Fr. Frog's Web Design Philosophy

I've been asked by numerous people why I don't have a flashy site with all the cool whistles, bells, and roll-over graphics and Flash^TM movies.  Well the answer is simple.  Those things don't do anything to get information across to the reader and I feel there are more important things than looking cool.  Plus, I simply don't have the time to be fancy, for fancy's sake.

My web philosophy is as follows.

• Make the content worth while. Don’t create an Internet site just because everyone has one.
  
• Use a consistent format for your pages. Create a dummy page with the general look and feel of your site and then use it as the basis for all your pages.  New(er) page generating programs can use "cascading style sheets" which help to keep things uniform if you don't use a template.
  
• Make your first page small and fast to load so folks won’t get bored waiting for the first page.
  
• Avoid using frames. Just because they're the "in" thing and lots of sites use them doesn’t make them a good idea. They can slow loading substantially and they reduce the size of your data area.
  
• Use only Arial, Times New Roman, Courier New,  fonts in text. They are the default Windows fonts and everyone has them. (Symbols, and WingDings fonts use to work but many newer standards compliant browsers don't display them.)  To use fancy fonts for titles, etc., convert them to a graphic otherwise folks without those fonts on their system will simply see Arial, Times New Roman, or Courier.
  
• Try to limit page size (including graphics)  otherwise down loading will be slow on dialup connections. If a page must be large, you may want to post a textual warning at the top of your page to let viewers know it’s a slow page.  While things are getting better, not everyone is on a broadband connection yet.
  
• Use graphics only when really needed. Lots of pictures or graphics don’t make up for bad text.
  
• Avoid over use of color and special effects. They slow loading and do nothing to inform anyone.
  
• Avoid "busy" backgrounds. Plain white with black text is best, especially for informational sites.
  
• Never use light text on a dark background. When such pages are printed on a B&W printer the background defaults to white and the text becomes unreadable with many printers.
  
• Keep your pages and links up to date and indicate the date of the last update at the very bottom of the page. Check your site frequently for broken or out of date links using one of the "link checking" sites.
  
• Keep your site logically organized and provide links on each page to return to your home page or to other pages in a topic grouping.
  
• Provide a means to jump to various sections or the top of the page on long pages
  
• Spell check every page and proof read it before posting. (Ideally have several other people proof read it.) Nothing is a bigger turn off than a website full of bad grammar and misspelled words.  Encourage readers to report problems.
  
• Test everything

• Use .GIF files for graphics and pictures requiring great detail. Use .JPG files for large photos to keep download times manageable. If you are creating an image try saving it in both formats and use the smaller sized image.
  
• Crop all graphics to the smallest usable dimensions to keep file size manageable. If you are taking photographs (either on film for later scanning or digital) for web posting get in close and fill the frame with your subject. This will maximize detail and minimize cropping. Posting pictures of higher than 96 dpi (dots per inch) resolution is pretty much a waste as a computer display is a low resolution device and it will only make the file size larger. Use a maximum of 150 dpi when scanning a photo if you plan on scaling it.
  
• When using graphics always give a description of the image and specify the image size in your html code to speed loading of the image.
  
• Test everything.

• If you have a "contact me" link, be sure you answer your mail. Otherwise, don’t have the link.  You check your postal mail every day so do the same with your email.
  
• Have a "contact me" page that has your mail link on it, rather than having a mail link on each page.  Have the individual pages point to the "contact me" page.  This way you only have to change one page if your email address changes.
  
• Encrypt your email address on your "contact me" page using one of the online encoders available. One of the best generates a java script which you insert in the html code of your page along with a graphic of your address or other "non-readable" representation.  You can generate a Javascript code block from this site.
  
                                      http://hivelogic.com/enkoder/form
  
  This prevents spammers from getting your address with a robot.  A graphic of your address can be generated using a paint program like PaintshopPro or from this website.
  
                                      http://privacysig.com/ 
  
• If you must post another person’s or business’s email address on your web site either do it as an embedded graphic file (a picture of the address), encrypt the address, or spell it out like "xxx (at) yyy (dot) com" to make it more difficult for spammers to get it.
  
• Test everything

References

If you want to include information from another web site on your site, either copied or as a link, you should get permission from the author.  If you use the actual text on your site, include a cite to the author and the source.  While it is not really necessary to use a "formal" cite format they do look more professional.

If using an excerpt or complete text from a website, the formal cite format  is

author's name, "name of page," name of website, date of page, url of site and page, date page accessed by you

You should also include "Used with permission of the author"

If using an excerpt or complete text from E-mail, the formal format for a cite is

author's name, author's email address, "subject line," date of email, type of email*, date of access by you

.* type = personal email, office communication, forum posting, etc.

For further information on using cites and references consult the Greg Reference Manual, by William A. Sabin - 9th Edition, Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, Westerville, OH, 2001, ISBN 0028040465

What is with so many commercial web sites.  They are poorly and illogically organized,  hard to navigate, and full of dead links, but they are loaded with glitzy graphics and pictures.  They constantly are changing the layouts to look more "kool" yet the site is for all intents and purposes non-functional.  Doesn't anyone check their site using an outside computer?  One company's site never worked except for the home page.  All the other pages were on the developers PC and never uploaded to the hosting server. In spite  of numerous complaints it took almost 2 years before they corrected the problem.

Please email comments or questions to Fr. Frog by clicking here.

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Updated 2022-04-12 @ 1549