Designing for websites is a lot different to designing for the print world. In website design you have to consider how a user might interact with the website via a navigation system and you can utilize animation to draw attention to certain content. Unlike designing for a magazine you can have different page lengths and you can open and close content within a page giving the design a lot more flexibility.
Design + Technology = Functionality
When producing designs for websites it is important to consider the technology that you can use. Through Javascript and other technologies you can enable rollover buttons and many effects that can aid a user’s journey through your website. Through CMS’s or database driven websites you can help deliver content in an easy and consistent style, while at the same time making the website easy to update. New technologies are constantly being developed, although it is good to use technologies that are available to everybody (i.e there is little point in using a video plugin that only 3% of your audience have on their computers).
Be inspired
Below are some links that showcase what I consider to be good website design (there are many more which you can find for yourselves). It is important to look at what other companies are producing and what latest innovations are being utilized.
Both these websites show good examples of website design, primarily they show good use of CSS (hence their titles). CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) are essential in the good design of a website and allow you to easily change the display of content across your website.
Although I personally don’t recommend using a lot of Flash animation, the websites showcased in the link below do show good designs and range from corporate websites to individual’s websites.
Image is everything
Just the same as traditional design, good imagery is crucial in website design. Ideally try and get some professional photographs of your business or products. If you are struggling for images I find the two sites below very useful for both icons and photography.
