How to Create User-Friendly Forms



Forms are fairly easy to learn how to build, and while the back-end might be more tricky, it's still not terribly difficult. But creating a form that your readers will want to fill out and not get frustrated with is harder. It's more than just a matter of laying out your HTML in an accessible fashion. It's a matter of thinking about all aspects of the form and the purposes behind it.

The Layout of the Form

• Line up the entry fields.
  It's really easy to create a form that just has the form elements right up next to the field names.

Align the field names.
Lining up the entry fields is not the only part of the layout you should look at. As you can see above, if you don't align the field names it can be difficult to tell which label goes with which form entry. I prefer to align the field labels right up next to the form entry fields.

The Content of the Form

• Tell your readers what will be required.
  A user-friendly Web form will most likely include required fields. These are fields that they must fill out for the form to work. But don't make those fields a surprise to your readers.
  
  Make sure that each field that is required is clearly labeled, and not just color-coded. Color-coding does not show up in a screen reader or text browser.

• Don't ask too many questions.
  You might have 50 questions you would like to ask your readers, but chances are they won't want to answer them all. If your form is too long, they will get bored before they finish and you won't get any results. I have found that a good rule of thumb is no more than 7-10 questions per page, and no more than 3 pages per form.

• Don't ask your readers to type.
  If it is at all possible, use a drop-down form. This will insure that your data is consistent, and your customers won't have to type as much.
  This form is much easier and faster to fill out than a text field.

• Put common answers at the top or selected.
  When you're using a drop-down field, be sure to use either the selected option or put the most common answers at the top. Don't forget that it's okay to repeat answers within the form field, and don't stay married to alphabetical order if it doesn't make sense. For example, if you're asking people to fill in what country they live in, the most common countries of your readers should be at the top.

its stationery that’s a good start. For those of you starting from scratch, choose two or three complementary colours and stick with them – don’t change colou
8 Tips for Designing a Great Website

Square buttons, round buttons, flashy buttons … will they match my shoes, my handbag or my tie? Are you stuck in a maze of buttons, headings, bullets, sub-headings and colour schemes?
STOP!!!!
Take a deep breath and read some practical tips for professional looking websites.


1. Select a colour scheme and stick to it.
If your company has a logo or preferred colours on rs on every page.
The most common colour schemes include:
- Red, yellow and white
- Blue and white
- Red, grey and white
- Blue, orange and white
- Yellow, grey and white.
If you’re not sure what colour scheme to choose, surf the internet and find a website that you like. You can then model your colour scheme on what already exists.

2. Use templates.
Can’t find a website you really like? Another option is to choose a template. There are many templates or pre-set designs. These come as part of your web design software (such as FrontPage) or you can check out some websites that specialise in designing templates.
Visit:
www.web4business.com.au emplates1.htm
www.newtemps.com
www.website-templates-resale-rights.com
www.123webtemplatesandmore.com



3. Provide an easy to use navigation system.
This is one of the most important issues to consider when designing a website. You need to ensure your visitors can find what they are looking for easily. Most websites either display their navigation bar on the left or at the top. And since most people are used to this type of navigation, it’s best to stick with it.
It also helps to include your navigation bar at the bottom of each page to save your visitors from having to scroll back to the top.

4. Don’t go overboard on special effects
Whilst it is ok to have one or two special effects to jazz up your website, spinning graphics and logos often distract your visitor from the content, not to mention they can take too long to download. Your visitors may click away even before your spinning logo finishes loading.

5. Backgrounds
Ensure your visitors can read the text on the background, ie. no black writing on dark blue background or yellow on white. Also be careful that your links are visible before and after being visited. The default for links in most programs is blue (before being visited) and burgundy (after being visited), so if you have a dark background, ensure your links are light.

6. External Links
It is a good idea to open links to other websites in a new window. That way your visitors can easily return to your site when they are finished browsing the external link

7. Site Map & Search Feature
If you website is more than 15 pages, it is useful to have a site map or a “Search” feature to ensure your visitors can easily find what they’re looking for.

