Basic Web Design Usability Rules

This Web stuff is not brand-new anymore. We have enough experience with it that we can come up with rules that make a site easy for readers to use and understand. Here are some of the most basic ones:

• All underlined words are links, and all text links consist of underlined words.

• Your site's logo or title (or company name or company logo) should appear on every page, and clicking on that logo or title must take a user back to your home page.

• All small pictures (thumbnails) that refer to stories or catalog items on your site should be links to the stories or items pictured unless they are part of the story or catalog page itself, in which case they should link to larger, clearer versions of the thumbnails.

• Every picture on your site should directly relate to its content. If you are selling computers, show pictures of the computers you are selling, not generic cartoon computers or stock photos of business-attired people shaking hands.

• Each individual Web page must have its own URL (i.e., www.buildprofitsonline.com/rules) so that readers can bookmark that particular page for future reference.

• Don't use frames. Search engines can't read through them, and without a lot of fancy dancing in the code behind them, frames make it almost impossible for readers to bookmark a single page within your site.

• Avoid "splash" pages that say nothing but "Welcome to our Web site" or something similar. The first page a new site visitor sees should have information, not platitudes, on it.

• Do not force readers to use Flash, RealPlayer, or other browser plugin software to view your site's main page or any of its essential contents. Ever. If you do this, you instantly lose every reader who does not have the right plugin (and the right version of that plugin) installed.

• Remember that there are many browsers and operating systems out there. Just because you use Linux and the latest Mozilla browser doesn't mean that all your potential readers do. Some may use Microsoft Internet Explorer on a Mac, others may use Opera or Netscape on a computer running Windows. View your site design through as many different browsers, on as many different operating systems, as you possibly can. At the very least, make sure your site displays correctly in the three or four most popular browsers, on computers running Linux, Mac, and Windows.