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Home
Introduction
Define Roles
Start with the P's
Be an Advocate
Communicate
Create ONE Site
Focus on Content
Keep It Simple
Don't Reinvent
the Wheel
Teach Everyone
Start Small
and Build
Maintain
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Rule 7: Keep
Your Website Simple
As public service organizations, we have to reach everyone, including those
with slow modems and low-end computers
- Minimize use of graphics - they take longer to download
- Keep text reasonably short
- Divide long text documents into sections
- Give users the option to download larger files, and use PDF files
to make downloading large files documents easier
- Avoid using "frames" -- you're actually forcing people to load not
just one page, but two or more!
- Consider people with disabilities
If you want to translate your site into
multiple languages, that's great. But, there are some caveats:
- Make sure you have someone to keep the translations current
- You may be raising expectations that you can't meet. Since you provide
your website in other languages, your users may believe they can speak
to someone in your organization in that language
Tools of the Trade
Here are some handy tools that you may want to use:
- Download
Calculator: This nifty little free calculator lets you find out
how fast your web pages will download at various connection speeds.
- Who Links to Me? AltaVista offers a number of free tools that let you get a list of the
websites that link to yours.
- Translations: AltaVista
has a site that will translate your pages into 8 languages (French,
German, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Portuguese, and Korean).
- Text Analysis Tool: This little freebee lets you review your text to see how easily it can be understood by your audience. Pay attention to that "fog" factor.
- Usability.gov : Learn to design usable, useful and accessible websites.
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