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We have all seen "good" web sites and "bad"
web sites. But, what is involved in being one or the
other? Some attributes are widely agreed upon, while
others are simply personal preferences. We have searched
the web and come up with some common attributes to discuss
here.
We hope to provide our clients (and prospective clients)
with "food for thought" on what to do with
their web site. We have provided links to examples that
we created and some links to other sites that also discuss
these attributes.
What we try to do
We have a few main design principles that we use on
sites we develop for our clients. We have found that
these principles result in a web site that looks good
and functions nicely, as well as making it easy and
faster for us to create and maintain a web site. The
goal is to create a site that meets the needs of the
visitor and encourages them to come back to the site.
These principles include:
- the site's main/first page loads fast and
provides straightforward information as to the
purpose of the site
- use XHTML code that is supported by the major
browsers
- use templates to help provide consistency throughout
the site
- use tables for layout design
- use CSS as much as possible for layout and
style
- layout and navigation take priority over content
and fluff
- create pages that are easily found and cataloged
by internet search engines
- provide obvious places for the visitor to
find out about the site's owners, and, for ways
to contact them
Frames
Frames are almost universally condemned as
a poor way to layout a page (with most designers
using tables instead). While most of the bad examples
involve poor design and/or bad programming, there
are a number of valid reasons to avoid frames:
- prevents the site visitor from bookmarking
individual pages
- poor programming usually ends up with bad/incorrect
functionality
- some older browsers don't support frames at
all
Here are some hints for good use of frames:
- left and top frames should have absolute widths
(not percentages)
- test the page in multiple browsers
- provide a "no frames" version for visitors
with older browsers
Things that move by themselves
Examples of these features include:
- blinking text
- moving text - usually a marquee of horizontally
scrolling text
- animated GIF files
- Macromedia Flash
- mouse tails - "cute" graphics that
follow the mouse around the screen
Use of these features can be very cool, but, many times
the "costs" involved to the site visitor is
not worth the trade-off. It can be very annoying to
have something moving on the screen while trying to
concentrate on another part of the screen. Some features
use up a lot of resources and can take a long time to
download and/or make the browser run slower. Especially
with Flash, this can leave the visitor confused about
what it happening on a site when things "don't
happen right away". Lastly, some of these features
are incompatible or challenging to software that helps
visitors with disabilities.
Here are some hints for good use of things that move
by themselves:
Other things to consider
Pop-ups can slow down the visitor's browser.
Let the visitor control what and when something
pops up.
Optional browser plug-ins (Flash, QuickTime, etc.)
can wreak havoc on a visitor's browser. The page should
not crash if the plug-in is not installed. Also, it
is helpful to provide the visitor with a link for downloading
and/or installing the plug-in.
"Under construction" signs should be used
very sparingly. In one sense, just about every web page
is a work in progress. Use these signs only on pages
that are functioning as placeholders for pages that
are truly incomplete. This is a different concept from
a page labeled as "coming soon".
Fonts, colors, and, backgrounds can make or break
a site. Their use should compliment the content
and reflect the desired tone and personality.
Use no more than 3 different font styles on a
single page. If a background image is "too
loud", edit the image by reducing the "contrast".
Background music and sounds should be used sparingly.
They can take a long time to download and the volume
can be too loud for the visitor's physical surroundings.
Give the visitor the option to turn it on and control
the volume.
Buttons and links should be obvious, both in letting
the visitor know that they can click there, and, why
the visitor would want to click there. Some have labeled
the poor implementation of this concept as "mystery
meat navigation".
An occasional typo is not a sin, but, multiple and/or
*really* obvious typos are a sin. We use Dreamweaver's
built-in spell checker to test and validate our pages.
Run-on sentences are completely unnecessary. Don't
make your visitors guess where the periods are supposed
to be.
The term "accessibility" applies to
computer users that have difficulty reading web
pages in their browser. Here are some links concerning
accessibility:
Links to other sites/pages that discuss web
design
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