8. Content is King
While it is important that your website looks clean and professional, it is far more important that you concentrate your efforts on the content and promotion.
If you want a professional website, things to stay away from include:
1. Flash intros, revolving globes, bevelled line separators, animated mail boxes
2. Loads of pop up or pop under boxes
3. Autoplay music. Allow your customer to play music only if they choose.
4. Hit counters of the free variety, which say “you are 27th visitor”
5. Date and time stamps, unless your website is updated daily or weekly
6. Busy backgrounds.

5 Tips for Beginning Web Masters

If you are new to web site building then the task can, at first, seem like an overwhelming one. This is especially true if you've never built a website before and don't know where to start. Here are 5 tips for getting your first web site together quickly and easily.

The first thing you will need is a good web design software program. There are so many packages out there it may be difficult to choose one at first. If you are just starting and are not interested in learning HTML, Javascript, or any other web programming language, then you should choose a WYSIWYG design tool.

WYSIWYG stands for "What You See is What You Get." Tools that use this type of interface behave like desktop publishing or word processing programs. You simply type in your content as you would in your word processor. Many have drag and drop layout features, allowing you to place your images and text exactly where you want them.

Of course, there are expensive tools such as Dreamweaver, but you can get buy equally well with a tool like Microsoft Front Page, Coffee Cup's HTML Editor, or even one of the free tools on the market such as NVU or IMS WebDwarf. Another alternative is OpenOffice, a free suite of tools that includes a web page editor.

The second tip I have for you is to start by using a web page template. Web templates are pre-made web pages that you can use. They already contain all the formatting and graphics. All you need to do is supply the content.

If you are like most of us, designing a good looking site may be better off left to the professional graphic designers. This is the role of web templates. By purchasing an inexpensive template you get a great looking web site without a huge expense. Plus, templates are completely customizable so you can us it as a good starting point and alter it to make it uniquely yours.

Third, focus on your web site's main goal. Do not get so caught up in the web site's appearance or using fancy technology like Flash, audio or video, that you forget to create a site that actually achieves its goal. For example, if you are promoting a newsletter you will want as much content on the page, along with a highly visible way for subscribers to sign up. So many web pages try do too many things that they don't do any of them well.

Keep it simple is the fourth piece of advice I can give you. Remember to focus your energies on creating a truly useful site that people will want to return to. If you add too many distractions you will just confuse your visitors. Keep the ads, animations and other items to a minimum and only use them when they are necessary. Your menus and navigation should be intuitive and easy to use. Web sites naturally grow and change as time goes on so it is important to keep things as simple as possible to make it easier to edit later on.

Finally, have your site reviewed. Let others proofread your site and give you feedback. Also, you should test your web page on as many different computers and in as many browsers as possible. You will be amazed at how differently your page may appear in different web browsers. Sometimes these changes are subtle and you can easily live with the differences. However, they can also be drastic, causing your web page to be practically unusable in one browser. If you can, load several browsers on you computer and test the pages as you develop them.
Creating your first web page does not have to be a daunting task. There are many resources and tools available to help. If you keep your end goal in mind and focus on creating a simple site that achieves this goal, then you are almost guaranteed a success.

I make my living from websites -- at first designing for others, and now running my own sites. Over the years I've compiled my very best tips on web design, and I'm sharing that with you here. This is important because it's all too easy to create pages that frustrate your visitors even though that's not what you intended at all.

And visitors who are annoyed are likely to click off of it quickly without seeing what you have to offer.

Useful Tips for Effective Web Design

Here are some essential web design tips that every web site should follow. Design your web site by following these tips and I guarantee that visitors will have a great first impression of your site.

