Dress Your Page For Success

I am not the best web programmer out there. My web pages are not the fanciest, flashiest, or the coolest. I also like flowers even though they're not specifically Trek or Buffy. However, my site is effective at what it does. It provides visitors with content, mainly my fic and contests.

I read many stories in contests and on authors' websites. I stop reading many stories before the end because I can't handle the eye strain. Sometimes I email the author to gently let them know that their page is hard for me to read. That's an awkward thing to do, so most of the time I close the page and say nothing.

Ask yourself, if your page is hard to read, would anyone tell you?

I like to write fic and I like to read it. I often find that I'm thwarted in my attempts to enjoy fic by the author's or web host's design choices. Pretty pictures are nice. Fic is nice. Fic over pretty pictures is a headache in the making.

And then there's frames. I think some people just don't understand that their visitors may have different browsers and different screen settings. For those of you who don't know, DIFFERENT browsers display the same page DIFFERENTLY. It may look beautiful on your screen and be totally unreadable on your visitors' screens.

In that vein I'd like to make some observations.

Keep backgrounds simple.
Pretty is not the same as readable.
Have more than adequate contrast.

Uh, I meant contrast between text and background.

How about actual contrast?

Now I can really read the story. Maybe those pics need a different venue?
Just because you can read it while squinting doesn't mean your audience is willing to.
Cool does not equal good.

Finally, let's remember what we all learned from Jurassic Park. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

Web creation help chearfully provided at Jadie's Nexus (My Very Own Website Forum). You can discuss or get help on HTML, XHTML, CSS, JavaScript and other web topics.

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