Introduction

Before you create your Web site, you should take some time to consider and plan how the site will look and how to make best use of all your resources. In this chapter, I cover the various design issues that are very important when tackling the design of a Web site. These design rules are not the same as for printed pages, since the medium is different the aim is to create a good-looking, informative Web site that's easy to navigate, interactive and does not eat up the server's bandwidth.

Within this chapter, I cover sections on how to use the size of the Web page and consider the different resolutions of different clients. I also explain the differences in designing for different browser technologies. I have also put together my top tips for minimizing the size of graphic files.

General design pointers

There are two main problems when designing a Web site. The first is that you are limited to the HTML series of formatting commands. These let you set size and alignment of text and you can now position images and text using tables and frames (see Chapter 12) but it is still not as immediate as it is with a DTP page layout application. The second problem is one of over-design. If you place lots of graphic images in a printed catalog, it won't cost you any extra. If you place lots of graphic images on a Web page you create a lot of data that takes time...