WebDesign for Newbies

---

I've been checking out a lot of the blogs listed on BlogExplosion, and I have some helpful suggestions so that the next time I drop by (while I'm collecting my credits), I don't try to rip my eyes out and scream. These tips are just a little common sense that can go a long way to increasing the number of readers that are willing to bear with your crappy design. Everyone will thank you if you take these into consideration.

1. For the love of God and all that is holy, please don't use a red or yellow background. Those just burn people's eyes out of their sockets. Use a more neutral color, a light blue, a very light red, gray, or white.
   
2. If you absolutely must use dark colored backgrounds, please use light colored text, so that way people can actually read what you're trying to say. Not everyone runs their computer monitor at 800x600, so minor variations in the color are harder to see at higher resolution.
   
3. Do not use massive pictures at the top of your blog. Massive pictures take a long time to load, and on slower webhosts, a lot of people will never even see your writing before they move on.
   
4. We don't want to hear your crappy music, so set it so it doesn't automatically play. If we want to hear it, we'll play it ourselves!!
   
5. Be smart, don't post pictures of your kids online. That's just asking for a lot of trouble.
   
6. While you're at it, don't post mailing addresses and phone numbers unless you really know what you're getting yourself into. Soemone who is persistant will find you, and that could very well be a bad thing.
   
7. Do us all a favor, make your design simple, so that way it actually works on everyone's Internet browser.
   
8. Don't limit the size of your website in a browser. Some of us do have nice big monitors. I always hate seeing websites that use only about 1/4 or 1/2 the available space in the browser, and just leave the rest blank.
   
9. Remember that whatever you say online can last longer than a lifetime. Think twice about what you might say... especially if it could have dire consequences in your real life.
   
10. Please use decent grammar and spelling. If you don't, don't expect anyone to try and decipher what you're trying to say.
    
11. If you resize my browser window, I'll kill you. While you're at it, why don't you just invite yourself into my house and change the thermostat settings.
    
12. Don't use animated GIFs for anything but the smallest of icons. If you do, it just makes you look like a newbie... who hasn't been paying attention to what I've been saying.
    

That list of things to think about should be helpful for the typical beginner. Please keep those in mind when you design your own blog or website, that way when an unfortunate visitor comes by, they won't run away screaming. If you wan't some more serious material, check out some books on good web design. Once again, your visitors will thank you... and your website will see an increase in traffic!
¶ 3:32 AM