Step 5: Interior Work
The most
important parts of a lighthouse are the ones
involved with sending out the light. The
decoration of the structure's interior is not
really crucial, as long as it does not interfere
with the primary function of the lighthouse.
You don't have to be a professional artist or musician
to win an Internet Beacon Award, since
the emphasis here is on substance rather than style. (Unless, of course,
art or music is the entire point of your web site. In that case, it would
be covered under the Construction step.) If you use graphics
and/or sound, however (and very few web sites don't), they should be there for a
purpose -- not
just because you can use them. It would be nice if you have
graphics and/or sound that enhance your
information, but they should definitely not distract from it.
Animated graphics
can be definite distractions from your
information. By their very nature, they
are trying to get the viewer's attention.
A few of them are OK. Too many of them are
definite obstacles to communication. And
if you have a long animated sequence, it would
be nice if I had a way to bypass it.
Since you want
people to be able to clearly see your
information, be careful about where you put
graphics. Text can be very difficult to
read when it overlaps a graphic. Remember
that graphics may pop into different places at
different resolutions.
Having little
objects follow my cursor around the screen is
distracting, too. And I really
dislike having Comet Cursor loaded on my
machine. You may have noticed that I
disqualify sites for that. Here's why:
-
It causes malfunctions
with other programs on my computer.
-
It is
difficult to remove.
-
It is "spyware;"
i.e. it gathers information about me and
reports it back to the company.
-
I really like
my little arrow just the way it is!
Besides, in this
current age of multiple viruses and Trojan
horses, loading software on someone's computer
without their consent is a very rude thing to
do.
Music can certainly be a distraction -- your favorite song
may be the song that was playing when I broke up
with my girlfriend. Those music files can
really increase the loading time for your pages,
too. If you insist on having music on your
pages, at least give me a way to turn it off.
(And be sure you have the proper rights to put
that music on your site!)
I am also annoyed
by splash pages that are made so that I can't
back out of your site. Having to close my
browser and then re-open it is a pain.
Please don't trap me in your site.
Now proceed to Step 6:
Painting and Marking
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