- Keep your style simple - too many colors can be distracting. Too complicated a page can make finding anything difficult
- Not too cluttered.
- Keep plenty of white space (blank areas between text and pictures) to make items easier to read and search for.
- Keep white space between images and graphis so that the pictures don't run into one another
- Keep your pages consistent
- Same color theme throughout the page will remind the user they are still within your web site. If you chage colors and style of pages, the user might be confused whether they are still on your site or have left your site and have gone someplace else.
- Graphics - use consistant graphics (same chapter logo, same style of graphic) to keep your pages looking the same.
- Look at other sites
- Look at other Chapter's website to get an idea about what you want or to give you ideas about things you haven't thought of yet. You are not stealing ideas, just borrowing. Isn't imitation the greatest form of flatter?
- www.eaa.org and www.airventure.org
- Navigation - keep the naviation consistant between pages.
- Keep the syle of the navigation consistant, buttons, links or images should be the same page to page.
- Include the basic navigation on each page, (Newsletter, Young Eagles, Chapter Projects, etc) so that users do not have to back click or click too many times to find what they are looking for.
- Include a home link so that users can return to the chapter's homepage.
- Images
- Use low resoultion images. The larger the image the longer it will take to download.
- Crop larger images. An image that is 8 inches by 8 inches and 2 megabite in size will still be 2 megabite to download even if you make the image smaller on the web page. Crop and reduce image sizes in a graphics program first.
- Use lots of pictures. The internet is a visual medium and pictures make it more interesting.
- Use captions on your photos. Not everyone know the difference between an RV-6 and an RV-8. Add the builders name if possible. "John Smith's RV-6". For Safety purposes when identifying kids, use only thier first names or no names at all.
- Avoid unnecessary graphics. Graphics can clutter up a page and be distracting. Graphics or images that are too large will take too long to download and may frustrate the user.
- Text
- Use a medium size text, not to small, not too large. Small text is difficult to read and larger text will often take up too much space on the page.
- Avoide using too many colors. Shades of colors are OK, but using too many colors, especially reds and yellows is hard on the eyes and can look like a clown blew up on the page.
- Avoid flashing or scolling text. It's cool to figure out how to use these effects but using them too much is just annoying.
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