esign is about more than not only a good idea, but
just making things look nowadays a legal
nice and pretty, it is responsibility.
about functionality, useability,
Publishing on the Web is a
accessibility, and more. In fairly simple process and seems
short; it is about making things to be getting easier by the day
fit for purpose, and nowhere are as ever more improvements are
there more stark contrasts of made to WYSIWYG and on-line
good and bad design than on the editors. However, there is much
World Wide Web. evidence of 'bad' design seen on
In order to discover whether a a myriad of web pages; many of
site is 'fit for purpose' certain them featuring cyan text on
questions need to be asked, such yellow backgrounds, and an
as: Is a website easy to use? Can abundance of animated gifs and
you find the information you were flashing, scrolling, blinking
seeking easily? Can the site be text in all fonts, sizes, colours
found by search engines? Is the and styles - the eyes hurt and
site accessible to people with the head aches when confronted
vision impairment? can the size with such examples!
of the text be made smaller or
Being able to put the pages of
larger? Is it clear to viewers a Website together with a WYSIWYG
with colour blindness? Can the editor like Frontpage or
site be easily navigated using Dreamweaver does not make a
screen reader software? All of person a web designer. Not that
these things, and more, have to Microsoft or Adobe would want
be taken into consideration when that fact to become common
designing for the Web - and this knowledge for fear of losing
is especially important for a sales of their high end software
business presence on-line where to amateur designers.
issues such as accessibility are
But it is not just the
glaringly obvious tacky bad taste be irresponsible and perhaps even
sites that are at fault. How many disastrous for the long term
times have we seen an absolutely future of the Website.
gorgeous, good enough to eat
So; is your Website well
almost, Flash based website that designed or just cool?
looks fantastic but is difficult
or almost impossible to use? I
that in examples like the above, align="center">
the 'designer' has ignored basic
functionality in favour of trying to make the pages look 'cool' - type="text/javascript">
google_ad_type = "text";
google_ad_channel type="text/javascript"
="8710800197";
google_color_border = src="http://pagead2.googlesyndica
"F5F7FB"; tion.com/pagead/show_ads.js">
google_color_bg = "F5F7FB";
google_color_link =
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About the Author:
Tony Williams is the author of Web Traffic in Black & White, the guide that unlocks the secrets of Web traffic. Check it out at http://webtraffic.tdlwebs.com
Article Tags: design, pages, web
