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Website Development & Hosting

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The homepage and all adjacent pages need to look and feel similar to the user. Consistency

is reassuring and allows the user to scan materials efficiently once they have a feel for the

site s layout. As well, many users may come to a page on your site without passing through

your homepage. Always, always, always, make sure they can tell immediately where they

are, and where your homepage is. Location, as they say, is everything. 

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When you build a house, you want tight joints and square corners   it is the same on a

website. Make sure your content is coherent and logical. The most important information

needs to be up front. Who, what, when, where, why, how, and how much will provide a

quick guide for creators and users. 

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People all over the world can and will access your site. Is what you are saying appropriate

to  a  global  audience,  whose  first  language  is  not  English  (have  you  incorporated  a

translation  function?),  who  may  not  understand  cute  icons,  contractions  or  slang

expressions?  Are  your  addresses  and  telephone  numbers  complete  enough  for  a  global

audience? Is the organisation of your information based on standards, or did you simply

organise  it  in  a  way  you  liked?  Do  you  have  applets  that  eat  bandwidth  and  cause  the

download time to increase beyond the patience of the average user? W3, the World Wide

Web Consortium, has issued Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0, which discuss some

of these issues and more. The site address is http://www.w3.org/TR/WAI-WEBCONTENT/.

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Be discreet. While you might think it is cool to have your picture on a website, you may be

courting trouble. Personal information such as the name and address of your significant

other,  your  children s  names  and  ages,  your  hobbies,  etc.  is  just  that     personal.  Not

everyone  on  the  Internet  is  there  for  legitimate  purposes.  Stalkers,  harassers,

pornographers, and con men will use all the information they can find. Identity theft is

a growing problem.

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Remember  your  users  have  rights  as  well.  Do  not  ask  for  unnecessary  personal

information and under no circumstances use such things as bots, intelligent agents, and

cookies to collect and/or disseminate personal information without the users  informed

consent. 

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Make sure the important links are the first links the users see. Add a table of contents of

some sort (this might be a navigation bar, a site map, a tab index). 

Copyright  NESIS 2002

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