Space is a very important design element. It’s not just emptiness. You can use the space inside the content area to separate and group information.
Take a critical look at your page names and section names.
Rewrite them if you cannot answer the fallowing questions with yes:
Check also if the page names agree with each other:
Write your page names as clearly and explicitly as you can. Call each thing by its proper name and don’t use fancy or clever names. Jargon, visual metaphors, branding and marketing terms are not welcome on navigation menus.
The page name is the title of your page and it has to be a clear description of the web page. The name must match the link your site visitors clicked on in the navigation. When they clicked on “About us” in the navigation they expect to end up on a page that’s named “About us” and contains content about your organisation.
Weebly.com, Wix.com and WordPress.com all offer a broad range of ready to use design templates called “themes”. A theme can be selected at any time during the website creation. Selecting a new theme will not delete or change the content of your website.
Got to www.weebly.com, www.wix.com or www.wordpress.com. Browse the theme gallery and select the theme you like. Than focus on the layout of the internal pages.
Take a special look at the internal pages of your theme:
Don’t focus too much on the colours and images. They can be changed later.
The home page also plays a special role and often uses a layout that’s quite different from than the internal pages.
Check if your theme follows web conventions.
Web conventions define the place and function of elements on a website that users have come to expect as standard. If your theme doesn’t follow the common web conventions your site visitors may be confused because things are not where they expect them to be.
Search for the following elements on your theme:
Take a look at the position of the elements and compare it with the mock-up below:
Click on the image to open the interactive mode
If the theme you choose offers most of the elements above and the elements are placed as shown in the mock-up, your theme follows nearly all web conventions.
Note: This is not the one and only layout that works. But eye-tracking studies have shown that it’s the layout that works best for most users. Your layout must not accord exactly with the mock-up I show you here. You can change the global and local navigation or use only a part of the elements I showed you.
This area contains the main topic of your website. The content area provides the page name, the content and an update date. Large sites also provide breadcrumb navigation, jump-to-top links and paging navigation on the content area.
Click on the image to open the interactive mode
Page names are the street signs of the Web. Every page needs a clear and unique page name. It should be prominent and frame the rest of the content.
Where to place it?
Place the page name at the top of the content area. Use a different size, colour and typeface to make it clear that it’s the heading for the entire page.
