It amazes me how many people I talk to want to clutter their pages and ads up with pictures and text. They seem to feel that they have to incorporate every catch phrase, image or "cool graphic" into the design. Instead of designing an effective design, they end up with a design that's unreadable and looks like a bunch of gobbly goop and a bandwidth drainhole.
When it comes to designing for the web or print, there's a fundamental purpose for your design work. Ensuring that your viewer is able to understand your site and ad are most important. Peaking ones curiosity may not work well in the situation where the curiosity is, "What they hell did that mean?" Making your site and ad easy to read and navigate are essential in getting a positive response.
For this article, let's assume that you're working on an adult pay site tour as well as a print ad for it. It doesn't really matter what the particular content is since we're just going to discuss some simple layout ideas to keep in mind.
WHITE SPACE
White space, negative space, or, in letterforms, counterspace, it's the part of the design that "isn't" there. And it's just as important as the elements that are there. White space is a design term that describes the unused areas on a book, magazine, or Web page. It does not necessarily mean that the "white space" is actually white in color.
White Space Tips:
1. Don't Trap White Space
Although you want white space in your designs, you don't want to trap that white space between two design elements. This interrupts the flow of the design. You might increase the size of a font, the size of the graphic, or reposition elements to avoid trapped white space.
2. Keep Text Cells Small
We've all come across Web sites that have text stretching across the entire length of the browser. While that might be readable on a fourteen inch monitor, it's very difficult to read on a larger monitor whose browser window is maximized.
3. Avoid Rivers
Rivers may appear if you set your type justified. A river is word spaces that appear near each other on subsequent lines of text. It is better to edit the text than to change the word spacing on a line by line basis to correct rivers. Rivers may also be a symptom that your line length is too long or too short.
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YOUR WEB PAGES
Your adult pay site tour pages work as your sales pitch. Aside from targetting the traffic you have sent to the site, making it easy to understand what you have to offer and an easy way to navigate, will certainly help increase your conversions.
Web Page Tips:
1. Text
Background does not interrupt the text.
Text is big enough to read, but not too big.
The hierarchy of information is perfectly clear.
Columns of text are narrower than in a book to make reading easier on the screen.
2. Navigation
Navigation buttons and bars are easy to understand and use.
Navigation is consistent throughout web site.
Navigation buttons and bars provide the visitor with a clue as to where they are, what page of the site they are currently on.
Frames, if used, are not obtrusive.
A large site has an index or site map.
3. Links
Link colors coordinate with page colors.
Links are underlined so they are instantly clear to the visitor.
4. Graphics
Buttons are not big and dorky.
Most graphics should have an alt label.
Every graphic link has a matching text link somewhere on the page. A text navigation area at bottom of the page is a good idea.
Graphics and backgrounds use browser-safe colors.
Animated graphics turn off by themselves.
5. General Design
Pages download quickly.
First page and home page fit into 640 x 460 pixel space (in most cases) for 800x600 viewing.
All of the other pages have the immediate visual impact with approximately the same dimensions as the first page.
Good use of graphic elements (photos, subheads, pull quotes) to break up large areas of text.
Every web page in the site looks like it belongs to the same site (there are repetitive elements that carry throughout the pages).
By making it easier for users to read, understand and take action through your ad or web page, you'll find that converting browsers into buyers will become a bit easier. Afterall, isn't it more effective for a traffic sign to say "STOP" instead of "Apply pressure to the brake pedal with your foot until your automobile ceases to advance in a forward direction past the white line on the street in front of you?"