-
Use conventions unless you have good reasons to do it
differently. Users spend 99% of their time at sites other than yours, and
they expect such things as links are blue
if unvisited and purple once visited.
Don't waste their time making them figure out how to use your site unless
you make sure they can get something for their efforts.
-
Easy to use - Good navigation support, with clearly
labeled links. Don't let users get lost. Make it obvious how to use your
site and easy to find what is there. An avant-garde look may impress a few
artsy types, and bleeding-edge technology may impress a few geeks, but if a
page is not easy to figure out or does not work, most users will just go
elsewhere.
-
Easy to browse - Web users typically scan a page
rather than read it. Use bullet lists and brief highlighted headings so
users can quickly identify sections of interest.
-
Graphics - Go
easy
on them. A few can make a page look good, but too many get in the way and
take too long to load. Graphics should be functional, they should have a
point. Make a page functional, then worry about making it look good.
-
Animation - Like graphics, go easy on them, and use
them only when it is important for the contents of the page. No one likes
pages with annoyingly distracting pointless animation.
-
was cool for approximately 3.7
seconds; now it is pure evil, .
-
Horizontal scrolling - Don't make me do it! Wide
images or tables with a wide absolute (based on number of pixels rather than
percent of page) width may be too wide for a browser screen. This forces
users to scroll horizontally to read the whole page. Web users don't mind
scrolling vertically (as long as the page is not too long), but they
hate having to scroll horizontally.
-
Test your page using different browsers (Internet
Explorer and Netscape), different size monitors and browser windows, and
different computers (PC and Mac).
-
Take responsibility for your site - Make it clear who
you are, how to contact you, and why your site exists.
