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Designing
A Website
A website should be about content, content and information
not about the cute tricks that can be done with HTML. Online
text is fundamentally different from text in print. The
differences between the two media are so dramatic (and
frequently overlooked) that they change the way you need to
approach writing and your readers. You can't just paste your
brochure onto a webpage and think it'll work. High school
students can design what looks like a web page with some of
the programs out today. But this isn't real design.
Effective website design requires the experience and
understanding of many diverse areas brought together in a
website, including: marketing, Internet graphics options and
limitations, use of photo images vs. graphics, effectively
creating a site from the perspective of search engines, the
differences and limitations of different browsers and
computer platforms as well as knowledge of the software and
coding required to move beyond simple static html pages to
create function with form.
AIMwebs brings these skills, along with
11+
years of website design experience, to YOUR project. It is
vitally important that your designer understand you and your
business and knows how to most effectively communicate you
and your uniqueness to your Internet audience. And we will
...
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( * Here's
some simple animation - against our No No's
message)
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Design No
No's
INCLUDING EXCERPTS FROM LEE
SHELDON in SFIW - 9/99
The Letterman
Method
10. Long Long and
Long, Text Heavy Pages:
Avoid long text pages whenever possible. (Like this
one) Long text pages may be better organized into
smaller chunks or accessed with better navigation. One
exception is a large document that your visitors may want
to print. In this case, a single page is preferred so
that the visitor can print the page, rather than having
to open several pages and then print each one.
9. Ignoring the 3 Click Rule:
There is an unwritten "3 Click Rule" to web navigation.
Called "three clicks and you're out". Any more than that
and people get frustrated. For most sites 3 clicks should
get you from the home page to the information you're
seeking.
8. LARGE Graphics:
Large refers to both image size on the screen and file
size. Large graphics generally have too much "stuff"
that's not relevant to the content on the page. Images
should be cropped to a meaningful size and optimized for
Web use. GIF format is best for images with lines and
solid colors, but rarely are 256 colors needed. 72 pixels
is the Web max. Low and medium quality JPEG format is
best for photographic type images with many colors.
Images that need transparency must be GIF format (odd
shapes and buttons for example).
7. Gratuitous Clip Art:
Don't compromise the quality of your site using clip art.
If a graphic doesn't add value, don't use it. This is
also true of animation. Animated images are large files
(see #8 ) and unless they are related to the content,
should be avoided.
6. Raw Information:
In other words, dumping content online without
restructuring it for Web delivery. The Internet pages are
not a data sheet or a brochure. If your information is
worth putting on line, "respect the medium" and convert
the document to a format suitable for the Web
consumption. Don't take shortcuts with your content, or
it will lose it's value.
5. Background Backlash:
The days of "Hey .. cool background" are past. (1996 ?)
Pink and lime green backgrounds are unnecessary, and they
detract from your content. Is the message that you know
how to make a pink and lime green background ? Or, that
you have important, fun, creative, informative or
personalized content to pass along ? Tiled
background graphics and black or dark backgrounds can be
just as bad. They make the text, "the message", extremely
difficult to read and are well avoided.
4. Conversions:
Don't trust the "save as HTML" options from your word
processors and other presentation tools, this means
MS Publisher, for one. Time saving features such as
"save as HTML" tend to introduce characters that your
processor understands but Web browsers don't, such as
improper apostrophes, quotes, trademark and copyright
symbols. Be sure to proofread and spell check all content
and view it on a browser before publishing the final
version.
3. Premature Release: AKA, Browser Check
Don't release your final pages until you've tested them
in different browsers on different platforms. Your HTML
may look great on a Windows PC with Netscape's browser,
but if you look at it with a Macintosh running Microsoft
Internet Explorer, you may be in for a shock.
Inconsistencies with character sets, margins, treatment
of backgrounds and white space and adherence to
HTML standards cause differences in behavior between
browsers on multiple platforms. Also, view the pages with
your screen resolution at all levels. They may look
spiffy at 640 and jumbled confusion at 1024. Third
generation design concepts call for using tables (NOT
frames) to control content placement and appearance.
2. Navigation Frustration:
Provide your visitors with a clear way to navigate around
your site from every page. Don't make them go back to the
home page to switch between topics. Think of the flow of
your information and let your visitors easily follow that
flow. Remember, if it's worth publishing on your site,
it's worth finding. Organize the content into logical
sections. Keep in mind that that your Web site is not for
you, it's for your visitors.
AND, the #1 Mistake ......
1. The Dreaded 404
You've designed pages that look great, flow well and have
been tested in browsers. Your authoring tool says you
have no broken links and everything appears to be fine.
You publish (Upload) your pages to your server and start
running through the links and ... BAM ! ... a 404 -
Error: File Not Found. This is dreaded. What may
have been overlooked is that things like case sensitive
file names, that don't matter on a PC, DO matter if your
server is a Unix server (most common). A link to
"info.html" will work on a PC if it's spelled "Info.html"
but will only work on a Unix server if your link matches
the file name exactly. I had a client who linked all his
graphics in lower case, but uploaded them in caps. Not
one graphic showed when he viewed the pages. Once I
looked at the HTML code it was an easy fix. If you
link to sites away from yours, you should check that
those links are current at least once a month, too.
SO, Happy designing.
Check back here to see updates, too !
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