blog – Sir Cinema

5 Tips for Organizing a Website

Web design can be pretty tough to tackle, but it’s near impossible to do without structure, planning, and organization. Today, I am going to offer five helpful tips I’ve learned along my journey.

Tip 1: Plan your web design on paper first.

designer drawing website development wireframe

Create a basic outline for each of your pages and pencil out a rough structure of your site. This is important because it will help to visualize your site before you put in the effort of actually bringing the idea to fruition. Trust me when I say that erasing a pencil mark is much simpler than reworking the design on a web page!

Tip 2: Everything needs its own page.

Not EVERYTHING, but almost everything should have a separate page from the home page. Think of these as “doors” to your website. Not every user should have to take the same exact door to get in. Each individual service you offer should be a potential entryway into your site.

By having multiple landing pages, you multiply the chance of someone ending up on your website through their surf. It also reduces the amount of traffic on one particular page at a time, while maintaining the same amount of traffic overall.

Tip 3: Keep track of your content.

It is wise to keep a few lists on hand when designing your website:

For every page, you will need a link. A list of your main navigation links (e.g., Contact Us, Our Services, etc) can be a smart tool to have. It will help ensure you don’t forget any important pathways and can help keep you on track when you are tying up loose ends with your design.

What content do you plan on adding? You should make a list of content you need/want to add to your website. You can also use this to takes notes on where you want certain to go, which will make the process much less stressful.

Tip 4: Use practical categories.

According to web designer Jordan Dick, “If you were a landscaper offering different landscaping services like, ‘landscape lighting,’ ‘landscape design,’ etc., you’d want all those services under one category, on one tab of your main menu.

Chunking relevant content together in a logical way is imperative to a successful web design. The human brain already attempts to chunk information, so this can make a website very pleasing to the eye, but if you fail to do this, finding content specific to the user’s needs becomes increasingly more difficult.

main menu to Australian Framing Solutions’ website, showing one drop-down category being highlighted.

Making sure your content is properly categorized can help with the user’s ability to recall the area of interest within your website for back-tracking or future use.

Tip 5: Keep the main menu concise.

While the main menu of a website can be creative, there needs to be a direct reference in what the site’s primary purpose is.

A user shouldn’t be looking at your main menu and also thinking, “I wonder what this is all about?” Make sure it is obvious at a glance what the user is in for.

By staying organized and keeping track of your content, the road to a well-designed website instantly becomes a lot less bumpy. For more about information organization in web design, click HERE! (don’t worry, it’s not an ad).

Weeblog: What’s Up With Weebly?

Why use Weebly?

Weebly is easy to use, and you don’t have to break the bank to get something worth showing off. In fact, you can make a fully immersive website for free! It also has loads of features that make a web designer’s life much easier.

Some features include:

Drag and drop website building makes the process as simple as picking a theme and dragging things where you want them to go.

Responsive templates which are easy to edit and include pre-written, easy to change CSS and HTML.

Device Switcher which allows you to simulate what your site will look like on different devices.

Also, lead designer at Weebly Wendy Ho had this little trick (mentioned in 5 Website Design Tips from a Weebly Expert) to help even more:

“You can move, copy or delete a lot of things at once: Click the column that divides elements, then click the arrow on the left to copy or the ‘x’ on the right to delete the entire group.”

While Weebly is, overall, simple to use, it can be a useful tool for people learning web design. It still requires some knowledge of HTML and CSS to take full advantage of the customization available, which makes Weebly great to use (as my class is) as a tool to learn how to write custom code.

My Weebly Site

I am in the very early stages of creation.

Screenshot of webpage editor. Image of space, with three asteroids and a regular plumbus. Title reads: “Imagination Brought To Life”

When creating my website on Weebly, I decided to use Typo Designs – Cento 2 as my theme. It is a dark theme, using mostly black with red highlights and white text. I chose this theme because it was the first to pop out at me. I typically do things with a sense of spontaneity, but I also liked the sense of serious confidence that it portrayed. While I do enjoy the theme, overall, I will probably change the layout of the site to better suit my art portfolio.