Web Design: follow-up

Mellissa Z. wrote a great summary of web design principals (although perhaps next time you can site your references) - some of you still haven't submitted this assignment?! Here is Mellissa's (nice work):

I found a site that commented on the 10 good deeds and the 10 bad deeds in many
webpage designs.

10 good deeds-
1. Placing your name and logo on every page and then make the logo link to the
home page
2. Providing a search function if the site has more than 100 pages
3. Headlines and page titles that explain what each page is about. Make sure it
makes sense.
4. Page structure that helps with scanning.
5. Use of hypertext to help structure the page
6. Product photos that aren’t cluttered. Use small photos, then link it to the bigger
one.
7. Use relevance-enhanced image reduction when resizing photos.
8. Use link titles as a preview of where each link will take the user before they click
on it.
9. All important pages are accessible for users with disabilities.
10. If something is working on big websites, then follow along with the flow.

10 bad deeds-
1. Bad search engines that are unable to handle typos, plurals, hyphens, etc.
2. PDF files that break the flow of browsing. They can be hard to navigate.
3. Not changing the color of visited links. It helps in knowing your past and present
locations and makes it easier to decide where to go next.
4. Non-scannable text. It can be intimidating, boring, and painful to read.
5. Fixed font size. The majority of the time the font is tiny and hard to read.
6. Page titles with low search engine visibility. Searches are a good way for people
to find your website.
7. Advertisements, banners, and pop-ups.
8. No consistency.
9. Clicking on a link and having it open a new browser window.
10. Not fully answering the users’ questions in a search.

You need to ask yourself questions when you are in the design stages of your webpage.
What is the purpose?
Who is the audience?
What is the competition doing?
What will your pages say?
How will the pages look?
What is your timeline?
Who will/can test your site?

There are also some elementary rules of usage that you should follow.
Make sure your links work.