My Web-Design Strategy (for http://home.egge.net/savory)

Most important are content. speed and originality. Users want to access pages which are of interest to them quickly. They want to see immediately whether the pages which interest them have been updated since their last visit. They want to access original material, there is no use replicating something which is elsewhere on the Web; that is what links are for.

Based on this philosophy, I use the following strategy for my web pages:-

  1. Content, content, content. Users come to my page for original content material. Not for context-free flashy graphics. Nor for eminently ignorable banners ;-). They come for entertainment or to access a service I provide. They come based on their interests, not mine. All my sub-pages are heavily tagged for easy access by Internet search engines. Entertainment is for users sharing my hobbies and/or looking for e.g. an intellectual challenge or an amusing short-story etc. Content is added and changed on a regular basis (e.g. monthly) to make repeat visits attractive.

  2. Allow users to jump in sideways, depending on their interests. The majority of users are directed to a sub-page about their interests by a search engine. They have very specific interests. All my sub-pages are heavily tagged for title, keywords and content. If the users then so desire, they can reach the home (index) page directly from any sub-page. Only hits on the home-page are counted, that is, a casual one-time visit to a single sub-page does not affect my site counter, which is meant to count only the more intensive or regular users (starting 1/1/2000).

  3. Provide services for the user. For example, on the page designed for people wishing to visit me, I link to the train timetable of the nearest station, ditto for the busses from this station to our village. Also there is a flight schedule for the local airport, together with a local weather report for anyone flying in their own plane ;-) The phone number of the airport taxi service is also given. For people coming by road, there is an automatic route generation service on this page. Another example: since I enjoy reading a lot, I provide a list of book recommendations which in turn link directly to amazon to let the user order these books should he wish to do so. I also provide intellectually challenging puzzles ;-)

  4. Let the user give feedback.

  5. Put the most popular content on the index (home) page. Monthly I look to see which pages have been accessed most often. Then I put a direct link to these pages on the home page.

  6. No logins or passwords. These are public pages, so anyone can access them without hindrance. Access is private and anonymous.

  7. No flash tunnels or large graphics on the home (index) page. The average user is prepared to wait only ten seconds for a page to load, unless he is pre-warned about slow-loading pages such as photo galleries. My home page comes up quickly, text first, the one small photo, which bears an ALTernate text, is loaded after the main text, so the user can skip it if he so desires.

  8. No frames. Navigation is kept simple. The browser buttons let you go for- or backwards as usual. At the bottom of every page there is a clearly identifiable button line to let the user go to the home (index) page, to the site map, to the "New Material" index . From the index pages and/or site-map, the user can skip directly to wherever he wants to go. The lack of restrictive frames leaves more footprint space on the screen for content! See also the paragraph below.

  9. Simple, intuitive navigation . All links are recognisable, external links are identified as such by a WWW-globe WWW Symbol. The site is now large enough (over 5 Megabytes) that a search engine is provided (and accessible from every page; never let your users search for "search"!). The navigation model is a simple tree, the user can get anywhere from the home(=index) page and/or the site map. See also the paragraph above.

  10. Minimal or no scrolling. Where possible, no scrolling at all! The index page is completely visible in 800 * 600. Longer text passages, e.g. for the short-story section, still require scrolling. But the user regards this as more natural for continuous text than having a set of sequenced pages, which confuses his navigational model, I allege.

  11. No page larger than 25 kiloByte. This keeps the web site fast. The few larger pages (photo gallery and/or sound files and/or downloads) are kept separate and the user is warned about the expected delay so he can choose whether or not to access these pages.

  12. No plug-ins. This means that no special browser is needed and that no special plug-ins are needed. If a particular content needs a special plug-in, then it is on a page of its own and the link to that page warns the user that a special plug-in will be needed (e.g. MP3 or Shockwave). This way, the user can elect to skip that page.

  13. No Java Menus or buttons. Because if the user has inhibited Java (e.g. for security reasons) then he would see nothing. Regular GIF buttons are OK, text buttons even better (e.g. for blind users, whose interface can read the text aloud to them). The only Javascript is used for the "news"-ticker on the home page. Non-Java users can use the "News" button at the foot of each page, as their alternative.

  14. Minimal use of animation. Users tire of the same old animations very quickly. The animations are usually content-free, which is BAD. Since the human eye is attracted to movement, one valid use of animation (a simple & fast small animated GIF) is to mark new material, or use of a "news"-ticker to announce new content.

  15. No Flash animation. They are a waste of bandwidth, adding no content. See also reasons given above.

  16. No sound loops, as far as possible. They are a waste of bandwidth, adding no content. Sound takes a while to download, so when I give a user sound, he is warned before he clicks on the link which loads the sound-bite. Also I only present sound-bites with content relevance.

  17. New material is indexed. The home page contains one (animated) button which links to an index of new material. Since the human eye is attracted to movement, one valid use of animation (a simple & fast small animated GIF) is to mark new material. Thus one mouse click lets the user see if there is anything new for him since his last visit.

  18. No special fonts. I use only sans-serif fonts, at least 10 points in size and restrict myself to the usual fonts such as Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif etc.

  19. Use medium resolution only. Only 2% of users have a 19 inch monitor. The majority still have a 15 inch monitor, even if an ever increasing contingent is moving to 17 inch screens. Most notebooks can support at least 800 * 600 too. So I dimension my layout so that it looks good in 800 * 600 pixels. Less than 4% of users still have 14 inch and 640 *480, so I do not cater for this low resolution.

  20. No Image maps. Every Image has a text alternative. I use text for my links, buttons etc. So a reader software can read the pages aloud (an aid to blind users). For similar reasons all photos (JPGs) have alternate tags, so that you can tell what is to appear there before the photo loads. The user can then skip on if he deems the photo uninteresting.

  21. Graphics under 400 pixels wide or high. Photos are JPGs and line graphics are GIFs. All are kept small to reduce bandwidth. Maximally 400 pixels width ensures full size display on an 800 * 600 resolution.

  22. Most pictures in a Gallery. Photos take a while to load. So a page will contain at most one photo, usually in thumbnail format. Links take the user to larger photos. Most photos are stored in a Gallery, the user is warned about the load time before be clicks on the link to the gallery. Help conserve Internet Bandwidth !

  23. Identified Languages. Because some of my pages are bilingual, black type is used for German and red type for English throughout(i.e. colour coding the language, so a monolingual user can jump straight to the sections he can read ;-). If a page is only in one language then the links to it are preceded by a national flag, so the user knows that if he follows the link, he will get only that one language (i.e. German OR English). I try to limit myself to that subset of English which can also be understood by a merkin ;-)

  24. External Links are identified. To let the user know when he is leaving my site, external links, which may take considerably longer to load, are identified by a WWW globe icon.

  25. Consistent use of colour. See above. Also all links are left in the WWW standard colour, which changes once they have been clicked upon.

  26. No wallpaper, just plain white backgrounds, these make any hard copies on paper easier to read.

 

Stuart Savory, 7th January 2000.

Index/Home Impressum Sitemap Search new/neu