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Website Development & Hosting

Other Points to Consider

1. Using .rames

Splitting a page into frames may be confusing for users since frames break the fundamental

user model of the web page. The user cannot bookmark the current page and return to it (the

bookmark points to another version of the frameset), URLs stop working and printouts become

difficult.

2. Cutting-Edge Technology

Exercise  caution  on  the  use  of  the  latest  web  technology.  You  may  attract  a  few  nerds,  but

mainstream users will care more about useful content and your ability to offer good

customer  service.  Using  the  latest  and  greatest  before  it  is  even  out  of  beta  is  a  sure  way  to

discourage users: if their system crashes while visiting your site, you can bet that many of them

will not be back. Unless you are in the business of selling Internet products or services,

it  is  better  to  wait  until  some  experience  has  been  gained  with  respect  to  the

appropriate ways of using new techniques. When desktop publishing was young, people put

20 fonts in their documents: let s avoid similar design bloat on the web. 

3. Scrolling Text, Marquees, and Constantly Running Animations

Minimise  the  inclusion  of  page  elements  that  move  incessantly.  Moving  images  have  an

overpowering  effect  on  the  human  peripheral  vision.  A  web  page  should  not  emulate  a  well-

decorated Christmas tree in its constant attack on the human senses: give your user some peace

and quiet to actually read the text! Avoid  tag.

4. Complex URLs

Even though machine-level addressing like the URL should never have been exposed in the user

interface, it is there and we have found that users actually try to decode the URLs of pages to infer

the structure of websites. Users do this because of the horrifying lack of support for navigation and

sense  of  location  in  current  web  browsers.  Thus,  a  URL  should  contain  human-readable

directory and file names that reflect the nature of the information space. 

Also, users sometimes need to type in a URL, so try to minimise the risk of typos by using short

names with all lower-case characters and no special characters (many people don t know how

to type a ~). 

5. Orphan Pages

Make sure that all pages include a clear indication of what website they belong to since users may

access pages directly without coming in through your homepage. .or the same reason, every page

should have a link up to your homepage as well as some indication of where they fit within the

structure of your information space. 

Copyright  NESIS 2002

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