Web Site Look & Feel Suggestions Organize information so that the user can understand what is available from the home page, and then reference with links to others pages. Don’t try to put everything on the home page, but make it obvious how to find the most important/most used content. Group similar information together. Limit content to one screen's worth whenever possible; avoid making the user scroll. For long pages, use anchor tags to “jump” down and back up on the page. Sometimes long pages make sense, especially for content that is likely to be printed. Avoid using frames—individual pages become difficult to bookmark and are confusing to designers inheriting your site. Make sure users know where they are—make your headlines and page titles consistent with navigation. Surf through your site as if you had never seen it before or ask a novice user to do the same. Keep navigation consistently placed on the page. Offer users a way to get back to the home page. Keep navigation simple and straight-forward. The 3-click rule may be too constraining for a big site, but a "clear path" is possible regardless of site size. When laying out pages of linear material, use Previous/Next buttons and a Top button. Consider using a table to put text next to images, or control the width of your text – it can be easy to lose your place reading lines of text on a wide screen. Use cell padding and/or spacing to make your tables attractive. Stick to a few font sizes/overall colors and leave more white space than you think you should. Bold or enlarge only truly important information. Use italics only on larger font sizes, since it can be difficult to read when small. For large graphics, consider using a thumbnail (tiny) graphic, with a link to the full-size graphic on a separate page. Some users may not be able to access sounds/animation, so offer another way to get the information. If you use music, the quality is good, not an annoyance. As recommended, use brief filenames in case users have to type the URL. Avoid underscores in filenames—if links are underlined, the underscores are obscured.
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