1. Fast Loading web site designs - This is the number 1 tip that every web designer should follow. You might design a web site that looks fantastic but few people are going to see it if it takes a long time to load. Your designs should be optimized for the web and should not take more than 15 seconds to load. Remember, you might have a great design but very few people are going to see it if it takes a long time to load. Click here to for 10 tips to fast-loading web pages.
2. Clear Navigation - Once a visitor has come to your site you need to make them go through your site. To do this you need to have clear navigation. Make sure all your important links are at prominent places. Preferably right on top - that's usually where a visitor first looks. Make use of menus on the right and the left. Try to link to as many pages of your site. Let your information be accessible from all parts of the site. You never know what a visitor may be interested in. Try to also use the footer for your important links.
3. All Resolutions - Today, there are computers with all kinds of resolution. They range from 640 x 480 to 1024 x 768 and go even higher. Your job is to design your site for all these resolutions. The best way to do this is to design your site in terms of percentage and not pixels. Click here to learn how to design websites for all screen resolutions.
4. Browser Compatibility - Make sure your site is browser compatible. Your web site should look good in Netscape as well as in Internet Explorer. Don't stop designing your site as soon as you find that it looks great on IE. Usually Netscape gives some problems, especially when you try doing complicated HTML designs. But don't give up too soon, usually with patience these problems can be easily fixed.
5. Readable and professional looking fonts - Don't ask me how many times I've clicked out of a site just because the font is in Comic Sans and the color is a bright pink or green. Just by looking at the font you feel that the site is not a professional site. Don't use Comic Sans and other fancy fonts that may not be available on most computers.
   
   
   
   If the font you use is not available in a visitors computer the web site will use the default font of your computer which is much worse. So try to keep to common and professional web fonts. The fonts that I always stick to are Arial and Verdana.
6. Minimize the use of images - I believe that sometimes simple designs are the most effective for the web. Keep your site simple but neat. Don't clutter your page with big, bulky images that take ages to load. Instead use tables creatively and design eye - catching icons that will draw a visitor's attention to a particular section of your site. Tip - Visitors are usually more interested in content than in design.
7. Use of white space - Try not to clutter up your page with too many images, backgrounds and colorful fonts. Again use the Keep It Simple principle by minimizing the use of graphics and using a lot of white space. White space gives a sense of spaciousness and overall neatness to a site. Notice the white space in our site.
8. Check for broken links - Always check for broken links within a site before uploading it to your web server. In Dreamweaver you can check for broken links by right clicking on any file in the Site Files Window and then clicking on Check links - Entire Site. If you don't have this facility you need to upload your site and then check it using online tools like Net Mechanic.

Tips for designing a successful web site:
(1) The main page of your web site should load in 8 seconds or less with a 56K  modem
According to two recent surveys, conducted by Forrester Research and Gartner Group, ecommerce sites are losing $1.1 to $1.3 billion in revenue each year due to customers click- away caused by slow loading sites. If a page takes too long to load, your potential customer will not wait. Ultimately costing you business.

(2) Make sure you include proper META tags in the HTML of each page of your web site. META tags are HTML code that enable the search imagesto determine what keywords are relevant to a specific site. About 80 percent of all web siteoriginates from the eight major search engines. It would be a good idea to make sure you've done your homework and fully understand how to optimize your web pages prior to designing your site. This will save you a lot of headaches in the long run. For further information on META tags read the tutorial entitled, "Building Your Site."

(3) Be cautious when selecting your background and text colors. Busy backgrounds make text difficult to read and draw the attention away from the text. Always be consistent with your background theme on each page of your site. Your site should be nicely organized and uniform throughout. Keep in mind, colors affect your mood and will have an affect on your visitors as well. Bright colors such as yellow and orange, cause you to become more cheerful or happy, while colors such as blue and purple have a calming effect. Dark colors such as brown and black have a depressing effect. A good rule of thumb would be to use colors based upon the type of effect you're trying to achieve.

(4) Use minimal animated graphics. These can be very distracting and can cause your page to look unprofessional. In addition, animated graphics cause your page to load more slowly. Fancy graphics won't make the sale.

