The Top 5
By: The Editor

Top 5 Things when making a website
1. Use an "open" system - Don't use anything that cant be easily updated,
scaled and upgraded.

2. Make it "Cure" all - Let your shoppers get what they want - then buy
all at one place.

3. Make friends with your server - Use a server that can tie into the
systems you are already running.

4. Don't make a web clichéd home - Get real use from your website -
use it as a support tool or to keep people communicating with you.

5. Don't put your site on a diet - Encourage user input, and allow
your site to grow - the bigger the more content rich. Only delete
as data becomes stale or boring. Always recycle elements of your site
when possible - to unify and save space.

Top 5 Mistakes when making a website
1. Using your site as a billboard only.
You must take advantage of the great communication powers available to you.

2. Graphics and flashy file overload.
Big downloads slow and choke a web page - which ends up irritating a visitor.

3. Time flies - Update that site - otherwise it will become one of the
many forgotten memories of browsing past. Even if you have no new items to add - keep changing the graphics or layout to prevent browser boredom.

4. Old News Is Bad News - Keep content fresh, don't keep hammering at dead issues or post old information or events.

5. Use a go-between. If you are developing a company site - you should want to have someone to communicate and get everything to come together - think of him/her as a web "producer". Otherwise you may experience a very slowly designed web page.

Last moment design thoughts:
Don't be tempted to use those obscenely large JAVA applets - sure they do cool spiraling colors or flashy warps but keep in mind a 100 Kb applet may choke a poor users modem. Remember at 50 Kbps (56 K - FCC limit) a user will be getting that information at 5 KB a second; so if that  applet will take longer than 17 seconds, the user will have already left for faster pages 9 seconds ago!

Remember the same rule applies to: midi music, MP3, Macromedia Flash or slide shows.

 

 

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