More Tips on Good Web Design

Hello again!

The other day a friend asked me to come up with a quick list of essentials for good web design. I jotted down a few things and I can assure you that if you have the following, you are well above average:

Text

• Background does not interrupt the text
• Text is big enough to read, but not too big
• The hierarchy of information is perfectly clear
• Columns of text are narrower than in a book to make reading easier on the screen

Navigation

• Navigation buttons and bars are easy to understand and use
• Navigation is consistent throughout web site
• Navigation buttons and bars provide the visitor with a clue as to where they are, what page of the site they are currently on
• Frames, if used, are not obtrusive
• A large site has an index or site map

Links

• Link colors coordinate with page colors
• Links are underlined so they are instantly clear to the visitor

Graphics

• Buttons are not big and dorky
• Every graphic has an alt label
• Every graphic link has a matching text link
• Graphics and backgrounds use browser-safe colors
• Animated graphics turn off by themselves

General Design

• Pages download quickly
• First page and home page fit into 640 x 460 pixel space
• All of the other pages have the immediate visual impact within 640 x 460 pixels
• Good use of graphic elements (photos, subheads, pull quotes) to break up large areas of text
• Every web page in the site looks like it belongs to the same site; there are repetitive elements that carry throughout the pages

Tags: webmaster, design, website, designer, web development, creation

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