Web Site Design

Much has been written on web design practices. If you have found this site you obviously have given some thought to what you want in a web site and have read about good design practices web site design. A few common considerations follow.

Good Design Practices

Design pages that download quickly
Design pages that are readily scanable
Avoid long pages whenever possible
Avoid saying click here
Avoid using under construction image or text
Avoid excess use of animation
Avoid sound in most situations
Avoid using all caps
Avoid using italics with small fonts
Use meaningful file and folder names
Validate html code with a code validator
Link logo on all pages back to home
Use a link checker for broken links
Always include a site map, a robots.txt file, and a custom 404 page.

Table of Contents

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Research indicates the average viewer wants to hit a web page, scan for information sought, and retrieve information. Surfers have a short attention span (about 10 seconds). If they do not find anything that looks promising they will leave the sight. Hence it is the task of the designer to design pages that load quickly with information that is highly scannable. Lists often facilitate scanning..

Make sure the most important material lies above what is frequently referred to as the fold line. This terminology comes from newspaper layout where lead story appears above fold line. Due to different monitor resolutions what appears on opening screen on one monitor may may not fit on opening screen on another. Design with this in mind.

Viewer research indicates that there are sweet spots on a web page. This mean that there are certain areas to which the viewer's eye naturally gravitates. It is a good idea to use these areas wisely. See heatmap.

It is always a good idea to view your web pages from different monitors and different browsers. As the line from To a Louse says, "O wad some Power the giftie gie us To see ourselves as ithers see us." Unfortunately our pages may not look as we think they do.

The web itself is the best teacher available. Emulate the good, discard the bad.