The Basics of Web Design: Part 4

TGIF and Hello Spring!!!! Greetings once again my friends and welcome to The Creative Cabana's fourth installment of our Web Design series. I have to make this one a bit on the short side seeing as how I've been scheduled for work today and I'm running short on time, but I can't send you off into the weekend without some more tips for your web projects.

Today I'm going to briefly discuss content with you. Content is the information that you will display on your page. This can range from pictures to videos, sound clips, articles, and even downloaded files. The content you place on your site is vital because it gives visitors an instant visual attraction to your site- "putting a face to the name" in a way. Besides designing your templates, this is my favorite part of the web design process because it's the heart of your site. Especially if you're creating a site to promote yourself or services then this a chance to display work samples, testimonials, products, etc. Without having visual content your page is simply a site with dozens of words.

What you want to do in this step is think of different multimedia elements that you can use to provide visual elements to your site. As a media student in college, my priority for my site was to give visitors access to some of my best work from previous experiences in Radio and TV producing. If you visit the "My Media" page of my website, which you can see by clicking here, you'll see where I have videos, sound clips, pictures, and links for The Creative Cabana all under one page. I also made sure to include images on the other pages too in order to maintain visual interest. The last thing you want to do is bore your site visitors with tons of text and no visual or interactive pieces to break it up.

So if you're at this stage in your web designing adventure then here's what you need to do. Spend some time gathering the content that your want to publish on your website. Share important and professional items like major research you've performed, internship projects, products that you've sold, etc. The content you create and share will vary depending on what your site is used for. If you're creating this site as an online portfolio then fill it up with samples of your work, a visual copy of your resume, and background information related to your education and experience. If you're using this site for product-selling or promotional services then share the details of those services. You can create graphics for prices, illustrations of the services offered, give video testimonials from previous customers, there really is no limit. Just be sure to keep everything your share clean and professional. Don't post the videos from YouTube of stupid people doing stupid things. Share videos of reviews or tips for your products. It's all in the creativity and promotion! Just remember the main rule if you're not sure whether or not to share something through your content: When it doubt, leave it out. Use your common sense and ask questions (even to me if you need advice!)

If you're still working on choosing and designing a template for your site, step back and take a break! Focus your attention on a different aspect of web design, the content. Gather all of the visual information you want to share and work on getting it ready to share on your site. Spend some time putting your creative and artistic skills to good use and create some logos or illustrations you can use for your pages. Don't be afraid to get creative and think outside of the box!

That's all I've got for right now folks. Please feel free to send me your ideas, suggestions, or creations to The Creative Cabana by commenting on these posts, write to us on the Facebook page, or tweet to @CreativeCabana. Enjoy these first few days of Spring, Enjoy the Weekend, and Enjoy expanding your creative horizons! So long for now everybody!

*Images used in this post were collected from Google Images Search Results. I do not own these pictures and I hereby give full credit and establish ownership to their respective creators. No Copyright Infringement Intended.