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10_Tips_on_designing_a_fast_loading_web_site
| 10 Tips on designing a fast loading web site
Tips and tricks on effective web design
The Number 1 rule that every web designer should follow is to
create a fast loading web site. You might have a great design
but very few people are going to see it if it takes a long time
to load. While designing a web site always think about how long
it will take to load. Try out our tips to build a great looking
web site that also loads fast.
Minimize the use of images - The key to a fast loading web site
is to minimize the use of images. Images do enhance a page but
don't make 80% of your web site only images. Instead break it
down as much as possible to simple HTML. Notice the popular
sites like Yahoo, Google, Ebay, Amazon etc., they have very few
images because the load time is more important. Very often
simple designs are the best.
Optimize images for the web - Once you have decided on the
images that you need on your site, make sure that it is
optimized for the web. They should be in the gif or jpeg format.
You can also minimize the size of the image by choosing the
number of colors you need, from the color palette. The less the
colors you choose, the less the size of the image. You can also
use online tools like Gif Wizard to optimize your images or to
get a recommendation on how to cut down the size of an image.
Use Tables creatively - You can get some great looking designs
by using tables creatively . Tables load very fast because it is
just HTML code. Tables can be used in the homepage, menus or
anywhere you like.
Cut down the use of animated gifs - Don't use animated gifs
unless it is necessary. Animated gifs take a long time to load
and can also be very irritating. But since they catch your
attention you could use small animated gifs to draw a visitor's
attention to a particular section of your site.
Design simple icons - Instead of using big, bulky images use
simple and small icons that add a little color and draw the
attention of a visitor.
Use background images instead of big images whenever possible -
Use background images whenever possible. This is usually a very
useful tip for headers and footers. Instead of using an image of
width 580 which is a uniform design you can use just a part of
that as a background fill. This reduces the size of the web page
as the image is small. The code will look like this :
Try out CSS Styles - Have fun with CSS styles to get some cool
text effects. Again, a CSS Style is simple HTML code so it loads
very fast. You can create cool rollovers using CSS Styles.
Use Flash sparingly - There seems to be a lot of hype about
Flash but I recommend that you minimize the use of Flash on a
site. Don't make entire sites using Flash. It may look great but
it takes hours to load and can really put off visitors. If you
do want to use Flash use it within an HTML site and make sure it
loads fast.
Design most of your site in HTML - As much as possible try to
design your site using HTML. You can create great designs by
just using HTML code. Use tables, CSS Styles and simple fonts to
design your site. Minimize the use of animated gifs, Flash,
bulky images etc.
Keep checking your load time - Last but not least, before you
decide on the final design of your web site, check its load time
on NetMechanic. This site gives you a free analysis of your web
site which is extremely useful.
About the author:
Rachna is the CEO of Entheos, a Web Design firm, with the vision
to expand its horizons to encompass new areas of service on the
Web. Rachna is a creative Web Designer with capabilities in
Flash, Dreamweaver and ASP. She has written over 50 articles and
tutorials on Web Designing and Web Promotion.
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