Browser & Operating Systems :
- Web pages are written using different HTML tags and viewed in browser window.
- The different browser and their versions greatly affect the way a page is rendered, as different browsers sometimes interpret same HTML tag in a different way.
- Different version of HTML also support different sets of tags.
- The support for different tags also varies across the different browsers and their versions.
- We suppose to design a web which is compatible with all the browser and their version.
Bandwidth and Cache :
- Users have different connection speed, i.e. bandwidth to access the web sites.
- Connection speed plays an important role in designing web pages, if user has low bandwidth connection and a web page contains too many images.
- Generally, users have to no patience to wait for longer time than 10-15 seconds.
- Browser provides temporary memory called cache to store the graphics.
Display Resolution :
- Display resolution is another important factor affecting the web page design, as we do not have any control on display resolution of the monitors on which user views our pages.
- Display or screen resolution is measured in terms of pixels and common resolutions are 800*600 and 1024*786.
Look and Feel :
- Look and Feel of the website decides the overall appearance of the website.
- It includes all the design aspects such as,
- Websites theme
- Web typography
- Graphics
- Visual structure
- Navigation etc..
Page Layout and Linking :
- Websites contains of individual web pages that are linked together using various navigational links.
- Page layout defines the visual structure of the page and divides the page area into different parts to present the information of varying importance.
Locating Information :
- Web page is viewed on a computer screen and the screen can be divided into five major areas such as center, top, right, bottom and left in this particular order.
- The first major area of importance in terms of users viewing pattern is the center, then top, right, bottom and left in this particular order.
Making Design user-centric :
- It is very difficult for any web designer to predict the exact behavior of the Web site users.
- However, idea of general behavior of common user helps in making design of the Web site user-centric.
- Users either scan the information on the web page to find the section of their interest or read the information to get details.