Webmaster’s Corner – “Pane” in the Neck

This month, I would like to talk about balancing your website. A well balanced site, at first glance, should appear to make sense from all angles, not just from a syntax point of view, but also from the interpretive point of view. What do I mean by that? When you look at a website, and the colors do not compliment each other, or there are 5 different font sizes with varying font types, do you assume there was ample thought put into the design? Probably not. What do you think when you see a website that is completely flush to the left side of your monitor? Does it appear a little “off-balance” to you when all of the readable text is on the left side of your screen? I do. I feel that it is possible to have a website built to perfect form, without any errors at all, and still somehow be perceived as unbalanced by its visitors.

I think this happens most when website developers and programmers forget to think about their post-design duties, such as testing and functionality. The more tested your design is, the more balanced it will appear to the end user. My personal rule of thumb is to employ 1 hour of testing for every 1 hour of development. So, at the end of the day, everything; text, graphics, functionality, etc., on a website should be relevant to the concept and overall mission to ensure good balance.