Revised with new information as of June 1, 2005

 
Web Design Suggestions
Layout, graphics, browswer compatibility, and
access for people with disabilities

With that in mind, Coyote Communications thinks the best Web design suggestions can be found via this Web site:

Art and the Zen of Web Sites

Read them, save them, read them again, and then read them one more time. They offer, in my opinion, the best design advice available.

Art and the Zen of Web Sites Advice Samples

"Web publishing is no more about HTML than book publishing is about type fonts."

"Web publishing depends on an understanding of Internet science, the same way that cooking requires an understanding of food science. But when gourmets meet, they discuss the great chefs, not the great food scientists."

"Consider the signal-to-noise ratio of your interface. How much is useful and interesting, and how much is just noise? Avoid using large or gratuitous graphics that don't add to the content of the page."

Advice sample from Web Development Standards by David Riggins of MAIN (Metropolitan Austin Interactive Network).

"Telling visitors that they must have the latest browser to use your site is rude! Would you spend a half hour, or more, downloading the latest version of Netscape so you could view someone's web page? Visitors do not spend time or money to be compatible with your web site."

Advice sample from Jayne Cravens after an evening of Web surfing:

It's NOT YOUR PLACE TO TELL PEOPLE TO UPGRADE!!
Sugar, you just ain't that important.

Michael Gilbert cites these reasons as "Why Web Sites Don't Work":

The Upside Down Web Site: There is good content on the site but it's buried under an organizational chart or some other impenetrable hierarchy.

The Dead Web Site: It's never updated. Not to be mistaken for the Dead on the Outside Web Site, which looks like it's never updated, but is actually an Upside Down site.

The Disconnected Web Site: Where all the communication is one way and there is no way for the reader to send email or otherwise contact the site owners.

The Cool Web Site: So enamored of the technology that is almost impossible to use, at least on a regular basis.

The Stingy Web Site: Gives away nothing of value.

websitesthatsuck.com

• your Web site will leave a strong impression in a viewer's mind about your organization, so it should reflect the same quality of the organization's other communications materials and activities.

• The most important thing to remember when designing your Web site is what your audiences want out of the site. Listen to your customers! If a Web site wins design awards, but your customers don't use it... it's "virtually" worthless to users. Most users will visit your Web site to find information, not graphics; information should drive the design of your Web site.

• Not everyone, believe it or not, uses the latest version of Netscape to browse the Internet. the agency'sWeb audience is going to be diverse not only in age but also in computer and Internet capabilities. Design your site with people without the best equipment and software in mind. For instance, if you have an online form or a page that uses frames, provide a link for those users who are not using a browser that supports these functions.

• People don't like to read huge blocks of text on their computer screen. Break up text into small paragraphs whenever possible, and break up huge amounts of information into separate pages, as appropriate; for instance, break up your newsletter into one .html file per story, rather than putting them all into one big file.

• Many people don't like to read text on their computer screen at all, and will print out certain pages of your Web site to read offline. Therefore, it is important that each page has basic information about your company on it (see page 6 for more information), just as you would want any printed material to have basic info about you on it.

• A professional designer may develop your site, but someone in-house or a volunteer should be able to make regular changes to the site without needing assistance of the designer. The designer should create pages that allow these changes to happen easily.

Again, the best advice is offered at Art and the Zen of Web Sites

Coyote Communications also offers these added guidelines:

• Avoid using large or gratuitous graphics that don't add to the content of the page, or take a long time to download.

• Keep graphics to a minimum, and use them wisely. Graphics should enhance the information on the site, not be just for "show." Many designers subscribe to this rule: pages should load completely in 30 seconds or less using a 14.4 modem

• Limit the number of colors in a graphic. Reducing the graphics' color usage to 16 or less will make graphics load much faster.

• Many people turn the graphics function off while browsing the Web (the person writing this is one of these people); if you have an image map, offer a text version of the menu on the page so such users can get to the information they want on your Web site.

I think that it's more important for a Web site to be accessible by as many browsers as possible than for a site to have all sorts of bells and whistles (frames, java scripting, image maps, colored tables, dancing animated characters, yada yada, whatever) that only those with the latest version of Netscape can access. Users don't care how many web site awards your designer has won if they can't find the information they are looking for quickly and easily on whatever computer they are using.

Disability Access Design Standards

To learn WHY as well as how to make web sites accessible, and for extensive links on web accessibility standards, visit Knowbility.Org

 
When you are considering upgrading your design, have a look at these two resouces first:

The Tech4Impact article "The Demise of a Terrific Web Site".

"When Newer Isn't Better," from NetAction Notes.

Also see Trust or Bust: Communicating Trustworthiness in Web Design, a March 7, 1999 column from Jakob Nielsen that is still valid.

Return to Index of Coyote Communications' Web Site Tip Sheets

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