Web Pages: Kim's Development Guidelines

about the background image...

A few years ago I wanted to purchase some stylish wheels for my car. Of the three different websites I surfed, one was far easier to navigate than the others. That site made it easy to determine which wheels were available for my car, and also showed me a picture of my car with the wheels on it. The other sites were awkward, difficult to determine which wheels were available for my car, and ultimately did not get my business. The lesson is simple. The effectiveness of your website can make or break a sale, hiring, or whatever your objective is. Make your website effective!

a. Know your target audience. Are you trying to impress an HR manager at a major corporation or are you simply putting together a vanity site to share with your friends? Are you pushing computer peripherals or knitting supplies? Different answers should give the website quite different looks.

b. Don't try to convey too much information at once. Realize that the attention span of most surfers has a half-life equivalent to the Polonium-214 isotope. Show critical information on the immediate page, and give the user the option of going to further pages for further information.

c. Avoid Microsoft FrontPage like the plague.

d. Give credit where credit is due. If you use someone else's work, give them credit for it. Not only is it the right thing to do, it gives you a more professional appearance.

e. Structure and name your critical files and directories (folders) such that others may easily find them. Example: The URL for my racquetball page was originally
www.kimberlybatteau.com/SitePages/Racquetball.html.
When giving the name to my racquetball partner, I didn't want or expect her to remember all that, so I created a separate directory, www.kimberlybatteau.com/racquetball, and put the page in that directory with the name of index.html. Now all she or anyone else needs to do is type in
www.kimberlybatteau.com/racquetball.