Do you want an effective and beautiful website? There are certain thumb rules that many designers tend to forget and the result, no doubt, is something not even close. The web design is what the general user is going to encounter first in your website. And everybody knows why the first impression is very important. It is not about saying no to experimentations though all experiments must follow a structure.
So, what are the rules? What makes a website stand out from the rest? Let’s take a look:

1. It is important how you use your space. The empty space or the white space or breathing space is the most important design element. The viewers actually find it easy to discover the important elements of the page with the support of the empty spaces. There should be sufficient empty space between the columns and different page elements as well as between individual characters, lines and paragraphs. ALL the empty or white spaces are considerable and they add true meaning to the design of the page. Following the same rule, you should not use too many elements on a single page. Trust your viewers. They are willing to follow the navigation links if you put them relevantly. It is more comfortable to view short pages with related navigation links side by side rather than tons of elements in a single page among which most of the elements are extraneous.

2. Until and unless your web page is static you should exhibit the new contents and information. This does make sense for a good design. Viewers would like to revisit to find out the new elements or information if they get proper guidance. Unlike the blogging system you can create a separate system for new updates or entries so that the visitors do not have to hunt for the news feed.

3. Another very important element is links to internal pages. You should be definite about the links. The important step of designing a site is how the links are highlighted in the page. It is important thus to use separate marks or characters to highlight the links. It is a good practice to use a different colour to highlight the link or to underline the word to mark it as a link but better not to go for blinking text.

4. In a good website, the main elements are always kept within the eye-fold so that it can grab the reader’s attention at the very first chance. Ideally the page elements should follow each other depending on their respective importance.

5. Fix the font size of your web page and be conscious about its readability.

6. Do not use tons of colors unless it is needed (e.g. a painter’s website or a website designer’s website may have more color than an academia’s website).

Always remember that highlighting everything actually highlights nothing.