Maximize Your Space
By minimizing your clutter.
The words, aka the content of your site, are the most important parts of it. It is what search engines see, it is what users read, it is the lifeblood of your site. Yet you spend more time creating images than you do content.
I am a fan of simplistic design, I like white space, straight lines, and sharp corners. It is the way my house, my office, and my website look. I may not have the most readers, or the most popular website on the net, but the one compliment I get more that any other is that people like my site because it is clean and easy to read.
When developing your site you must remember that in order to mazimize your space and get the most out of your content you must remove the extras that clutter it up.
Images are a wonderful thing, and they add a dynamic to your site that plain text can’t. As a designer I know this full and well. Yet I can’t stress enough that even the best graphic in the world can detract from your site when placed incorrectly.
So how do you maximize your space and remove the clutter?
Seperate your graphics from your content.
Many bloggers love to have an image associated with each one of their posts because it allows the reader to take a break. This is good, yet bad. Most bloggers don’t take the time to do it right and you end up with 400px of graphic with 100px of text squeezed in to the right of the image and between the margin of the div. Place your images wisely so they don’t junk up your text.
Move Your Ads
It would be horrible I know your ctr would drop tremendously, but what is worth more to you a few dollars or a happier reader. If you are going to advertise within your text I would reccomend using a content link system and not some pick ad image or block advertisement that really just ads crap to your site.
Use A Sans-Serif Font
Serif Fonts are very pretty, but truthfully unecessary for web applications. Your reader will have an easier time reading a not serif font and your site will look cleaner without millions of tiny text tails everywhere.
Keep Your Widgets On The Side
Websites are generally categorized in columns ( 2 column, 3 column designs ) keep your sidebar outside of the main column. Don’t try to add to many widgets into your posts. If readers have to scroll too much to get from article to article they may not do it.
There are many ways to design a website and many ways to design it well. I hope you find some of these tips to keeping a design clean and simple helpful in your design process.
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The Good Word