Web site navigation is such an important part of any Web site that you need to think about it from the very beginning. Good Web site navigation should allow your visitors to know three things: where they are, where they can go, and how they can get back to where they came from.

At all times and on all pages in your site, you must give the visitor a sense of place, of context within the site. Every page on your site should have a header, footer, or sidebar that tells the reader what site they’re visiting and where they are within that site.

Web site navigation should be consistent from page to page, so your visitors don’t have to figure out how to get places every time they encounter a new page.

Home page

Your site’s home page should act as the crossroads, the point of origin for all traffic going into your site. Your home page must link to all your sections (and perhaps directly to some important articles).

Always include a link to home on every single page. This way, if users do get confused, or just want to start over from the top, they’re only one click away.

Site map

Don’t try to re-invent the wheel. Site maps or tables of contents work for Web site navigation just as well as they do on paper. Site maps are usually pages that contain links to all (or most) of the pages on a site. People understand these conventions, so they find them easy to use.

The nice thing here is that it provides your reader with a one-stop location to access anything on the site. The bad thing is you have to get them there in the first place. This should be your supplemental method of navigation, not the primary one.

Navigation bars

There’s no hard rule about how and where to put navigation bars. Because most computer screens are wider than they are tall, and good typography for the best readability demands shorter line lengths, it makes sense to put navigation bars on the left or right side of the screen.

This layout is becoming increasingly popular because it’s practical and allows the site to reserve part of the screen (usually between 150 and 200 pixels) for navigation and identity.

Images for Web site navigation

You should never rely exclusively on images for navigation bars. Of course, every graphic on your site should contain ALT text, so even if your visitors have pictures turned off they can still read and use your navigation.

That’s one of the reasons why it can be risky to use image maps (a single picture that contains a number of links). Because without the pictures turned on, it’s impossible to use an image map.

It’s also important to note that you should always include a text version of your navigation bars, as some people surf with images turned off or even with text-only browsers. You’ll often see the text navigation at the bottom of the page.

Frames

A common way to keep Web site navigation on screen no matter how much a visitor scrolls is to use frames with the navigation bar in one frame. This way, when users click from point to point, they don’t have to reload the navigation bar on each page.

The problem with this is that frames can be confusing for site visitors. It’s more difficult to print and bookmark a page. Using frames either prevents search engines from finding pages within a Web site, or it causes them to send visitors into a site without the proper frame context being established.

Frames can also cause visitors with older browsers to be unable to see any of the content of your site. For more information on using frames, see Advanced: HTML Frames.

JavaScript

Another method, if you’re not worried about alienating visitors with older browsers, is to use JavaScript for Web site navigation.

In order to conserve space, some sites use JavaScript to open a pop-up window or reveal deeper levels of information when you mouse over a category in the navigation bar.

Many sites use JavaScript to create the classic graphic button effect that shows one image when the mouse is left alone, and another when it passes over it.

For more information on JavaScript, see Advanced: JavaScript. Generally, however, the simpler the better. You want everyone to be able to use your navigation, not just those with the latest browsers.

Neat and Easy Navigation: Navigation of links on your site plays a big role in determining the stickiness of your site (how long your visitor stays and explores your site). Ask yourself this, What do visitors do as soon as they open your site? They would probably read the content of the present page and then look around to find any other page that interests them. Read our article on Web site Navigation Tips.

Clean Layout Design: A clean layout that uses a lot of white space enhances a site’s looks. Try to keep the focus on your content, use dreamweaver templates for this. Use fonts that will be available on all computers to prevent your site looking messed up.

Program using pure CSS: The world is moving away from table based websites to pure CSS websites because it offers accessibility, reusability and considerably reduces file size apart from giving greater control over the look of your website. The single most important skill you can learn today to become a quality web designer is CSS programming! Even if you are not an expert at CSS you can learn to use the following simple CSS Styles Effects to enhance your website

more of these to come soon

You can add audio (sound) to your web page that will be compatible with both Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. Add the following code to the HTML of your web page where you would like the control panel to display.

<EMBED src=”yourfile.mid” autostart=”true” loop=”false” hidden=”false”>

<noembed>
<bgsound src=”yourfile.mid” loop=”1″> </noembed>

Change the text indicated in red to your sound file.

The “autostart” determines whether or not the music will play when the page loads. “True” specifies that the music will start on load and “False” specifies that music will not start on load.

The “loop” determines how the music should be played. “False” specifies that the music should not loop and will play it through one time. “True” specifies that the music should loop and play continuously. It is highly recommended that you leave this set on false.

The “hidden” specifies whether or not the music’s control panel should be displayed. “True” specifies that the control panel should be hidden. “False” specifies that the control panel should be displayed. It is highly recommended that you leave this set on false. This will enable your visitors to stop the music if they prefer.

A US federal judge has permanently shuttered web hosting provider 3FN, which was accused of hosting child pornographers, spammers, and malware purveyors, according a report from The Register. The San Jose, California–based firm, which also operated under the name Pricewert, was also ordered to liquidate all assets and surrender more than $1 million in illegal profits.

The ruling by US District Judge Ronald M. Whyte is the latest and harshest legal action taken against Pricewert. In June 2009, a district court judge pulled the plug on 3FN at the request of the US Federal Trade Commission (www.ftc.gov), which accused the host of actively participating in the distribution of spam, child pornography, and other harmful electronic content.

In response to the original allegations, Pricewert complained that the court’s decision to cut off its servers from the Internet and freezing its assets severely limits its operations and makes it hard to defend itself and provide evidence of its innocence. “We have had a positive experience in cooperating with FBI regarding issues connected to one of our customers and we have solved the issue in a quite short period of time,” Pricewert stated. “It can be easily proved that our company is always open to cooperate with authorities and there is no difficulty in contacting us.”

FTC attorneys, however, presented evidence to the contrary, including messages sent between high-level employees and logs from NASA servers showing attacks originating from 3FN-controlled IP addresses. “These experts had analyzed data derived from Internet searches which establish that defendant, an Internet service provider, was engaged in widespread illegal activity,” Whyte wrote in his ruling, noting that for six-years, 3FN made at least $15,000 per month hosting illegal content.

One of the elements of good web design is a lack of the elements that make bad web design. If you stay away from everything listed on the page about dorky web pages, you’ve probably got a pretty nice web site. In addition, keep these concepts in mind:

Text

Background does not interrupt the text
Text is big enough to read, but not too big
The hierarchy of information is perfectly clear
Columns of text are narrower than in a book to make reading easier on the screen

Navigation

Navigation buttons and bars are easy to understand and use
Navigation is consistent throughout web site
Navigation buttons and bars provide the visitor with a clue as to where they are, what page of the site they are currently on
Frames, if used, are not obtrusive
A large site has an index or site map

Links

Link colors coordinate with page colors
Links are underlined so they are instantly clear to the visitor

Graphics
Buttons are not big and dorky
Every graphic has an alt label
Every graphic link has a matching text link
Graphics and backgrounds use browser-safe colors
Animated graphics turn off by themselves

General Design

Pages download quickly
First page and home page fit into 800 x 600 pixel space
All of the other pages have the immediate visual impact within 800 x 600 pixels
Good use of graphic elements (photos, subheads, pull quotes) to break up large areas of text
Every web page in the site looks like it belongs to the same site; there are repetitive elements that carry throughout the pages

Welcome to permiwebs portfolio over the next few months I will be bringing you some tips and tricks and the right way to complete a web page from start to sign off.

We will covering all aspects of the web development and runing a business.

Also please take the time to check out our portfolio of work to date.
Kind regards Wilzencomp