How To Design Your Site Appearance
ByWHY YOUR APPEARANCE MATTERS
One of the most important steps in creating a professional web site is selecting site-wide elements — the colors, fonts, and layout that will apply to all of your pages. These site-wide elements give your site a consistent look and help you create your unique business identity. Having a consistent visual design also helps web site visitors find the information they need faster, encourages them to stay longer, and ultimately brings you more business.
HOW TO DESIGN YOUR SITE APPEARANCE?
To work with your site appearance, sign in to the service, go to the Site Building or Catalog section, scroll down the page, and choose the Appearance task.
STEP 1: PICK AN OVERALL DESIGN
The main page of the Appearance task is divided into four sections. To work with your layout, go to the upper left corner of this page. In this step you’ll choose the basic structure for the layout of all the web pages in your site. You have two options: Choose from a short list of simple layouts, or customize your layout.
BASIC LAYOUT
Want to choose a design quickly? Choose the link that says, “Choose one of four basic layouts.” You’ll see four black-and-white pictures depicting possible page designs for your site. These page designs determine your margins and alignment, as well as the position of the navigation links that appear on every page of your site. Pick a design that looks appealing and click on the OK button.
CUSTOMIZED LAYOUT
If you’d rather customize your page setup and layout, click on the Customize your layout link. Because this path separates the overall design of your site into two separate components — page setup and page layout — you’ll get thousands of design options.
1. You’ll first select a basic structure for the layout of all the web pages in your site, choosing between a vertical, horizontal, or custom setup. The vertical setup is a smart choice for web sites that will have many pages linked from the site navigation; the horizontal setup is a better option for web sites with fewer pages. The custom setup is for Bigstep Professional and Bigstep Advantage members who want to design their layout with HTML. Go ahead and try a vertical or horizontal setup to get started; you can come back later and change your layout if you’d like to try something else.
2. When you’re ready, click on the Continue button.
3. Now you can pick one of the many layouts available for the setup you chose. There are a ton of options — just pick one that looks fun to work with, and remember that you can always change your mind, return to this task, and easily update your entire site.
4. When you’re satisfied with your layout, choose OK. You’ll return to the main page of the task, where you can pick your site colors.
Tip: Want to create a unique site appearance using HTML? With Bigstep Professional and Bigstep Advantage’s HTML Publisher, you can! To learn more, visit the Solutions Center.
STEP 2: PICK THE RIGHT COLORS
Next you’ll choose colors for your site. You may choose from a list of color schemes or specify colors for each part of your pages.
COLOR SCHEMES
To get started quickly, click on the Choose a color scheme link on the main page of the Appearance task and select one of the 12 possible color themes. Pick colors that look appealing and click on the OK button.
CUSTOMIZED COLORS
If you’d rather noodle with all the color options, click on the Customize your colors link. Now you may specify colors for your background page color, text, main design elements, and highlights. To customize the colors for any part of your page, click on the colored box next to that design element; you’ll be able to choose from the palette of 214 colors that can be used on the Web.
Please note: The highlight color recommendations are generated automatically. To customize your highlight color, click on the first color chip (your current choice) in the row of highlight colors.
To preview your colors, click on the Show Colors button. The graphic will change dynamically to show your current color choices as they will appear on your site pages. When you’re satisfied with your color scheme, choose OK.
ABOUT YOUR COLORS
Which colors should you pick? Choose colors that suit your business’s personality. For example, an environmental group might choose earth tones, like green and brown, while a rock band might use more robust colors, such as black and red. You also might consider using colors that contrast in value or intensity, which makes it easier to notice them. Just don’t go bonkers with your colors — you want your site to be readable!
We recommend that you choose your colors, continue through the Appearance task, and preview your work, then return and tweak your colors later if necessary. As you choose your colors, remember that you can always change your mind later. In fact, you can change any feature of your Bigstep web site at any time, as many times as you want!
The moral is: Explore! Experiment! Be fearless! You can always change anything you don’t like.
STEP 3: CHOOSE YOUR FONTS
Last but not least, you’ll choose the fonts or typefaces that appear on your site. Like colors, fonts help set a tone for your online business.
We offer you 19 different types of fonts, ranging from the standard Times New Roman to the funky Comic Sans. Feel free to choose any fonts and sizes you want, but keep in mind that sometimes many different fonts, sizes, and styles can be too much variation for the human eye to handle. When it comes to fonts, we think simple is almost always best.
After you choose your fonts, you can preview them by clicking on the Refresh button. When you’re satisfied with your choices, click on the OK button.
STEP 4: FINISHING UP
Now you’ll have the option to preview your work, make more changes to your site appearance, or save your work and finish the task. To see what you’ve created, choose Preview. You’ll notice that we’ve automatically set up a homepage for you so you can preview your colors and layout.
If you’re satisfied with your preview, click on the Publish Changes button to save your work and publish it to your live web site, where outsiders can see it. To continue tweaking your appearance, choose Change Site Appearance.
Tip: Want to remove the blue Bigstep banner that appears across the top of your site? When you sign up for Bigstep Professional or Bigstep Advantage, you can turn the blue Bigstep banner off and on, depending on your preference. This gives you complete control over the image you present to your customers, independent of Bigstep. To learn more about Bigstep Professional or Bigstep Advantage, visit the Solutions Center.
When you’re satisfied with your work, go ahead and publish your new site appearance in the preview window or click on the Finish button on the main page of the task to save your work for publishing later. You can publish your changes anytime by clicking on the Publish button, located in the upper left corner of any main section page of our service, such as Home or Site Building.
