How to Design a Web Template

OK. This is a new blog.

In this blog I will be discussing
designing web templates.

How do you design your own web
template?

My first suggestion is that you
pick a width for your template.

I'd say, in general, narrow is
better than wide.

Why? Because narrow templates
tend to create newspaper columns
whereas wide templates tend to
create billboards that have to
be scanned.

You don't want your web visitors
scanning too much just to read
an article you wrote.

Readability is important! A wide
template may seem like a good idea
because you can fit so much into
it.

That's the point. You don't want
to fit a whole lot of stuff in your
template. If you do, you just end
up distracting your web visitors.

Try not to distract and confuse your
web visitors. This is paramount!

Most people would be surprised to
learn how much faster and further
they can go if they will keep things
simple. You get there faster and
better when you keep it simple.

A narrow template is also helpful
in that it is likely to have better
proportions.

There's this thing called divine
proportion and things that are narrow
and tall lend themselves better to
divine proportion than do things that
are short and squat.

Would you rather own a horse with short
legs or long legs?

Do short squat dogs look better or do
dogs with dramatically long legs look
better?

A narrow width web template already looks
better before you've gotten started.

So go as narrow as you can without going
too narrow.

Narrow enough is just right.

Also keep in mind that narrow templates
are more accessible to people with old
computers and old computer monitors.

So, you get a larger audience with a
narrow template.

In today's environment, I'd say a 800
pixel template is typical.

That's typical.

The template for my own website is
610 pixels.

That's narrow. 610 pixels is narrow.

Here's my website which currently is
610 pixels wide:

www.WebSiteRepairGuy.com

This template is narrow but not
too narrow in my view. It is
narrow but leaves a little bit of
waste space on the sides.

Why the waste space? Well, you
want your web visitors very
focused when they visit your
site. Therefore, you do not
want to present them with too
much visually.

By the way. In all likelihood, a narrow
template will more likely fit on a
handheld device screen in the future.

Maybe not now. But maybe sometime in the
future.

Handheld device technology is developing
very quickly. Someday, 610 pixels
could be just the ticket.

Ed Abbott