1. Graphic design : Part I
Web Site Design Mistakes
Some wise human once said "Learn from the mistakes of others. There isn't nearly enough time to make
them all yourself." Hence this article. Here are five of the most annoying and common web design
mistakes.
1. Slow download time - Don't be that site that is filled with the coolest gizmos in the world. You know,
animation, music and other "cool" things. Why? Because nobody is going to go to it because it takes too
long to download. A nice clean site that downloads quickly will get you much further than a site with all
the fixings that takes forever to download.
2. Unreadable text - If a user has to struggle to read the text on your web site, chances are they won't.
Here are some common readability issues:
A. Low contrast text and background - Don't use light colored text on a light background. Also, don't use
dark text on a dark background. Text is most easily read with extreme contrasts between the
background and text. Black on white is about as good as it gets for readability. Red on black is pretty
bad. Yellow on white isn't so hot either.
B. Text on a busy background - Text is most easily read on solid color background. Putting text on
textured backgrounds can make it much harder to read.
C. Small Text - Text that is really tiny may look cool, but is hard to read. If you must use small text, make
sure changing the text size in a browser will change the size of your text. Using style sheets can some
times over-ride a browser's ability to increase text size.
3. Unpleasant designs - Designs that use too many colors, colors that clash, or a messy layout, are just
plain hard to look at. A site should be pleasant to look at, not a chore.

2. 4. Long pages - Long pages are a problem because your force people to sift through piles of information
to get what they want. Pages that focus on just a few topics with links to related topics on other pages
are much better. This approach allows the reader to isolate the specific subject they are interested in.
5. Poor Navigation - It is extremely important that a user be able to access all pages of your site from
every page. Users will often enter your site from a search engine listing with a link other than your home
page. You do not want your visitors at a dead-end with no way to access the rest of your site. You will
have wasted the traffic and given the prospect a bad impression of your business.
As you surf the web, you should keep a list of annoying things you find on other sites. Every so often,
check your site to see if you have the same problems. Regardless, if you avoid the common web design
mistakes listed above, you will stand a better chance of running a successful web site.
Hiring a web designer to come up with the custom solution that you need can set you back a few
thousand bucks. But you can do the whole thing yourself and make it drag and drop simple for mere
pennies with a tool like Breezy Websites. See http://breezywebsites.com for details!
Graphic design : End of Part I
Web Site Design Color For You
Colors can influence our behavior, feelings and psyche. In fact, colors are oftentimes used as treatment
to psychotics and other mentally incapacitated persons.
However, when it comes to web designing, many designers overlook the enigmatic power of colors. It
can bring life to any image, text or graphics. It can create the atmosphere needed in order to capture
the viewer's decision and loyalty. These are the reasons why colors should be on our topmost list of
things that need to be considered in mounting a web site. You don't want a drab looking site, do you? It
will appear, melancholic, chaotic, plain and boring. Thus, colors must be chosen in order to complement
the site's ambiance, feelings and purpose.

3. Web browsers only see 256 colors. However, there are times when the number may not appear as such
because no browser shares the same 256-color pallet. Nowadays, web browsers are sharing 216
common colors. Thus, in order to complement to other web browsers, web designers must stick to the
216-color pallet. If they go beyond this color pallet, chances are the colors may not exist on other
browser. In order for the browser to display that particular color, it will need tiny dots from the colors
native to the browser. The process is called dithering. Unfortunately, this will result to the distortion of
some tiny dots. Further, this will make the image appear speckled and without a solid color. In
connection to texts, dithering will make them blurry and hard to read.
Verdict: Web designers must use browser safe color when using solid color as a design element.
However, caution must be exercised.
There are times when we feel we are tricked by our eyes. In fact there is what we call mirage? An optical
illusion and there is a long list of optical illusions that can otherwise trick us. But there are times when
we are neither tricked or deceived in fact it is an act of science. How do this happen?
At the back of our eyes, there is a thin layer of tissue. This layer of tissue contains millions of tiny light-
sensing nerve cells which are called rods and cones. Our eyes have ample decoding cones. These cones
are the ones responsible for responding to specific wavelengths of light. Say, when you look at a red
box, the cones that have detected the red wavelength become exhausted and fatigued. As a result,
opposite cones in the eyes start to enter and different colors are made apparent.
Eye fatigue is one of the important considerations in designing a web site. Thus, avoid colors that are
tiring to the eyes. It can result to disaster and can further result to giving of wrong notion or idea to the
viewers. Colors like red and yellow, strains the eye faster than any other colors. Thus, limit the use of
these colors. Use them on areas that need emphasis and focus. This will surely pull viewers attention.
Other that those areas - a big no-no!
Hiring a web designer to come up with the custom solution that you need can set you back a few
thousand bucks. But you can do the whole thing yourself and make it drag and drop simple for mere
pennies with a tool like Breezy Websites. See http://breezywebsites.com for details!
Graphic design : End of Part II

4. Web Site Design By Using A Template.
If you are like may others on the internet, then you would like to have a web site of your own. The
problem is, you don't know how to design a web site, and you can't afford to pay a web site designer to
design a new site for you. So how do you get around this problem? Actually it is very easy - and as
always there are options! There are many talented web designers on the internet, and they will allow
you to purchase a web site design from them for a very reasonable price. The designs available to you
are as varied as the people that made them. There is literally something for everyone - a design for all
tastes and all purposes - just waiting for you to come along and use it.
These pre written web sites are called web site templates, and some of them are extremely well done.
Web site templates are usually created one of three ways - they are : Html, Adobe Photoshop and
Macromedia Flash. If you know how to edit html, a template can be a quick and easy way to turn your
ideas into a new web site. I can already hear some of you saying "That's no good to me, I can't write
html!". That's ok! There is the photoshop style of web site template that you can try. Do you have a
digital camera? Have you ever put a title on your photos? Have you edited your pictures or made a
collage out of them? (multiple pictures joined into one..) If you have, then you can probably make your
own web site using Adobe Photoshop - or a similar photo editing application. The photoshop templates
do all the initial design work for you, you just have to fill in the text areas with whatever you want to
say. It really isn't that hard to do. The software will do most of the work, you just need the 'content' to
fill in the provided spaces. Have a go at home using your own digital photos, and when you have made a
couple of pages download a photoshop template and make a complete web site. Of course you will
need someone to host your new site, but as most ISP's include a small 'home page' area with every
account, you can probably put your new site there to begin with. The next type of web site template
uses Macromedia Flash to create it. Web site templates designed using Flash are usually animated and
can have some quite advanced visual effects. The downside to using Flash templates is they are not
really intended for novice web designers - the Flash software is quite complicated - but the results can
be well worth the effort.
As a side note, search engines have a very poor understanding of Flash web sites, and if you want to
create a commercial or business web site, then you would be better off using html or photoshop for
your design.
The final option for designing a web site by template is to find a template that you like the look of, and
have someone else turn it into your web site. By purchasing a web site template you will greatly reduce

5. the cost of the design of you new web site - and as a bonus, you will know from the start what it will
look like when it is finished :-)
When you use a template to design a new web site please be aware that you are not the only person on
the web that is using that template. There could be other web sites using the same design - but with the
enormous number of web sites on the internet it is unlikely that you will ever find one of those sites. If
you want to guarantee that your web site is completely unique, then you need to design it yourself, of
you will have to get it designed just for you. Good luck with your new web site!
Hiring a web designer to come up with the custom solution that you need can set you back a few
thousand bucks. But you can do the whole thing yourself and make it drag and drop simple for mere
pennies with a tool like Breezy Websites. See http://breezywebsites.com for details!
Graphic design : End of Part III