Video:How to Decide Placement in a Web Design Layout

Transcript:How to Decide Placement in a Web Design Layout

Hi, this is Dimitri LaBarge for About.com, and today we're going to talk about how to decide placement in a web design layout.

Basics About Deciding Placement in a Web Design Layout

One of the most important things in deciding placement happens before you ever start coding or designing graphics - you need to plan. Use pen and paper, use flowchart software, but figure out how you want your site to work before you do anything. What is your site's purpose? When you figure that out, you can begin to execute based on your needs.

Notes About Deciding Placement in a Web Design Layout

Don't reinvent the wheel. There's a reason certain elements go in a certain place. For instance, you want your navigation where the eye wanders first. That's at the top or the left, so place your nav in either place (or some combination or the two). If you put your nav menu at the bottom, you'll just add frustration to the browsing experience.

What Viewers Want From Web Design Layout

What do you want viewers to see when they first arrive at your site? When Disney was designing his theme parks, he made sure they had something he called a "weenie" - that is, something viewable from all areas that gave customers a navigational reference. Figure out what that is. Maybe it's your logo or a dramatic image. If so, put it in a prominent place like the top left.

Positioning in Web Design Layout

What positioning is interesting? Generally speaking, a centered element is boring - unless you have a dramatic image by itself, with lots of white space. Think in terms of a print layout. Try multiple columns or add sidebars for a text layout, just to break up the monotony.

Placement in Web Design Layouts

Placement can also effect search engine results. For instance, some search engines will look specifically for links in the main body of text instead of menus. The theory is that links not in the body are more likely to be some sort of ad content, whereas links in the page body are genuine resources, and better reflect accurate user traffic. Take that into account with your design.

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