Web design, Web Site Development webdesign hosting

A concise, sober, and BRIEF description of a good Web authoring strategy. Other fine articles by the author include What You See is Not What Others Get and Widen Your Web Site's Audience. Stephen Traub.
Getting Started with HTML: A primer to Learning HTML 3.2 by Examples, this is a comprehensive and succinct guide to writing standard HTML.
Web Site Design Tips: Web site design tips for the beginner to the expert. A great collection of classic web site design tips that will build a strong foundation for any new web designer.
The Web Design Group Reference Section: Excellent background information and technical details on HTML authoring. Web Design Group.
Designing for The Web: A series of informative articles on Web site design, including A Web Site is a Harsh Mistress & Rules of Thumb. The special focus is on complementing Web design skills with competence in interface design. Don't miss Web Site Design. Diane Wilson.
Useit.com: Usable Information Technology: An expansive resource on usability and user interface issues -- featuring several extremely challenging and well-researched essays on Web design and style. Jakob Nielsen.
Understanding HTML: An outstanding presentation of HTML basics by an Australian with a fine writing style. Dianne Gorman.
Hints for Web Authors: A short yet insightful historical analysis of conventional vs. Web publishing, Hints for Web Authors is replete with solid recommendations on how to succeed with the latter, including a few pragmatic suggestions mixed in there for good measure, "...in hopes that others may find 'em useful." Warren Steel.
Dan's Web Tips: This huge resource contains a balanced summary review of most of today's important Web authoring topics. Daniel Tobias.
PHP Scripts: A good site we recommend for “PHP scripts” is ScriptsBank.com, it offers over 4000 interesting scripts.
HyperText Markup Language: World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) home page for HTML. Here you will find pointers to specifications for HTML, guidelines for how to use HTML to the best effect and pointers to related work at W3C. W3C.

Good Website Design Practices

These tips will help beginners to create highly functional and accessible Web pages. Some of the tips focus on writing valid HTML syntax while others focus on designing pages for "ease-of-use."

General Tips

Write your pages for multiple types of Web browsers--to provide trouble-free access to the widest possible audience. The World Wide Web is a multi-platform, non-browser specific medium. It should not matter whether people browse your Web pages using Netscape, Explorer, Opera, Lynx, WebTV, NetPhonic's Web-On-Call, Mobile Telephones, or Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs, or palmtops, the little computers with screens the size of a credit card). Each browser ought to render your informational Web pages without problems. If a Web page is designed properly, blind individuals, or anyone using text-to-voice or Braille displays, can easily listen to and review your work.
- What You See Is Not What Others Get On The Web
- Bobby
Run Web pages through a validator to test their compliance with common HTML (HyperText Markup Language) specifications. Modify pages until they validate, because compliant pages have a better chance of being rendered by various Web browsers, as the writer intends. However, if you intend something that is impractical with HTML, it will be no less impractical for being syntactically valid. Work with the strengths of HTML rather than trying to batter it into a WYSIWYG page design system. (WYSIWYG stands for What You See Is What You Get.)
Condense textual content to fit the time and attention constraints of today's busy Web users.
- Thoughts on Web Style
- Inverted Pyramids in Cyberspace
Use small (byte-wise) graphics so graphics load more quickly in graphics-capable browsers. (It is not advisable to use GIFs for everything. It's of the first importance to make the right choice between JPEG and a palette-based format. Avoid blindly choosing GIF and then trying to rescue yourself from the resulting problems.)
- JPEG Image Compression Frequently Asked Questions
When using graphics, provide textual alternatives for image-disabled or text-only Web browsers and indexing agents. Some people never turn images on.
- Use of ALT Texts In IMGs
Test. Every visitor will see your pages differently. Test your pages with as many browsers and platforms as you can. For example, run pages through a browser like Lynx to see how the "text-only" world sees your documents. Note that search engines are, in effect, text-only browsers. Make documents Lynx-friendly. Try different preferences, color and font settings, and window sizes. Always check how pages look with higher/lower monitor brightness settings.
- Lynx Viewer
- Lynx-me
- Lynx
For the future, to add presentational effects and Web page style, validate documents at the HTML 4.0 level (for the cleanest possible markup), so pages contain little or no HTML 3.2 presentational markup or proprietary stylistic hacks, and use the World Wide Web Consortium's Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) language to add stylistic effects to your pages.
- W3C's HTML Home Page
- Web Style Sheets
Spell check and proof-read your documents.
- Free Website Spell checker
Establish a routine for locating and fixing broken internal and external Web site links.
Include contact information and a copyright notice.
- Sign It!
If your Web site URL or email address will change occasionally, consider using a service that provides email forwarding and URL redirection.
- Pobox
- Persistent Uniform Resource Locator
Submit your Web site address to an appropriate newsgroup for a critical peer review.
- Newsgroups
Promote your Web site by adding your Web address to search engine indices and subject directories. To ensure that people can easily find your Web site, it may be necessary to modify your pages to take best advantage of current search technologies.
- Search Engine Watch

Special Tips

Be aware of the pitfalls of character sets. (Here comes a pound sign £ what did you get?) Currency signs are a real danger. It might be safer to write the currency in full. It is not just the signs that fail in some way; even those that do display may be misinterpreted. Let's say you are in the USA and write $25.00 without qualification. How much does that look like to a browser in Australia, Canada, or Hong Kong? If the local $ is worth more than the US$ then you risk someone dismissing a product as overpriced. If the local $ is less, your strangely eager customer may suddenly turn sour when she or he thinks you have been deliberately misleading.
- ISO 8859-1 Character Set Overview
If you specify a background color or image, but don't specify text and link colors, the user's text and link colors will be used against your background. In some cases, there won't be contrast between the user's text and link colors and your background color or image, so your text and links will disappear. The rule of thumb is that if you set one color, then you need to set them all.

Acknowledgements

Critical feedback, editorial assistance, and numerous snippets provided by Alan J. Flavell, Sue Jordan and Susan Lesch.

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Past Reader Comments - Note this site is over 9 years old. Read below some of our earliest posts.

One of the best sites for Web Design Information, recommended for good, reliable information on a variety of web issues, in particular, on basic web design.

25 March 2001, Lynn J. Alford, Australia

A highly selective references guide.

20 March 2001, Nir Dagan, Israel

In this page are what they call the "top nine" resources for design and elaboration of pages web. They are links toward extremely informative places about design of pages and resources.

25 January 2001, Gustavo Arizpe, México

Links to excellent HTML authoring and Web site development resources and list of good site development practices.

5 January 2001, 2Learn Tutorials, Canada

Good Practices has numerous articles on the varying topics related to good site design. Mostly well written articles by noted web authors concerning their opinion of site design.

8 June 2000, Rock13, USA

This website provides valuable information for beginners, including a list of references and a loose network of articles covering topics such as Internet/HTML basics, Web site design and free software available for downloads.

11 January 2000, Quicken BuyerZone.Com, USA

An extremely useful compendium of advice and links about how to build a Web site: graphics, standards, content, free software etc.

17 October 1999, MidEast Web, Middle East

I am trying to start a website and I do not know where to start exactly. All I can find are suggestions and tutorials for people who already have started one or have an existing webpage already. I read your webpage and I am quite impressed since it is concise and clear. No extra fancy stuff most people don't have use for. web designers

Web Design

Top Ten Resources

Good Website Design Practices

General Tips

Special Tips

Acknowledgements

Past Reader Comments - Note this site is over 9 years old. Read below some of our earliest posts.

13 October 1999

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