What makes a great site

Original article address: what makes a great site Andrew B. King Translator: Jiang Yujie reprinted please note

 

 

Introduction

What are the essential features of a great site? When you visit a site and stop for a while, what makes you stay? A sense of humor is useful. The gorgeous appearance is also very good. But those basic features are more elusive. This article splits the basic features of a great site into some thumb rules that can be simply followed (rule of thumb, a useful principle that can be used in many cases ).

 

Most of these guidelines seem to be scarce items on the Internet, but they are just common sense. To compete with each other, Netscape and IE provide extremely attractive and unique page layout and text marking features, attracting many webmasters to improve the website performance. They only have to write "you must use Netscape or IE to access" in the footer ". This can basically be equivalent to "these pages are bad at non-Netscape and IE access ". Following standard HTML (current version is HTML 4) (1), your page will be excellent in all browsers.

 

In general, we find that users access or exit a site in batches. Your website should reflect the spirit and culture of the Internet, which we call a "gift economy" (Netscape and Microsoft are witnesses ). Very few (5%) sites require users to pay or register members. Many users stay away from one site because of these obstacles. You present valuable things: information, software, reports, and humor. Users will join in groups to come to your site.

Original content is the most important feature of a great site

 

 

The website construction policy follows the website construction policy of internet.com.

The website must be:

1.Provides as many formats as possibleReliable and original content.

Original content is the most important feature of a great site. Websites that only provide links to other sites are essentially a list of level 2 (although Yahoo looks good, note: domestic websites such as hao123/265 also seem to be doing well: when there is a lot of useful information for users, the site will be eye-catching and attract users to visit again. A recent statistics check on webreference.com proves this point. Among all the impressions on webference.com, we provide 62% of the content. Content is king.

2.Provide usersValuable and timely informationInstead of piling up a lot of data

The website must be updated regularly. The old website is "now, another place ". Valuable information must be carefully edited. External links should only contain the best sites and concise introductions. a magazine editor should not rush to publish common or unfinished articles on the site. Draft unacceptable.

Customize content and sites for your users. Consider one-to-one websites.

3.Share everything you learned

Great websites share everything they learn and hear from users. Expose the behind-the-scenes features, try the code open source, and start the news briefing, you will get more from your efforts.

4.Based on USER ParametersCustomizationUser Information

One advantage of the Internet is the capacity of useful information, but this is also one of its weaknesses. Websites that provide custom features (mylook, slashdot.org) allow users to filter the content they see. In the future, the network will be a one-to-one website. Automated and database-driven websites provide appropriate content, advertisements, and even appearances for different users. Technologies similar to web object and cold fusion allow webmasters to create dynamic, interactive, and adaptive sites.

A good example is c | net. C | net starts with two private Content Delivery Systems: prism and dream (2 ). Prism, or real-time community service data report, is the website management and page generation engine of c | net. After that, CNET developed a more advanced page delivery system-storyserver, which is applied to new websites of CNET, shareware.com, search.com, and News.com. The story server promoted by vignette is a database-driven, template-based website publishing system. We (internet.com) is gradually being promoted on our site (internetnews.com is the first website to adopt story server ).

 

The template-based database publishing system is more efficient and consistent for publishers and can provide users with a more targeted experience. If advertisement software is added, more click access can be provided to advertisers. The story server stores content and image elements in the Sybase Database. When a visitor requests a page, the content can be quickly filled in the designed template.

 

Dream, a real-time enhanced message delivery system, is an advertisement content delivery system that c | net has been using since December 1995. Dream dynamically creates advertisement pages based on each user's information, including the user's hardware platform, browser type, host service, and domain name. C | net more than 1 million of registered users receive more attention and use their age, income, and other demographic characteristics to deliver ads. CNET now uses accipiter, a system with excellent target hit characteristics to deliver their ads. Many large websites on the Internet are using professional online publishing systems such as vignette and autonomy.

5. More active users who use 56 kbps cats (they are typical Internet Users)

Save ImagesTo express information. Each image requires a connection to the server, so merge adjacent images or use text or tables with background colors to accelerate display. Webmonkey has a policy of "using images for images and using text instead of image text ". Zooming an image to fit a typical user's window (up to 465 to 532 pixels wide [that is, Netscape defaults to the screen size of a printed page ], or use a table with a maximum width of 580 pixels for the visible area of the largest screen on all platforms to adapt to the Mac screen ). Obviously, if a site is only designed for PC, its page will be too wide on Mac. representative is that the 620-640 pixel wide table is suitable for a PC display, but on a 15 inch-Mac display, it is too wide.

VerticalScatter your tables,It can be displayed more quickly by means of cascading loading (this technology is used on the homepage ). Flexible small tables can be loaded by S at the same time. In comparison, a large table takes a longer time to display the content. Microsoft ie5 has a fixed table length feature that can accelerate table display, but unfortunately it is unique and not supported by the Netscape Browser.

 

Show for websiteOptimize Image File Size(A maximum of 20 KB for an image ). The width and height attributes of the image are used to accelerate the display of the page. The JPEG format may be used wherever appropriate, minimizing the GIF color palette to optimize the file size. Provides text alternatives to images for users with slow network speeds, blind people, and fast pursuits. The replacement of text marks of an image should be of practical use, rather than just interpretation. If the image is not functional, use alt = "(for example ).

 

Remove unnecessary spaces, comments, tags, and comments.OptimizationHtmlCode, Especially on your personal homepage, minimize the file and download time. Products such as mizer of antimony software and HTML Turbo of VSE can automatically remove redundant characters and HTML code to optimize HTML and JavaScript. To minimize the file size, I manually adjust my personal homepage to reduce the file size (a page usually has 14-15 KB ), however, these software can help webmasters who are troubled by file sizes like me. These products support drag and drop operations and must be used before you upload pages (these files are difficult to read after many linefeeds are deleted ). After optimization, your page will be quickly displayed on the screen.

