficult to make elements pop in the same way that they can for lighter backgrounds. For example, with black backgrounds, the ability to add shadow for visual depth is greatly diminished. No matter what colors you choose, if you have a primarily text-based website, black will tend to highlight how boxy, linear, and templatized everything appears. Subtly is harder to achieve.
   Also, on a tangent, black backgrounds will make your site inherently less legitimate simply because of an underlying cognitive association with disreputable venues. In other words, black backgrounds haven't been in popular use since Geocities and are probably only in wide usage for sex toy websites and escort services.
   
   • The singular exception to this rule is if you have a photography gallery or are otherwise displaying a lot of higher resolution visual media with a very (very) minimalistic approach. The black in that case enhances the photos themselves and makes them look better, pop out more, et cetera. This is part of why a JQuery plugin like Lightbox is such a great design; it highlights one photo by removing some of the distractions from the page itself. You want to emphasize your photos - not the techno glitter kitten flash you put on your spiffy black background.

None of these are hard and fast rules. There are probably great sites out there that include all of these features and more. If used properly and for a real purpose, any one of these things can be great (J.K Rowling's site comes to mind). However, in general these things are distracting, annoying, and add very minimal value to your site as a whole. Keep in mind what it's like to actually visit pages that include these features, and if you have no reason to include them other than that you think it like, might be kind of sort of neat and like, add some like, ambiance or something � don't include it replica watches uk .