1. Thinking about good Webdesign
Philipp Rütsche
Web Office ETH Zürich

2. Overview Principles and problems Layout and content
Navigation and orientation
The ETH web: outlook

3. Common Principles (1) Form follows function As simple as possible
Avoid meaningless stuff

4. Common Principles (2) Accessibility (http://www.w3.org/WAI/)
Browser independency
No technical gimmicks (plug-ins: Shockwave, Java, ...)

5. Known Problems Bandwith Different browsers Frames
Excessive use of graphics and multimedia
The author!

6. Layout and Content The content is that counts
Don’t loose readers due to old information
Layout and design structures content
It supports navigation and orientation

7. Ask Questions Don’t design «headless» What is the audience?
What are their interests?
What can I offer?
What is a useful structure?

8. The Homepage Fast, practical, attractive Not more than 7 categories
Who, when, feedback, help, (search)
Present the services and structure of your organisation

9. Help, where am I? (1) Users always have to know, where they are
Clear and evident structure
Table of contents, site map
Horizontal and vertical navigation

10. Help, where am I? (2) Header Footer ETH logo
Logo of departement/institute
Caption, subtitles
Footer
Navigation bar
Responsible
Last update

11. Some Rules Correct coding! No physical or absolute formatting
Don’t missuse structure elements for layout purposes (UL, DL, BLOCKQUOTE)
No blinking or scrolling text
<TITLE>, meta-tags (Dublin core)
Use comments

12. Validate your Site! W3C sets the standards Correct HTML
HTML 4.0 and 3.2
Correct HTML
Watch Web Office Tools
Valid links (including <TARGET>)

13. The Future – «my Vision»
My wish: only websites that meet this criteria
Rising quality on the ETH web (web-policy)
A webdesign guide (in process)
A style guide for the ETHZ (CD, CI)
A new (and improved) ETH homepage