My Web Design Philosphy

Call me strange, but having been involved with the Internet for many years and seeing the World Wide Web take off, I find myself getting somewhat disillusioned by what is happening with the web in general. To make up for lack of content, some sites have become very flashy, substituting look for content.

Some sites have become so browser (and even plug-in) specific that if you don't have the 'required' browser (or plug-in), you are left seeing a rude message like, "Get the latest Webscape Explorer, stupid!" or an error message like, "You need the MegaShocker plug-in to see this animation, stupid!" Other sites are so graphically or connection intensive for no good reason (has useless decorations) that those who don't have fast connections have to twiddle their thumbs or go for a cup of coffee while waiting for something to be displayed.

This is bad, because, in my opinion, it defeats the main purpose of the Internet: the distribution of the contents of a web site to the user regardless of the browser they use. Why must I put users through the frustration of getting the latest version of a browser (that may not even exist on their particular operating system) just so he/she can read my web pages?

So, in a (vain?) attempt to fight back, I've decided on a 'web design philosophy', which is outlined below, in designing my web pages. I also recommend you have a look at the web page design tips put up by the Web Design Group which formed the basis of my design philosophy also:

KISS (keep it simple, sir). Why use frames, animated gifs, applets, etc., that do nothing but eat up CPU cycles when I can present my material with plain text? Sure, it won't look as nice. But I have a life to live...<grin>...and I don't plan to spend it making my site flashy. The main purpose of my site is to present information in a way that is easy to find.
Can be viewed by any browser. While some companies fight it out in the 'bloatware' arena, I do not intend to take sides by making my pages viewable only certain browsers. There are plenty of people using browsers like Mozilla, lynx, Opera, Galeon, K-Meleon etc. and I intend to make my pages viewable to them also. My pages are designed based on the XHTML 1.0 specification (the 'XHTML 1.0 strict' version) but they should still be viewable if you have a HTML 4.0 based web browser. I have also used CSS1 (Cascading Style Sheets) to 'beautify' my web pages. But even then, I made sure my pages can still be viewed if your browser does not support CSS1. That is a promise.
Does not discriminate. Discrimination here not only means the handicapped (like the blind) but also those with bandwidth limited internet connections (like myself) who turn off image loading while browsing. I am sick and tired of sites that only use server-side image maps for navigation, making them unusable if you do not view the image.
Makes syntatic sense. I designed my pages in a way that they will make syntatic sense whether they are read on-line or printed out (if you feel my pages are worth printing...<heheh>). You will never see a 'click here to see this link' on my pages. There are many ways to indicate links in a way that makes sense, even when printed out.

[Home Page][Index][Short Reviews][My Weblog]

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws