-- DESIGN -- http://winhill.org/works "Practice makes perfect". A saying that has been used for so long that it's original speaker has become obsolete. A saying that is so often drilled into the mind, by mentors and peers alike, that it too has grown somewhat obsolete. Everyone has heard it at least once in their life, and, it being so easy to comprehend, everyone understands it. Therefore, everyone knows what it takes to be good. Everyone has the opportunity to feel that sense of self-accomplishment. Because that's what practicing does to you. It teaches you. It helps you grow. It gives you a sense of self-accomplishment. These are the thing's that lead to improvement, whether it be learning to ride a bike, or learning to sleep without nightlight, or learning to accept the future. Webdesign is no different. Offered here is the advice of what I prefer to see in a website. By no means am I saying that it is the correct way, nor am I saying that you must listen to me. These are merely the preferences that I have developed throughout my few years of webdesigning. Hopefully they will prove to be useful to someone else, and help them achieve their own sense of self-accomplishment Because realisticly nobody wants to have to 'practice' for three years just to feel that they have risen a notch above mediocre. Because it's more enjoyable to learn from somebody elses mistakes. - TEXT. Readable text is a key component to every layout. Not just every 'good' layout. EVERY layout. Why bother with a website if you can't even read what it's author is saying. Sure, it looks great to have text so flawylessly blended that it could be part of the layout graphic, but face it, what good is having content if you're visitors can't read it, let alone find it. Not everybody has mastered the art of highlighting, and even for those who have, it's a pain. Light text on dark layouts, and Dark text on light layouts. Otherwise, dropshadows can work wonders ;D - GRAMMAR. In my mind, for a website to be truly successful, it's owner must have the ability to use propper grammar. Some of us, me for example, have trouble composing paragraphs that flow, however as long as the visitor can see that the author is trying their best to keep their website grammatically correct, that author was, in my eyes, successful. Remember, l33t does not make you cool, and sTiCkY cApS do not make your website "HaWt lyKe oMgOMGOmG!!1111111". - COLOR SCHEME. It's not rocket science, use colors that go together. Unless you've got some amazing content, bright red text on a neon green background will probably discourage people from re-visiting your website. Be considerate of your viewers eyes and choose colours that look nice together. If you're having trouble, try using two different shades of the same colour, or you could search google for a 'colour wheel', and use that as a colour guide (two colours beside each other, or two colours directly opposite each other are said to make nice combinations). Don't make it a headache for your visitors to look at the screen. - NAVIGATION. Navigation doesn't always need to be labelled with text, as long as it's fairly easy to find. If it takes me twelve hours to find the navigation, then it's either not in a very good place, or needs to be pointed out somewhere in your welcome message. Unless it is a website that I am REALLY interested in seeing, if I can't find the navigation, I will just leave. Navigation that may be hard to find should be pointed out in your welcome message, 'Navigation is the squares to your left.' - TEXT BOX SIZE. One of my biggest peeves are those miniscule little textboxes--usually only capable to fit half a sentence before you are required to scroll down--that contain the main content of a site. I find it especially bothersome when the particular website contains a lot of written information, because it makes it very difficult to read it without having to scroll down 34588992389876 times. I have taken a liking towards text boxes that are wide, enough to support the content, but also fairly small height-wise (e.g 290x150 pixels). - MUSIC. Ultimately, I would recommend against using music in the background of your website as it can freeze or totally screw up a slow computer. If you do add music, however, give the visitor an option to turn it on and off. I garauntee that they will like you better for it, especially those with slow computers. - FILE EXTENSIONS. When you go to save your layout--or any image for that matter-- think about the amount of time it will take to load. Some visitors will not sit around for an hour waiting for an image to load. Though for you it may be the layout, for your visitor, the most important thing is the content. Some layouts won't even display the content unless the images have all loaded. Think about the size of the image. How many MBs will you/your host have left? I recommend saving as either .gif or .jpg, since they both save as fairly small files. .PNG images look great but take up a lot of space. They also take ages to load. - DIRECT LINKING. This is just plain Evil. Bandwidth is quite costly, and for the people who pay for it, direct linkers just add to their bill. People can find you if they have a domain with a control panel, and they can replace the image to make you look stupid. Direct linking is a form of theft. - PAGE TRANSITIONS. They may look pretty, but I have a slow computer, and these just make it slower. For the sake of your visitors with slow computers, like myself, I would recommend against using these. - JAVASCRIPTS. Javascripts, when used correctly, can really add to the distinction of a layout. When overused, these can greatly increase the loading time of a webpage, and may end up taking away from the attractiveness of the layout itself. Pop-up messages are among the commonly hated javascripts. Originally written in the August of 2003, Revised on January 31, 2005. Revised again on August 18, 2006 by Sarah -- END -- http://winhill.org/works