Tutorial 1: Page-building Guidelines

There are several basic tips that the veteran page builders will give to people who ask. These tips help site masters avoid mistakes which may impact their online reputations, and they help them to learn good HTML techniques.

Here is a quick run-down of some of the tips I have seen on the Internet. I got the majority of this table from a page which described how pages should be built to corporates. I added in my own advice at the end of each point, and checked out some of the guidelines pages at other sites. What you have here is a condensed version of the best advice I could find...

Webpage Tips

• Determine user requirements for the target audience (Establish the site's purpose) In other words, decide what your site is going to be about *before* you sit down and enter the first bit of code. Sometimes it might help to write what you plan to do with your site before you start coding it. Old-time coders used to call this preparatory writing: "psuedocode" and while it has become somewhat out of fashion in this age of object-oriented coding languages, psuedocode is a REALLY helpful tool that lets you put the whole picture of what you are trying to do in a perspective where you can use it...

  From the Amazoness Quartet:

  Ok turn off the computer. Yes you heard me! Turn it off! WAIT NOT NOW!!! [fewww] Read the rest of this first... Before writing any HTML or making any graphics sit down with a pad of paper and write down what you plan to have on your page and then sketch out how you will like your page to look. Try several sketches then pick from them which you like the best. Try to keep in mind that you have to make this into HTML and Graphics, and people have to download it. So don't be too fancy, keep it as simple as possible. Once you have that done then you can go back to the computer.

• Develop content specific to those requirements (Base content on the User-Needs analysis) In other words, don't wander off-topic.

• Employ sound HTML methods to ensure ease of navigation and use (Avoid using bleeding edge technology simply because you can). People disagree on this one...while some people stick to what is tried and true, others like to "push a browser to its limits". Both approaches are okay, as long as the coder uses sound HTML methods and the thing he or she wants to accomplish actually works, which is often harder than it seems.

• Design for different user screen resolutions & browser compatibility (Avoid browser-specific functions) If you have to, design completely different sections of the same page, like I did for my profiles section once I realized that MSIE and Netscape don't view tables the same way...

• Avoid using graphic files larger than 30K-50K in size (Reduce page-loading time) One handy trick is the use of height and width tags, but this simply lets the browser know where to put your picture and how much space on the screen the pic will take up...it speeds load time by a minimal amount, but is still good Netiquette.

• Avoid using backgrounds which interfere with readability (Maintain viewing contrast) This one is BIG. Nothing drives people away from a page like purple letters on a dark pink baackground or any other combination that causes the user to suffer from eye strain. A user in pain is a user who won't be coming baack to your page.

• Eliminate using Frames if possible or restrict design to no more than three frames per page. This is because of the fact that some browsers, or browsers on computers linked to networks just gag when it comes to frames. Personally, I only use frame versions of pages if I *REALLY* trust the machine I am on not to crash in the middle of loading the page...

• Eliminate unnecessary or distracting images, color, and text (Maintain focus and simplicity) Again, this goes to the points about keeping on focus and avoiding eye-strain. If you MUST go off-topic. consider devoting a seperate page to that new topic.

  This also goes for distracting text. Ever go to a page where the typing LoOkEd lIkE tHiS? Or where it BLINKED? How many times did you go back? :) I rest my case.

  (Editors Note: MSIE does not support the BLINK code. (YAY!))

• Keep your site fresh; update its content frequently (Provide visitors with a reason to return) Self-explanatory.

• Always conduct Usability testing before posting your site (Make sure your links and functions operate according to the way users expect them to work) This is a pet-peeve of a LOT of people...they go to a site, spend a bit of time there, decide to continue surfing, and hardly any of the links are working. You are liable to return to such a page and discover the thing is a virtual ghost town, complete with virtual sagebrush...and vitual wind...but I digress...

  From the Amazoness Quartet:

  "Once you have a good chunk of your page completed and uploaded then you can start promoting it and opening it for public viewing. Don't let anyone know about your page till you have at least something good to show them. A single index page all by itself without any links to other parts of your site causes visitors to usually become frustrated and then they never will return. Remember a goal is to make something people will at least want to see more than once!"