Website Usability Guidelines

Website Homepage (4 of 4)

Follow these usability recommendations:

About Us Link - Call this link About Company Name or About-Us.

Job Openings - Include an explicit link on the home page if recruiting is important to the company. Call link Jobs.

Customer Help - Upper right hand corner.

Animation - In user testing it has been found that animation is too aggressive and distracts the user from the message you are giving for your product or service.

Advertising - At most three ads. AdSense may be an exception. However, you do not want your website to look like a billboard.

Body Text - Color Black

Body Text Typeface - Sans-serif (Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, Tahoma)

Background Color - White

Link Color Unvisited - Links Blue - Always underline.

Link Color Visited - Visited Link Purple. Never Gray.

Link Underlining - Yes - Blue

Body Text Size - 12 point. Body text never smaller than 9 points.

Graphics -  As a general rule you should allocate 15% of the page to graphics. Ensure that the pictures are relevant to the page content. Do not use slow loading graphics. Use ALT text with graphics. Ensure that the text is helpful and well-written.

Illustrations - Somewhere around 5-15% of Homepage real estate.

Sign-In - Don't use a sign-in unless it is needed to protect content. Call it Sign-In.

Footer Navigation - Use for footnote style links such as copyright and contact info. At most, 7 links across the bottom of the page.