Think very carefully before adding sound to your site. Will your visitors really appreciate it, or are they more likely to yelp with pain and hit the mute button? Are you confident that the sounds genuinely do make your site a better place to visit – or have you succumbed to the newbie temptation to add all the bells and whistles you discover?

Even if you do decide to incorporate sounds, you may be well advised to turn them off as the default option and allow visitors to decide for themselves whether to give their ears the treat you’ve offered them.

Let’s say the webmaster of Site A has a nice image on her site. The webmaster of Site B, casting around for eye candy to make his pages more attractive, sees the image and decides it would look good on Site B. Rather than asking Webmaster A or the original image copyright holder for permission to use the image, though, Webmaster B embeds the image into his page using Webmaster A’s server as his source.

Even if the image is subject to a free-use licence, using this kind of embedding means that every time the image is viewed, Webmaster A’s bandwidth is being used, not Webmaster B’s. This is theft, no matter how you look at it.

The same applies to forum postings; embedding a media file which is hosted on webspace that doesn’t belong to you is stealing bandwidth from the original host. Bandwidth costs money, and overuse can bring sites down.

Don’t embed files without permission.

At best, they’re a distraction – even the most subtle watermarked repeat-image. (The static watermarks which stay on the reader’s screen while the text scrolls over it are even more confusing to the eye.)

At worst, they can make what you’ve written totally illegible. This is especially the case where you’ve chosen a mid-range text colour and a multi-coloured background. In these circumstances a large proportion of your potential audience will simply give up in exasperation and go elsewhere. (We’ve seen some real horrors perpetrated by people who are advertising their web design services for payment!)

Don’t make your web pages a mass of blur – create an oasis for your readers’ eyes by choosing a solid (light) colour for your background and text colours (dark ones!) that harmonise with it.

Here are some of my personal dislikes on websites; feel free to add yours:

• Slow loading pages
• Unwanted sound files
• Frames
• Pop-up boxes
• Too many flashing and blinking things
• Spelling mistakes
• Poor grammar
• Entry pages
• Difficult to read – lack of contrast or busy background

“No one should be allowed to inflict a design on users without knowing these basics.” Jakob Nielsen*

So what are the basics? I think Richard Waller’s seven point checklist is a good starting point:

1. Good First Impression
2. Friendly Image
3. Easy Navigation
4. Useful Content
5. Appropriate for Audience
6. Clear Contact Information
7. Good for Search Engines

Further reading:

There’s an excellent article on the subject here:
http://www.waller.co.uk/usability.htm

And an expanded version of the seven point checklist here along with an evaluation tool for testing your site:
http://www.waller.co.uk/usability16.htm

Website usability is a vast subject and one which is growing rapidly. But we’ll keep things simple here, just as we said we would, and look at the issues in manageable chunks.

* I’m not a big fan of Jakob Nielsen (I think many of his ideas are firmly stuck in a 1990s time-warp); however, he is still considered to be a leading spokesman in the usability industry.