(5) Your main page should specifically let your visitors know exactly what you're offering. How many times have you visited a site and never figured out exactly what they were selling? If your potential customer can't find your product or service, they definitely won't waste a lot of time looking for it. They'll go on to the next site and probably never return. They're visiting your site for a specific purpose. They want something your site offers. Whether it is information, a product or service.

(6) Try to avoid placing banner exchange banners at the top of your page. These can instantly take your customers or even be indexed by search engine robots. Limit the number of banners on your site to no more than two per page. One is ideal.

(7) Always, include your contact information on each page of your site and try to reply to all comments and suggestions within 48 hours. This will help promote good business relationships. Your business relationships are the key to your success

Your First HTML Form

 


It's Easier than You Think to Make Your Site Interactive Using HTML Forms

Forms may seem like a really tricky part of HTML, but you will find that it can be a simple matter to create a useful feedback form for your Web site. You don't need to know CGI or programming to do it.

Tools For Building an HTML Form

• a text editor
  You can use your favorite HTML editor, but you should be able to manipulate form items and attributes.
• a Web page you want feedback on (and a server location for your feedback page)
• an email address to receive the feedback
• 30 minutes of free time

Steps to Build an HTML Form

1. Open your text editor to create a blank page
2. Build the main page container elements
   

   <html>
    <head>
    <title>Feedback Form</title>
    </head>
    <body bgcolor="#ffffff">

3. Give your page a heading.
   

   <h1>Feedback Form</h1>

4. Start your form. Your form tag will have a couple of special elements:
   
   • action="mailto:your email address"
     This will send the form results to your email address (be sure to change it to your personal address)
   • method="get"
     This sends it all as one request to the mail program (the post method has some unusual results in most browsers)
   • enctype="text/plain"
     This makes the results readable in your email box

   <form action="mailto:your email address" method="get" enctype="text/plain">

5. Add the questions to your form. My feedback form will have 3 questions: name, rating, and comments.
   

   Name: <input type="text" name="name" size="30" /><br />
    Please rate my site from 1 to 10 (1 = bad and 10 = good): <br />
    <select name="rating"><br />
    <option>1</option>
    <option>2</option>
    <option>3</option>
    <option>4</option>
    <option>5</option>
    <option>6</option>
    <option>7</option>
    <option>8</option>
    <option>9</option>
    <option selected>10</option>
    </select><br />
    How would you suggest I improve it?<br />
    <textarea name="improve" rows="5" cols="30"></textarea><br />
    <input type="submit" value="Send Feedback" /> <input type="reset" />

6. Don't forget to close your form:
   

   </form>

7. Put the final closing HTML tags on your Web page:
   

   </body>
    </html>

8. Upload your form to your Web site.
9. Validate your HTML to make sure that you haven't made any typos or other errors.
10. Link to your form.

Tips for Improving Website Navigation

A business often has more than one target audience it wants to reach with its website. Different customers mean different sales appeals and a homepage needs to be able to direct visitor traffic to go to the right places to get information or make a sale.

In order for visitors to find the right information, a website's navigation path needs to be clear. Without a clear navigation path, visitors will become confused and leave before they can make a purchase.
Here are some ideas to consider when designing the navigation on a homepage:

Make the Navigation Familiar

Most people expect the navigation buttons to be on the left side of the website or at the top of the website. If the buttons are on the right, it makes the visitors hesitate and think. You don't want them to have to think about the navigation; you want it to be instinctive and easy.

The more familiar the navigation, the less likely they will get lost or confused. They will know how to find the correct path to where they want to go.

Use Text Links to Reinforce the Path

People rely on navigation buttons to find the main paths of the website, but it is also important to reinforce the main paths with text links within the content. Again, this makes it easier for visitors to immediately go to where they can get further information without having to think.

Decide on a Path for Each Buyer

As you put the content together on a homepage, or any other page of a website, you need to think about the complete path that you want to create to take the customer from information to purchase. The path will differ according to the audience appeal, and your purpose.