6.Easy to read

Make your page as easy to read as possible. The black text on the white background (as set on this page) is the easiest way to read. I have seen pages that are almost impossible to read, with shadows of the same color as text as backgrounds. If you use a background and a highlighted shadow, keep the text black.

 

Use a wide and short (we use 700*16 pixels), non-interlaced and less than 1 K background image, or. HTML 4.0 now includes a style sheet that allows you to control pages, links, and text color attributes throughout the entire site, making site maintenance easier.

The second most important feature is interactivity.

7. YesInteraction: Good interactivity attracts users and makes your site memorable.

After the original content, the most important feature that the second web site must possess is interactivity. The network is an interactive hypermedia communication medium, which must be reflected by your site. Users can get more clicks for sites that do well in fun or adventure, and charge more for advertising space.

 

Another advantage of interactivity is self-generated content. Allow your visitors to interact with the site. They can actually create content for you. Script-driven user surveys and forums allow visitors to share information with others and help your sites better meet their needs. Forum or chat software is an important way to achieve this. The user-driven great example is Slashdot, which is a new site where users can submit small stories and allow users to conveniently add comments for each story.

Users think that poor organizations are equivalent to poor site design.

8.Good organization

Balance the number of layers by page length to minimize the time required for scrolling and displaying.

 

Sun Microsystems found in a large-scale Usability Study on their home page that users think that poor organizations are equivalent to poor site design. They also found that users do not want to scroll the page. However, after Discovery Channel Online turned their non-rolling design into a rolling design, the clicks increased by 40%. So this is mainly determined by your program. It is a good idea to design the important content that can be seen at a glance on the page, but some sites excessively follow this motto and put everything in a narrow place. When possible, adjust the size of important content on your page to suit the average user's screen (the 15-inch display is generally 465 pixels in width and 340 pixels in height ). A website page can have a maximum of two 8.5*11 page lengths. I have seen many websites with only 100 K + huge pages.

 

One part of having a well-organized site is providing a variety of convenient navigation methods (3. Supports all text and images for buttons. In your entire site, if you maintain consistent performance and feeling, users will feel more comfortable.

9. Use appropriateMetaphor(Refrigerator like Zima or Ragu's mama cuchino kitchen)

Use appropriate image metaphor for your interface to make your site more comfortable. An excellent metaphor, such as using a refrigerator as the door to the zima world, can promote a site that is only excellent to a great site.

10. FillGaps(Translator's note: Refers to grasping the gaps in the market ).

Use Net demographics to pair user data (currently, half of educated men and women ).

Many websites on the Internet only show what others have done.

11.Controls the scope of a topic and becomes the site of that topic.

Do not just repeat.Change the work of othersTo reduce your workload. Let people who are proficient in a particular topic update the list for you. On the other hand, do not infinitely direct manufacturing to the list, identify the core competitiveness of the site, and direct to those articles or resources. Many websites on the Internet only show what others have done.

12. FindSecure and automated servers

Statistics, latest messages, expired messages, automatic responses, invalid link checks, and search engines are some tools that webmasters should use.

Tracking

One part of online marketing is to determine the influence of your page in the public eye. Mature site tools such as I/count, sitetrack, webtends and interse market focus help site developers and their customers easily understand the popularity, stay time, where users come from, where they go, and even the path they visit on the site.. Provides a region for the latest update content. Users who frequently access the content can learn about the updates after their last visit.

Automation

Maintaining a large site is a daunting experience. You can use automated tools for site maintenance. Use local spider, such as momspider and linkbot, to help you check old links. You decide where the link affects how long your link expires. The deeper you connect to a website, the more likely it will change. If it is not necessary, do not move the most popular pages on your website. You will destroy the links to this page. If you really want to move them, provide a "this page has been migrated" page. Many invalid links are neglected by a webmaster.

Search

Allows users to use search tools to retrieve your site, such as swish and excite of Web server. You can use a directory or site map to provide an overview of your site.

Security

Security is often the last issue that large commercial sites need to deal. It is not a good policy to allow curious users to access all your files (especially the configuration files on your server), but it is amazing that only 20% of today's Internet sites are secure.

"A website is like a restaurant. It has a food with a core weapon to ensure its existence, but it must also have a special menu of regular changes, so that its old customers can often come back. This assumption is that a network citizen accesses a site every week instead of every day."(4)

After a website is created, will the user come?

A common misunderstanding about the network is that if a page is created, the user will access it. To build a popular site, you must provide users with information, interactivity, entertainment, free content, and more things than a 800 phone number.

Original content is very important. The user will visit your site once, and you must use the latest original content for them to access again.

Websites that provide free content can receive attention. Free Software, services, databases, or electronic communication can be as powerful as a magnet to attract users. SGI has a free lunch area where you can download free software, computer games, images, and videos.

Conclusion

The network is an interactive, dynamic, and rapidly changing new communication media. Your website must reflect these. Well organized and edited, timely original content, embedded attractive, interactive, and consistent formats are some notable features of great websites.

Works by Andrew B. King

Reference

1. HTML 4.0-the W3C HTML specification replaces the expired HTML 3.2 draft. Including more options, scripting language, style sheets, better printing capabilities and more friendly to people with disabilities. Also refer to the latest HTML draft.
2. Ellis Booker: an article titled "automation takes them one step ahead", Internet world (formerly web week), November 17, April 1996. I also referred to CNET's article on how to do CNET.
3. From Yale C/aim WWW Style Manual, an excellent website focusing on good HTML and site design.
4. From Gerald M. O 'Connell, "a new stadium", Internet world, August 56, May 1994.