Page Design

One major problem I run into is poor page design. There has been several times where I found a possibly interesting comic, but due to the site's design, I ended up tossing it away.

Obviously 404-errors are bad; in fact, any site which gives me a 404 from a major link (such as the archives) is immediately thrown out. They are inexcusable; W3C provides a free, on-line tool (http://validator.w3.org/checklink). There are also a few tips to find problems before they start:

• Although the windows world uses the backslash, the web (and its *nix web servers) use a forward slash between directories.
• Never use spaces in filenames. Not only do they become ugly %20's in URLs, but they're bad practice anywhere.
• Keep filenames short; the fewer characters you type, the fewer errors you can make.

The comic itself should be prominent on the website (after all, that's the reason people are going to be there). If not on the front page, a big "Latest Comic" link is nice (Even better if the page with the comic can be bookmarked for easy access). Whatever page the comic is on, having it near the top is a definite plus--less scrolling the better.

Finally, some general design tips: Simple, fast-loading, webpages without clutter are best. Background images can be annoying and make text hard to read; if you want a background image, make sure it's pale and abstract enough to avoid attracting attention. Frames and background music are plain evil, period.