:: Reviews :: Rants ::

I took up web design at the age of twelve. In such a time, I have taken peoples' views on web design, and created my own taste and style. Many people's opinions have been argued; what is important and what is not, etc, etc. While others might think differently, for the webmaster is reflected from the site, I too have my own ideas and perfered styles.

To me, content is essential. Especially if you are trying to persuade the reader into convincing someone how great something really is, or even more, just to show that the webmaster cares about their site. What angers me, is I see so many people who have these Xanga & Livejournal sites, and they actually say, "Hey! Take a look at my site!" And when you waste your time visiting there, you see there is nothing but either: 1) Sympathy Rants (aka poor me! I suck!) 2) One sentence entries, which leave you hanging. And even more you begin to wonder even why the webmaster even wasted their time on it. There is a great power to content, people can see that you have the time to think things through and write them down, believe me, people notice!

As for my sites, I have used heavy amounts of content for my character shines, such as Inner Dreams, which has truly paid off.

Along with content, grammar comes hand in hand. Yes, webmasters are liable to make a mistake or two from a typo, or just a commonly misspelled word. In my honest opinion, I see nothing wrong with a few errors. However, if the webmaster can't spell simple words, let alone form a sentence, it doesn't belong on the web. Things would be a lot nicer if people could just at least attempt to fix their mistakes.

Graphics tend to be analyzed more and more these days. And to me, it's sad. Graphics are yes, a nice touch, but it isn't everything. I think graphics are nice to enhance the site, however they can also... "dehance" the site as well. I know people know what looks good, and what doesn't. It's a natural thing to all humans. It's the same with graphics. Go with your instinct. You'll know if you need to make changes.

If you use only a few colors in your graphics, you should be fine. I think you'll be pleased with your result. However, the best thing is to experiment, and don't be afraid to go back and make some changes! Main point I'm trying to make here, if you use a style correctly, it can pay off. But like I said, graphics are only a part of web design, it ISN'T everything.

I think a layout comes in second for importance in web design. I have seen several sites with confusing navigation bars, and even the forbidden blue and purple links. I have even seen a few sites with rainbow text, which in the long run, makes the site appear quite disorganized. Many a time, have I ventured onto sites which have those annoying, "Vote for Me!" pop-ups, or sites that have fluorescent green or yellow text, that seriously do not fit the site. For me, in several cases, this results in me leaving the site. I'm not going to visit your site while you're doing your best to crappily advertise it by harassing your visitors to come back again. Sorry, but all you've done is lost a visitor.

For an alternative, you can put a few small 88x31, 100x35, or even 100x50 linking buttons up to suit your needs, however don't string them out so they draw away from the main purpose of your site. Also you can make an entire page for advertising & linking, most commonly known to webmasters as the "Travel" or "WWW" page, call it whatever you want, but there you can put up all your links.

The main thing to remember when creating a layout, is trying to make it easier for the viewer to browse around your site at ease, without any confusion. Visitors won't want to take the time to look at your site, they aren't going to sit their and tinker around with your site all day trying to figure out how to get from one page to the next.