GOOD WEB TIPS

• Background does not interrupt the text  

• Text is big enough to read, but not too big  

• The hierarchy of information is perfectly clear  

• Columns of text are narrower than in a book to make reading easier on the screen   

• Navigation buttons and bars are easy to understand and use  

• Navigation is consistent throughout web site  

• Navigation buttons and bars provide the visitor with a clue as to where they are,

• what page of the site they are currently on

• Link colors coordinate with page colors  

• Links are underlined so they are instantly clear to the visitor  

• Buttons are not big and dorky  

• Every graphic has an alt label  

• Every graphic link has a matching text link  

• Graphics and backgrounds use browser-safe colors  

• Animated graphics turn off by themselves 

• jpeg is better because it has more color    

• Pages download quickly  

• First page and home page fit into 640 x 460 pixel space  

• All of the other pages have the immediate visual impact within 640 x 460 pixels  

• Good use of graphic elements (photos, subheads, pull quotes) to break up large areas of text

Bad

• Default gray color

• Color combinations of text and background that make the text hard to read

• Busy, distracting backgrounds that make the text hard to read

• Text that is too small to read

• Text crowding against the left edge

• Text that stretches all the way across the page

• Paragraphs of type in all caps

• Paragraphs of type in bold

• Underlined text that is not a link

• Large graphic files that take forever to load

• Meaningless or useless graphics

• Missing graphics, especially missing graphics with no alt labels

• Graphics that don't fit on the screen (assuming a screen of 640x460 pixels)

• Anything that blinks, especially text

• Multiple things that blink

• Animated pictures for e-mail

• Animations that never stop

• Counters on pages--who cares

• Having to scroll sideways (640 x 460 pixels)

• Cluttered, not enough alignment of elements