General Ground Rules for Website Design

1. Overall Look
It should look:
Clean
Uncluttered
Professional
Attractive

2. Message
Information
Advice
Help with a problem
Opportunities to contact similarly minded people
Links to useful sites

The information about your site should be:
Easy to follow
Easy to find

3. Speed
· Ensure that the home page at least, loads as quickly as possible. Web visitors are 'flashing past' as well, so the front page has to be simple and fast.

4. Graphics and Layout
· No cartoons to be on the site.
· Images sizes should be kept to a minimum.
· No Flash Pages

Graphics:
Faces should 'look' to the centre of the page.
Cars should be 'parked' facing towards the centre of the page.

5. Text Readability
· The words need to stand out on the page -- surrounded with plenty of white space.
· No dark backgrounds.
· Avoid certain coloured backgrounds that make it very difficult to read the text; purples, orange toning and reds dazzle the eyes.
· Plain fonts such as Arial, Times New Roman, Garamond and Courier are preferred. No fancy fonts such as Gothic, Script, Westminster, or Cloister.

6. Page 'readability'
· Pages must be easy for visitors to read
· Use key points on each page.

7. Fonts
· A standard font required for all the headings and sub-headings.

8. Navigation
· The main navigation bar should run down the left or right side of the page.
· On a long page a brief navigation bar along the bottom of the page or a home top of page option.

9. Words
· Avoid poor spelling, careless grammar and punctuation, ensure that text is proof-read.