Rules of the road

OK, here are a few things to keep in mind when designing the layout of your page:

1)Keep things uncluttered.

Clarity is important in getting your message across. If you have twenty subjects to express about 20 things, don't try to fit it all on one page! Split it up into multiple pages.

2)Don't use flashing text.

There is a tag you can put text into that makes text flash on and off. Don't do it. Animations are good, but a repeating pattern like flashing text tends to take focus away from the content and very, very quickly become annoying. Trust me...I'd demonstrate, but then you might use the tag to make flashing text so just take my word for it.

3)Use human perception to make things more clear

• -Use contrasting colors like white on black or vice versa. Don't use yellow for text, because the human eye has the most trouble picking form out of the color yellow. Don't use light colored text on a light colored background:

• if you want to have a background (see reference card), it can be great, but keep it background - something simple and not too bright. A sharp image can obscure your text and thus make your site unusable. If you need images, try a web search from yahoo.com, google.com, or a similar search engine. There are litterally millions of great images out there you can use. If you feel unable to find anything, email me, and I can point you in the right direction. I also have some images which might be useful. Don't be afraid to make your own either!
• -The human perception likes to create a whole (called a Gestalt for those interested) out of what is coming in as information. So use that to get across ideas.

• If you make one thing bigger than everything else, it will stand out (like titles).
• If you put in a ruler bar (<hr width="100%" align="left">), it tends to naturally help a person mentally group sections of your document
• Try to keep things neat.
  • If you have a list, like a parts list, use the html list grouping (see reference card), as it will keep everything nicely layed out.
  • Trying to put everything where you want can be hard, so use tables to keep everything where you want it (see reference card and advanced web design pages)
• Use text which is large enough to be clear (at least size 3) and is readable. Some fonts are great, but are hard to read. In addition, many fonts you may have on your computer may not show up on another computer because the font must be installed on the computer viewing the document. The following is a display table of font sizes, so you get the sense of it:

1	This is way too small to read comfortably for many people!
2	Still too small
3	This is pretty much the standard default size, but you may want slightly larger for clarity.
4	ok, try this, is it clear? Most monitors will show this quite clearly, but it may be larger than you like.
5	This is useful for emphasis or subtitles.
6	this makes a good title, but there are easier ways to do that (explained later).
7	This is big, so don't use it for long statements.

 

4)A picture is worth a thousand words!

Sometimes it takes forever to say what you mean. Use embedded images to get across ideas. It is always important to balance your text and imagery, however.

5)Try to organize your entire site by a basic theme.

That means, don't have one page with a bright pink background with all text and content aligned to the left, and another with a black background and everything aligned to the right, etc. Try to have one unifying theme. You may notice a theme to many web sites. This makes it more comfortable to navigate your site, as once the web surfer has seen one page, they can effectivel navigate all of your pages. This is also an opportunity to add some individuality to your web site. If you design a visually appealing (but NOT overly distracting) theme which is also functional, it can add greatly to the presentation and professionalism of your project.