Proper web design

[next]

I was wondering what guide lines do you guys follow to design your sites?
Stuff like optimized images, avoiding frames, easy navigation is obvious, my concerns are:
1) What page width do you use to be safe in now days?
2) Font size and color?
3) How do you calculate white spacing and line spacing?
4) I'm good with CSS, but when it comes to forms positioning i find it a lot easier to use tables, is this OK, or is this a bad thing?
I'm good at coding, but fairly new to design so if there are more tips on proper design please share.

Thanks in advance.

[Toon]

There's some great reading here to help you along...

Starting with CSS and bug fixing tips | Veerle's blog

[...Gav]

i work now to a 15" screen. I dont make websites for 800 x 600 any more

i make sure all my sites validate by W3C standards (google: firefox w3c plug in)

font size and color is down to the design, but avoid using light colors or excentric colors i.e lime green for your color and also bright text on dark back grounds

try to avoid tables and frames - they have no beloging in web code anymore

web 2.0 reflections on logos and buttons is for gays

line spacing and letter spacing again down to design

main browsers to code to are currently:

i.e 6
i.e 7
Firefox
Safari

but you should make sure that your site works in all inc Oprah

best thing to get is web dev plug in for firefox

Hope it helps

[lamploi79]

Well Put Gav

[PR Design]

Yeah, Gav's got it sized. My take:

1) What page width do you use to be safe in now days?
960px due to my new found love of the 960 Grid System.
I also style pages in ems and opposed to px so the layout becomes zoomable (see my new CSS Framework).


2) Font size and color?
Design dependent - around 11px-12px is best though - but in conjunction with aforementioned em styling this can be zoomed.


3) How do you calculate white spacing and line spacing?
Again, design dependent for the most part, but usually line space 150%


4) I'm good with CSS, but when it comes to forms positioning i find it a lot easier to use tables, is this OK, or is this a bad thing?
Bluntly, it's a bad thing, but not terrible. I'm sure you can learn how to do the equivalent in CSS in no time.


Good luck!

Harry

[tommylogic]

The Principles of Beautiful Web Design

[PR Design]

Originally Posted by tommylogic

The Principles of Beautiful Web Design

Yeah I've got that - it's an all right read.

[zumojuice]

Harry's taken what I was about to say. The basic thing is, the actual design should follow the same rules as anything else you design, you just have the extra aspect of code to deal with to keep it the way you designed it.

[next]

Great, thanks!

[Hinkle]

Originally Posted by PR Design

960px due to my new found love of the 960 Grid System.

hey that pretty neat :)