Answers to the Design FAQ

Here are the answers to your most commonly asked design, accessability and usability questions:

I have heard a lot of bad things about frames...

Too right. Frames may have been an interesting idea for a while but if you are iming to design a site for a reasonable size of content then you should avoid frames. They disrupt the navigation of the user as they move about your site. They also muck up printing, bookmarking and saving pages.

What is graceful downgrading?

Graceful downgrading, in browser terms is where the code that you write to produce a fancy effect in a recent browser will have no adverse effect on the presentation of the page in an older browser, for example, when properly implemented CSS will show in browsers that support it, but be ignored by browsers that don't without disrupting the usability of the page in any way.

Some of the colours I use don't show against each other

Even though some colours in HEX may be different in number they may not show on your screen as different colours as the screen colour depth might not support the colours you use, and choose like-colours which don't show up easily. You can try to avoid this problem by using the web safe pallate, but some people may still not be able to see your content.

Why should I keep my links blue?

It is a good idea, if at all possible, to keep your link colours blue (any similar shade). This is the colour people associate with links. If you keep your links blue then they will find the site easier to navigate.

What is code bloat?

Code bloat is where a WYSIWYG editor (like Frontpage) produces unneccassary code (especially FrontPage). This means the file size of your pages goes up and they do not work in as many browsers as they could.

What is the WAI?

The web accessability initiative is the Web Consortium working group on improving web sites so that their content is easily available and accessed. You can find more information on the web accessability initiative web site.