Web page style

Before the Web: Hard to share documents with people who have other operating systems, or who are on other networks, or people with same OS but different applications, or even just different versions of the same application.

Then the Web. HTML defined a common denominator for all machines, and information could be shared like never before.

People who say "Best viewed with Internet Explorer" are trying to return to this primitive, pre-1993 world.

Of course they THINK they are being futuristic, because they want to use snazzy, bleeding-edge special effects to "enhance" their pages. But it's going to get even WORSE for them, as the Web on other devices (smartphones, PDAs, sub-notebooks) explodes over the coming years.

Your aims

1. Your information is readable on maximum number of machines.
2. It downloads as fast as possible for people on slow connections.
3. It does not crash the user's browser.

If these ARE your aims (and it's OK to admit they are not), then:

Avoid, or use with caution:

1. Page backgrounds
   • Like, WHY? It's not cool on paper - what makes you think it's different on screen?

2. "Best viewed with browser X on OS Y at screen resolution Z" icons
   • You think I'm going to buy new hardware just to read your site?

3. Embedded audio/video with autoplay on (Unless this is what I was expecting)
   • When I want to see/hear it, I can play it myself.

4. onMouseOver - takes away the user's ability to see the URL that a link leads to.
   • Every link you click on the Web is already an investment, a big gamble that there is something useful worth waiting half a minute for. You use lots of heuristics to try to guess if the link will be worth your while. One of the few guides we have is the URL, since link titles are so ambiguous. And now some people want to even take that away from you.
   • You could in theory use this tag to make the status line more meaningful, e.g. show the relative link instead of the absolute link, or even comment your links. But of course 90 percent of web designers will simply use it to make the status line as ambiguous and useless as the link title.

5. The FONT tag
   • Different style fonts are not a problem. Large fonts are not a problem. Small fonts are the problem.
   • For example, there are vast numbers of sites who set the tag:   <font size="-1">   or   <font size="10">   Often, I simply click "Back" when I reach one of these sites. Why? Because I cannot read the text. It's too small. I have set my font to a size I can read. You should respect that.
   • OK, depending on browser, I can check: "Always use my fonts, overriding document fonts", or I can have a toolbar button to quickly change font. But hitting "Back" is attractive too. There are a lot of other sites out there. No need to spend time on yours if it involves work. You can whine all you like that I should be using Microsoft version 13.342 on Operating System version 2026.01, and your page looks really cool. I will hit "Back".

6. Embedded animation, Flash animations, Animated GIFs, Blink, Scrolling marquees
   • You don't NEED to "capture attention" on the Web. It's NOT like TV. People don't "Surf". They came to your site for a reason. They're already on your page. Don't force them to sit through a lengthy animation they never asked for, in order to reach the pages they do want.
   • Animation is fine for things you have asked for. But people must have asked for it.
   • Flash has many valid uses, from YouTube to Google Street View.
   • I'm just criticising its use for pointless animations, such as:
     • splash screens
     • intro animations you can't turn off

   • Flash: 99% Bad, Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox, October 29, 2000.
   • Flash is Evil, September 1, 1999.
   • Animation is a niche, it's not the future. And it's not a niche I'm interested in, so keep your animated nonsense to yourself. I don't want to see it.
   • Guidelines for Multimedia on the Web - Jakob Nielsen on animation.

7. Frames
   • Using frames breaks the nice clean, well-understood Web model for usually no good reason, plays havoc with bookmarks and hyperlinks, and wastes half of the already-tiny screen. But hey, maybe your users have not discovered the Back button yet.
   • Why Frames Suck (Most of the Time) - Jakob Nielsen on frames.

   • Frames are useful for:
     • In writing about web sites, where you want to do, say, a side-by-side comparison of 2 different web sites.
     • Constructing a page with information coming from multiple remote sources.

8. Client-side programs that the user hasn't asked for
   • Client-side applications are useful for many things, few of them related just to displaying content, but rather most of them related to user interaction. Remember your users may not want to interact - they may want to choose when they will begin interacting (if ever).

   • Client-side applications good for:
     • If you want to demo in real-time how something changes as a parameter is changed. e.g. Demo of a programming algorithm running, as part of lecture course. Can often be done with a server-side application. Client-side needed when real-time feedback is essential, e.g. 360 degree street scenes.
     • Real-time customer transactions over the Web, e.g. modifying a database, taking part in an auction, real-time chat.
     • The whole future of delivering applications like word processors, spreadsheets etc. down the pipe (rent them rather than buy them), Network Computers (rent the entire OS), etc.

   • But client-side programs are more often used to jazz up a page with moving parts and pointless animation.

Other bad things

1. In general, sites that only work on (have only been tested on):
   1. IE (latest version)
   2. Windows (latest version)
   3. fast PC
   4. fast connection

2. Unstable URLs.

3. In general, Things that break the Web model.

4. Over-long, complex, cryptic URLs. See URL as UI.

5. URLs where you cannot hack off bits from the RHS to move up a level.

6. Periodicals not allowing direct browsing of each issue in the archive from its front page, but access only via keyword search.

7. Travel sites where you have to fill in lengthy forms (enter start time, destination, etc.) in order to see the timetable (rather than being able to just browse the entire timetable raw).

Always useful (and so rarely found):

• Content.
• Content.
• Content.

• On Society websites - A complete and up-to-date list of the Society's meetings and events.
• On Company websites - A complete list of the company's products. With pictures and prices.
• A complete list of the company's offices and locations. With maps and opening times.

Content

Summary: Forget your spinning animations and multimedia jazz. Put this stuff on the Web instead:

• Archives of past issues of newspapers and magazines.
• Archives of past Radio and TV programs.
• The complete catalogs of every national and university library.
• Every publication of every academic researcher.
• Every out-of-copyright publication in the world.
• Complete and up-to-date bus, train, ship and plane timetables.
• A detailed map of Ireland, where you can link to a placename. I have yet to find one. If anyone can find one, please let me know!
• A street map of Dublin, where you can link to a street. I have yet to find one. If anyone can find one, please let me know!

• Web page style