Chapter 11: Maximising site useability
In this chapter you will learn how to create websites that are easy to use and navigate by taking into account user preferences and various techniques.
Why promote useability?
The Internet is a source of information accessible to people around the world. Being so widespread, there may be hundreds of sites that specialise on a particular topic. To make your website stand out from the rest, it is important that you make it appeal to as many people as possible. One of the easiest ways of addressing this is to make your site easy to use.
Spelling, punctuation and grammar
The most obvious issue which is often overlooked when developing websites is to ensure that the spelling, punctuation and grammar is correct. This is very simple to check and can save you from embarrassment and bad reviews about your site in the future.
Since the Internet is global, you may choose to develop a site in a language that you are not entirely familiar with. If possible, you should seek advice from someone experienced in the language to check the contents of your pages.
Compatibility with different Web browsers
The BestAddress HTML Editor provides you with the ability to incorporate the latest technology into your websites. Internet technology is changing all the time. Although your site may look great with all the latest features, you should also consider those users who are accessing your site using older browsers that may not support the new technology. Make sure that your pages are still accessible even if the visitor is not able to use every aspect of your page (such as viewing an applet or running a script). The most common issues that you should consider are listed below:
- Non-standard elements: The BestAddress HTML Editor generally only uses HTML elements that are part of the latest W3C specification. This ensures that the elements are compatible with all the latest browsers. Companies which produce web browsers sometimes create browser-specific elements that will only work with their browser. Other browsers are unable to interpret them. To make sure that the element you are planning to use are part of the W3C specification, simply check if it is listed in the HTML Language Reference section in BestAddress' help file.
- Use of Style Sheets: Although CSS has been around for quite some time and most browsers support it, there are still older web browsers in use that do not. Make sure that your page design and layout does not solely rely on the use of CSS.
- Multimedia: Images, sound files, videos and applets are supported by most browsers, even older ones. You should, however, still take into consideration those people who are unable to view them. These include vision impaired people, people using older browsers, those who have chosen not to have these files display or in the case where a file was failed to load. Using the alt= attribute you can include a description in the event that the element does or can not be displayed.
Use of the correct colours
The Internet thrives on the use of colour. Colour is used from the pictures and images used on sites to the colour of text and the background.
When using colours, you should make sure that the contents of the page can easily be read. Try to use colours that are not similar in brightness. For example, use dark text on a light background or light text on a dark background.
Some colour combinations are very hard to read (such as blue text on a red background) while other combinations are very easy to read (such as black text on a white background).
If your page contains a large section of text, consider using black text on a yellow background - it makes reading it much easier.
Another consideration is the number of colours a particular computer can display. Although most of today's computers can display millions of colours, other computers can only display 256 or as little as 16. In addition, the way colours look often differ from one computer platform to another.
Maintain consistency throughout your pages
Ensure that all the pages within your site have a similar layout and use of colours. Many people find it irritating visiting a site where the way pages look continuously changes and may believe they have left your site.
Frames
The use of frames was covered earlier in this tutorial. Although frames offer a convenient way of presenting large sites, not all browsers support them. There also tend to be many problems associated with their use. Many people find that it is difficult to print, navigate, save or bookmark pages in a frames-based site.
Wherever possible, use tables as an alternative. Most browsers support them, they are highly flexible and are less likely to cause problems to your users.
Use text-based links
To help aid users navigate your site, provide a list of links to major sections at the bottom of every page.
Provide site maps
Site maps are an easy way to offer a navigational aid to your users. Site maps are simply a webpage within your site that contains an organised list of its various sections.
Size of the page
Always consider the size of your page in the design process. Every multimedia feature that your include (such as images) slows down the time your page takes to load. People tend to get impatient quickly if a page takes a considerable time to display and may choose to go elsewhere. Wherever possible, try to keep the download requirements for your average page far below 200KB.
Targeting a specific group based on demographics
If you know that your website mainly targets a specific group of people using a specific type of computer, you can base your design on their requirements. If possible, try doing some research on the types of computers your users use and work within their requirements.
Where to from here?
After finally having completed your website you will be ready to publish it in Chapter 12: Publishing your Website on the Internet.
