session 91
-10
Deadly Web Site Design Sins
WEB SITE SIN #1: Slow
Download Times .
You can have a site that provides the best content in the world,
but if it takes forever to download no one will hang around long
enough to view it. As a general rule, the longer it takes your
site to download, the fewer visitors will stick it out ' When
visitors hit your site, they're looking for information, services,
or products. For the most part, they aren't interested in that
cool new graphic it took you a whole day to create.
What we strive for is a balance between image quality and image
size. There is a happy medium where the image looks good and the
file is small enough that it will download fairly quickly. Your
graphics should enhance the presentation of your information, not
overpower it.
Your total page size should range from 35K to 100K. This includes
graphics, java scripts, java applets and don't forget your html
page.
WEB SITE SIN #2: Poor Choice of Background and
Text Colors
There is nothing more frustrating than going to a site that you
feel will be exactly what you're looking for, only to find that
the information is unreadable due to poor background and text
color choices. Black on white provides the easiest
readability.
We take into consideration that they must be able to read the
links and visited links against the background color. You can
always change the link colors. Keep in mind that if you have a
dark background tile and you've specified a light color text, your
content might not be readable for visitors who are surfing with
image-loading OFF depending on their default browser background
color. To get around this, specify a background color in addition
to a background image.
WEB SITE SIN #3: The Evil blink!
Oh this is a big one. please have some consideration for us and
dont use blinking on your page! There is nothing more distracting
than trying to read and having that incessant blinking going on.
It is all right to sprinkle a few good animations here and there
throughout your site, but you run into problems when you've got 20
or so animated Smurfs doing the Macarena on one page.
WEB SITE SIN #4: Frames
They sound like a great tool; in practice, they are usually
anything but. Yes, frames could provide a very convenient
navigation system for a site, but most of the time they don't.
Invariably, the dimensions are just a hair off and you are stuck
with that dastardly horizontal scrollbar. Or you have a window
approximately 5 pixels high to try to scroll. Sometimes your
screen is so hacked up, if you didn't know better, you might think
a samurai had taken out his frustration on a lemon meringue pie.
Not to mention the fact that frames can cause a problem for some
search engines in indexing your site.
WEB SITE SIN #5: The Endlessly Scrolling Page
You load a page, you watch in horror as the button on the
scrollbar gets smaller and smaller - it would make a dust mite
feel like a huge, lumbering, oaf. When the page is finally
finished loading, you pull out your handy electron microscope and
discover that, yes, the scrollbar is still there, all five
nanometers of it. This is when it dawns on you: Brother, you've
got a long way to go to get to the bottom of this page.
Have you ever stumbled upon a page that seemed to go on and on
forever? It's better to break your content up into short to medium
length, linked pieces instead of one long page. Granted, it's
easier to put everything on one page, but it's really a pain to
have to scroll for days while reading.
WEB SITE SIN #6: "This Site is Under Construction!" It's a real simple concept folks...if it isn't finished, we don't list it.
WEB SITE SIN #7: Background Sound Another big no-no for professional sites. Background sounds are more appropriate for a personal page. It's important that you present a professional image for your business site.
WEB SITE SIN #8: Inconsistent Design/Layout - On a business/professional site, the design layout and navigational items should be kept consistent throughout the site. We would recommend using the same background and navigational items (in the same location, too) on every page throughout the site.
WEB SITE SIN #9: Designing for a Specific Browser/Color Setting/Screen Resolution- I'm going to make my site totally inaccessible to 25% of my visitors!! Sound crazy? It is.. Do not make your site browser specific. Not everyone downloads the latest, greatest version of MSIE or Netscape - Don't design for a specific screen resolution. In our experience, there are a significant number of people who still run 640x480 Worldwide.
WEB SITE SIN #10: Spelling and HTML Mistakes - Few things will convey a more unprofessional image than spelling or HTML errors. Building trust is an absolute must online. If your page is riddled with spelling and grammatical errors, what kind of message do you think that sends potential clients? ... from www.warriorsofchrist.com
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