If you're about to start making a website and are looking for easy website design advice, you should be aware of the traps that wait for the inexperienced web designer. There are certain things that you should avoid, as a designer -- these elements may seem like a good idea to you at first, but they'll make your website unattractive. And if your site is visually uninteresting, then your visitors will be less inclined to stay and see what's inside.

1. Animated GIFs and scrolling text. These were popular, when the Internet was young, and they seemed cool at the time. If you want to be taken seriously, maybe you should put down those dancing kitten animations and smileys from the header. Along with scrolling text, they're distractions- they don't get any message across, other than: "Don't look at the content, look at ME!"

2.Excessively large fonts and bad font colors. Setting your fonts against a badly-chosen colored background -- like neon green in a white box -- may make your text unreadable. And don't try to increase readability by making your fonts larger. Just use contrasting, tasteful colors - stick to around 12 points of Arial or Verdana, as these fonts are the most easily recognized by all browsers.

3.Very large image sizes. You want your users to be able to load your pages quickly. Slow-loading pages are a big turn-off for today's visitor""keeping them waiting for more than a few seconds make may them lose patience and just go to another, faster-loading site. Make your file sizes smaller. Compress all the pictures, and aim for file sizes for about 50kb for mid-sized photos. There are many free graphics programs you can find online to help you with easy website design.

4.Excessively lengthy blocks of text. There are many ways you can make your text unreadable by using the wrong layout. Place text in columns, instead of stretching it out from one end of the screen to the other. Columns make it easier for people to keep their place when reading a lot of text. But don't make your columns too long, either. Columns that go longer than one screens' worth of space (about 768 pixels on the majority of monitors today) should be divided, and the excess content moved to another page.

There are many more designs don'ts out there. The rule of thumb for people who want easy website design is: design for your target market. Don't put in colors that you like, put in the colors that you think your audience will prefer. Learn to look at your designs from a user's perspective. Visitors prefer pages that load quickly, with organized presentation, easily-navigable, and visually-appealing. Your average user browses through dozens of pages in a day, and you want to make his online experience as comfortable as possible.

Website visitors today have to wade through hundreds of different pages, so you want to make your site as comfortable for them as you can. When putting in design elements, steer clear of distracting scrolling text or GIF animations. Keep your text easy to read by using high-contrast colors, and keeping your font sizes consistent. To facilitate faster loading times, compress image sizes. Easy website design focuses on your potential visitors' needs and preferences, and not our own, so you should learn to think like one of your potential visitors.