Know target audience: Know whom you are designing your web page for, this is the guide to what kind of site you will build.
After you have decided what you want to accomplish with your Web site, you need to decide who you want to visit your site. This may seem to be a silly question, since most people want everyone to visit their Web site. However, it is difficult to create a Web site that every single person in the world will be able to use. People use different browsers, connect at different speeds, and may or may not have media plug-ins. All these factors can affect the use of your site. That is why you need to determine a target audience.
Think about the people who will be attracted to your Web site, or who you hope to attract. What kinds of computers do you think they will be using, what platform might be the dominant one (Macintosh, Windows, Linux, and so on)? What is the average connection speed (33.6 modem or DSL)? What kinds of browsers and monitor sizes will they be using? Are you creating an intranet site where everyone will be using the same computer OS and browser? All of these factors can greatly affect the way your Web page appears to visitors.
Once you choose the audience and have determined what types of computers, connection speeds, and browsers they will be using, you can target your design.
For example, say your target audience is predominantly Windows users with 17-inch monitors and using Internet Explorer 3.0 or above. As you design your Web page, you should test that your site works best in Microsoft Internet Explorer on a Windows computer with a screen size of 800 x 600 pixels. Fewer viewers may use Netscape Navigator on a Macintosh platform, but you should also make sure your site still works on those machines, although it may not display as precisely as it does for your target audience. (Dreamweaver info)
Take criticism: Your webpage will (hopefully) be viewed by thousands of people and each one has their own ideas and views. When creating your site, ask others what they think and don't be offended if they make suggestions, chances are it'll make you site better.
Test your site: Most designers are working on their pages on high-end machines with large monitors; the average person is viewing your site with a 17-inch monitor over a modem. Test your site on a variety of machines. A good standard is a screen resolution of 760 x 420 on a 28.8. A good load time is 15 secs, but some suggest 25 secs. Remember the faster the better.
Alt tags essential: Alt tags are an essential part to a web page. These give descriptions to people who have the images turned off or to people who have screen readers. If your website is for a school or an organization, there might be standards that must be followed. The Bobby website is a great place to visit, they allow your page to be tested and see if it passes ADA standards. www.cast.org
Slicing images: If your webpage consists of a large image, slicing the image will help the viewer stick around when the page is taking a little while to load. It will also speed up load time.
Width and height: It's important to specify in the HTML code the width and height for every image in pixels. These tags are very important for downloading. Specifying these tags in the HTML code allows the browser to make space for the images to load in the proper location – the browser will automatically know the size for each image. If these attributes are not included, the images may take longer to download, and they may even load last! Be sure to enter the true values for the width and height of each image. Other values may case the image to appear distorted. (The Web Design and Development Conference 2001)
Ex: <IMG SRC=”image.gif” WIDTH=210 HEIGHT=45>
Entry question: A good way to entice someone into your website is to ask them a question on the front page. The question will lure someone into your site and once they are invested they will more likely browse around.
Last updated: Many pages have a “last updated” line on them, avoid this. WebPages are assumed to have current information. A better idea is to put today's date on it, people will think the page is up-to-date and the information valid.
Animation: Animation can be great, but all too often it is over-used. Don't put every little gif animation you find on the page. And if you are currently building a page, don't use the construction worker, that got old the day it came out. Instead have your information gathered and ready to complete your site, or don't make the pages accessible. If you can't do that, then just put a little note at the top that the pages are a “work in progress”. This gives the pages a much more professional look.
Site linkage: Good linkage is very important in site ranking and in getting visitors, to check and see how many sites are linked to you, you can visit AltaVista and use their linkage function. In the search box type in: link:http://www.yourwebsite.com
