Staying in Style

San Francisco is a stylish town. We've probably got more boutiques and salons per square mile than any other place on Earth. The current retro "70s" look means that those ubiquitous kids with the pink shaggy hair and green "thrift store" clothes probably bought their haircut at a world-class salon, and bought their clothes at a downtown clothier with large wads of trust-fund money.

A few of our homeless people have cell-phones and some are rumored to even have email addresses. Bike messengers ride $2500 aluminum-framed racing bikes. Chefs at major restaurants are accorded rock-star status.

I could go on and on. But I won't.

Rather, I am going to talk about an entirely different kind of style. It's the more prosaic type "style" that is required if you want to create an easy-to-read and easy-to-navigate website.

But first, a couple of definitions... As you can see from above, style can mean essentially the same thing as fashion. For our purposes however, we will define "style" as the way that words appear on a website ("writing for the web"), and the way that the website is put together ("designing a website").

Let's first talk about writing for the web…

People often forget that the content of a given site is the most important part. That's why there are so many sites that have neat graphics, but don't say anything useful. Don't fall into this trap. Please try to have something to say.

And it's not just what you say that's important. It's how you say it…

• Use good grammar (i.e. - don't be like me).
• Keep things short.
• Don't use long words when short ones will do. "Utilize" has a slightly different meaning than "use." But don't use utilize when use is the best use.
• Strive for consistency. Some people like e-mail. Others like email. Pick one and go with it.
• Use bulleted lists when possible.
• Get rid of extra words. It's harder to write short sentences. Push yourself to do it. Try crossing out every second word.
• Avoid marketing double-speak. ("Our attorneys enjoy a consistently beneficial professional relationship with our existing client base," says the same thing as "our attorneys and clients work well together.")

Talking about double-speak. George Orwell, of 1984 fame, wrote a great essay back in 1946. It's entitled Politics and the English Language (http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/politics/english/e_polit). Read it and live it. (I admit to borrowing some of his ideas for my bullet list above).

OK, now you understand that you have to have good words on your page. That's one definition of style (hence the phrase "style-book").

But there's another definition of style. It has to do with how your site is put together (on a more macro level).

This type of style is exemplified by the "Yale Style Manual." Available online at http://info.med.yale.edu/caim/manual/contents.html, this is a classic how-to guide. But their real focus isn't the words, per se (they do have a small section, though). Rather, the focus of this work is website design and architecture.

If you're wondering what this means, just try to remember the last time you went to a website and got lost, or couldn't read something because the type was too small. Or had to sit through about 100 graphics, just to get through the homepage.

The idea of the Yale Style Manual is to give site designers the information they need so as not to make these same stupid errors.

Just so you know, here's some basic tips (from the Manual and from my own experience):

• Serif type (e.g., Times Roman) used for anything that people have to read should be 12 points or larger. Sans serif (e.g., Verdana) type can be read at 10 points.
• Avoid using anything except black text on a white background for the main content sections of your site.
• Graphics should not comprise more than 45k per page.
• Use "alt" tags to label graphics.
• Every page should have at least a link back to the homepage.

This is just a very superficial outline of what is contained, but it should give you an idea of what sorts of things you need to look for when you design a site. For more info, click over to the url mentioned above.

There's actually tons of online web design resources. If your mouse feels up to it, I suggest that you email me at kevin (at) seamless.com for pointers to some cool sites.

;-)

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