A good starting point is Jakob Nielson’s website: http://www.useit.com/. He reminds us that online readers will scan text quickly (and in an ‘F-shape’ pattern) and therefore a webpage should use:
- Concise and scannable text to improve usability
- Effective headings, sub-headings and bullet points
- Easy-to-understand, commonly used language to aid ‘findability’
- Information-carrying text to lead titles and headings to aid searches
- The inverted pyramid and hypertext theories of writing style (most important points first)
Parker (1990) also offers online design advice such as making content 'bite-sized', restricting text to one column and using plenty of white space around the page. Nielson also discusses the top ten mistakes that are made with web-pages such as legibility and failure to tell readers what to expect when they click on a link. I hope this blog doesn’t break any of the rules!
Separately, websites that win awards are good inspiration. There’s nothing wrong with emulating the best-in-class webpage designs. Try this one: http://silentbits.com/2006/06/22/top-20-weblog-designs/
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