Organize your site

• Contents
• Home
• Webmaster
• Some good design tips
• Bad Design
• Web Site Maintenance
• Design Tips
• Extras
• Website technologies
• CGI scripting
• Cascading style sheets
• How to set up your own server

I'm sure you've visited web sites which seem to have been organized by a monkey or chimpanzee. Well, I've been to sites where a monkey could have done a better job. Lousy menu systems (if there are any menus at all), no easy way to back up, no coherent theme at all.

Worse yet are those sites which use flash or some other esoteric application to create wonderfully complex screens which need to be translated or run through some scret decoder ring or something.

What qualifies as bad organization?

• Sites which are just one incredibly long page, going on and on forever, seemingly without end.
• A site which has no underlying theme - it just seems to be about nothing and everything. These can be mildly interesting, but I find I quickly loose interest as there are so many sites like this on the net.
• We have all visited schizophrenic sites - places which do not seem to be able to make up their mind what they are about. One page is straight out of the '70's, complete with loud colors and rock music, and the next is gothic.
• Of course one of the most annoying types of sites is the one with lots and lots of broken links. I know that a bad link or two is inevitable for any web site (especially one with lots of external links), but come on, more than a few is too many.
• Sites with "content" which is really an attempt to get someone to click on a link so the webmaster earns a penny. These have some tempting graphic which says "click here" and when you do you are on some other site which has nothing to do with the graphic.
• Sites with zillions of banners which are interspersed with content which makes it difficult to tell the content from the ads.
• Sites with popups, pop behinds (a pop up which goes behind the main window), exit consoles (a window which pops up upon exit), entrance consoles (a windows which pops up on entrance) and any number of other gimmicks.
• Another common problem - sites which have pages which are too short. I've seen some sites with one line pages. This is even more annoying than long pages.
• Any site of any length which does not have a site map, search engine or some way to find things is making it difficult for their visitors. 
• Commercial sites which make it difficult to make a purchase.
  • Shopping cart difficult to find
  • Don't accept credit cards
  • No way to get more information about the products
  • No way to call customer support for issues
  • No contact information
  • No prices
  • No shipping information

So what qualifies as good organization?

• Good use of tables to organize a site on a page
• A well thought out navigational system
• Good use of graphics, color and text
• A common theme which ties together the whole site
• Common navigational elements (buttons, text links and so on)
• Virtually all links (especially internal links) working

Sites which are well organize tend to pull visitors deeper and deeper. Visitors want to come back again and again, partially because they can find what they want when they want it. There is not confusion about what the site is about and what it is trying to accomplish.

Additional Reading

• A poor design chases away visitors and gives you a bad name Design your site poorly and your visitors will go elsewhere
• There are many silly mistakes that you can make with text People come to your site for the content, and text is what they usually way. Make sure they can read it without being annoyed.
• Graphics are great unless you make some of these mistakes Graphics are great except when you make some of these stupid, idiotic mistakes. (See also Graphics Formats, Graphics Formats - GIF, Graphics Formats - JPG and Graphics Formats - PNG)
• Use animated GIFs very sparingly Animated GIFs are excellent when used properly, but it's easy to overdue it and chase away your visitors. (See also Graphics Formats - Animated GIFs).
• Be careful with various sound options Adding background sound to your pages is generally a mistake
• Video is tough to do correctly Careful with those videos - visitors like video but load times make it difficult to do correctly.
• Be sure and carefully plan your site navigation Carefully plan your site navigation or your visitors will not come back
• Layout your pages properly to keep people happy Plan your page and site layouts well to keep your visitors happy and fulfilled
• Use Java sparingly If you use Java without allowing for non-java visitors you will loose people immediately
• Don't use ActiveX on an internet site My advice is to not use ActiveX at all on an internet site. It's fine to use it on an Intranet site as you control the environment.
• Colors can make or break a web site Want to really lose your visitors fast? Use a bad combination of colors on your site! Make it look like an LSD nightmare.
• Organize your site Properly organized sites are a dream, disorganized sites are a nightmare
• Keep your pages relatively short Short pages are the rule in web design. One to three screenfuls is best, longer is a site killer.
• Advertising is a necessary evil You generally want to advertise but keep it short, simple and tasteful (See also The secrets of how to advertise your web site).
• Use Rings wisely Yes you want to use Rings, but don't use them incorrectly
• Careful with dynamic HTML Be careful with dynamic HTML. Can increase load time, make for slow, clunky sites, and is incompatible with earlier version browsers.
• Don't change the cursor unnecessarily Be careful with dynamic HTML. Can increase load time, make for slow, clunky sites, and is incompatible with earlier version browsers.
• Popups are stupid and obnoxious Don't use popups ever. They are annoying, stupid and scare away visitors
• Are Popups Ethical? Is it ethical to place popups and popunders all over your web site? Depends upon what you are trying to accomplish
• More on Popups, Popunders and other Unethical Behaviors There are many unethical devices such as popups, popunders and so forth. Are they needed or desired? No, they are not.

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