The Do's and Don'ts of Web Design
Don't fix, prevent! The best way to deal with CSS and html problems is not to fix them, but prevent them. Adjust your coding style to write more efficient code. Don't resize the browser window Changing the browser window with scripts will only annoy your visitors and most likely they will leave your site and never come back. Keep your site as user friendly as possible to all your users. Don't over use Flash! Bear careful not to over use Flash on your website. By doing so can cause user problems and well as problems for your self. Also keep in mind search engines can not read flash content and that can damage your rankings. Don't use frames When using frames URLs stop working, you’ll break the Back button and your users will have trouble bookmarking. The list goes on and on. Don't use color alone to convey information Do not rely on color alone to communicate the meaning. Make your website accessible and design for users who are unable to differentiate between colors. Don't use "Click Here" links Click here” links are bad practice for usability and accessibility reasons. They are context and device dependent and do not provide enough information to users or search engines. Don't use colors in print friendly pages. When designing a page for printing keep in mind: - Not everyone has a color printer.
- Background colors and images don't print by default.
Don't use non-descriptive titles
Keep your web page titles descriptive, concise and meaningful. A title must tell the user what the page is about. Write titles that will provide relevant information for the readers and searchers Do always use Alt tags on images. Always use alternate tags on image of your website. Not only does this help search engine rankings it helps handicap web navigators. Don't think valid HTML is good HTML Valid HTML does not equal good HTML. A validator will not tell you if your markup is semantic or not or if it is accessible or not. Think of validation as a step towards a good website, not as quality assurance. Don't autoplay your content and videos. Allow your visitor to choose to play your embedded audio or video content on your website. Learn to optimize JPEGs and other formats. Always optimize your image files for better loading times and better user experience. Don't load large files to a website because many users around the world still have slow internet connection. Do Proofread All Content Remember to proofread your content to avoid mistakes which may affect your site's quality and search engine marketability. Always make your URLs user friendly The URL (address of the site) is often an overlooked element of a web page. Make the URLs short and easy to understand. Do provide a good Contact Page. Always have a easy way for your customers to contact you or your business. Keep your contact page easy to read and easy to find. Keep content in a logical order. Good source order helps contribute to accessibility as well as providing a logical hierarchy to the page. On detail content do provide a printer friendly page. Always a good a good idea to make your content printer friendly. If you are using a lot of images and styles it is nice to provide your users a way to print your page and not waist paper and ink. Do create a site map for your website A site map can cause no harm but can be very useful. Larger sites should have one as it gives the user a overview of the site as well as the navigation structure. Use heading to make your site more accessible Heading in HTML are created with the h1-h6 tag elements and they should be used as heading just like the ones you see in newspapers, books and other print documents.
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