Sometimes your audience needs to be educated before they can make a purchase. In that case, you need to make sure that visitors receive enough information that they will feel confident in making the decision to buy. This type of audience will need to know the features of your product or service as well as the benefits before they can make a decision. It would also be helpful to have testimonials and examples to reassure them that they are making the right decision.

When you have to take the time to educate your audience, you would probably take them from the homepage to another area of the website where they can get further information about your product or service. However, if they didn't need to be educated, they could simply go from the homepage to the buy page and make their purchase.

So, on the homepage, you need to make sure that you have both types of paths available: one for the buyer who needs to be educated, and one for the buyer wants to immediately make a purchase.

Decide on a Path for Each Audience

When you are trying to appeal to multiple audiences, it is important that your homepage has information to appeal to each audience. When visitors come to your website they are looking for information to solve their specific problem. You need to have information that they can quickly and easily identify as the solution to their problem.

For instance, maybe your company offers a product or service that is useful to Human Resource Directors, managers, and individuals. Each one of these three audiences would have a different benefit appeal that could be used in gaining their attention on the website. An easy way to do this is to set up three bullets that are questions with text links to take each audience to a separate page where you can exclusively cater to this audience:

*Are you a Human Resource Director looking for XYZ?
*Are you a manager looking for XYZ?
*Are you an employee looking for XYZ?

You want each one of these three audience members to land on your site and immediately find the path that will take them to the solution they seek.

Conclusion

Good navigation on a website is one of the secrets to having a successful website. The information or content of the website needs to be laid out in such a way that it is easy to follow and logical. The easier it is for people to find information on a website, the more likely it is they will buy. And, the more difficult it is for them to find information, the more likely they will never visit your website again.

5 Vital Rules For Web Site Design

When it comes to building a web site that attracts visitors and performs well, it is important to pay close attention to every detail. It's not difficult to do and if you follow these five simple rules, you'll have a web site that people enjoy coming to and hanging out at.

1) Do Not Use Splash Pages

Splash pages are the first page you would see when you hit a web site. They tend to have a nice picture or photo with the words, "Welcome" or "Click Here To Enter." They may look attractive, but functionally, they are empty and a waste. The search engines are looking for solid content on your index page and a splash page doesn't cut the mustard. It also gives your visitors a prime oppotunity to click away. Make that first impression count!

2) Do Not Use Excession Banner Ads

People have trained themselves to avoid making eye contact with banner ads. If you are advertising on your site, the best advertising to do is in-context link ads. It's more of a pre-sell than a hard sell and will make all the difference.

3) Create A Simple And Clean Navigation

The simpler, the better. People are coming to your web site for information. They want the solution to their problem answered and want to find it quickly. Avoid flash and drop-down menus. Keep it simple, easy to navigate and easy to get back. A visitor should never, ever be more than 3 clicks away from your Home page.

4) Have A Clear Indication Of Where Your Visitor Is

As in point 3, it is essential that your visitors feel as if they are in total control of their browsing experience. Always make sure they know exacly where they are and how to get to wherever they want to be. Clear links, site maps, etc are important. If they get lost, they may just abandon ship!

5) Avoid Using Audio On The Web Site

Background audio and sounds that start automatically when someone enters your site is a killer. Don't do it! Many people get annouyed with something that they can't control. Some people tend to browse at work. If you do feel you need to use audio, put it in a control that the visitor has to push a play button to start and stop.

With those few but important tips, you will provide your visitors a wonderfully pleasing experience at your web site.

Do you want a simpler design for your blog? One that’s lean, elegant and attractive?

Well, there are five easy steps to making your blog look better and to attracting more subscribers, customers and members.

And you don’t have to be a design ninja or have worked at Apple to pull it off!

These steps are simpler than you might think. Those who aren’t sold on simplicity might ask: why would I want it?

Here are three convincing reasons that may work for many blogs:

1. Your blog will be easier to read and navigate, and visitors will stick with it.
2. Simplicity translates into strong branding. Like a clean office, a simple blog gives visitors a good impression of you and could lead to new subscribers, customers or members.
3. You’ll just plain look cooler.

