My Web Design

There are many important points that I hope to incorporate into my website. In the Web 2.0 article I got a good idea of what makes a good website, and what makes up a bad website. The number one thing to me regarding make my website a good one is simplicity. No one wants to go visit a website that has tons of things going on and is really busy. That causes the reader to have a hard time reading through your website and getting the over all point of the website. It's also very distracting to have an overload of writing, pictures, colors, backgrounds, and flash videos. Another good point is regarding the number of columns your website will have. I have been to websites, news sites in particular, where they use four or five columns of writing and pictures and it's just too much. The Web 2.0 article reccomends not having more than 3 columns on your site, which i agree with. I even think two columns should be a good place to stop. Another key point that I kept in mind when planning out my website was simple navigation. Having too many links can get annoying and confusing, but having no more than 5 links taking you to another page is perfect. I'm having the navigation links at the top of my website including Home page, biography, portfolio, resume, and contact information. At the bottom there will be the links for my LinkedIn page, Twitter, Tumblr, and Blogger site as well. I'm also making sure I have strong colors. When I say strong colors I mean colors that will easily show up on the background I choose. For example, on my homepage I'm going to have a black box with writing on it for a small "about me" and the font will have to be white so that it shows up on the black background. And that goes for my links and other writing that will be on my page, in that it will be black so it shows up nicely on the gray background. You wouldn't want to have a bright yellow font on a white background because it would be really hard to read. Another good point that the Web 2.0 article makes regaerding website design is seperate top sections. Making the top where my navigation links distinct from the information, writing and pictures below is important. That will be made easier with the inclusion of my banner at the top, which is a black and white paisley design that stands out from the grayscale background below it. Another point that wasn't included in the Web 2.0 article is backgrounds. I've heard a lot of peoeple trying to get crazy pictures and stuff for the the backgrounds of their websites and I don't think that's a good idea. I don't think it looks very professional and it will seem very busy when you put writing on top of it. That's what your banner should be for, since there will not be any writing going on that.