Using technology as a business tool...
Building a better website |
Using technology as a business tool... Building a better website |
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The following tips will offer you some general advice for planning your site as well some technical advice to keep you site simple and satisfying for your site's visitors. So here's my top ten tips for building a better web site. Grab a pencil and a tablet and think about the following... 1) What's your line? It sounds simple enough, but most people don't take it serious enough. There's tons of analogies here to draw from. If you're writing your resume most folks will tell you to first clearly state your objective. Successful business people usually have mission statements which state their business objectives. If your web site is strictly just for the fun of it, this may not matter to you. If your web site is there for any other reason than strictly an exercise in HTML, you need to think about your mission statement. With literally millions of web sites to choose from, you need to identify why someone would want to visit your site. 2) Map out your site on paper. Before a movie ever starts filming, a script is written, story boards are designed. Before you have anyone sit down at an HTML editor, create your site on paper. Map out your site: What will the title page look like? Where will the title page take you? Sub chapters? Based on building or department? 3) For ideas on consistent style and format, read the newspaper. A newspaper is grouped into topical sections: News, Sports, Business, People. Check out the form and flow of major headlines, sectional headlines, individual stories. (And for a good example of how newspaper translates into a web site check out the USA Today at www.usatoday.com) 4) Make sure each page stands alone. If you took a single page out of a newspaper it still has the name and date of the newspaper on each page. Headers and footers are used in report writing just in case one sheet gets separated from the rest. If someone viewed a single "page" of your web site would they know who wrote it? (Keep in mind, on the web anyone can enter your site by way of a link at any point without first coming through the front door.) 5) Make sure each page takes you some where. Using the same reasoning as in the previous tip, make sure each page has a link to the main page in the section, or the site index. When appropriate, your site should flow like a book, a link to the next page at the bottom page will accomplish this. In other areas multiple choices to other areas may be appropriate. For the best of both worlds, use both graphics and plain text for your links. 6) Three clicks and you're there, (or you've struck out.) Don't over do it with needless pages. Nothing ticks me off more than taking seven or more steps to get to the information I'm looking for on a web site. Use the newspaper analogy again. There's a sectional index which leads me to the proper area in seconds. It only takes me 30 seconds to find the information I need using the newspaper, why should I have to click seven times, on pages that take minutes to load, just to find out one simple answer??? ( I won't mention any sites by name, I'm sure you'll find many examples along the web). 7) The title tells you something. This is often overlooked on many web sites. The text that appears at the top of a browser window, is the same text that appears between the <title> tags in HTML, is the same text that appears when someone bookmarks your page. Does your title clearly describe the page? 8) Best viewed by anybrowser. While I may have my favorites when it comes to browsers and web editors, I make every attempt to have my site be browser friendly. When you put a site on the web it has the ability to be seen by millions of people using a wide variety of browsers and computers. Is it your intention to limit the viewing of your site to only people who have the latest and greatest technology? 9) Are you plug in friendly? Not all people want to download every plug in. Maybe I don't want to be surprised by background music when I'm surfing at midnight. Bandwidth, browsers, and computers vary. All of the above are reasons for making audio and video files optional "click here" rather than mandatory.(Should I really be asked to download a plug in or leave?) 10) Keep it simple, keep it clean. For overall user friendliness, as well as the reasons discussed in topics 8 and 9, I limit the size of my graphics to no more than 50 kb, and try to keep the total size of my page to less that 100 kbs. I use only browser friendly colors, and test my pages for less than a minute download times. Animations, blinking text, java, and frames can do far more to distract from your message than add to it. Web design is first content and functionality. Design and outline your site based on content and functionality, then decide how the sizzle can be added. Closing thoughts.... While
the technology continues to change and advance before
our eyes, the concept of planning hasn't really changed
all that much since. Planning begins before you get
to the computer. Draw a basic layout on paper. Once you have defined all the “look and feel” issues, create templates which illustrate the layout. Templates will also solve a lot of the form and functionality issues that occur when everyoneon your team goes out and designs independently. You'll find numerous tips and tricks, and endless lists of do's and don'ts along the web. The tips I have offered here are based on numerous hours of surfing the net, and experiencing and analyzing each site as I visit. This list represents some very basic points that are good guidelines for anyone starting a site. Let content be the reason that people use your site, and let good design the reason that people keep coming back. Unless your entire mission is to sell graphics, keep it simple, keep it clean. |
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