Freely Downloadable Font Sites
May 13, 2008 in web design
I’m always online looking for new fonts for my projects and designs, and over time I have compiled a list of the best resources for them.
Archive for the 'web design' Category
Minimalism for Websites
May 02, 2008 in web design
Minimalism applies to many aspects of web design. For example:
- The actual coding of the pages: when it comes to writing code for web pages, the use of cascading style sheets is a good exercise in minimalism; by concentrating the style definitions in one external file and then linking to it from each web page, I reduce the amount of code in each page, and, as a consequence, the pages will be smaller, will load faster, and will be easier to maintain
- The use of graphics: To use graphics only when absolutely necessary is another good example of minimalist web design. Graphics should add value to what is being presented, instead of being just decoration. Also, graphics should be optimized and be as lean as possible. Using relevant graphics, and using them sparingly, will eliminate clutter on a page, will make the content easier to understand, and will allow for quick page downloads, giving users what they want, faster.
- The use of space: some web pages resemble those car dealership ads that we see in the Sunday paper: they’re so busy and chaotic that they make us want to scream. Reading from a computer screen is difficult, so I strive to make it as easy as possible for visitors. We can improve on-screen readability by separating the different sections of the page with plenty of space. That is going to make our visitors more comfortable, and they will tend to hang around our site longer.
- Legible and big-enough fonts: minimalism doesn’t mean making your fonts as small as possible. A good, minimalist page should use a screen-friendly font, like Verdana, in a big enough size to be read effortlessly. Also, the number of font types per page should be limited to two or three: one for the headlines, one for the copy and possibly a third one for the navigation buttons. That’s it. The use of more fonts will make the page look busy and unattractive.
- Search Engine Optimization: search engines don’t recognize images. They recognize text. Text is the favorite food of search engine spiders. Search engines also have trouble with Flash and Javascript. If you want your pages indexed quickly and have a better chance of doing well with the search engines, remember to design them with minimalism in mind: keep things simple and reduce as much as possible the use of Flash, Javascript and images.