Ultimately the form or design of your website will spring from its function. So first you need to establish its purpose. Are you simply publishing information or is there any interactivity with your visitor? If the latter, you'll need to incorporate some scripting.
Then you need to consider how the design of your website reflects your mission or organisational focus. For example, if you're selling legal services, you'll need to establish a conservative tone with muted colours and modest graphics. But if you're selling computer games, you'll want some form of flash animation and various elaborate graphic tricks.
So how do you get started establishing the design of your website? One great way to start off is just to surf around looking for websites that appeal to you. Make a note of the URLs or save them to your hard drive for future reference.
Then with a pencil and paper, layout the features you want your website to have. Referring to the examples you collected, you can decide what kind of header graphic you want and whether you want menus at the top or the side.
As for the graphic design angle, it's tempting to use a variety of colours and fonts to make your site stand out. But simplicity wins every time. A black font on a white or light background has been proven to be easily readable, together with the fonts Times New Roman for headlines and Verdana for body text.
Then you need to consider how the design of your website reflects your mission or organisational focus. For example, if you're selling legal services, you'll need to establish a conservative tone with muted colours and modest graphics. But if you're selling computer games, you'll want some form of flash animation and various elaborate graphic tricks.
So how do you get started establishing the design of your website? One great way to start off is just to surf around looking for websites that appeal to you. Make a note of the URLs or save them to your hard drive for future reference.
Then with a pencil and paper, layout the features you want your website to have. Referring to the examples you collected, you can decide what kind of header graphic you want and whether you want menus at the top or the side.
As for the graphic design angle, it's tempting to use a variety of colours and fonts to make your site stand out. But simplicity wins every time. A black font on a white or light background has been proven to be easily readable, together with the fonts Times New Roman for headlines and Verdana for body text.