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

  2. "Best viewed with browser X on OS Y at screen resolution Z" icons

  3. Embedded audio/video with autoplay on (Unless this is what I was expecting)

    
    
  4. onMouseOver - takes away the user's ability to see the URL that a link leads to.
    
    
  5. The FONT tag

    
    
  6. Embedded animation, Flash animations, Animated GIFs, Blink, Scrolling marquees

    
    
  7. Frames
    
    
  8. Client-side programs that the user hasn't asked for


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):

Things like: Yes, unbelievable isn't it. But most societies and companies don't have this. It's much easier to put up dancing animations and spinning logos instead.




Content

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