Build a Better Web Site
There are probably as many different ways to
build a web site as there are web site designers. If you are developing a
personal site - one that is for sharing information with family and friends
- the only limiting factor is your imagination. If, however, you are
designing a professional or business site, some common sense (and a little
restraint) comes into play.
A professional-looking site goes a long way to establishing you and your business as legitimate and trustworthy. It doesn't have to be fancy, but a nice, clean design is essential.
- Keep this adage in mind: "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should!"
- Forget the animated gifs, ticker tape text effects, and things that blink. If anything moves on your site (other than a shockwave/flash animation), it should be very subtle and the visitor should be able to get away from it or turn it off. Forget about the clever mouse trails and the hopping bunny. Check the "big boy" sites in your market and see what they are doing. Then do it.
- Don't make visitors hunt for links by using obscure words or hiding your navigation. You typically have five seconds or less to grab your readers' attention. Make it clear and easy to see what your site is about.
- Make sure your site looks good in Internet Explorer and FireFox. It doesn't hurt to also have Opera installed on your computer. You don't have to obsess for pixel-perfect precision, but you don't want unexpected surprises either.
- Provide "alt tags" for all images. Make the alt tag description for each image clear. "My New Car" tells a visitor almost nothing. "My 2007 Silver BMW" tells a whole lot more.
- Keep your font choices simple. Don't bother with fancy fonts. Your visitor will have to have those fonts installed on their computer in order to see them. Chances are your fancy font ends up being Times New Roman to your visitor. The best practice is to keep regular text in sans-serif so it is easier to read on the screen. You can use either serif or sans-serif fonts for headings in an appropriately larger size.
- Learn the basics of HTML and XHTML. No program can produce "perfect" code and you will need to tweak the code in some circumstances. If there is something you can't fix in design view, looking at the code and understanding how you can change it will make your site work better, look better, and download faster.
- Learn the basics of CSS or at least enough to make minor changes rather than adding HTML markup code to your pages.
- Never cut and paste from any Microsoft office application like Word. This brings along "MSO schema" information that can have unwanted results if it overwrites your style sheet. Copy from Word and paste into Notepad (or other plain text editor.) Then copy from Notepad and paste into FrontPage or Expression Web. You can then format as necessary.
- Understand that you will never stop learning. Browsers change and evolve. While FrontPage 2003 has its new successor in Expression Web, the Expression suite will change with each new version. Technology moves forward at a rapid pace.