Easy Does It

ONE OF THE fundamentals in a good Web site is accessability. You can have the most beautiful site in the world, but if no-one can find what they want, it's not much use. But with a bit of common sense, you can achieve function and form.

85. Clean up your act
Professional Web designers aim to make their sites look 'clean' - that is, uncluttered and easy to navigate. So strip out the excess, create sub-sections and trim down your pages. See Pretty Webdesign for an example of clean web design.

86. Add skimmability
People browsing the Web will tend to skip long blocks of text when looking at sites, and speed-read instead. Make your pages skimmable by breaking up paragraphs into smaller chunks. See Ugly Webdesign for example how to make skimmable chunks

87. Bold as brass
Use bold tags (<B></B>) for emphasis - to make headings, summaries and key points stand out on a page. In general, bold fonts look better on computer screens than italics. See Helena Christensen for an example of the differences between BOLD and ITALIC style.

88. Bite the bullet
Use lists with bullet points, using <UL> and <LI> tags, to summarise pages and ideas in a way that's easy for visitors to scan. see Forretningsplan for an example of this (middle of page).

89. Write backwards
Follow the example of news sites, and put your conclusions first when writing pieces for the Web. Begin with a headline and a few sentences of summary, them fill in the details. See WSACP site an example of this.

90. Keep it on one page
Commercial sites only run articles onto a separate page in order to display more banner ads. You don't need to: keep short, one-subject pieces on one page. See Rejseforsikring for an example of this.

91. Leave a forwarding address
It's always frustrating if you bookmark a page and the site structure changes when you return. Avoid 'linkrot' when redesigning, by making sure that you leave placeholder pages forwarding users to the new location. se Support Search2Help for an example of this.

92. Save it for a rainy day
Keep archives of older pages online - you never know if someone might find it useful. Se WSACP's New Archive for an example of this.

93. Bring it all home
Most big sites make it easy for users to return to the home page - you just click on the logo in the top-left of each page. Do the same. See Official Pornstar for an example of this

94. Directory enquiries
Make good use of the site's sub-directories as part of your site's navigation. For example, if you have a set of pages that are used to link to other sites, try putting them in a directory named links. This way, you'll make it easier for users to remember where to go next time. See Buy2Help for an example of this

95. The sincerest form of flattery
Users spend most of their time on other sites. This means that they'll find your site easier to navigate if it works the same way as all the other sites they already know. And it's not stealing someone else's idea - it's just smart design.

96. Resist temptation
Resist the temptation to add every shiny new Web technology to your site if a simpler approach will better suit it. Just because you can base your knitting pattern site around a spinning VRML interface, it doesn't mean that you should. Remeber "Less is More" just see Pornstar for an example of this