DO'S

 DON'TS

• Design for printing in portrait format
• Include a one-sentence tagline on the home page that summarizes what the web site does
• Clearly indicate what the user will
• Name and logo on every page
• Provide straightforward headlines and page titles Use product photos, when applicable
• Do provide proper navigation support
• Let users resize text
• Do change link text colors after user access
• Name pages for search engine visibility
• Design for consistency and familiarity at every level
• Group all corporate/contact information in one area
• Emphasize the site’s top high-priority tasks
• Use meaningful graphics only and sparingly
• Provide search functionality if the site has more than 100 pages
• Use hypertext to structure content space and break up long passages into multiple pages
• Do the same thing as everybody else, particularly relative to navigation
• Make obvious what’s clickable, use standard links
• Offer contact information prominently and in every form a user may want
• Begin link names with the most important keyword

• Don’t collect email addresses without a privacy policy Don’t use “marquees” (moving type)
• Don’t use constantly running animation
• Don’t leave outdated information on the site
• Don’t do anything that looks like an ad
• Don’t do anything that produces overly long download times
• Don’t sponsor a search function that doesn’t deliver Don’t build pages in PDF format
• Don’t run text that cannot be quickly scanned by the reader
• Don’t use HTML frames (frames are a method to display multiple HTML documents at once)
• Don’t require horizontal scrolling
• Don’t use technology for technology sake (Flash) Don’t require constant vertical scrolling
• Don’t make users open new browser windows Don’t break or slow down the “Back” button Don’t use complex or overly long URLs
• Don’t build orphan pages