Web Design Macclesfield

Web Design

Website Design from Macclesfield Web Developer Mike Irving

Modern web design can encompass so many methods and techniques, that it is easy to get confused as to what is a good idea, and what isn't.

If truth be told, there is no strict right or wrong in web design and Development, just as their isn't in SEO, however, there are many guidelines that it is best to follow where possible.

Try and build designs that are both standards compliant, compatible both cross browser and cross platform.

Always use a Doctype, preferably a Strict Doctype, and preferebly XHTML, as this will help your browser to display your web page as intended.

All leading browsers, including Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari, display Strict pages in a similar fashion.

Making the right choices at the start of your design work, will pay dividends later on!

Use table-less layouts where possible. Laying out your designs in DIVs has many advantages. To start with your HTML could be much leaner, and will display better on Mobile Devices. Also DIV Layout pages can more easily be altered and re-skinned than tabular layouts.

Move all of your styling to external CSS files, where possible. This will not only makes your pages smaller in size, but will also aid debugging, as you will not be trawling through countless inline style entries when modifying your HTML templates.

Try to make sure your pages Validate using the W3C Validator. Whilst this is not of paramount importance, running your pages through the validator can often highlight HTML errors that you were unaware of. Fixing them early on can prevent problems in the future.

After considering all of the above, it's also important to know your target audience, and therefore to make your websites as user friendly as possible.

Use of modern techniques such as AJAX can often enhance the user experience offered by your website.

If you have a question, or to discuss web design further, please get in touch.