Part of David Muir's set of Web pages.

Designing Web Pages Guidelines and helpers

Introduction Creating pages for display on the World Wide Web is about more than mastering the technical details of HTML. It is at least as important to understand how to use HTML wisely to design effective and attractive World Wide Web documents. The links on this page should help create a better understanding of what seperates well designed web pages from badly designed web pages. The design rules accessed through these links contain should be seen as guidelines - what is effective on one page may cause confusion on another. The Web page designer should have a clear idea of what the page has to communicate and its target audience. By concentrating on these issues, the designer can make informed decsions on the design and structure of all pages produced. General guidelines Let there be Web Pages This page is subtitled, Creativity on the Internet. It is an article written by the BECTa Communications Team which give schools guidance on how to make their Web pages attractive and interesting. Design a Web Page A school from the USA offers good advice to schools on how to create Web pages which go beyond the presentation of information. A schools Web pages can be used to support and advance a range of curricular activities. The introduction to the site claims that you will find, "Find tips for creating a content rich, visually appealing web page for your school site." Apple Web Design Guide (Note this site is either very slow, or it has gone... try it if you want, but watch this space for a replacement.) This Web site contains information about general human interface principles that can be applied to designing Web pages. It provides some general Web design considerations and links to other Web design resources that Apple found useful and informative. This information has been drawn from the Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines, from experience and expertise on the part of members of the Apple human interface community, and from information gleaned from the Web itself. Web Evaluation This set of pages is slightly different from the others in that it concentrates on the need for evaluating Internet resources, and particularly for evaluating World Wide Web resources. The pages provide materials to assist in teaching how to evaluate the informational content of Web resources. Discussion and opinion Web Pages That Suck The purpose of this Web site is to help people design effective and aesthetically pleasing web pages. The methodology is based on the belief that if a person is exposed to bad web page design they'll be less likely to use these techniques in the pages they create. By pointing out mistakes, and being told that they are mistakes, you can avoid them when you design your web pages. Frames Suck... Most of the Time This is Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox article from December 1996 (Alertbox is a monthly column on Web usability). Jacob also gives a recommended hotlist of links about Web Design and user interfaces. Sucky to Savvy A Web site written, designed and illustrated by Jeffrey M. Glover to help you design "Savvy" Web pages. He says, "Here you will learn about improvements you can make to your Web Site to make it more pleasant for your visitors..." What Makes a Good Home Page Kevin Werbach's thoughts on what makes a good home page (brief). This page also has links to various HTML guides and Web page creation resources. Helping others to find your pages Search Engine Tutorial The Search Engine Tutorial for Web Designers explains, how to design your pages, keeping search engines in mind, and why it is necessary to do so. Knowledge is a powerful weapon and having knowledge of what a search engine is going to do with your page, while you are designing it, allows you to build a better web page.

This page was first created on 22 January 1997. It was last updated on 1 July 1998 by David Muir Please e-mail comments to d.d.muir@strath.ac.uk Opinions expressed in this web page are not necessarily those of the University of Strathclyde. The use of any copyright terms or material is not a challenge to the ownership of those materials. If you think any part of this web page contains discriminatory and/or offensive material, please e-mail d.d.muir@strath.ac.uk Disclaimer This site includes links to pages beyond the authors' control for the convenience of this site's users. The authors assume no responsibility for the content of pages accessed by means of these external links. Since web sites frequently change, no guarantee can be made regarding the accuracy of the description of these links. In addition, some of the linked pages may have moved or disappeared. If you discover an in-accurate link on these pages, please notify the author by sending a message to d.d.muir@strath.ac.uk