IX. Specific Notes in Producing and Developing Homepages
(B) Design
1. Graphics
80. Careful use of graphics is important in homepage design. File size of graphics needs to be small enough for fast downloading without sacrificing the quality. While few browsers lack the ability to handle graphics, some users for functional purposes switch this feature off. Webmasters can try the downloading time with an ordinary modem to find out the speed which users to the site will experience. It will also be useful to include a description of the image (alt=" ") to keep users informed of what to expect while the graphics are being downloaded and to decide whether such graphics are relevant. Heavy graphics are quite common at the entry pages. Providing a text button going directly to the site map at the top left hand corner of the entry page would enable users to choose to enter the site and not to wait for the download of all the graphics. To facilitate those with limited finger movement in using the mouse, the size of the button should not be too small.
2. Clickable pictures/image maps
81. Clickable pictures / image maps create an entertaining variation and can provide a lively and attractive index. But it is time-consuming to download such maps. It would be a good idea to include also a text-only index. Some of our users are frequent users and they are more interested in getting information quickly than in admiring the visual appearance of the page.
3. Backgrounds
82. Backgrounds are acceptable so long as they do not delay downloading time or cause difficulties in reading. Text should avoid overlapping with graphics. A white background is always an alternative.
4. Pictures
83. For pages carrying abundant photographs, we should consider starting a picture gallery specified by links with thumbnail photos. Please note that -
- the thumbnails are themselves graphics and if large or numerous will take some time to download;
- there is a massive loss of details in thumbnails. This technique should only be used if a rough idea of the picture content is sufficient; and
- an alternative method is to provide a list of text descriptions of the pictures with clickable links to the pictures. In this case, it would be preferable to indicate the file size of each picture.
5. Animation
84. This is a useful feature to liven up a page but designers should bear in mind that some animated graphics require long downloading time. Designers should strike a balance between attractiveness of web pages and the downloading time required as well as accessibility by the visually-impaired. Animation tools that create lightweight files should be used. Animated GIF and Flash are popular formats that can serve this purpose.
6. Audio-visual materials
85. Generally audio-visual materials have to be downloaded as a file and then played back by a media player in the recipient’s computer. Some media formats such as Quick Time, Real Media and Windows Media support ‘streaming’ feature which are highly compressed and can reduce the downloading time.
7. Multimedia effects
86. Designers who take an interest in their work will find the technical literature full of exciting new effects which may be used in the web pages. Many of these are quite demanding in terms of browser capability, download speed or software. Designers should be encouraged to concentrate on the information which the page needs to convey, and pick the technology that best serves the purpose.
87. While the use of technology is to be carefully balanced, emerging technologies can help deliver new types of contents and services. For example, with the wider use of broadband transmission in households, more multimedia contents can be delivered e.g. web broadcasting, real time playing of video on the web, etc.
8. Title for each web page
88. A title should be given in the HTML code <title> at the top of each web page. This will appear at the top when viewed in a browser and facilitate work of the search engine (see also paras. 59 to 64 above).
9. Use of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
89. The presentation of web pages such as fonts, colours, spacing etc. should best be managed by a cascading style sheet. More information can be found at http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/.
|