HTML Syntax

• You cannot rely on your browser because some are more tolerant of errors than others.
• Don't compound style (<B> <I>text</I> </B>)
• Overlapping tags (<B> <A HREF="foo">text</B> </A>)
• Lint
• Use text-only files (word-processor formatting commands are deadly)

Browser and Platform Independence

• Default window width (avoid images over 475 pixels wide)
• Text-only browsers (Lynx)
• Browser navigation buttons
• User customization of fonts, window size, colors
• Don't try to outsmart the browsers to get your page layout
• Special characters (e.g., Icelandic letters)
• Test on many browsers

Page length

• One line is too short to be worthwhile; reader feels cheated
• Ten screens is too long, too hard to scroll down
• Is the page too long for its printed form?
• Too many images increases download time
• Horizontal images better use the real estate
• Let the nature of the material determine breakup into pages

Imagemaps

Download time

• Problems: large images, audio, video
• Do you really need them?
• Rule of thumb: All images < 80K; total per page < 400K
• Re-use images; browser will cache them.
• Warn users of size of audio and video

Aesthetics

• Page designer must understand the philosophy of the Web
• Page designer cannot control fonts, placement, line breaks
• Designer labels the information for what it is, and the browser displays it appropriately
• Backgrounds can destroy readability
• Use <H6> with great caution. Here is an example:

This is written using the <H6> and </H6> tags.

Reader orientation

• Titles should make sense globally and locally
• Link back to entry page and perhaps other pages
• Name and contact information of webmaster and page author
• Date page was last revised
• URL of the page