by Curtis Carmichael

Imagine you’re surfing the Net and you come to this huge Web site with flashy graphics that take a long time to show up on your screen. Although this may look like a great site, it doesn’t demonstrate the rules of common Net etiquette. A visitor may be forced to leave if he or she experiences too much inconvenience with the site.

We’ve given you a list of common etiquette practices a good Web designer implements to their entire site. If you follow these examples, you’ll produce a better site that would have greater potential at winning a nice award.

• Make sure every Web page is less than 100 kilobytes.   Producing a page larger than this general standard will produce a rather irritating visit.  To check individual file sizes, right click on the associated Web page files and go to "Properties".  Add the file sizes together using a calculator (you can use the Windows calculator by going to "Start", "Programs", "Accessories", and clicking on the "Calculator" icon.

• Make sure your links go to the areas specifically labeled by the hypertext or graphical hyperlink.  Nobody likes to be misled (especially to promote some other product or service).  If you hate receiving phone calls from sale people, then you'll have a sense of knowing how it feels to be misdirected for the purpose of promoting something.

• If you use the META redirect feature, be careful how you use it.  Most people like to surf the Net on their own without any automatic assistance.  Most common uses of this tag is for a) redirecting users to a new Web page if the previously existent page is no longer available and b) displaying a splash screen and linking the user to the home page.

• If you have a photo album on your site, for example, provide a thumbnail image no larger than 100x100 pixels so the user can sample what the full image looks like without investing too much download time.

• Make sure this is a separate image.  Don't reduce the graphic's display dimensions because this will still be the whole image.  Its also nice to provide a short description of the image followed by a description of the file size.

• If you offer on-site downloads, supply the file size and the approximate download time, if known.  Approximate download time is most often calculated for 28.8 Kbps modems.

• Try refraining from using the latest technology unless its appropriate to your target audience and you believe there's a good chance that they have the knowledge to install the necessary plug-in.