The primary purpose of a web site is to keep visitors informed. To that end, the most important component of a web site is content. No matter how beautiful or flashy, if there isn't significant content few will visit more than once. The second most important requirement is not to annoy or offend visitors. That is why there are no flashing, spinning, blinking or otherwise animated graphics on these pages. They attract attention and are engaging for a short while. But read content on a page with something blinking to the side and you'll pretty soon look for another site to read. Thirdly, it must be easy to navigate the site. If you can't find what you are looking for in a few minutes, it's onto another site. Lastly, it should be attractive, although it doesn't necessarily have to be. Tons of ugly sites with lots of content are hugely successful, while tons more attractive sites with little content gather cobwebs. But all things being equal, an attractive site is better than an unattractive one.
What is the most important information for your visitors? Is it on the Home Page? Amazingly, it frequently isn't. So what do users do? They bookmark the page they want and never see the rest of your site again. Put the same information on the home page and users will see all the announcements and changes immediately. If you put up something else they want, they'll know.
If you put the most important information on the home page, you reduce the risk that a visitor is looking for exactly what you have but doesn't find it before wandering off to greener pastures.
Additionally, by putting your most important information on the home page, you increase the relevancy scores on search engines, thus increasing the chance of inducing new visitors to click on your page rather than the other million sites with the same general subject matter.
Once the page is up and running, you are far more likely to update the important data (important to visitors, not you) regularly. Regularly updated content will bring users back and increase your search engine scores.
Judging by the number of animations and other moving graphics on web sites today, you'd think that most visitors like them. Most experienced web surfers don't. But if a web designer puts them on a page, they look great in a 5 minute presentation to the web committee. As long as no one tries to actually read the content on the page with distracting movement adjacent, no one realizes that the flash is just to sell the corporate client on the design and that it will actually drive users away.
Lastly, for anyone designing a page today (Fall 2003) it is important to design with an eye for the future. For a dozen years we have been creating pages with the content, formatting and data all mixed up in one HTML file. That is about to change.
Several competing techniques are currently vying for dominance. Which one will win is unknown, but all use XML at the core. XML is an enhancement to basic HTML that splits content and data from formatting. Microsoft's latest Office 2003 has all of its formatting options encoded in XML, which is accessible only with the Professional version. There are many more products on the way that will be using XML as well.
What the separation of content from formatting does is allow you to have your own formatting in a consistent way across all the data you use, yet grab data from here and there, consolidate it however you need it. Now that all of Access 2003's data is in XML format, if my doctor had his calendar on his web page, you could easily grab his calendar data, display it in your browser and query for dates and times that were mutually available. Then you could automatically schedule yourself on his calendar be selecting a date. You wouldn't have to make a phone call (and probably wait on hold forever) and the doctor's staff wouldn't need to waste time trying to find a mutually agreeable time. This is a trivial example of what is possible.
Fortunately, there are tools to help maintain properly constructed sites. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) maintains a validation page where you can check your pages to see what needs to be fixed to make your pages compliant. The W3C is the international body responsible for creating web standards.
Creating web pages is expensive and time-consuming. Designing today using yesterday's methods will be an expensive exercise. Fortunately, designing compliant pages is not difficult and is frequently less expensive than the old way. Most assuredly, it will save time and money in the long run.
Toby is a partner in Ventura County Computers and is in charge of all their web design work.
© 2003 by Toby Scott
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