Updated: Jan 29, 2008© 2002 - 2008
These are Design Rules for professional web sites and/or professional webmasters. This questionnaire allows the designer to grade / score / rate a web site - to check the webpage design against a 'subjective' set of web design rules. The questionnaire contains 'brief' tips / rules that are used by professional web page designers. Most of these design rules were found on webmaster design sites, educational sites and a popular webmaster newsgroup (alt.www.webmaster). These are basic design rules for a Professional Business or Organization web sites (NOT for Personal, Game, Entertainment sites).
Good webmasters usually think a lot like a web developer and a little like a web designer. Therefore, these rules 'lean' a little more toward the web developer - than the web designer. Most professional sites rate 'content' as main objections - and - 'looks' as secondary objective. Refer to this write up about The Web Designer vs. Web Developer to better understand the difference in web designer and web developer.
For the 'design rules grade', either agree, disagree or ignore the tip/rule i.e. True, False, NA (No Answer). To obtain an accurate score of your 'professional' design ability, supply an (True) or (no) answer for all questions - even if the 'question' does not currently apply to the web site.
You have about 10-15 seconds to make your first impression. Therefore, the first screen should display useful info in about 10 seconds (at 56k). (and all text must be loaded in less than 30 seconds at 28K) True False NA
KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid). In other words, content is much more important than a jazzy or fancy layout. Keep the design simple so the visitor is not distracted. True False NA
Footnote: The first two rules are often ignored by large companies because they know that people will wait for their site to load. It is called 'Name Recognition' and only sites like CBS, MSN, Disney, etc can get away with the slow 'fancy' sites. If you try it - then you better be famous or your visitors will leave before all your 'fancy stuff' loads :)
Clean, crisp professional looking graphics (less than 30k-50k per image ... total image size for page should be less than 80k). True False NA
Simple and consistent navigation (on all pages). True False NA
No frames or fancy formatting tricks. Use tables and CSS (However, limit the CSS to basic features until ALL browser provide better CSS support). True False NA
Text is visible while graphics are loading (VIP: use the height, width and alt attribute for img tags). True False NA
Search engine ready - Each page has proper meta keywords and meta description (Note: SOME search engines still use keywords and ever link counts :) True False NA
Visually appealing - uncluttered and professional looking. A few examples are.... Do not use a large number of bright colors. Do not vary the font size, color, face, style from section to section. Use professional artwork for a logo (not just common clip art). True False NA
Clear indication of site purpose, products and/or services (and opening section or heading on each page must clearly indicate the page content and/or purpose). True False NA
No splash pages or excessive animation (They just distract from content). True False NA
Appropriate and meaningful domain name. True False NA
Important (critical) information is .. above the fold .. (top 600). True False NA
Backgrounds should not be so loud and so busy that the text is difficult to read. True False NA
Associated background and foreground colors show good contrast. However, Do NOT use dark background and light colored text (because the page can not be printed). (dark background/light text is normally just for personal pages). True False NA
Web pages look acceptable in major browsers (i.e., Internet Explorer, Netscape, AOL and Opera). True False NA
Web pages look acceptable in the two most common screen resolution (i.e., 800x600 and 1024 x 768). True False NA
Important pages are no more than 1 or 2 clicks from the homepage. True False NA
Images are optimized to minimize file size i.e. images are web page ready not printer ready. True False NA
Verify all HTML with one of the HTML checkers. True False NA
The site has contact info including company logo, name, address, phone, email, etc. True False NA
Each page should contain the date that page was last updated. True False NA
Copyright information on each web page. True False NA
Do Not use pop-ups without warning visitor (BTW: most visitors close them immediately). True False NA
Never indicate that the site is Under Construction (all good sites change constantly). True False NA
Link colors and underline should be basic (underlined / blue text is typical). And in all cases, the underline tag should never be used where it may be mistaken for a link. True False NA
Never use the MARQUEE or the Blink tags. True False NA
Animated Cursors, trailing images (other fancy java, etc) are for personal pages - not professional pages. True False NA
Do Not Hijack the status bar or display messages in the status bar. It is rude and crashes some browsers. True False NA
Do Not use a page counter (tacky). Use an invisible statistic script that provides details / info that is useful. True False NA
Avoid Deceptive Advertising - This disturbing trend has arisen in recent years: banner ads that try to deceive the user into clicking them .... by appearing to be a part of the web site or operating system interface. True False NA
Site map is provided for larger site (more than 10-12 pages). True False NA
Site search tool is provided for larger site (more than 10-15 pages). True False NA
Do Not use a Tell-A-Friend site JUST to promote your site. Tell-A-Friend pages should allow visitors to share helpful information with friends. For example, a How-To-Page, a Recipe, a Support Site, etc, etc True False NA
If site requires more than a few images, provide thumbnails that link to the large images. Do Not just resize an image with the width and height attributes. A real thumbnail is a separate image that loads fast ... It is small in both physical size and small in file size (<5k). True False NA
In some cases, site should have appropriate warning about the content (especially if it is an adult site). True False NA
Provide an explicit warning when linking to non-HTML files (or files that require a plug-in). True False NA
If you MUST use image maps they should be very small (load fast). And alternate links Must be provided. True False NA
If you MUST use music, do Not set background music or sound to auto-play. Give visitor the choice after indicating the file size (or loading time), type of music (midi, real, etc), plug-in requirements (if applicable), etc True False NA
Do not use a guest book or message board unless it is really essential. It looks bad to have an empty guest book. True False NA
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