Convinced that a simpler design is better for your blog? Great. Enough jibber jabber, then. Let’s get started.

1. Put Content Front and Center

Prioritize content and call-to-action elements over everything else.

Follow the 80/20 rule: 20% of what’s on the page delivers 80% of the value. What content do visitors come to your blog for? What do you want to achieve? Do you want visitors to read and subscribe to a blog, buy a product or sign up for a service?

The call-to-action elements are the 20%, and everything else is the 80%. Put that 20% front and center; give it priority placement, and make it visible on each page, because it’s what matters most.

So, how do you make your content important? You do it in any number of ways, depending on what’s appropriate for your blog. Here are just a few:

• Make the sidebar smaller.
• Enlarge the font in the main content area so that it’s larger than the font in surrounding areas.
• Thicken or darken the font.
• Put graphics and eye-catching elements in the main content area rather than in the sidebar or header.

Next, remove as much of the 80% (i.e. the unessential elements) as possible.

How? The next four steps will guide you.

2. Get Rid of Unnecessary Elements

Leave only elements in and around your posts that directly contribute to the experience you want visitors to have, and get rid of the rest.

• Is your content timeless? Then remove the date stamp.
• Are you the blog’s only author? Then remove the byline.
• Does most of your social media traffic come from one or two sources (e.g. Twitter and Facebook)? Then keep those icons and ditch the others.
• Not getting any comments? Then there’s no need for a section saying “Comments closed.”

For visitors with short attention spans, your blog will be easier to read; and with fewer choices (i.e. buttons), more people are likely to click and share.

Think about it: when was the last time you clicked on one of those social media badges in a row of ten or more? Isn’t it easier when there’s just a “Retweet” button?

3. Get Rid of Unnecessary Sidebar Elements

The more stuff that is in the sidebar, the greater the chance that visitors will click away from the main content (that all-important 20%), so make the sidebar as lean and unobtrusive as possible.

Remove all non-critical widgets and elements, including:

• Admin and meta features
• Links
• Recent posts
• Top comments
• Latest tweets

Here’s a simple way to determine whether a sidebar widget or element should stay: ask yourself whether it would be worth a visitor to stop reading and click on it. If not, get rid of it.

4. Shorten the Header’s Height

Move more content above the fold by shortening the height of the header.

Why is this important? The more content that appears above the fold, the more likely new visitors will stay and read, because they’ll immediately see the content without having to scroll or scan down.

A few simple ways to shorten the header’s height:

• Remove white space; your theme’s style sheet is your friend.
• Make the logo smaller; again, it’s style sheet time.
• Reduce wasted space by combining two rows. If your logo doesn’t need its own row, move the navigation menu to its left or right.

5. Reduce the Number of Colors

The fewer the colors in your design, the easier it will be for the visitor’s eyes (which are lazy by nature) to focus, meaning the visitor will stay on your blog longer. Try to use no more than three colors (that is, three in addition to your main text color, which is probably black or white): one for the background, one as your primary and a third as your secondary.

Here’s one possible three-color scheme:

• Background: white
• Primary (logo, links, call-to-action buttons): blue
• Secondary (icons, graphic flourishes): green

When in doubt, use fewer colors.

The more colors you display, the more stimulated the visitor’s eye will be, and the greater the effort they will have to exert to focus, and thus the more inclined they will be to click that “Back” button.

Notice how Apple sticks with just white and silver. That might sound boring, but it’s stylish, simple and attractive to most people.

5 Steps Summarized

Simplicity is an art, and these five steps are just the beginning. These are the easy 20% of changes you can make to get 80% of the way to a simple blog design:

1. Put content front and center.
2. Get rid of unnecessary elements in your posts.
3. Get rid of unnecessary sidebar elements.
4. Shorten the header’s height.

Take these steps and you’ll be well on your way to a simpler blog design—one that will help you achieve your goals.

