I. WEB DESIGN TIPS , TUTORIALS & TECHNIQUES

Designing a successful web site requires good planning. Our section here provides you with many related tips and ideas you should know about:

• Various tips and thoughts on web design. A good place to look for before creating your own design the first time
• A fine site about web design: From philosophy over site design, page design to multimedia issues
• Web design tips & techniques - Various articles for web design and application development
• Like to make a new site? Check out this place first. A nicely designed site
• From html to dhtml - You don't regret to visit this major resource side for web site developer's
• Stupid web tricks (Several script solutions supporting web usability)
• Web page design for designers ("..a site dedicated to the creative side of web design - graphics, typography, writing and free-thinking. A new editorial is published on the first of each month with design-related articles, comments and new product reviews..")
• How to build a web page (tutorials for beginners)
• Designing Winning Websites for Engineers: Forget the talking heads and dancing balloons - designers want graphics with information. (Tutorial)
• What makes a great web site? ("..What are the essential traits of great Web sites?
• "..Where you learn good Web design by looking at bad Web design..." - Several articles that can give a hint how web design should NOT be done
• Build your own Web site ("..Use these six steps to guide you the process of planning, creating, and promoting your Web site...")
• How to build a Web site for WAP (Article/Tutorial)
• Site Design With Advertisers in Mind (Article)
• and more...

II. WEB DESIGN AND USABILITY

Good usability of a web site helps to it success. Here are some very valuable concepts:

• Ten good deeds in Web design (Ways to increase the usability of web sites - Tutorial)
• Back to the User: Creating User-Focused Web Sites ("..Back to the User integrates Web design, navigation and content considerations with effective branding and marketing guidelines..." - Detailed)
• ...Study examined both novice and experienced participants' schemas for the typical location of common web objects...- Excellent information
• Criteria for optimal web design (Designing for usability)
• Usability Testing of Advanced Web Concepts ("Initial work on the new design was based on a parallel design exercise where six very different Web site concepts were developed and tested with representative users. The most creative of these concepts was probably the "crystal bowl" home page which is shown here, but many of the other designs were also very interesting..")
• Designing Websites to Maximize Press Relations: Guidelines from Usability Studies with Journalists [$] (Report)
• Concise, SCANNABLE, and Objective: How to Write for the Web ("..Studies of how users read on the Web found that they do not actually read: instead, they scan the text..")
• Web Site Design and Usability Guidelines ("..The purpose of this document is to provide Web site design and usability guidelines based on emerging research about what constitutes a usable Web site. It provides suggestions and tips for improving overall Web site design, navigation, and functionality; and it brings usability guidelines together in one place for easy reference.." - Comprehensive Overview!)
• Usable?...Or Not?...Factors Affecting the Usability of Web Sites (Article)
• Response to Results of User Interface Study - what makes a good website
• Ruler test page: How much can you see? (For MAC & PC monitors. In pixels)
• The user experience - Using controls in forms (Tutorial)
• and more...

III. NAVIGATION SYSTEMS

Navigation systems are part of a web pages usability. Design a good one and your visitors will be thankful for it:

• Designing an effective web site navigation (Nice outline)
• The 7 Design Concepts for Navigation in Cyberspace
• Navigation systems for business websites (Technical)
• Navigation Structures: Building Your Site's Backbone (Article & Tutorial)
• How to Use Navigation Icons on a Web Site (Tutorial)
• Enabling Extremely Rapid Navigation in Your Web or Document - design techniques that apply to web sites, help systems, hardcopy, and online documentation. (Detailed; PDF, 32 p.)
• Rapid Navigation in Online Documents - Design of documents and viewers to support structured hypertext and easy skimming
• Navigation Design - Organize Your Web Site for Visitors (For Beginners)
• Aesthetics and Usability - Advanced Topics in User Interface Design (Detailed!)
• Why Primary Navigation Must Die ("..Users mainly ignore primary navigation bars because the information featured is less relevant to their tasks.." - Nice done)
• Designing Web Navigation - Five tips for planning your space
• Site Usability and Database-Enabled Web Sites: Separating Navigation from Form Data help systems, hardcopy, and online documentation (Article)
• JavaScript and Web Site Usability - An Interview with JavaScript Guru, Mr. Danny Goodman
• Tracing Decision Processes on The Web
• and more...

IV. NAVIGATION SYSTEMS - TOOLS & SOFTWARE

There are some tools and software solutions which helps you to build a navigation system with ease. Here are some of them:

• Four Java software/wizards to build web site navigation systems
• Site Navigation: Menus (A resources site to related code snippets. Plenty of links. Yet, some of them may not work. Anyway, its worth a try to find here some of your navigation scripts)
• ...produces one of the most powerful JavaScript menu trees available for your web site. The program creates the entire code for you - all you need to do is add items to it, and specify links etc. - Freeware)
• and more...

V. MAPS & SITEMAPS

Are sitemaps useful as a navigation system? Read the usability report to find it out:

• A Sitemap on Every Page (Usability Report)
• Site maps as a tool to aid usability
• The problem(s) with sitemaps (Article)
• Surf Maps - Visualizing Web Browsing
• and more...

VI. SEARCH ISSUES

Build-in search functionality can increase the usability of a web page. Our links show you what you should know about the 'Search Issue':

• Effective Search Results ("..Search result pages must make information easy to find and present results in a format that is easy to use..")
• More Fundamentals for a Quality Search ("..Last week I wrote about why a quality search function is so important to your web site. This week I'd like to examine standards for advanced search functionality and the presentation of search results...")
• Search Capabilities ("..usability studies show that slightly more than half of all users are search-dominant..")
• and more...