What NOT to Do

Throughout my five years of webdesigning, I have seen many webmasters, many people who make websites. There is however, a huge difference from a webMASTER and a webDESIGNER, as well as a difference between a webPROGRAMMER and a designer. But, there are things you see repeated over and over again in webdesign, which you KNOW not to be correct, yet people still do it. This outlines a few of these.

ARGGG THE COLORS!!

Bright colors are nice. Really they are. But when you combine them with things like bright red and bright blue together (the first example). What you get is NOT beauty. You get a blinding site of doom. The truth is, your visitor will not stay in your site. They will leave. If you have a site like this, I have already left. But if you see in example two, you can still use bright colors and make it pleasing to the eyes. It really depends on what you are doing and how you are doing things. Colors must match remember.

Layout or a Box?

This I have seen SO MANY times that I can’t even comprehend. I am on dangerous ground here, saying this. The dictionary defines a layout as the following: “ a plan or sketch… indicating the arrangement and relationship of the parts, as of type and artwork.”. Now what I see here is not an arrangement of anything. I see, a CUT OFF image, and I see a box. Okay, so image+box does not make it automatically a layout (as seen in both examples, one of the popular iframe centered box, and the other of a div/table box). Try to give more movement to your layout, keeping it confined is incredibly boring and even I feel like Im boxed up going through it. THIS DOES NOT apply to everything, I have seen many people use boxes to make incredible layouts, but do MORE. Dont just paste a screenshot (ESPECIALLY NOT THIS!) or an image, and add a color and call it a layout. To me, that is an image and a box. My 10 year old sister can do that. Move on past the box. The box does not need you to be confined!! Blending out the image on the side does NOT make it any less cut off either. Have you tried drawing in image sides, or if you cut it off, use a design or something. Cut off images don’t look good, and really, this is just depressing layout that has no body, movement, or any artistic thing whatsoever. It might be a website, but it isn’t an articulated one. Get past it, stop with the simple banner and box!!

The screenshot of Doom

You know — there is a reason WHY art books and scans are preferred by webdesigners. It doesn’t have to do with art book scans are prettier or anything. It is because they are CLEAR, and USUALLY HAVE MORE to offer. This is a screenshot. What’s more, is the little “blend” thing that many webmasters thing is great. Constantly this is used with the ever so popular box+image “layout”. It looks unclear, and does not show effort. I have seen people make gorgeous layouts with nice blends of screenshots, but they usually resize them to make it more clear, or so forth. Please. Use an art book image, or clear picture. When you use a screenshot be aware of what you are doing and how you are going to do it. I used screenshots for my Kenshin layout, but trust me. I MADE sure they were clear and defined. And I tried my best not to box. Please DON’T BOX!!!

The “VALID” Coding Fad
Validation is nice. It really is. But there are some things you must know about validation. It does not, in any way, mean your layout is great, and does not make you any less responsible for browser compatibility. Sites should be compatible with multiple browsers. So try them on different browsers, and see if they work. Now, to tell you the truth, I can validate as well, but sometimes it doesn’t work for me. Does that make me a BAD designer? NO! This is something many people forget, especially review sites. In the old days, there was something called the “browser wars” where browsers like IE made up nonsense coding like “colored scrollbars” and accepted CSS with quotation marks everywhere. Now that is not valid at all. Evolve towards W3C standards, but don’t forget that it is not the only thing in your coding. Check browsers, check coding, check your design. This is what makes up a layout. What W3C says is important, but it should not be something you should be constantly concentrating on. There is a lot more to webdesign, then a little link that says “this site is validated”. It might be validated, but if it has issues, I don’t know what to say about the site.

Matching Colors

Matching colors doesn’t mean using colors that are generally the same as the ones found in the image. It means using the SAME colors or very similar ones to create harmony with the image. Suck in the same colors found in the image, and USE them. This really creates much more matching with the colors. Also, when you use a color, don’t just use it once and be done, put hints of it elsewhere. This way, it won’t look out of place. It’s a very important concept. Suck it in! In the above picture, I want to use shades of red/pink. But those shades WON’T work. I need darker/more pastel looks if I’m going to keep that image that particular color. Something has to balance.