Composition derives from the Latin compositus, which means well - arranged. In terms of Digital Media, is all about the placement or arrangement of visual elements, the putting together of objects that have been arranged using conscious thought. You want your web pages to command attention. In Digital Media the term composition usually refers to to page layout.
There are many elements that go in to the composition of a web page, some elements apply more than others, but for example, Line is a very important element as it contributes to the organisation of the page dividing it into compartments. There are also many elements within the organisation sides of things as well, for example the shape and proportion of elements, orientation of elements, colour and perspective etc. All these merge together to create the feel of unity.
There is a massive emphasis on the importance of web site layout, because they are judged by their layout, if your layout is slovenly and not very appealing, visitors may not be in to much of a rush to return. They must be pleasing to the eye in other words ascetically pleasing, one way in which to achieve this is to keep it simple. Do not create complex navigational links using complex scripts or images as they may not be viewable in all the different browsers. Try to minimize the use of big images that are going to take ages to load, stick to using smaller icons that will instantly attract the users eye.
Another must when thinking about composition is the text, in particular the size, use a standard size, 11 or 12, so users can read your content with ease. Select a professional looking font, for example Verdana, Arial, Helvetica or San Serif, these are all very popular. Avoid using fancy fonts like Comic Sans.
A very important area to consider is colour, use web friendly colours, a good way in which to decipher whether the colours you have picked are suitable, ask friends and other web users for their opinions, this way you will get a clear idea of if you are heading in the correct direction.
Your web page dimensions you should always think about, keep track of them. The most successful web sites out there seem to limit their width and height, this is so that the important webpage content lies within the top 600x600 viewable area without scrolling. Make sure you provide a navigational link to the next page and link back from the second page.
