This page was a description of the old design of my web site.
I changed my whole web site and now all the design issue are automated.
I can no focus on the content while I know graphical coherence is secured.
I keep ussing some of the graphic format I descibe in this page.
Maybe I should document this new design somewhere.

The design of a Web design

Maybe you have notice the effort I made in the design of my pages. I give you clue on how to make your Personal Home Page looks more professional.

There is a need for Web design

Personal Home Page is the needed community participation that can make the Web more human and less commercial minded. Because there are more people than company, and because people have nothing to sell, they can do more and better Web content.

However, it is not because Personal Home Page are made on your free time that no time should be spend on design. Every effort should be made to make the Web more tasteful. Your home page is the image that the Web community have of you. Web is there to express yourself, except to prove the world you master HTML and any new Web technique, there is no need for much feature. But maybe you have nothing to say to the world.

I decided to focus on content and to give my pages a nice and organized design. This design is there to make the content more appealing for the reader. Every page in my home pages will follow the same graphic rules. From one page to another, the visitor won't loose itself and that's why design is needed.

You only have to thing about design once and establish a set of your own rules. Then the challenge is to follow as much as you can those rules. Please allow yourself for freedom, imagination and some rule breaking when needed.

My design decisions

First let's present some early design decision I made for my pages:
I don't like frame so I won't use them for myself;
I want to follow as much as possible the HTML norm;
I don't want to use proprietary extension to HTML (or in limited area);
I want my pages to be accessible at low speed so I keep graphic small;
I want a page to be graphically coherent;
I want pages to use the same graphical language;
I want to allow space for context and give visitors a chance to know where they are and visit the rest.

Graphical zone in a page of mine:
Prelude that appear in the top of the page for hot news and banner exchange;
Context column on the left of the page that allow you to browse to other page;
Content column on the right where there is all the place for free expression of my idea;
Postulate on the bottom of the page which is mainly used for the Web hosting banner;

Graphical element of a page of mine:
A large icon that represent the page and is used in the title of the content and in the context when reference is made to this page;
A background that keep the text readable and make a graphical separation between the Context zone and the Content zone;
Bullets used for list of element in the Content;
Long bars used to make separation of element in the Content;
Short bars used to make separation of element in the Context;

Make you own design

Start thinking of your Personal Home Page and feel free to make the needed design decision. Do not let program or technical constrained bound your imagination. Think to what you want your pages to look like at then start implementing

Make a test page with now content (this page was my test page) and experiment your idea. Take all your time as the decision you will make are important for the rest. Take a look outside and see what the other are doing and how they are doing.

Here are some step in the process of making you design:
Test your design with different HTML viewer and make sure it look well.
Print your page to see what it give on paper in black and white.
Try it with different font, font size, screen size and color depth.
Start choosing the graphic element you will use, draw them or grape them from the Web.

When your design is done you can forget about it and start focus on the content. And maybe you could make a link to this page to thanks me for all my personal advice to you. Happy free expression on the Web.

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