Volume 6, #9
May 2002

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Fourth in a four-part series, "Rules for the Web"
Visual Design for the Web: Measure Your Audience

By Rebecca Nero, Educational Technology Consultant

You want to communicate with your Web audience. Who are they? How old are they? What do they need? What are their skills and abilities?

You may be wondering how age is involved. Think about the layout and type size for younger and older readers. Both age ranges need larger font sizes. Doug and Melissa in their "Audience Design Rules" make these suggestions:

Obviously, you'll want to adjust vocabulary and sentence length, paragraph length and "page" length to match the reading ability of your audience.

Regardless of age, your audience will bless you for page design that makes scanning easier. So:

• Ban busy or highly colorful backgrounds.
  
• Use text colors that stand out from the background but don't blind the reader with brilliance.
  
• Include visual rest spots white space around text and narrow columns (39 to 52 characters).
  
• Use only one type face (font). If you use two type faces, make them different serif and sans serif (for instance, Times and Arial).
  
• Avoid using all capital letters. For the reader, it's like being screamed at.
  
• Beware of using justified text. Especially in narrow columns, justified text looks like a white "river runs through it."
  
• Keep spacing between lines of text in a paragraph, between paragraphs, between headlines and what follows, consistent.

"Consistency" is key to the entire Web page construction process.

Be consistent with design elements that you use for pulling focus or navigation. Borders, for example, are best used to point out important information that does not flow with your text calendar, table of contents, side notes, etc. Navigation tools, whether they are buttons, text or a combination, should be logically placed on your Web page and put in the same place in the same way on each of the pages in your Web site.

Remember no matter how beautiful your Web page looks, accessibility and content determine its usefulness.

True confession: I still spend more time with images and fonts than I do with content and I spend more time than I actually have with content and images on one Web page. That's what I like about the virtual world.

(This column draws heavily on information organized by the Web site "Audience Design Rules" located at http://www.writedesignonline.com/resources/design/rules/audience.html .)