AdvWeb-1/11 DePaul University SNL 262 Web Page Design Design Information Instructor: David A. Lash

AdvWeb-2/11 Towards a better design u Rule 1 - Look Professional – Make sure site is available – Make sure links work – Anticipate traffic level to site

AdvWeb-3/11 Professional ? u Too Large 130K

AdvWeb-4/11 Professional? u Do You need that design element – Animated graphics – Moving/Blinking text – Music – Mystery Meat Navigation

AdvWeb-5/11 Know your Audience u Design to the target audience

AdvWeb-6/11 Ease of Use Make a easy- to-use initial page.

AdvWeb-7/11 Some Navigation Issues u Can a user tell where they are within a site? u Can user tell what are navigation options from current page? u Can user find what they are looking for? u Can the user tell what else is at the site? u Can the user tell who’s site they are looking at?

AdvWeb-8/11 Top 10 Design Flaws u u By Jakob Nielsen, SunSoft Distinguished EngineerJakob Nielsen 1. Frame use: Can be confusing 2. Too Much Technology 3. Scrolling Text, Marquees, and Constantly Running Animation's 4. Complex URLs 5. Orphan Pages - Should be clear on Each page how it fits

AdvWeb-9/11 Top 10 Design Flaws u u By Jakob Nielsen, SunSoft Distinguished EngineerJakob Nielsen 6. Long Scrolling Pages 7. Lack of Navigation Support 8. Non-Standard Link Colors 9. Outdated Information 10. Overly Long Download Times

AdvWeb-10/11 Writing for the Web u Keep it short u Use Bullets and sub bullets u Say what is most important up-front. u Link to relativist references (for more information) u Long narratives are for articles only.

AdvWeb-11/11 Testing Your Site u Some things to consider before making your site “production”. 1. Spell Check Each Page Separately 2. Validate All HTML Code 3. Make sure to test pages somewhere besides your desktop. 4. Try Different browsers and different browser versions 5. Try different access speeds. 6. Test EACH link. 7. Each form/application needs special care - What happens is skip a field, send bad data or skip form entirely.