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Website Layout and Site Map

When starting to design the layout of a site, it is often a good plan to step away from the computer and sketch a layout using good old paper and pencil. 

Pages should be based on a grid, with space allocated for navigation, headers and footers, body text and whatever other elements that will be repeated throughout the site. This sketch will serve as a pattern for the site's appearance and should not change very much, if at all, from page to page.

Taking this approach means you can essentially have your site designed by creating a single page that can be reused, with perhaps minor modifications, as a template for all the other pages in your site. You need to consider how the various content types of different parts of the site will be accommodated within the design and be sure that it meets the needs of all sections. 

Consistency is at the heart of good web site design and this applies not just to layout but also to every aspect of a site. If there are major shifts in the appearance or color of any part of a site it will be assumed by the user to have a meaning. This is fine if you are using it to highlight information or to indicate that the user is in a different part of the site; it can be very confusing otherwise. 

Besides consistency in color, positional consistency is important. Navigation bars, navigation text, location indicators, logos, footer information and so on should be in the same place on each page. The width of margins, the positioning of images within articles, the size of photographs, the amount of space around text and images, the positioning and style of captions for images and so on should also be consistent. All pages should be well connected and navigation should be quick and simple.

The best websites today use a single template for all the pages of a section on the website or for the entire website, if the number of pages are few. The use of ‘Frames’, however, is pass?. Using a template offers the consistency to your site and helps to build a brand image of your site. The template includes the graphic design and header of your page including the main menu bars. Content is thus positioned separately from the template.

Use of a cascading style-sheet for displaying the content is another useful mechanism to ensure consistency on all pages. The style-sheet stipulates the content layout, use of font and spaces, presentation of paragraph titles, margins on the page and other parameters.

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