Six Principles of Good Web
Design
A powerpoint presentation designed by
Cassia that pertains to information found in
the book:
Art Teacher's Guide to the Internet
By Craig Roland

Consistency
• Keep the design uniform throughout the pages
of your website to make it easier for the viewer
to navigate.
• Use the same layout, fonts and color palettes so
that your site visually consistent and user-
friendly.
• Create, save, and test a page template to begin
with and then use it to produce all the pages on
the site.

Convenience
• To make it easy for visitors to navigate
throughout your site, place a header or a
title at the top of every page.
• Include consistent navigational links to the
main pages of the site such as the
homepage.
• Consider using a site map or index page
that offers an overview of the site and links
to every page.

Readibility
• Make it easy for visitors to read your
pages and to find information by choosing
a text color that is easy to read against
your chosen background color.
• Use “white space” between sections of
text and between text and images to give
your pages an uncluttered look.
• Avoid making your visitors scroll in two
directions to view the contents of a page.

Speed
• Make it easy for visitors to download your
pages by keeping the number of images
(especially large ones) on each page to a
minimum. (reducing the amount of time it
takes to download).
• Refrain from gratuitous use of graphics
(especially animated ones). They may just
distract the viewer.

Accessibility
• Make your site accessible to a broad audience
by using a standard font (such as Arial or Times
Roman) for the text on your pages rather than a
specialty font (like Broadway or Perpetua) that
most visitors are unlikely to have available on
their computers.
• Design your Web pages for monitors set at 800
x 600 pixels—the most common screen
resolution among Web users worldwide.

Testing
• Test all of your website’s pages with as
many different computers and monitors as
possible as well as with different versions
of Internet Explorer and Netscape
Navigator.
• Sited works for this powerpoint presentation:
• Downloaded from The Art Teacher’s Guide to the Internet Companion Web site (www.artjunction.org/atgi)
• http://www.artjunction.org/atgi/teachers/downloads/web_design.pdf