Look more professional

Want to make your design to look more professional? Here's a few tips:

• Use a good color scheme.
  Avoid wild colors. Avoid distracting background images or ones that do not help a "professional" appearance. Match the color scheme to the intended audience, not to your own tastes.
• Use safe fonts.
  Avoid weird or wild ones. Also remember that fonts carry emotions with them. Do you really want your church to come off as "Comic"? Is that professional?
• Develop a clear, logical layout.
  A simple, clean design looks professional. Avoid a cluttered or cramped look. Navigation should be easy to understand. Minimize multiple navigation menus on the same page. Use bulleted lists logically. Use headings and white space to visually show which elements are related and which are not in the text area. Test your pages in multiple browsers -- they won't all look the same.
• Keep any graphics simple and fast.
  Images slow down display of a web page. The larger the total image file size, the slower the page displays. Sprinkling in images can also distract the visitor's eyes and create an unprofessional appearance. Animated images are very distracting and often give an unprofessional look. Always question their use.

Learn more ...

• 5 steps to a great home page (NetMechanic)
• Top 10 reasons visitors leave your site (NetMechanic)
• Web Design Tips
• Design tips (link collection at UseableWeb.com)