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Dated: 1 January 2003
What are the essentials of a great web sites? After you visit a site and find
yourself staying awhile, what makes you stay? A sense of humour helps. Flashy
graphics are nice. But the fundamental traits that make a site work are more
elusive. This article will break down the essential characteristics of great
web sites into the seven simple and easy rules of thumb to follow:
1. The first rule for a good website is to keep your index or homepage simple.
To be effective, keep the content to the following:
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Use a short descriptive heading which tells in less then 10
words (but preferably around five words) the main focus of the site. |
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Repeat this heading in title tag so it appears in the title bar. |
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Perhaps, put your company logo, or another graphic related to your website's
subject matter, beside, above or below your heading to catch the surfer's
eye, but keep it small |
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Write a short paragraph or two explaining the purpose of the site. |
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Add some fancy (but not too large or startling) lines or simple coloured
lines to break up and define the different areas of the page. |
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Below that, add the links to the rest of your site. |
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Add a few other small graphics to create interest on the page, e.g. place
coloured bullet graphics or miniature, related graphics beside each link. |
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Finally, at the bottom of the page, provide your company name (or your
name) and contact information, e.g. address, telephone, fax, e-mail address,
etc. |
The second rule for a good website is to have the same design features throughout
the site. Use the same design elements throughout your website, e.g. background
graphic or colour, text colours, logos, accent graphics such as bullets and
lines, etc. Again keep these elements simple!
The third rule of a good website is to keep your design clean and simple. Stay
away from complicated background graphics. Even though they look great on your
computer monitor, they may look awful on others. Different monitors and different
computer operating systems handle colours differently. It's best to use light
colours for the background and not use background graphics unless they are very
simple. Choose black or another dark colour for the text so the information
is printable.
The fourth rule of a good website is to use small, uncomplicated, quick-loading
graphics. Use a graphic programme (e.g. Adobe PhotoShop, Corel Draw, or Graphic
Converter, etc.) to squeeze as many bits and bytes out of your graphics as possible.
On the web, small is beautiful! Web graphics only need to be 72dpi as that is
what most Macintosh monitors run (PCs run at 96 dpi). Keep the size of your
graphics as small as possible. You should be able to see some of the background
and text on the page above and below, and perhaps to one side of the graphic
. . .and that's on a 15" monitor running at 640 by 480, as a lot of surfers
still use that resolution. Folks often do, as their eyes feel strained when
using the higher resolutions.
The fifth rule of a good website is to keep your web pages short! It is much
better and even preferable to split the information among several pages, rather
than have it all on one page. In designing websites, my philosophy is a rephrase
of an old axiom - KISS - Keep It Short and Simple. Unless the page is an article,
divide the information into manageable chunks, place them onto different pages
and provide a link (or links) to it from another page or pages on your website.
The sixth rule of a good website is to provide multiple links. The most important
link is the one at the bottom of each page pointing back to your index or homepage
so surfers can get back to their starting point, or find your homepage if they
entered your site on one of your secondary pages. You can also put links on
the bottom of the page to other major pages on your website.
The final and seventh rule of a good website is to continually update and add
new material. If the information on your website is current, up-to-date, and
constantly changing and being added to, then surfers are more likely to bookmark
your site and return to it often. This is especially important if you are trying
to sell products and/or services.
While there are many other things to consider in designing a good website,
the above rules should give you a good start to a great website that is easy
for surfers to use. This will keep web surfers coming back to your site again
and again. If you're trying to sell something on your site, repeat visits will
hopefully increase your income many fold. Think of these rules as the "Lucky
Seven".
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