1. The user must know what the site is about in seconds: attention is one the most valuable currencies on the Internet. If a visitor can not figure what your site is about in a couple of seconds, he will probably just go somewhere else. Your site must communicate why I should spend my time there, and FAST!

2. Make the content scannable: this is the Internet, not a book, so forget large blocks of text. Probably I will be visiting your site while I work on other stuff so make sure that I can scan through the entire content. Bullet points, headers, subheaders, lists. Anything that will help the reader filter what he is looking for.

3. Do not use fancy fonts that are unreadable: sure there are some fonts that will give a sophisticated look to your website. But are they readable? If your main objective is to deliver a message and get the visitors reading your stuff, then you should make the process comfortable for them.

4. Do not use tiny fonts: the previous point applies here, you want to make sure that readers are comfortable reading your content. My Firefox does have a zooming feature, but if I need to use on your website it will probably be the last time I visit it.

5. Do not open new browser windows: I used to do that on my first websites. The logic was simple, if I open new browser windows for external links the user will never leave my site. WRONG! Let the user control where he wants the links to open. There is a reason why browsers have a huge “Back” button. Do not worry about sending the visitor to another website, he will get back if he wants to (even porn sites are starting to get conscious regarding this point lately…).

6. Do not resize the user’s browser windows: the user should be in control of his browser. If you resize it you will risk to mess things up on his side, and what is worse you might lose your credibility in front of him.

7. Do not require a registration unless it is necessary: lets put this straight, when I browse around the Internet I want to get information, not the other way around. Do not force me to register up and leave my email address and other details unless it is absolutely necessary (i.e. unless what you offer is so good that I will bear with the registration).

8. Never subscribe the visitor for something without his consent: do not automatically subscribe a visitor to newsletters when he registers up on your site. Sending unsolicited emails around is not the best way to make friends.

9. Do not overuse Flash: apart from increasing the load time of your website, excessive usage of Flash might also annoy the visitors. Use it only if you must offer features that are not supported by static pages.

10. Do not play music: on the early years of the Internet web developers always tried to successfully integrate music into websites. Guess what, they failed miserably. Do not use music, period.

11. If you MUST play an audio file let the user start it: some situations might require an audio file. You might need to deliver a speech to the user or your guided tour might have an audio component. That is fine. Just make sure that the user is in control, let him push the “Play” button as opposed to jamming the music on his face right after he enters the website.

12. Do not clutter your website with badges: first of all, badges of networks and communities make a site look very unprofessional. Even if we are talking about awards and recognition badges you should place them on the “About Us” page.

13. Do not use a homepage that just launches the “real” website: the smaller the number of steps required for the user to access your content, the better.

14. Make sure to include contact details: there is nothing worse than a website that has no contact details. This is not bad only for the visitors, but also for yourself. You might lose important feedback along the way.

15. Do not break the “Back” button: this is a very basic principle of usability. Do not break the “Back” button under any circumstance. Opening new browser windows will break it, for instance, and some Javascript links might also break them.

16. Do not use blinking text: unless your visitors are coming straight from 1996, that is.

17. Avoid complex URL structures: a simple, keyword-based URL structure will not only improve your search engine rankings, but it will also make it easier for the reader to identify the content of your pages before visiting them.

18. Use CSS over HTML tables: HTML tables were used to create page layouts. With the advent of CSS, however, there is no reason to stick to them. CSS is faster, more reliable and it offers many more features.

19. Make sure users can search the whole website: there is a reason why search engines revolutionized the Internet. You probably guessed it, because they make it very easy to find the information we are looking for. Do not neglect this on your site.

20. Avoid “drop down” menus: the user should be able to see all the navigation options straight way. Using “drop down” menus might confuse things and hide the information the reader was actually looking for.

21. Use text navigation: text navigation is not only faster but it is also more reliable. Some users, for instance, browse the Internet with images turned off.

22. If you are linking to PDF files disclose it: ever clicked on a link only to see your browser freezing while Acrobat Reader launches to open that (unrequested) PDF file? That is pretty annoying so make sure to explicit links pointing to PDF files so that users can handle them properly.

