Why the heck are you writing this?

Yes, I'm aware that many other, more experienced people have written web design guides. But I've had about three years experience of amateur web design. Well, nothing big, flashy, and professional like Terrouge or The Temple ov thee Lemur), but I run a small, personal site, which, in my humble opinion has decent basic layout and design. (shameless plug: Go look!). So, if you care at all, here are a couple things I've learned about webmastering(mistressing) over three years.

Note:

I won't give any HTML, CGI, or JavaScript programming tutorials because I'm lazy and only know bare-bones HTML. If you really need help, go to HTMLGoodies.com - it has the best tutorials.

Beginning at the Beginning (because that's a very good place to start)

Get thee to a webhosting service! Places like Geocities or Angelfire offer free websites and building tools, but they often come with certain limitations or general inconveniences, such as not having CGI-Bin access, which won't impact you all that much if you're just running a simple personal homepage. However, these limitations WILL eventually become problematic when you finally move from the "HI MY NAME IS TRUDY THIS IS MY CAT RUDY AND THIS IS OUR HOMEPAGE" stage of webmastering to the "Trudy's Large Sophisticated Professional Website" stage. If you're capable of FTPing and programming and doing other snazzy, complicated web-stuff without help, consider going to Virtualave and getting a subdomain (example and shameless plug: http://risingsun.virtualave.net is my site, but it's also a subdomain of Virtualave), complete with CGI-bin, SSI access, and e-mail forwarding. If you've got cash, you can also register your own domain (my site is only a subdomain...big difference) at Register.com, which my friend Tony did (Take a look - this is his own domain).

Little Things About those Webhosting Services That Bother Me

This may seem irrelevant, but it's actually somewhat related to the above section. At least, in my mind it is. O_o;; Remember what I said about the limitations of free webhosting services? Here are two main irritants I experienced while at Geocities before giving up and moving to Virtualave (please not that I'm not kissing up to Virtualave, I'm honestly not being paid...however, in my humble opinion, Virtualave is still the best free webhosting service for those ready to move past the rudimentary stage of webmastering).

• Ads: These services are free for a reason - and that's because they're usually sponsored by different sites. Therefore, it's usually a standard requirement of these services to put some form of advertisments for their sponsors somewhere on your site. Even Virtualave does this, in the form of a banner. However, Geocities, Angelfire, and Tripod have far more irritating way of doing it...popup ads. Oh, how I hate popup ads. Please, if you use these servers, find a way to get rid of your popup ads.

• No CGI-bins: Angelfire, Geocities, etc. probably don't have CGI-Bin access for individual users. That means you can't write your own scripts customized for your site, such as guestbooks, image maps, or mailers; you have to depend on the ones offered by your specific webserver, or those from other sites like Bravenet or InsidetheWeb.

Skipping the Building Stage...

Like I said, I'm not going to tell you HOW to build your website, just how to make it run better/look better...

Overall Appearance

Now I'm just going to throw the tips in at random, or at least as they come to mind, so they'll probably make at least a little sense...

Images: General Guidelines

• When using images as links, get rid of that border caused by activating the image as a link by adding the BORDER=0 command into your image tag somewhere. If you don't, it looks pretty darn unprofessional.
• Be nice to those using text-only browsers: add ALT commands to your images.
• Too many moving *.gifs on one page will make it look busy.
• Always, always download images to your hard disk and upload them to your own server; if you don't, they take longer to load, plus you're placing strain on somebody else's server.
• Make sure the images you're not using aren't under copyright (to find out more about copyright laws, visit What Is Copyright?. The only way to be sure is to create all images by yourself. As a matter of fact, make sure EVERYTHING you use on your site (images, music, etc.) is not under copyright before using it

Background Stuff

• Make sure your text contrasts (note: there's a difference between "contrast" and "clash") enough with your background color/image to make it easily readable.
• Color coordination is a good thing.
• While an interesting background image can make the difference between a good site and a great site, remember that load time is also an important thing to consider...I myself have the attention span of a mayfly, and I'll leave a site if it doesn't load within a minute. A background image with a large file size obviously takes longer to load.
• Also, remember that your backgrounds shouldn't cause physical pain. The worst way to lose visitors: they have to leave because their eyes are bleeding.

Music: General Guidelines

• Remember the copyright rule. Get permission before using anything not in the public domain on your site.
• Autostart midis are annoying as heck. Not everybody wants to visit a page blaring Pomp and Circumstance or a shrill version of Wicked Garden by the Stone Temple Pilots. Either provide an easy way to stop the music, or don't use it at all.

Unusual Fonts: To Use or Not To Use?

A certain font can contribute to the theme of a site, but remember that not all browsers support fancy shmancy fonts like Lucida Calligraphy or Aunt Judy. Your best bet is to stick with easy-to-read, standard fonts like Times New Roman, Arial, or Comic Sans. Keep in mind that fonts may be under copyright as well. However, if you absolutely must, must, MUST have interesting fonts on your site, consider using them as header images.

Splitting Up Your Pages:

Actually, I'm practicing a bit of bad web design right here, but I really don't have much of a choice. One thing you should remember is that your visitors probably have short attention spans like me (ooh! shiny thing!) and that large chunks of text like this horrific thing I'm writing here will probably intimidate them. If you want to offer large amounts of information, consider splitting them up into separate pages, or offering hypertext shortcuts (See: HTMLGoodies for the tutorial)

Navigation

This topic alone is important enough to have its own section. (fanfare) How are people going to enjoy your site if they can't get around in it?

General Guidelines

• Always check for broken links. Oy, are they annoying.
• There are several ways to provide easy navigation - I like using tables. However, frames are always an option. Again, check HTMLGoodies if you want to learn how to use them.

Frames: General Rules

• Always target your links (if you've read the HTMLGoodies tutorial, you'll know what I mean)
• Never trap another person's page in your frames. Not only is it rude, it may also violate copyright laws (See: What Is Copyright? for more info)

To Be Continued...

This is getting long...and I'm starting to go blank. Stay tuned for a second article continuing this one (I'll eventually get around to it!). Thanks for your attention