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The web is full of conflicting guidelines because designers
disagree on the relative importance of the various factors
that need considering - accessibility for disabled users,
consistent presentation, maximising use of latest technology,
who the users are, how they use the web, the equipment that
they are using etc. Behind any set of guidelines there is
an ideology! In case you're wondering, mine revolves around
how the users use the web and enhancing accessibility.
Designing for varying displays
Unlike designing for
paper, you cannot ensure that your audience all get to see
the same layout, font, font size etc. without compromising
accessibility. Instead,
you have to design so that your site content will flow to
suit the various monitor settings, browsers etc. that affect
the display of your pages.
- Proportional design
Use relative measurements in laying out your pages (percentages
for table widths, ems or percentages for font size) rather
than absolutes. This lets your pages grow and shrink with
the user's screen settings.
- Visual hierarchy:
Make it clear where the user is on your site - use tables
or colours to visually connect related pieces of content
and to highlight parts of the content.
- Avoid frames:
The pros and cons of frames are debatable and the goalposts
move with the technology. However, given that search engines
could drop your users into pages that have no navigation,
and that screen reading software cannot yet cope with frames,
I would recommend avoiding frames where possible.
Common conventions
Common components crop up on many sites and there are conventions
emerging about their design and their placement on a page.
These conventions can be helpful in designing a usable set
of pages, but they have to be balanced against any innovations
you want to introduce. Your page design needs to be informed,
but not restricted by design guidelines on the use of colour,
fonts, white space etc. As well as a few key points here,
there is much more guidance in the Further Resources section
below.
- Links as blue underlined text:
Many people scan a page for links, especially those that
match keywords they have in mind. They expect links to be
blue, and usually underlined - links in other colours are
often missed.
- Avoid "Click here" links:
For the same reasons as above, a page full of "click
here"s is no help. Make the link out of the word or
phrase in the sentence that best describes what's being
linked to.
- Logo position:
The top left hand corner of the page is usually reserved
for a logo representing the highest level of the organisation
and linking to its home page. If you have a School or Unit
logo, it could go to the right of our University logo, or
perhaps underneath it.
- Reference info:
Include the person responsible for the site (or the information),
the date last updated, and link to the home page on every
page
The web team have designed templates in line with the University's
Web Corporate Identity for Schools and Departments to
help address these common design issues.
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