Website Design
Have you ever considered or in fact would like to know about website design? Part of creating a top e/course has to do with how well your webpages are constructed. Without an aesthetically pleasing and well-designed page where it’s all laid out right it can be hard to get engagement and that much more difficult for the reader to sort out mentally what their viewing.
As you can imagine then with an E/course—teaching each module the page layout has a lot to do with complementing the content.
The aim of website design is to stick to the proven standard methods first off and then be a bit more explorative and design freely an arrangement of the bits and pieces of the design parts—so that the overall result is a balance and even positioning as a person scrolls down the page—with areas that are highlighted of main points and certain text standing out such as boxed in a frame for example, so it attracts and enhances the viewing experience for the viewer and serves as a deeper unseen or background element for getting the written work meaning across better.
Images ought to be placed sparingly with their features showing or having some kind of relationship meaning that connects well with content, but also symbolizes a message and aesthetically stands out on its own.
The same applies when using symbols and icons. They work better when their size, color, and message complement the pages various designs parts. The key is to try and design those elements of page structure so that the design pattern is attractive and pleasing to the eye and continues on all the way down the page as the viewer scrolls. When you have that type of pattern it allows the viewer to receive an experience that’s not imposing upon the eye and each part attracts attention— more so especially if the background and foreground are complemented by contrast that’s not blocking out or drawing attention away from each part of the webpage you want the viewer to stop and read.
The standard webpage layout is divided commonly into the top part, which is composed of the header section and usually the top menu bar and headline(s)—then next the body or middle section, which includes above the fold (that is the top half of the body where the page ends on the viewers screen) and usually where the main headline and biggest interest is placed, and the bottom half (ie the rest of the body/page below the fold) which usually continues on with a series of paragraphs and with perhaps including an image or bullet points for example to go as part of the content overall. The body generally includes the sidebar, text images, and or videos—then last at the bottom is the footer which can vary with each site but it can have social sharing buttons, a footer menu bar with page title directory that lead to different parts of the site pages, and quite often the terms of use and other legal pages about the site policies.
In an e/course especially a lesson page, can often have a variety of media for its presentation in teaching—whereas in a module page it has its title, plus each lessons title topic, with perhaps a sentence or two briefly describing each lesson, and usually will have very little else or maybe it will have some navigation aids as well, or a few ads, or display items at most, but usually it is the lesson pages which are designed with the most material.
There is also the importance of color palette to consider when designing a page—that is the text size style, and color for its header, and body, and footer background—plus the size of the page and whether you like a full width page or a page with a sidebar like most blogs are.
In all there is no real hard and fast rules to what webpages design should be apart from the standard parts as mentioned above—it’s really up to the creator—and if you’re doing it yourself it’s really finding out first a bit about the design and layout you like to do—which makes it a good idea to check out some other sites first and see what you like, and then using a standard page design draw up a web page on a piece of paper first so you can then see where everything goes. Then once you’re happy either create it yourself or outsource it and have a web designer do it for you if you think that’s the way you would prefer to go, however it can get costly if you’re not careful.
In all it can be fun and creative trying your hand at web page design. If you like to find out more about what’s involved in how to do “website design” with regards to e/course creation and online business then please have a look at Your E/course Blueprint
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