When you’re starting a new design, no matter what your design methodology is, you start with a blank page. There is nothing on the Web page – so the first thing you’ll do is put something up on the page.

But do you think about the placement of those elements or do you just throw them onto the page willy nilly? Good designers don’t allow the position and placement of their designs to occur randomly. They think about:

• what the element is
• how the element relates to the page goals
• where the element fits with the other elements on the page

What is the Element You’re Placing

There are many common elements on a Web page, such as: headlines, navigation, images, textual content, and administration. Knowing what an element is helps determine where it should be placed on the page. For example, you typically wouldn’t put a Web page headline at the very bottom of the page. Navigation is usually found on the left or at the top, and administration is most commonly found at the bottom.

How Does the Element Relate to the Page Goals

Knowing your goals and the goals for the page are key to placement. That’s why ads are found in similar places on Web pages. If the goal is to get people to click on them or notice them, then placing them in locations where historically people look and click help them to meet their goals.

Where are the Other Elements on the Page

In some ways this appears to be the most obvious part of design – after all if you already have a logo in the upper left, you’re not going to place content on top of it. But you also need to think about the context of your positions. Placing an ad block in the middle of a text block implies a sense of connection between the two elements. Placing a horizontal line after a headline or by-line can create a sense of disconnect between the title or by-line and the content.

Where you Place Your Elements Can Make a Difference

As they say in real estate, there are three important rules: “Location. Location. Location.” If the Mona Lisa were stored in my aunt’s garage, it wouldn’t have the effect on people that it does hanging in the Louvre. It’s still the same painting, but if it were sitting next to cans of old paint, a dirty lawn mower, and a dust covered junker car it takes on the aspect of its surroundings.

Now, I don’t think that most people have a “ghetto” location on their Web pages, but effective placement provides the visual hierarchy and structure to your Web page. If you can engage your customers through an interesting and compelling design, you’ve done half the work.

Variety is the Spice of Life

One of the easiest design techniques is to elements on the page. And many beginning designers start with that as their goal – all their design elements start in the middle, usually horizontally, but sometimes vertically as well. Centering appeals to many people because it’s easy. You know you’ve “done it right” because half the page elements are on one side of the screen and the other half is on the other.

But centering is boring.

Centering things makes them look very flat on the screen and there is nothing for your eye to catch and hang onto. Centering is very rare in nature. In fact, even things that appear to be centered, like leaves (see picture) have small imperfections that lead the eye.

The dot in the image has been positioned so that it’s completely not centered. Each of the horizontal and vertical measurements from the edges of the page are different. . By playing with the placement of the dot (and by extension, other elements of a Web page) you provide variety to your designs. You can apply this to more than one element on the page by spacing them unequally from each other as well as the page edges.

Find the Points of Interest on Your Page

Points of interest are the focal points of a design – the places where your eye is drawn to. By changing the spacing around those points of interest you can affect how those items are viewed on the page.

For example, an image might be the focal point of your Web page. You could choose to center the image on the page, but that’s boring and flat. Instead look at the other elements on the page and change the margins around your image to create a design that heightens the interest in that picture.

On this sample page, I placed three elements: a headline, a photo, and a caption. I could choose to center all the elements, but it’s a boring layout and there is no clear visual hierarchy. Your eye is drawn to the image because it’s an image, not because of the position it has in the layout.

By just making a couple small changes to the position of the elements and the margins around the image, the resulting layout is more visually appealing and the eye is drawn from the headline, through the photo, to the caption. Because the spacing between the headline and the image is different from the caption and image space, you get a sense that the caption belongs with the image. I could add more photos to this page and it would be clear they were about Shasta, but the captions would go with each image separately.

A good Web strategy works with your business strategy to create a website that meets your business goals. Once you’ve started building a Web presence, you want to think about how your website can improve your business. Strategy includes community, personalization, your content, ecommerce, even your intranets.

Ecommerce
Content
Community

Intranets
Personalization

What items are critical for a business website

Business websites have special needs and are different from personal Web pages. When you’re building a website for a business, what tools or services do you require in order to create a site that works well for the company. Find out what other Web designers feel are critical components of business websites.

How do you prioritize Web projects

Prioritization is an important job skill for most Web designers and freelancers. You need to know what decisions you can make and how to make them. But sometimes making a decision can be hard. These are suggestions from About.com readers for how to prioritize Web projects.

What to Look for in a Web Designer

Finding a Web designer can be a daunting prospect. There are lots and lots of Web designers to choose from, so how do you make the right decision? And if you are a designer, how do you know if you\’re presenting yourself in a way that will get you hired. These are some tips for how to find a good Web designer.

Create a Site Map Before You Build Your Site

When you map out the pages you want or need on your website before you start building it, you will know that you have all the pages you need and want on your website. A visual site map is just a flow chart detailing the website with the sub-sections and pages.

Create a Site Plan

If you are creating a website from scratch, you should start by planning what your site needs and your goals for the site before you start building. This will help you ensure that your website meets your goals and serves the purpose you are trying to fulfill.

SMART Goals

Write goals for your website that actually get done. SMART goals are goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound.
It’s Time to Update (or Create) that Website
Get started on that new Web page, or clean up your old one and start the new year off right

Prioritizing Web Projects

What to do when everything you’re working on has top priority. How to prioritize Web projects.

Do you Build Maintainable Websites?

Maintainability is not something many Web designers think about when building websites. But it can be a critical issue even just a short time later when you need to re-work part of the site or completely redesign it. These tips for creating a maintainable site will help you create sites that you look forward to re-doing, rather than dread.