23. Do not confuse the visitor with many versions: avoid confusing the visitor with too many versions of your website. What bandwidth do I prefer? 56Kbps? 128Kbps? Flash or HTML? Man, just give me the content!

24. Do not blend advertising inside the content: blending advertising like Adsense units inside your content might increase your click-through rate on the short term. Over the long run, however, this will reduce your readership base. An annoyed visitor is a lost visitor.

25. Use a simple navigation structure: sometimes less is more. This rule usually applies to people and choices. Make sure that your website has a single, clear navigation structure. The last thing you want is to confuse the reader regarding where he should go to find the information he is looking for.

26. Avoid “intros”: do not force the user to watch or read something before he can access to the real content. This is plain annoying, and he will stay only if what you have to offer is really unique.

27. Do not use FrontPage: this point extends to other cheap HTML editors. While they appear to make web design easier, the output will be a poorly crafted code, incompatible with different browsers and with several bugs.

28. Make sure your website is cross-browser compatible: not all browsers are created equal, and not all of them interpret CSS and other languages on the same way. Like it or not, you will need to make your website compatible with the most used browsers on the market, else you will lose readers over the long term.

29. Make sure to include anchor text on links: I confess I used to do that mistake until some time ago. It is easier to tell people to “click here”. But this is not efficient. Make sure to include a relevant anchor text on your links. It will ensure that the reader knows where he is going to if he clicks the link, and it will also create SEO benefits for the external site where the link is pointing.

30. Do not cloak links: apart from having a clear anchor text, the user must also be able to see where the link is pointing on the status bar of his browser. If you cloak your links (either because they are affiliate ones or due to other reasons) your site will lose credibility.

31. Make links visible: the visitor should be able to recognize what is clickable and what is not, easily. Make sure that your links have a contrasting color (the standard blue color is the optimal most of the times). Possibly also make them underlined.

32. Do not underline or color normal text: do not underline normal text unless absolutely necessary. Just as users need to recognize links easily, they should not get the idea that something is clickable when in reality it is not.

33. Make clicked links change color: this point is very important for the usability of your website. Clicked links that change color help the user to locate himself more easily around your site, making sure that he will not end up visiting the same pages unintentionally.

34. Do not use animated GIFs: unless you have advertising banners that require animation, avoid animated GIFs. They make a site look unprofessional and detract the attention from the content.

35. Make sure to use the ALT and TITLE attributes for images: apart from having SEO benefits the ALT and TITLE attributes for images will play an important role for blind users.

36. Do not use harsh colors: if the user is getting a headache after visiting your site for 10 consecutive minutes, you probably should pick a better color scheme. Design the color palette around your objectives (i.e. deliver a mood, let the user focus on the content, etc.).

37. Do not use pop ups: this point refers to pop ups of any kind. Even user requested pop ups are a bad idea given the increasing amount of pop blockers out there.

38. Avoid Javascript links: those links execute a small Javascript when the user clicks on them. Stay away from them since they often create problems for the user.

39. Include functional links on your footer: people are used to scrolling down to the footer of a website if they are not finding a specific information. At the very least you want to include a link to the Homepage and possibly a link to the “Contact Us” page.

40. Avoid long pages: guess what, if the user needs to scroll down forever in order to read your content he will probably just skip it altogether. If that is the case with your website make it shorter and improve the navigation structure.

41. No horizontal scrolling: while some vertical scrolling is tolerable, the same can not be said about horizontal scrolling. The most used screen resolution nowadays is 1024 x 768 pixels, so make sure that your website fits inside it.

42. No spelling or grammatical mistakes: this is not a web design mistake, but it is one of the most important factors affecting the overall quality of a website. Make sure that your links and texts do not contain spelling or grammatical mistakes.

43. If you use CAPTCHA make sure the letters are readable: several sites use CAPTCHA filters as a method of reducing spam on comments or on registration forms. There is just one problem with it, most of the times the user needs to call his whole family to decipher the letters.