Datasheet

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Part I: Create a Web Page Today
Know your audience
According to Web researchers, Web users overwhelmingly speak English as
either a first or second language. Consequently, the great majority of Web
content, Web creation tools, and Web browsers use the English language.
More than fifteen years after the birth of the Web — which happened in
Switzerland, where there are three official languages, none of them English —
the English-speaking world is still considered the “center of gravity” for Web
access. This situation will gradually change as other countries catch up to
Web penetration in the United States.
Why are people online? Surveys indicate that the top reasons people use the
Web are for information-gathering, entertainment, education, work, “time-
wasting,” and shopping. Which of these purposes do you intend for your site
to serve? How do you appeal to people who are online? How do you help
them find you? The answers to these questions can help you enhance the
appeal and usefulness of your site.
Finally, what kind of browsers are your users running? Surveys indicate that
over 90 percent of Web users run Microsoft Internet Explorer; most of the
rest use Mozilla Firefox. Both of these browsers (and most others that make
up the remaining user base) support graphics, tables, and Cascading Style
Sheets — an advanced layout feature. Nearly all users run their browsers
with graphics turned on (which doesn’t mean that they appreciate waiting for
complex images to load — unless those images are very cool!).
A still-small-but-increasing percentage of Web access is via “sub-PC” devices
such as advanced cellphones. That means relatively tiny screens and slow
(and expensive) connections. For more on this kind of Internet use, see Mobile
Internet For Dummies by Michael O’Farrell, et al, 2008.
Use “text bites”
As mentioned earlier in this chapter, when preparing a Web site, less is
more. Saying something with less text makes users more likely to read and
remember it. A text bite is like a sound bite — it’s a short, clearly written
piece of text that makes a single point.
Text bites are especially important on the Web because reading from a
computer screen is physically less comfortable than reading from a printed
page. People tend to end their Web sessions after too much reading. You
need to shoehorn your messages into the limited amount of reading time
people will devote to your Web site.
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