Best Practices
When designing a website, a few practices should be followed not only to make the site look good, but also function the same across browsers and be accessible to mobile users:
- DO have a good idea/goal for the site you are building. Building a website without first planning out its' purpose and function will likely have you going around in circles and will also create confusion.
- DO have a matching color scheme for your site. This part can be modified as you go along, but common sense dictates that your content should contrast against your background instead of blend.
- DO test your website to ensure that it is compatible across the major browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Edge). It should be said that compatible does NOT mean pixel perfect. As long as the basic design and flow is the same, small details can be corrected later in time.
- DO make sure that your site is printer friendly to make sure users don't waste printer ink should they choose to print pages from your site.
- DO make sure your site code is valid using the W3C validator. This ensures that your code is up to date and free of errors.
- DON'T use bright colors (ex. lime background with yellow text) with each other (unless that is the look you are going for on your site). Doing so will likely make your users strain their eyes to see your content.
- DON'T put video or audio elements on the page and then disallow users to control playback, volume, etc. Doing so is discourteous to visitors and is immensely irritating if the video/audio in question is initially loud. Also, avoid using screamer videos and abrupt loud noises.
- Avoid using popups on your pages. They are not only annoying to deal with, but many users out there have some form of popup blocker either built into their browser or installed from a another source, therefore rendering popups obsolete.
In short, don't do this when creating a website.