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If you’re newbie, or even if you’re an experienced web designer, you must follow some basic rules to help satisfy your future visitors. The web has progressed through various phases, and each period has been characterized by different requirements for design, layout, usability, cross-browser compatibility and other minor details. Both past and present have one common basis: top-quality web sites are based on simplicity and a user-friendly interface. Since the latest technologies allow programmers and designers to use advanced graphics or even sound-based elements, many web sites owners want to offer such improvements to their visitors. The question isn’t if that’s OK, but rather what potential problems might the developer face, and how can he get around them?

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The basic fact is that almost everyone uses Windows and Internet Explorer. Skilled web designers wouldn’t agree. Google’s huge campaign (which defined usage of Firefox internet browser as its primary goal) has been successful. Moreover, as the basic internet knowledge of ordinary people improves, usage of Opera, Konqueror, Epiphany, SeaMonkey, and other alternative browsers increases. This means that the days of “optimized for” sites are over: you never know if a visitor who uses Linux isn’t going to purchase an item for £10,000 from your shop. Additionally, mobile devices are becoming increasingly popular for internet browsing. For example,  I wanted to buy a camera from one e-shop. Unfortunately, the checkout engine at the server-side didn’t support Opera.

So it’s a mistake to ignore millions of internet users who don’t fall under the “standard” group. Because of the reasons above, and many others, your site should fit the following criteria in order to make your visitors happy.

Rule 1: create cross-browser compatible solutions

Cross-browser compatible web applications have great potential to become successful. This fact stems from the large spectrum of potential visitors that will find the destination site and be able to use it effectively. However, cross-browser compatibility doesn’t automatically mean that the site will look the same under every browser. You’d wonder how many Microsoft Internet Explorer browsers aren’t capable of interpreting the HTML code properly because they have been attacked by viruses, or other malicious software. For this purpose, it’s recommended to avoid using JavaScript or Flash/Object elements for site navigation. Generally speaking, cross-browser solutions are sites that look almost the same under Windows, Linux and Mac operating systems.

Rule 2; Follow W3 standards

Despite high levels of tolerance of HTML and CSS coding errors, every internet browser evaluates errors differently. Furthermore some devices don’t have enough system and hardware capacities to fix code errors. If we were to discuss advantages, we’d find that W3-valid code loads much faster than non-valid code. In addition, valid code is usually more lightweight and efficient, in comparison to code which contains more elements than real content. Real content is what should be represented within any HTML document.

Following the W3 standards creates a pressure on the design team which must do everything manually. There are WYSIWYG editors which generate the source code from a document created by mouse clicks, but these editors usually don’t deliver W3 valid code. Moreover, the size of such source code is usually four or more times greater than code created by a human. In addition, a web document created with WYSIWYG editor doesn’t meet the cross-browser criteria.

Rule 3; Use clear code, not spaghetti

Web designers are usually asked to create their solution from scratch. An image can easily be turned into a HTML document with numerous images. However, developing a site design must include code optimization in order to speed-up the loading time on the client side. Generally speaking, using backgrounds for HTML elements is allowed. What a designer shouldn’t do is to mess up the source code with tables and cells. It’s easy to use cells, but using div tags is more flexible and can speed-up the loading time considerably. Further updates and additions are possible only if the current source code is developed properly. Since there is no exact formula for determining whether the document is spaghetti-free, using class attributes and comparing content size versus code size are the best ways to make sure you’re doing your best for visitors.

Rule 4; Be a waiter, not a chef

You can’t wait for your visitor to be proactive when looking for site navigation, content, shopping basket, checkout, contact form, site search, etc. Maybe you didn’t know that about 80% of all web pages are closed wihin 10 seconds of opening. This aspect of web usability has one simple reason: pages aren’t user-friendly. Since you want every visitor to find what he or she is looking for, you must bear in mind their basic requirements, which are strict but simple. Using too many graphics or using “new” and untested ways of navigation usually brings more problems than benefits. Try to act as your own visitor: browse your site and analyse the design. Consider the advantages and disadvantages: if there are more advantages than disadvantages, then you’re fine. Otherwise you need to do something about it.

Final word

Naturally there are more rules and principles than listed here to create a useful design, without losing potential visitors or customers. However, quality mirrors visitors’ happiness and satisfaction. Before you release any update or new solution, test it on your local computer. In fact, it would be preferable if you had it tested by a dedidated team. Such people should be ordinary internet users who don’t necessarily understand W3 standards and so on: they just have to know how to use a mouse and keyboard. Then compare their results to your own.

Bear in mind that black text on a white background is still the most suitable solution for visitors who are looking for content and easy-to-read, easy-to-navigate web pages. It’s not necessarily the trend for current-generation pages, but innumerable websites still use a basic layout and basic design, and they’re nonetheless very popular sources of knowledge.