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The Basics of Web Page Design
The impact of your web page as a whole should appear balanced and attractive.
Text content should generally contain between one
hundred to six hundred words per page with breaks about every
one hundred words with either a headline, picture or horizontal rule.
Exceptions are in long articles such as newsletters and stories. Along
with this try to use an easy on the eye text color that contrasts and
shows up well on your background.
A standard page length should be between two to three screens at an
average 800x600 screen resolution with the size of your page no more
than 72KB, including your images, animated
images may be more. Your first screen of text and key images should load
within 10 seconds on a 28.8 KBS modem so there is content to look at
while the rest loads. Keep in mind that too much content on any one page
will overwhelm and confuse, so try to keep at least 40% to 50%
of your background showing. If possible use the same main images
throughout your site, these are stored in the browser cache file and
will load almost instantly on all your other pages.
Try to keep a consistency in mood and theme for your web page by keeping
color schemes within two to four dominant colors, with one main color
overall and two to three complimentary colors to help accent. A maximum
of three different fonts is generally a good rule to follow including
any text that is contained within your graphics. Colors and fonts may
be used to highlight important points, words
or statements in your content.
Overall these are good recommendations to follow, but keep in mind,
sometimes you will need to do what will create the impact you are looking
for.
1. Do NOT underline text for emphasis, people usually expect underlined words to be a link. This could cause your visitor to leave your site in frustration from trying to figure out what is actually a link and what isn't. DO use the bold option for emphasis
2. Do NOT use all caps for your text, all caps on the web means you are shouting. Caps for short titles are acceptable.
3. Do NOT center a whole page of text as it is hard to read, the mind has to work at making sense of it, because we do not actually read every word, we have a tendency to scan and when it isn't in a straight up and down format it confuses and we quit reading. Titles and headings are ok for centering.
4. Do not write in paragraph format:
A wall of text is deadly for an interactive experience. Write for online, not print. To draw users into the text and support reader scannability, use these well-documented tricks:
• subheadings
• bulleted lists
• short paragraphs with vertical space between
• a simple writing style.
5. Don't use PDF Files for general pages of your web site.
PDF files cause a discord in web browsing. They change the abilities of the web browser with simple things like printing or saving documents. Convert any information that needs to be browsed or read on the screen into real web pages. PDF files work great for content that will be printed.
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