This web page is designed for information professionals, librarians and library staff who are considering putting together pages for themselves, their users and their organisations. It concentrates on the design aspect of web pages, rather than the technicalities of HTML coding.
A good web page should be
Writing a web page should be the very last step of all, not the first! Before you even think about putting a page together, you need to sit down and consider a number of very important questions.
Broad and shallow:
A good example of broad and shallow is Phil's search engine page home page.
Narrow and deep:
A good example of narrow and deep is Tesco Supermarket site, where each of the anchors leads to another series of anchors. Do however bear in mind that whichever method you use, the page must look attractive.
If you mix different header font sizes it will cause confusion in the
mind of the reader of your page.
The same thing will happen if
you use lots of different font styles!
You'll find
that BLINKING text can be very, very ANNOYING after a short while.
Don't let
your text scroll off the right hand side of the
screen. And here's
another
example.
Lets start by having a look at some backgrounds. A background can add colour to a page and can help set a particular atmosphere.
Always ask yourself what the graphic is for!
The main Conservative Party web page is a splendid example of how not to produce an opening page.
People need to be able to trust the data that they are getting off the web pages that you create. There are a number of ways in which you can do this.
The site at Jaguar Cars is an interesting example of how some of this works and how some of it does not. Another splendid example of just how this should be achieved is Sheila Webber's site which is about business information (Please note: this is an archived version of her old site, which is no longer available. I continue to use it because it's an excellent example of how to put a web page together!)
Site maps are a great idea - they allow people to get quickly and directly to the pages that you've got on your site. A site map should be clear, and leave the user in no doubt as to where they'll end up. Unlike this site at the Lethbridge Research Centre. If you're using navigation bars, make sure that it's obvious! and that they work properly! If you're going to have a search function, make sure that it works. Make sure that your links are clear, make sense, and the user knows where they are going to go to, unlike this site.
Don't use it. Really. It's a bad idea - it's hard, if not impossible for search engines to index flash data, and it is often used to no purpose other than to say 'we can use flash'. I found a lovely example of something called Houston's. Can you work out what the site is about?
Users want to get to somewhere on your website, and they want to get there quickly. Don't make them jump through hoops to get there. This website forces uses to go through several pages to get to the online ordering section, and then... Also, try not to have registration unless you absolutely have to!
A re-director will immediately take you from one page to another. If they're not done well, they can be very difficult to escape from!
Don't go overboard and try and cram everything onto a single
page.
Make sure that the page is
readable!.
Make sure the content uses
good keywords, unlike this site which
doesn't really get to grips with telling us much about what they actually
do!
Keep it simple, straightforward and
clear. Remember that you can create as many pages as necessary to cover the
information you want to provide. Try, whenever possible, to
keep to one concept per page.
Your opening paragraph is very important! This will be used by some search
engines to provide the abstract or summary for your page and well encourage or
put people off visiting your page.
Resist the urge to do 'keyword stuffing'. Here's another example,
which I found when doing a Google search for Championship manager
While you're at it,
don't put in hidden text either!
Try
not to have long and involved user
agreements.
Your site should be consistent, especially for navigation - it will make life easier for people who come and visit you. If it's not consistent, it gets confusing and irritating.
Frames seem to be a good idea, but most of the time they are a waste of space and just confuse the user. Where are you supposed to be looking? It's not clear from this painting site. However, too many frames can render a page unreadable. Also, ensure that there is both a frames and a non-frames version of the site available.
When you produce a page of text you, or your organisation will
automatically own the copyright. It makes sense to put a copyright notice at
the bottom of each page however, or perhaps a copyright statement stating what
people can or cannot do with the material on your site.
If you are tempted
to use material from another web page (particularly graphics) make sure that
what you want to use is in the public domain, or that you get permission from
the copyright owner to use the material on your site.
You can put links from your pages to any other site on the Web. There
are a number of cases going through various courts around the world at the
moment, so I would suggest that before you do so, you contact the Webmaster of
the site(s) concerned and ask for permission.
Please also remember that
other people can link directly to your site without your knowledge. You can
however do searches on a variety of search engines to see what sites have
linked to you; in Altavista for example, the syntax is link:<url>
(without the < > ).
There's no need for people to see that useless 404 error message when you can create your own. This is an example from Brent Council and the Kilburn Public Library
The New York Public Library
South Bank University
The current winner is Philip Nixon's website.
This page is © Phil Bradley, 2004. Last updated 13th October 2004. Please read my Copyright statement before using it.