Colours appear differently on different platforms - pages designed on
a Mac will show darker tones when viewed on a PC - try to keep to pastel
colours for background, use a dark colour for print. Viewing your page in
black and white will help to eliminate many anomalies caused by different
browsers and platforms.
Patterned/Textured backgrounds - clever use of logos look great as
a background to your page - but again different computers will display the
colours in different intensities - often resulting in only the background
being visible - the words get lost - is that REALLY what you want?
Reverse type, that is light type on a dark background is difficult
to read, try to keep to the expected of dark type/light background.
Fancy fonts: not a good idea - try to keep to the fonts most people
have on their computer otherwise your text won't be seen as you intend.
Font Size: Try sitting in front of your computer for two hours reading
a small size font - better yet try reading a small size font in a pastel
colour reversed out on a slightly darker colour. Reasonable size fonts -
10 point or preferably larger, in dark colour on pastel background give
a more user friendly environment.
Designer links (buttons, bars, image maps, etc): All images add to
the download time of the page. Simple text links which give accurate information
of where they take the reader are more useful. E.g Contents Page, To top
of page, To this subject heading, etc.
Moving or flashing type is a no-no - difficult to read and can make
the viewer feel seasick.
Frames & Tables - only if you want to stop a large portion of
the Internet community viewing the product of your hard work. They can also
take a long time to download to screen - costing your audience money.
Music - again no, unless you don't mind about limiting your audience,
a few bars of poorly reproduced muzak can be as annoying as those phone
systems where they have you holding for hours.
Illustrations - keep file size small, smaller and smallest possible.
Photographs do not have to be scanned at high resolution for screen reproduction
(75 to 90 is more than ample). If necessary scan twice, once at thumbnail
size for inclusion in your page and again at the size you would like it
to appear on a separate page, with a link from the thumbnail - that way
visitors have a choice. As some viewers turn off the image option or their
browsers don't support images always include the 'Alt' script with each
image - if only to let them know what their missing!
Moving gifs - clever, but boring - how many times can you marvel
at a little ball whizzing round, or 'Rover' picking up an envelope. Homepage
builders should be particularly wary of those banner offers - sometimes
the advertisements take 2/3 times to download as the rest of the page.
Counters - useful record of how many visitors to your site, some
will even give analysis of time, geographic location, etc. Unless your page
loads down very quickly these should be sited somewhere near the top - some
counters do not count a visitor until the page has downloaded past where
they are sited. If the counter is at the bottom of the page that might mean
some visitors are not counted.
Guestbooks - another useful way for people to actively record their
visit to their site - with comments - check frequently and edit where necessary
some people have a warped sense of humour!
Getting your page seen - one of the most difficult tasks. You can
upload your page to your server, but people will not automatically come
and visit. Your page should include META tags - these don't display on screen
when your page is seen on a browser, but they are there to tell the Search
Engines what subjects your page covers and a brief synopsis of its contents,
without them the chances of your pages being found by a search 'by subject'
are very much reduced. Register with Search Engines - rather like a combined
telephone and trades directory for the Internet - this can take longer than
all the previous work on your page - anything up to 24 hours!! Don't limit
your Search Engine registration to the top five or six, depending on the
subject/content of your page it might be sensible to register it with up
to 20 - 200 Search Engines (there are probably about 1000 search engines
serving the Internet at any one time), some are subject specific: e.g. medical,
architectural, religious, etc. and for this reason can give good exposure
for a product in a 'niche' market.
One final word about illustration, gifs, pics, music and all the other equivalents
of the pop-up picture plays a nursery type books we all had in primary -
remember how pleased you were the first time you managed a 'grown up' book
- one with a minimum picture content and an emphasis on the words? Most
of your target audience are probably adult and, like you, have spent more
time learning to absorb information through text rather than pretty pictures.
A strategically placed photograph with short caption is fine, but unless
you are deliberately targetting the younger end of the market, your product
will probably benefit from an approach that more nearly mimics what people
are used to seeing in the printed page. As I have said in other articles,
the Internet is no longer the sole property of the techno/computer/academic
world - it belongs to everyone and many of these new users of the Internet
will appreciate your friendly, familiar environment. The point is to sell
your products, services or ideas - not to impress your audience so much
with the computer wizardry they spend more time wondering how that was done
than absorbing the message about your product!
Ieke, mcij, maip
Member, Association
of Internet Professionals
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