Robin Williams

One of the elements of good web design is a lack of the elements that make bad web design. This page is quoted from Robin Williams who should be given credit as due.
I could not have said it better. There is no copyright seen on her site and so none here, this is shared information. Website design & hosting
is provided at a discount by www.BCIwire.com for many businesses locally in the Tacoma, Pierce County area and Nationally.

If you stay away from everything listed on the page about dorky web pages, you've probably got a pretty nice web site.
In addition, keep these concepts in mind:

Text

Background does not interrupt the text

Text is big enough to read, but not too big

The hierarchy of information is perfectly clear

Columns of text are narrower than in a book to make reading easier on the screen

 

Navigation

Navigation buttons and bars are easy to understand and use

Navigation is consistent throughout web site

Navigation buttons and bars provide the visitor with a clue as to where they are, what page of the site they are currently on

Frames, if used, are not obtrusive

A large site has an index or site map

 

Links

Link colors coordinate with page colors

Links are underlined so they are instantly clear to the visitor

 

Graphics

Buttons are not big and dorky

Every graphic has an alt label

Every graphic link has a matching text link

Graphics and backgrounds use browser-safe colors

Animated graphics turn off by themselves

 

General Design

Pages download quickly

First page and home page fit into 640 x 460 pixel space

All of the other pages have the immediate visual impact within 640 x 460 pixels

Good use of graphic elements (photos, subheads, pull quotes) to break up large areas of text

Every web page in the site looks like it belongs to the same site; there are repetitive elements that carry throughout the pages

* * * * * * * * * *