I want to set up a webpage. What elements do i need to research to make it look good?

Tom-eg

I have never done a proper website before. I've only ever messed about but not done anything serious. I want to set up a website and as i am not an expert i was hoping that some people in the know might be able to give me some good tips of website design and layout or else give me some useful links. Any things at all that i could research to make my page look appealing would be great. Have all the knowledge in my head as to the content of the page but i need help with the layout and design. Cheers

Kila

I like www.webdesignfromscratch.com which has a nice overview of a number of web related topics, including page layout, colour, typography, and code.

Pub07

Thats a cool site Kila.

Here's a few suggestion OP.
Bookmark any sites whose designs you really like. Design a mock up in photoshop of your site in photoshop drawing from these sites as inspiration, ie, color schemes, menu systems, etc... It is basically a rip off job but if you have zero design experience what you will come up by taking from these sites will be 100 times better than if you just went at it yourself.

Also check out http://960.gs/

Kila

It's one of my fav's, and my first recommended read for anyone with web design questions (particularly starting off).

Darragh29

I started off in 1996/97 doing a few tutorials on www.htmlgoodies.com. Couldn't recommend it enough for a beginner.

p

What's your goal with this project. Learn web design, sell things, make money, learn HTML etc... and also what's your background.

It's a bit hard to advise without knowing all that.

egan007

If you want to buy a book then buy Steve Krug, Don't make me think. Every webdesigner should read it 10 times

SD1990

http://www.w3schools.com

Everything you need there.


If you mean visually look good , Flash seems to be all the rage these days.

ve

As someone else already mentioned, your ultimate goal is key to the approach you take. For example if you want to make money from this, you need to focus on a lot more than just visual aesthetics. My advise would be to forget the notion of looking good until you learn about web standards, CSS, and valid markup. Start there and build it up. To be honest I personally put more stock in whether sites adhere to standards, are user friendly, functional, etc over the way they look. The presentation or design of a site is subjective, but a compliance with standards etc are more black and white.

That's my 2c, best of luck.

Rakeline

If you can use word you can use this http://www.net2.com/nvu/ its a great tool just make your page and the view the source code and heres all the colours http://www.w3schools.com/HTML/html_colornames.asp and lastly this is a handy little tool for getting pictures, checking colours and checking sizes http://www.mirekw.com/winfreeware/index.html

Good luck!