Publish information that solves people's problems. Usefulness should be a prime consideration when determining content.

Expect the audience to have different browser settings or different monitors, causing the page to display differently and/or impacting the quality and performance. See "Color, Graphics and Animations" section for further information.

Navigate through them deciding what is clear and a useful presentation of information. Use this knowledge in designing your site.

If you link to another site, it is courteous to inform that site owner of the link so they can inform you if the web page moves.

True interactivity must be more than mere activity alone. Interactivity implies an interaction between the viewer and the page--suggesting a cycle, process, action, or contingent response on behalf of the viewer.

Interactivity is NOT animated graphics, scrolling marquees, etc.

A relative URL is a link to a document within the same folder or web, for example:

<A HREF = "file.htm"> file.htm is in the current directory

<A HREF = "stuff/file.htm"> file.htm is in the directory named stuff

<A HREF = "../file.htm"> file.htm is in the directory one level up from the current directory

<A HREF = "../../stuff/file.htm"> file.htm is in the directory two levels up from the current directory

An absolute URL points to a document by starting at the top level of your directory hierarchy and working downward through all the intervening directories to reach the file. For example:

<A HREF = "/docs/stuff/file.htm"> file.htm is in the directories named docs/stuff

The audience will not know the site as well as you do.

What is obvious to the designer or 'subject matter expert' may not be obvious to the audience.

Beware of gimmicks that appeal to the designer's sense of "cool" but don't enhance the usability of the site. Don't let your site become so cute or clever that it fails to meet your audience's needs.

Make navigation as logical and intuitive as possible. A web site is not a brochure or a linear medium, and online information is easy to get lost in. Think in 3D about structure and navigation issues. Group items together in "chunks" to increase information access.

Storyboards model how the audience will travel from one document to the next. THIS IS IMPORTANT. A plan of "what goes where" will be incredibly useful as you develop graphics, content and link each page.

Use consistent and intuitive navigation elements or buttons. Don't use the same button for three different functions, or make users learn new symbols on different pages.

Include navigation links for "Home," "Feedback," and "Search" on the top of every page. Depending on the information architecture, consider including other second level links throughout the site.

For ease of maintenance, match the file structure (containing web pages and image files) to the navigation structure.

On long pages which will require several screens, provide top and bottom links (and any intermediary links needed) to allow the viewer to quickly browse the page. A good rule of thumb is to provide return/forward links at the top and bottom of any page that spans more than two display screens.

This is a generally accepted rule of web site navigation design. Obviously, there are times when the content does not lend itself to meeting this rule, but it is a good guideline to try to follow. Avoid "lists of lists."

Another general rule is that users should not have to take longer than 60 seconds to find information.

Don't waste a click on an empty page or a page "under construction." If the content isn't ready yet, don't create the link. Don't use construction signs.

Every web site should include a search mechanism that uses conceptual searching techniques. Talk to your web hosting company about what your search options might be.

Use a consistent placement of buttons or navigation icons and a consistent overall navigation structure. Once you see something twice, it's human nature to expect it to be the same the third and successive times.

Excessive switching between the mouse and keyboard is tiring. Design online forms to eliminate switching.

Make sure you have links to the home page and other important links from every page (usually Home, Feedback, and Search). Make it intuitive and easy to move around.

Ensure users questions are answered

Group information into small, manageable units

Place like things together - relevant subject matter

Provide an accurate label for each section

Make the important information obvious

Research has shown people can only remember 7 items. On a computer screen people can only remember 5, + or - one. Use chunking and relevancy principles to group content.

On a 15" monitor the most common resolution is 640 x 480 (640 pixels wide and 480 pixels high). On a 17" monitor the most common resolution is 800 x 600. Be aware of your audience's monitors, and graphic and table limitations to different resolutions.

Note the file size next to each downloadable file or image, so users know the size of what they're downloading.

Within the vertical and horizontal control limitations of HTML, keep the pages clear and uncluttered, and use white space to direct the audience's eye and make important content stand out.

Standardize an identity banner or image style for each page, as well as for headers and footers.

For a reference point, from the Internet site statistics of a Fortune 200 company in late December, 2000:

Of 68,000 "hits", user monitor resolutions were set:

Use backgrounds carefully; patterns are cool but very hard to read. Dark text on a light background is much easier to read than light text on a dark (or black) background. Balance "cool" with functionality/ease of use. Web pages with black backgrounds may not print correctly and if used should be tested carefully with all browser versions.

Purely decorative graphics take up space and memory. If used, they should be small in size and number, so they load and cache quickly.

Use the ALT attribute on all graphics--even if they are just lines or bullets. The ALT text appears when the cursor is rolled over the image, and some users may turn off image loading in their browser so images do not load.

Make graphics small and "thin." This will increase the usability of the graphics and will result in the graphics loading much faster. Thin graphics are 30K or less. For an Internet site, a generally accepted formula is 2 seconds download time per graphic, plus 1 second per K, so a 30K graphic would take roughly 32 seconds to download under average conditions over a 28.8 baud modem. Many users have a faster connection, but the general guideline is to minimize graphics loading time whenever possible.

Provide a text alternative for imagemaps.

Use HEIGHT and WIDTH pixel dimension attributes in the <IMG> tag to allow the browser to display all the text on a page faster, by avoiding requests back to the server for image dimensions.

Only two image formats work for all browser versions on the web; .gif or .jpg -- use each format wisely:

gif: (Graphic Interchange Format)

Use for icons, navigation elements, black & white line art, images with large areas of flat solid color, or if you want transparency, animation, or interlacing. Can only retain 256 colors; it will "throw away" other colors.

jpg: (Joint Photographic Experts Group)

Use for photos and large complex images with many colors, does a better job compressing files than .gif; cannot interlace, make transparent or use in an animation.

 

This is the "next generation" graphics format. It is supported as an Internet standard by the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). Uses lossless compression (no quality is lost in compression) then decompresses when viewed, enabling .png to retain every original detail and pixel. Will be the most flexible format to use for web graphics, but also somewhat more complicated. Not all older browsers support this format.

 

Bandwidth - be aware of the file size of your graphics and how slowly they load for users over a dial-up connection. Don't make graphics too big - the audience won't wait for them to load. If you do choose to use large graphics, offer a "text only" version of the site.

Offer a "thumbnail" (very small image) of a graphic that the user clicks to enlarge to full size.

A little animation goes a long way. It should never interfere with user's comprehension of information, so limit animations to two loops. They can be very effective if used carefully.

Can users anticipate where content, orientation or navigation tools will be?

Are web pages consistent?

Do pages support information access needs of users?

Hold your breath while your home page loads.

See if your test audience can find a specific piece of information in 60 seconds or less.

It's important that your site be useable by a wide variety of users and web browsers. Be sure to test the technical functionality of your site on several different browsers.

For an idea of most common Internet users, the following site statistics are from the February report on viewers of the ARS site:

Browser versions used to view the site: