I know this is a pretty subjective matter, but looking at the amount of great-looking templates from sites such as TemplateMonster.com etc, I am on the quest to sort of uncover the mystery as to what makes a great layout?

Is it the harmonious placement of words, graphics? What is the formula behind it?

Sorry if this is a noob question, guys.

easy navigate, design not too swayed from ur product of ur website.

There aren't any formula for having a good layout, just put it this way, after u design ur layout in graphics, just put urself as the user and ask urself and maybe others on these questions:

do i know what to do when i first come here? will i continue to navigate around? is these few things easy to read and understand? will i come back for 2nd visit?

if alll are "yes", then it should b a good layout

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Boonage - Freedom is Everything

yeah, the best is to put up a prototype and get user opinion. we have load of good commentor here in WM to give you a comment or two about site layout thing
like what yipguseng mention, a good layout got to be easy to navigate, not too much graphic and not too much links too
links to each section has to be easy to find. people would fade up if they need to take more than 5 seconds to find a link to something they wanted to find

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Ipoh Chai | Free Blog Directory | Free PHP Game script

Thanks you guys for the feedback. I happen to have one made for my clients at this site:- [triple w] [dot] [permascekap] [dot] [com] [dot] [my] (Sorry I am not allowed to post links yet ). This is about my third such web design project, but unfortunately the information provided was, let's just say, minimal at best.

Your comments are much appreciated

Ur site is quite gd ma, alto it looks like a bit template for me but client & surfers wld love tat cos navigation is easy & clear, mayb a bit dull so at least a little graphic on da main title?

other than good layout and navigation, the second factor i would consider is formating of content/text... this mean go easy on the surfer eye.. make sure your text colouring scheme is smoothing for the eye. Most web surfer landed on your site for content... so make sure they got what they wanted and don't make them feel dizzy after reading the contents.

some bad example are using black bg + gray text, red bg + yellow text, 8pt times roman font + gray color, etc.....

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Freelance Jobs Post
Get Motivated Daily

Clean design. Here are a few comments:

1. Still 4.01 transitional? With your tableless design, you can easily edit it and go for XHTML Strict

2. The text headers are too BIG... are you following some web accessibility guideline or requested by ur client?


3. This is the most IMPORTANT point ....... no optimization (SEO) ..... you should make use of the TITLE, DESCRIPTION, H1, H2 etc tags to target the products/services. You'll be missing out a lot of search engine referrals.

4. The most important keywords on the front page are embedded in Flash ... can't be read by search engines .. wasted


Well, if your client is not too demanding on the optimization aspect, then ok lah

Cheers.

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Unique job site
Penang Restaurants, Food and Entertainment Directory

I think you have followed the basics nicely also you have paid attention to understandand and appreciate your clients needs. After all it is their website and not yours. Good job.

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Web hosting
Read Reviews or discuss your hosts

Good layout?
overall.. experience does matter..
it can't be done in only in few year..
took 4 - 5 years perhap.

template monster already got few million bucks (maybe) .
so they got no problem at all to catch good designer / freelance doing template for them now.

There's sense of art and usability too..

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Personal's Blog! - Malaysian Artist!

Great thread.

I'm in the fans of usability and like what our bro mysticmind said, it's all about user experience. If you can maximize your user experience and achieve high conversions, that is - the good layout.

Hi all,

Sorry it took so long to reply. I have read and re-read all that you have posted up and I would like to thank you all for the info and feedback given.

Yipguseng - Got it. Clear navigations. Will try and work on it.

Robot - Haha ok i will post up my future projects here for review

WingXP - Thank you, thank you. A bit templatey cos I'm still new to this field. My 1st website project was all totally text, little graphics. So now trying to strike a balance.

Iamfreelancer - Read and noted. Yah I also heard of the text color issue, which is why I try to use as much contrast as possible between the body and text.

YongHS - (1) yup still 4.01. I will try and see how XHTML works out. (2) Erm, it was up to my own judgment. I thought maybe it would be more legible to read. (3) OK, SEO. Got it (4) Haha erm, was wondering if that Flash banner would do any good at all other than a bit of eye candy.

BrandRocker - Thanks for your advice and feedback. So far they haven't called me up yet to voice any issues, but I am still learning how to enhance the visitor's experience.

MysticMind - Whoa. 4-5 years. Well sounds fair enough Although I am ashamed to say that I still largely depend on TemplateMonster to source for ideas.

LimCS - Noted. Thanks for the info. IMHO I think apart from this things to keep in mind, smaller details like ensuring that the site displays properly (or at least decently) is also important to satisfy the customer.

there's also a topic about grid-design.. you can google this, cos i didn't remember where i read it...but basically, what it suggest that all your web design element must be position in a carefully/standard grid layout, not just the front page, but throughout the whole website.. in this way, the contents of your website always looks consistant. hehe..



neway..nice layout.. but u need to rework on the typo..