Dr. Brown's Advice About Web Pages

Making web pages can be fun and exciting -- but remember that the main purpose of web pages is to convey information.  Well-designed web pages are attractive enough to catch a user's attention without distracting the user from the page's contents.   Well-designed web pages also provide information about subordinate pages as well as easy navigation to subordinate pages.  Well-designed web pages, like any well-designed form of technical communication, do not make the user work too hard.   When constructing your web pages, remember to avoid anything that will annoy or distract the user.

Avoid the ten worst offenses of  web page design:

  1. Long Download Times  Readers lose interest in about 10 seconds!
  2. Multimedia Overkill Just because you can does not mean you should!
  3. Breaking Up the Screen with Frames  This will only confuse your viewers and may cause problems for users who have a program that reads web content to them.
  4. Dead Links  Everyone hates the "URL Not Found"   message.
  5. Awkward Navigation  Help your viewer find  information quickly.
  6. Non-stop Animation  See number two above.  Also, animation may trivialize your important information by making it look like obnoxious advertising.
  7. Orphan Pages That Don't Show Whose Site the Viewer Is On.
  8. Screens That Exist Only to Point the Way to Other Web Pages.
  9. Long Scrolling Pages  A series of short, navigable pages works better.  Viewers often miss what is not directly visible upon entry.
  10. Not Enough of the Right Content  Avoid using outdated material.

Avoid these offenses as well: 

  1. Links that Lead to Cute "Under Construction" Icons  It's better to leave a link unactivated rather than annoy your reader.
  2. Blinking Text.
  3. Light Text on a Dark Background  Pages like this are hard to read and impossible to print.
  4. Loud Backgrounds that Clash with the Font.  See above.
  5. Failing to name a Contact Person.
  6. Failing to Provide a Date for the Last Update.
  7. Cute Graphics that Serve No Purpose.
  8. Obscure Fonts  If your reader's browser doesn't support the font, it will revert to the browser default; this could adversely affect the way your page displays.
  9. Fonts That Are Hard to Read  Use a standard sans serif font such as Arial or Verdana.

Now that you know what to avoid, have fun designing your pages!

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Last Updated:  June 08, 2007