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All too often you come across web sites
(mainly personal ones) that are so big they take at least a couple of
minutes before appearing fully - and that's on an ISDN connection. The
exception being a slow web server which could be to blame. Slow pages
to download are ignoring the unofficial guidelines for the web, much to
their detriment...
Unofficial Rules? Why Should You (preferably)
Follow Them?
Industry on the Internet and many
experienced amateur web users already follow these rules (some without
realising they do). Those whose sites do use them tend to be the ones
that stand out as the most frequented and popular, well designed, slick,
speedy and most comprehensible, especially when compared to some less-than-rooky
page designs - of which I occasionally slag-off in my site reviews. However,
with that in mind, it is the content of your site that will be the deciding
factor that draws people back time and time again.
In short, following these rules will serve to optimise your sites downloading
time, design and ease-of-use... a 'form version function' for your personal
or business website. (More information on content will be covered in later
tutorials).
Rules are made to be broken - so do so if you dare, however, I recommend
that if you do then at least include an e-mail address for people to send
their comments to you - it may prove to be a good learning experience
for you should you unwittingly include things on your page that prove
to paralyse it's potential.
Read on and absorb the rules I write about if you want a head start with
web design/page production - allowing them to guide you will still leave
massive scope for creativity and personal style. These rules only serve
to guide your production of the site - your mind and content will determine
the rest. The chances of you producing a clone site to anyone else using
this guide are about as likely ....as....whatever....so, enjoy and feel
confident in the knowledge that you are listening to someone who has 'been
there' and learnt by trial and error the ways of the web and the restrictions
inflicted by cross platform and limited bandwidth...oh the mind boggles.
The unofficial guidelines are as follows...
1. Your First page Should Be No Bigger
Than 60k.
60k is the absolute maximum for your first page, although you should try
and reduce it's weight to around 40k if possible. The first page is probably
the most important, so don't make it too heavy. If it takes more than
a minute to bring the page down to your browser from the time the user
hits that return key then they may not return...don't forget that anything
that is in a table will not be shown until everything is fully loaded
- which could delay things even more.
Over 50% of people on the Net still only have a 28.8k modem, and although
they can get 3.5k/sec from it, it's unlikely for many web sites, so you
have to calculate an average of 1.5k/sec that they can download to their
browsers.
Not a lot is it? Well it depends how you look at it, but really 60k is
quite a lot. One of my previous dilemmas was being the proud owner of
a mere 14.4k modem - which certainly teaches you the art of patience as
you surf the web at snail's pace.
The same rule applies to other pages on your site, less-than-60k and you
can't really go wrong. Should any of your other pages be over 60k or even
vastly huge then it must be for a good reason. It's common sense really,
just use your judgement and if possible get other people to look at it
and make suggestions on whether you can substantiate a heavy page and
whether they think it's worth while too.
2. Think About Screen Size.
Some web sites visited may say 'optimised for 1024x768', however, creating
for such a screen size is obviously alienating many other web users. So
if you create web sites for that screen size bare this elitist point in
mind and don't feel too guilty about the poor bastards that only have
a 640x480 res screen, even though you are definitely out numbered! Infact
10% of people on the web still use this screen resolution. Many of these
users will be from offices and organisations that can't afford to upgrade.
Although according to official figures things are getting better because
it was only a year ago when 27% of people on the web could only view at
640x480.
The main reason for the improvement is that computers and parts in general
have vastly dropped in price, and also the current industry standard for
screen size is slowly moving over to 800x600, (which according to current
figures is now 55% of the web).
I recommend that you optimise your site for 800x600 whilst also making
it viewable for people with a 640x480 screen resolution if at all possible.
3. Avoid using Big and/or Custom Fonts
For e.g. you may have a really funky font that you know would be perfect
for your site as body text...
There is one rule concerning this.. DON'T use obscure, less well known
fonts - as most people won't be able to see the site in a way that you
wished them to. This rule does not apply to any font that is made into
a bitmap or a graphic.
You are limited to using the following fonts on your web page;
-
Helvetica
- Times New Roman
- Courier
Verdana and Georgia
are two other fonts that are now becoming standard
But still not everyone has them.
Sucks doesn't it? and why Helvetica and not Arial? Well by the wonders
that come from your browser, Helvetica is built into it, and if someone
is on an Apple Mac they will still be able to see the page the way it
was supposed to be, (Now don't go slagging off Apple Macs, they have an
important place in the computer world, Just wait till Rhapsody comes out!
in what ever form it will eventually arrive in...the suspense continues
to scare PC owners)
Then we come to font sizes, you want everyone to see what you have to
say and you just HAVE to make sure they see
it, so you set the size of your font to 5 or 6 just to makes sure, well
if everyone did that there sure would be a lot of scrolling necessary
- but that's hypothetical as not everyone does - and for good reason.
Perhaps the best practice is to utilise styles to their full advantage
(Bold, Italic etc..) and try and keep the font size around 2 unless you
want a title or you feel you have to really make a point then font size
4 is the absolute maximum.
Try not to mix too many fonts - stick to 1 - 2 styles - any more may confuse
the page and lessen it's aesthetics.
4. Be Aware Of Both Popular Browsers
Everyone has their preferred browser. The two most popular being 'Internet
Explorer' and 'Netscape Navigator'. Netscape 4.0x being my preferred browser,
however, when designing for the web it's necessary to take into consideration
the way the page will look on both browsers - this really is the first
rule of the web.
With neither browser really winning the browser war at the moment, you
need to design to support both browsers. According to figures from Altavista,
56% of people use Internet Explorer, whilst 42% of people use Netscape
and the rest use other browsers such as; Mosaic, Opera etc.
Now for many people it's not-so-easy, or it's too time consuming to download
more than one browser from the net. At least both of the browsers are
now Gratis, making them more accessible to all. Browsers can also be found
on CD ROM's that accompany computer magazines - or maybe you could ask
a friend to copy over their browser for you...
So is that all that there is? It doesn't
sound much
No your right it doesn't sound much at all, but it's as hard as you make
it - depending on what you expect to create for your site. The fact that
there aren't many fantastic web sites on the web (both design and technology
wise) shouldn't deter you from having a go - with alot of effort and by
following some of these basic guides, you'll be surprised at the outcome
- hopefully in a positive way!
Another important thing to note is that 40% of the entire web audience
are still using version 3 browsers, which means no CSS, DHTML, A lot of
Javascript, and also some HTML. - also discussed in later tutorials.
Deciding whether to support version 3 browsers depends on your target
audience, for example; if your targeting a computer games audience then
you would be reasonably safe with designing for version 4 browsers, however
if your audience is more corporate then you are better designing for both
version 4 and version 3 and in some cases you may need to make your site
'no frames' and version 2 compatible.
Anything Else?
Communication is the key - whether using a picture to paint a thousand
words, or a thousand words to paint a picture always think of your desirable
web presence (image and style) and EQUALLY, the target audience intended
and their requirements.
If you want more figures on the percentages of browsers and what versions
are used then drop me a line and I'll send them on to you.
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Last Modified : 22-Jun-98
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