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In part 1 of our tips for laying out content in web design, we showed you four ways to display content in a web design.  Though these tips are very useful in their own right, we have another four that we wish to bring to your attention, and we are going to start with a technique called progressive design.

Progressive Design:  The idea behind this technique is that a user follows a natural flow over several pages to obtain the information he or she needs.  This is normally navigated by buttons like “click next”, and so on and so fourth, and is often used for completing forms, where sections are displayed one after another.  Another use is if your site wants to demonstrate to the user, a series of steps that were taken to complete a task.  Hence the name of progressive design.

Grids: Undoubtedly the most essential element to any layout,  is a grid.  A good grid system will separate content on a web page in an almost seamless way.  Many web designers believe that the grid system should be subtle, and some of the best grid systems are just broken lines that divide one section of the page from another.  They also make the content very scannable, which is essential.

To make a good grid layout, aesthetics are everything, as chunky, padded grids do not make the best use of white space, and can be very off putting to users as the information will not be defined, and, or have a broken flow.

Accordions:  Accordions work in a very similar fashion as sliders and carousels, as they display focused content in a box.  Again they are very good if used for their purpose.  The main difference is that they appear on top of related information, and one can be displayed one after another, like an accordion.

Accordions come into their own when several types of related information or related products are to be displayed.  This shows the user that there is a relationship between the content that they are viewing, and like sliders and carousels, it is only viewed if the user wants to view it.

Mega Drop Down Menus:  These are similar to rollovers, as they present information when the mouse hovers over the element, but as the name would suggest, a vast menu appears giving the user a choice of the information they want to see.  This is technique is being used on many websites that feature products.  The mega drop down menu can display information about it, or indeed another set of related menus.

These are particularly good because information is presented without having the user navigate away from the original page.  This is technique is growing in popularity especially if there is a lot of information to be displayed about a product.  Such as a car.

Together with the tips highlighted in part 1, we feel you have a good comprehensive guide to choose the best way to present your content.  In many cases, it is the subtleness of the presentations that will win the day, and create that killer design.  So think about what information is to be presented and the way to present it will choose itself.

The key to content layout is to give the site a natural flow that will either take the user on a journey, or simply give the user an option to select the content they wish to see.  Content is King, and choosing the best way to present your monarch, is paramount to a successful design.

We hope these tips for laying out content in web design help you do exactly that.

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In part 1 of our tips for laying out content in web design, we showed you four ways to display content in a web design.  Though these tips are very useful in their own right, we have another four that we wish to bring to your attention, and we are going to start with a [...]

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Content is King in web design, a fact we all know.  As more and more websites of all natures, require more innovative ways to present content, your role as a web designer, is to come up with as many ingenious ways to present content that is meaningful, fashionable, and aesthetically pleasing as possible.
These tips for [...]

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The development of web 2.0, or at least the use of the term begs the question what will be developed for web 3.0?  What developments are hidden round the corner, and what will you need to know as a web designer to incorporate what web 3.0 will be about.
As web 3.0 is at the moment [...]

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In part 2 of our web design tips for designing a good checkout system, we will look at some more useful tips to get the checkout system of your e-commerce site, on the money.  The benefits of doing so, cannot be overstated, as this is the area of the site that clinches the deal.
Always provide [...]

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As a web designer, you have no doubt come across some aspects of e-commerce in your career.  The process of checking out is without question the most important part of any e-commerce site, as this is where the deal is clinched.  A badly designed checkout system, can and does lose customers, and therefore it is [...]

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In our last two articles that focused on the dilemmas of freelance web designers, we looked at general tips, http://www.dreamtemplate.com/blog/web-design-tips/tips-for-new-freelance-web-designers/, and tips for effective project planning, http://www.dreamtemplate.com/blog/web-design-tips/freelance-web-design-and-project-planning/.
This article looks at why bad planning is so common, or more accurately why underestimating the amount of time a project will take is so common.  Hopefully, once you [...]

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In our first brush with freelance web design tips, we looked at client focused needs and how to fulfil them.  These were good general tips and well worth a look at.  You can find them here.  http://www.dreamtemplate.com/blog/web-design-tips/tips-for-new-freelance-web-designers/
Becoming a freelance web designer is most web designers dream, and if you are one, or run a small [...]

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In our last two guides we looked at several concepts that all promote better user interfaces for users.  These tips can also be incorporated into other types of web designs, so it is worth studying them, even if you are not directly involved in social networking web design.
The last set of tips in our series [...]

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User interface design tips for social networking sites, part 2
In this articles predecessor imaginatively entitled “User interface design tips for social networking sites, part 1”, we looked at how personalisation, engagement and real time updates were key elements to the many types of user interfaces, social networking sites need.
This article looks at other key elements [...]

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As web designers, it is a testament to your skill if the user interface is smoother than Sean Connery.  This is the ultimate goal of user interface design, and it gets that much harder on sites that have a large number of users, or have a lot of features to choose from.
There are many design [...]

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