40 Good and Bad Web Design Tips

This webpage provides 20 "do's" and 20 "don'ts" to follow while designing the perfect webpage. This site serves as a mini guideline for all web designers.  This webpage also provides links to two examples of a good and a bad web design page.

The Good

1. Background does not interrupt the text

2. Text is big enough to read, but not too big

3. The hierarchy of information is perfectly clear

4. Columns of text are narrower than in a book to make reading easier on the screen

5. Link colors coordinate with page colors

6. Links are underlined so they are instantly clear to the visitor

7. Every graphic link has a matching text link

8. Graphics and backgrounds use browser-safe colors

9. Every web page in the site looks like it belongs to the same site

10. Navigation buttons and bars are easy to understand and use

11. Navigation is consistent throughout web site

12. Navigation buttons and bars provide the visitor with a clue as to where they are

13. A large site has an index or site map

14. Good use of graphic elements (photos, subheads, pull quotes) to break up large areas of text

15. Animated graphics turn off by themselves

16. Buttons are not big and dorky

17. Every graphic has an alt label

18. Pages download quickly

19. Test to make sure your design features degrade gracefully in diverse web browsing environments

20. Spell check and proof-read your documents.

The Bad

1. Text that is too small to read

2. Text crowding against the left edge

3. Text that stretches all the way across the page

4. Centered type over flush left body copy

5. Paragraphs of type in all caps

6. Paragraphs of type in bold

7. Paragraphs of type in italic

8. Paragraphs of type in all caps, bold, and italic all at once

9. Underlined text that is not a link

10. Default gray color for background

11. Large graphic files that take forever to load

12. Meaningless or useless graphics

13. Tables used as design elements, especially with extra large (dorky) borders

14. Anything that blinks, especially text

15. Multiple things that blink

16. Useless page titles that don't explain what the page is about

17.  Busy, distracting backgrounds that make the text hard to read

18. Multiple animations that never stop

19. Having to scroll sideways

20. Color combinations of text and background that make the text hard to read

Example: Good Webpage and a Bad Webpage

By: Charlie Murphy And Wayne Dooley 

E mail Address: Werdddd@aol.com