Website Layout

Website Page layout

Part of the user interface design is affected by the quality of the page layout. For example, a designer may consider whether the site's page layout should remain consistent on different pages when designing the layout. Page pixel width may also be considered vital for aligning objects in the layout design. The most popular fixed-width websites generally have the same set width to match the current most popular browser window, at the current most popular screen resolution, on the current most popular monitor size. Most pages are also center-aligned for concerns of aesthetics on larger screens.

Fluid layouts make user-specific layout adjustments to fluid layouts based on the details of the reader's screen (window size, font size relative to window, etc.). 

Responsive web design is a newer approach, based on CSS3, and a deeper level of per-device specification within the page's style sheet through an enhanced use of the CSS media rule.Sites using responsive design are well placed to ensure they meet this new approach.

Website Typography

Web designers may choose to limit the variety of website typefaces to only a few which are of a similar style, instead of using a wide range of type styles.  Most browsers recognize a specific number of safe fonts, which designers mainly use in order to avoid complications.

Motion graphics

The page layout and user interface may also be affected by the use of motion graphics. The choice of whether or not to use motion graphics may depend on the target market for the website. Motion graphics may be expected or at least better received with an entertainment-oriented website. However, a website target audience with a more serious or formal interest (such as business, community, or government) might find animations unnecessary and distracting if only for entertainment or decoration purposes. This doesn't mean that more serious content couldn't be enhanced with animated or video presentations that is relevant to the content. In either case, motion graphic design may make the difference between more effective visuals or distracting visuals.

Generated content

There are two ways websites are generated: statically or dynamically.

Static websites

A static website stores a unique file for every page of a static website. Each time that page is requested, the same content is returned. This content is created once, during the design of the website. It is usually manually authored, although some sites use an automated creation process, similar to a dynamic website, whose results are stored long-term as completed pages. 

The benefits of a static website are that they were simpler to host, as their server only needed to serve static content, not execute server-side scripts. This required less server administration and had less chance of exposing security holes. They could also serve pages more quickly, on low-cost server hardware. This advantage became less important as cheap web hosting expanded to also offer dynamic features, and virtual servers offered high performance for short intervals at low cost.

Almost all websites have some static content, as supporting assets such as images and style sheets are usually static, even on a website with highly dynamic pages.

Dynamic websites

Dynamic websites are generated on the fly and use server-side technology to generate web pages. They typically extract their content from one or more back-end databases: some are database queries across a relational database to query a catalog or to summarise numeric information, and others may use a document databases to store larger units of content, such as blog posts.

In the design process, dynamic pages are often mocked-up or wireframed using static pages. The skillset needed to develop dynamic web pages is much broader than for a static page, involving server-side and database coding as well as client-side interface design. Even medium-sized dynamic projects are thus almost always a team effort.

Communication in Web Design

In an additional study regarding privacy policies, the authors present an alternative to the privacy agreement. They propose a more visual, user based approach as opposed to the classic long worded privacy agreements. Such an approach involves “privacy ratings” that pertain to categories and are clearly hierarchically represented. Such a representation makes it clear what information is being shared and how secure a website is in a more user friendly manner. Their results show a generally positive response from their sample group and outline the usefulness of such a structure in website design.