If a page doesn't load in 8 seconds
you lose 1/3 of your visitors. Limit your text and
limit the length of your lines. Use around 65 characters
per line. Long lines are hard to follow. Dashes
and bullets increase readability while bold or italics
can make key points stand out.
Black text on white background works
well on Web sites. On some screens the black and
white contrast is far too strong and tires the eyes
so then the background should be off-white. If your
text is white, for example, make your background
image dark. Text on a background with patterns is
difficult to read, the text color may blend in,
making part of the text impossible to see and read.
If an image must be used as background it should
not disrupt reading. Make sure the text color contrasts
so it is easily read.
San serif fonts work best, and are
created to be very readable at small sizes and on
most screens. Use different sizes and colors for
headings, subheadings and paragraphs and give plenty
of space in between, to avoid monotony. Use as few
stop words as possible [e.g. and, to, when, etc].
A Web page should have a primary heading describing
very briefly what the page is about. It should also
have secondary headings for each important section.
Use HTML tables to divide a long page into two or
more columns.
Some Web sites don't use up all of
the available space. Building 'liquid' designs fixes
this problem by making the layout fit the screen.
They expand or shrink to the available, no matter
what browser window size or resolution the user
might be using. To do this, specify the width in
percentages [e.g. 100%] - the copy inside the table
will expand along with it.
Music, images, flash, splash, JavaScript
will increase download time. Flash files are especially
hard on bandwidth consumption. 25% of visitors leave
instead of clicking on the splash page and entering
the site.
Limit yourself to no more than 5 or
6 images per page, keep image files 12K or smaller
in size, and convert to .gif format. Reduce the
amount of colors in the image. Compare file sizes
between the tweaked image and the original, in NetMechanic's
free Gif Optimizer. Image editors, such as PhotoShop,
have an option to save an image for the Web.
Frames take up a lot screen space,
are distracting and Search Engine robots do NOT
read pages with frames! All they see are the outlines
of the frames, the <frameset>. They don't
see any links, so assume it is a dead page.
Text color should contrast well with
the background. Test your site in a variety of browsers
for free at http://www.anybrowser.com/ScreenSizeTest.html.
It is common for something to cause
the site to disappear, so make a copy and keep it
current.
