Tips
Every Web site should be a unique representation of your program, department or division. However, there are some things that should be on every site and should apply for every Web site. Here are a few tips for making your site more user-friendly.
- Be sure to keep your Web site as current and accurate as possible. The content that you provide should be relevant and useful to the visitor.
- The fewer clicks the better – create the shortest possible route. If visitors land at your site and do not found what they are looking for in first two clicks, they will generally move on to another site.
- Save the top of your page for your most important content. Good content must flow to the top.
- Avoid long blocks of text. Use tools that facilitate scanability, like bullets, hyperlinks, etc.
- Group your navigational options in relevant categories.
- Make your links descriptive. They should indicate what the user will be linking to, as opposed to just saying “click here.”
- Don’t underline anything that is not a link, otherwise your customers may click on it and become frustrated. Underlines have become synonymous with links on the Web.
- When linking to a non-HTML file, such as Excel, Word or Acrobat, make it evident by including a small icon next to the link or text identifying the link.
- Don’t link to “under construction” pages. If they are not finished, do not add them to your site’s navigation.
- Post your contact info on every page of your site, along with your e-mail address.
- Try to limit PDF use to forms and other documents that require signatures.
- If a page is too long, break it into several pages and link to them.
- Use only .gif and .jpg graphic formats. Make your image files as small as possible while maintaining acceptable quality.
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Be sure there's a link to UWG's home page on every page.
