When people first hit your site, the first thing they see is
your header. As this is your only chance to make a good first
impression, it is important that your header look as good
as it can be. Because of this, it is imperative that you
understand the different ways to create headers.
First and foremost, do not use text as your header. There
is no way to come off as anything besides cheap, and that
is not a good thing. By using text, you also lose control
of how your name is displayed, and that may cause some interesting
display issues. If you are even debating that, then track
down some the various scripts that use tiles for your letters;
some of them do look very nice. At the very least, they aren’t
straight text, which always looks bad.
The basic header is an image file that displays the site
title and company logo. Done well, they can work for your
site. After all, they get the point across clearly and succinctly,
and are great for potential customers that are using dial-up.
But keep in mind that you can make some interesting mistakes.
Keep in mind that you want to have some fun with the header,
even if it’s a slight image. Try to keep any contact
information in a separate section.
Also, keep in mind that you can have some fun with the header
graphic; this is best exemplified by the animated header.
They aren’t that hard to create, and can supply some
much-needed action to an otherwise staid design. Just don’t
make them too complex, and remember to have some fun with
them. An ideal animated header not only looks good, but also
has a clean loop (you shouldn’t see when it starts
over). A bad one is choppy, loops messily, and just looks
horrible.
The most complicated header is the Flash header. By incorporating
Flash into your header, you can use it as a nice way to identify
your site, as well as add some navigation to your header.
You need to be really careful with these; some programmers
get so into the header that they make it bloated, and so
anyone using dialup connections can’t even get into
your site because the header is taking so long to load, and
all of your navigation is in the Flash header. Just remember
that any limitations that apply to your other images apply
to your header as well (like keeping it under 100K in size).
Also, remember to have another way to navigate around your
site; some people do surf with images turned off (usually
a dialup connection, but others like the enhanced speed),
so that if you limit navigation to just your header then
those people won’t be able to use your site, and you
lose those customers.
When you design your headers, have fun but remember those
on dialup or using text-only browsers. Do this and you will
be surprised how it helps your numbers.
Andy Eaton is by far the best graphic designer I have ever
come across! Not only does he create quality graphics, which
actually do increase your website sales he actually goes one
step further and teaches you his exact methods to crank out
profit pulling graphics. Check out his work at
http://quickpaypro.com/x.php?5086_u20
