Apr 21, 2023

HTML Style Bloopers

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What is good style?

Good style, like good taste, is partly--but only partly--a matter of opinion

Bad style is frequently easier to define A web page has bad style if

You can’t load the page You can’t use the page for its intended purpose You can’t read the page You can’t adjust the page to your needs You can’t get rid of the page You can’t navigate the site containing the page

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Cannot load the page

Macromedia Flash is the worst offender Pages containing Flash animations often cannot even

be loaded by browsers without Flash If you are going to use Flash, or other fancy features,

make sure your intended audience has the ability to see your pages

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Cannot use the page

Many users turn off automatic image loading They may have a slow connection They may be visually disabled If your only hyperlink to another page is through an

image, users without images cannot get there Always provide text hyperlinks in addition to your

images To submit a form via HTML, you usually must

have JavaScript turned on The JavaScript does client-side input checking This is probably useful enough to justify requiring

JavaScript, but be sure your users are aware of the requirement

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Cannot read the page

Here are two otherwise very nice backgrounds:

Both of these backgrounds have text--can you see it?

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Still cannot read the page

Have you seen pages that tell you what browser to use and what to set your screen size to? Did you ever do it? What do you think about that person’s sense of self-

importance? This page was created by someone with perfect eyesight using a 21-inch monitor set to 1600 by 1200 resolution, using an 8-point

serif font, and as a result nobody but the original author has a clue what it actually says.

Some people just like to use weird fonts There are lots of places you can use absolute

measurements in HTML, and very little reason ever to do so

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Contrast is important

Contrast is important Use either very dark text against a very light background or very light

text against a very dark background Avoid contrast in the background itself

If it has good contrast on your monitor, that doesn’t mean it will have good contrast on everyone else’s

Always use more contrast than you think necessary

The ability to read depends on edge detection Human edge detection relies on contrast--differences

between light and dark--not on color differences

This is a difference in color, not in contrast

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You can’t adjust the page

Pages that use absolute sizes--for example, to adjust the size of a table to just fit on a 17-inch screen--are a serious nuisance Scrolling vertically is acceptable, because we don’t

need to scroll often to read a column of text If we need to scroll sideways, we need to scroll back

and forth for every single line Relative sizes don’t always work, either; I’ve run

across pages containing tables that are 110% of the page width

Even if your monitor is large and your eyesight is good, there may be other things on the screen that you want to see

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You can’t leave the page

Sometimes this occurs through malice--the page includes JavaScript to pop up a new window each time you close the current one

Usually it’s an accident: a page gives you an automatic transfer to a new page, but with the time set to zero:

<meta HTTP-EQUIV="Refresh" CONTENT="0; URL=newURL">

This takes you to the new page but effectively disables the “Back” button

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You can’t navigate the site

EPSON has long been my favorite example Suppose you want to download a printer driver; you go

to www.epson.com, and here are your choices: Printers & Imaging products Electronic devices Point of Sale Products

This represents their corporate organization What do I care how they are organized?

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Workarounds

Poor contrast: Hit control-A, to select all the text on the page Otherwise, in Preferences, select “Use my chosen colors”

and/or turn of image loading, then reload page Bad size:

Increase or decrease screen resolution Can’t leave the page with the Back button

Use the pull-down list of pages you’ve been to Can’t navigate the site

Use Google

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The End