Navneet Panchariya - Web Designer | UI Designer | Front End Developer

Web design is as much a science as it is an art form. While half of the job is based on sound coding and design know-how, the other half is based on just having an intuitive sense of what looks good and what doesn't. Any web designer worth his salt will develop a strong core of fundamentals to make himself stand out from the rest of the pack. So how do you develop these fundamentals? They won't just appear overnight. Sure, there is no substitute for experience, but a strong education - whether formal or not - also helps tremendously. It's also highly advisable to keep challenging yourself and push beyond the limits of your comfort zone. That will mean the difference between struggling to find and keep clients and actually having clients come find you. Here are the absolute fundamentals that all good web designers should possess if they want to reach sublime levels. They don't all involve technical, computer know-how. 1) Be familiar with the entire desig...

Design patterns are common solutions to common problems. When you add a slider to a homepage you're employing a design pattern. When someone asks: "Why reinvent the wheel?" they're advocating the adoption of a design pattern. On the Web, the term "design patterns" most often refers to programming techniques, however design patterns also exist within visual design. And whilst solving a recurrent coding problem with the same solution is an efficient approach, reusing a visual design is not as desirable. WHY DO WE USE DESIGN PATTERNS? Design patterns are far less common in print design than on the Web, despite the fact that print design has had much longer in which to devise them. The reason for this is that web design is heavily influenced by disciplines such as information architecture, coding, and usability; all of which embrace the use of design patterns. Programmers don't value originality, they value effective, elegant solutions....

Single page designs can be an excellent technique for tackling smaller websites, even those that you might not think could ever be done without multiple pages. There are tons of great reasons for using a single page site, from ease of maintenance to reduced bandwidth needs. If you're tackling a shorter site, one that would normally have a handful of pages, consider using a single page, and see if it will make the project easier and more user friendly. Read on for more information on the benefits, when (and when not) to use them, and some best practices you should follow. THE BENEFITS OF SINGLE PAGE DESIGN Obviously, single page designs are not ideal for every project. But there are a host of reasons to use them if they're a possible fit. THEY'RE INTUITIVE TO USE By default, all a user needs to know to navigate a single page site is how to scroll. You might include arrows or other navigational clues, but with rare exception, simply scrolling will bri...

This time of year people begin to think about bettering themselves by making positive changes in their lives or business. There seems to be no shortage of great advice to make yourself better in just a few short days with a little focus. If you run a website the ways you can improve its overall function may be on your mind. The good news is that just like any other area of your life you can take a few days to really look at your site and make small adjustments that will lead to a big payoff.  One of the most effective ways to do this is to actually keep your visitors on your site. The bounce rate is a percentage of visitors who leave your page immediately after landing on your website without clicking onto other pages. The main aim of most site owners is to develop loyal followers, but it can be very difficult to build a following when people leave your website without looking around and understanding exactly what you have to offer. This makes reducing a high bounce rate v...

Unless you've developed the enviable skill of ignoring adverts on Twitter, you can't have failed to notice The Grid, a new service promising "AI websites that design themselves." The Grid "is not another do-it-yourself website builder," the difference according their site, is that The Grid boasts an advanced AI (artificial intelligence) that can build custom solutions for its clients in mere seconds. I've often heard WYSIWYGs, and more recently website builders, likened to robots replacing human workers on factory production lines; I've yet to hear of a robot making it into the design department. Certainly, there is scope for automation in web design: When once you spent an hour setting up basic stylesheets, now you import a framework; when once you spent a day considering design options, now you choose a design pattern; when once you spent a week coding specific functionality, now you download a plugin. We all want to think of our s...

The internet can be a worrisome place. Whether you are just browsing the web, or you go online to make purchases, people are leery about everything they do on the web. From credit card fraud to identity theft, it can be tough to gain people's trust on your website. It isn't impossible to gain the trust of your website visitors. You can implement a few visual aids that will build trust and increase conversions for your website. 1. Badges If your policy includes a money-back guarantee, or you stand by the quality of your product, you can implement a badge or emblem to promote this aspect of your business. For example, if you offer a 1 Year Warranty, you could place a silver or golden sticker with this information somewhere on your sales page. Typically, you would place it near the  "Buy Now" button to help convince visitors of the quality of your products or services. The best color to use is gold, because it speaks of the value and worth of what you...

We're not all designing our content right. There. I said it. Maybe you, personally, are doing a great job, but most of us aren't. We can, and should do better. We owe it to ourselves, our clients, and most importantly, to our users. "Content is King." That's been a mantra for so long that it's almost become a cliche. We know content matters. We know why it matters. Why then, do so many of us treat it as, if not an afterthought, a matter of lower priority? Why aren't we designing our content first, before we touch any other aspect of our content-driven sites? We should be. Before we touch any other part of the design, we should be thinking about out how our users will be interacting with the content. We should figure out how that might benefit them, and the website's owners. Users don't want to spend their time admiring your website. It's not what they're there for. They're there to find what they're looking for, and ...