Web Site Conventions

Basic Premises	Remember that the web is a multimedia, interactive medium. Remember that visitors to your site are probably browsing, skimming, and scanning, and that they have a very low tolerance for waiting for a page to load. Keep a balance between content and style, telling and showing. Maintain a balanced relationship between words and graphics.
	With graphics, less is more. White space is important and necessary. Simplify, Simplify, Simplify.
	Keep the limitations of your visitors' hardware and software in mind: Hardware limitations: Slow modem Slow Internet connection Small monitor screen Software limitations: Different browsers Different versions of browsers Browser preferences set by your visitor Remember: Trust your browser Don't count on your browser.
Rules of Thumb	Design for the size of the most common monitor: The standard screen size is now 800 x 600 pixels; there are 72 pixels to one inch. The browser safe design area is actually only about 760 x 420 pixels. If you want to design a page suitable for printing, figure that a letter size page is about 535 x 670 pixels Contain your splash page on one monitor screen. Maintain live links. Use bookmarks/targets at the top of a long file to help users navigate through it. Create a readily accessible navigation bar. Use the ALT attribute with images to describe them for the visually-impaired and the impatient. Use decreasing headline sizes from the top to the bottom of a file Be selective in your use of color: Always maintain high contrast between your text and your background. Unless you are an experience designer, use subtle, natural pastel shades for background images.
Common Page Elements	All pages in your site should contain: a link to your home page the name and email address (with a mailto link) of the person responsible for the site the date on which the page was last revised. an informative title for bookmarkers some sort of unifying logo, graphic, or background design a common navigation bar located in the same position on every page a copyright notice if necessary
Features to Avoid	Inexperienced web page designers tend to get very excited about every new element they learn how to use. Resist the impulse to include the following elements in your web site: Blinking text Under Construction signs; the web by definition is always under construction; if your page is that incomplete, don't post it. Click Here messages; instead, imbed the hyperlink in the text. Bold, highly saturated primary colors, especially as backgrounds Java Script--tends to slow down download; tends to make browsers crash Frames: they are annoying and often not worth the effort you take to use them. They are also hard navigate and hard to print. Lots of animated gifs. A little animation goes a long way.