• Content - THE most important thing. Users are looking for information, they are not looking for pretty pictures. If they do not feel that they are getting the information they will leave.
• People do not read web pages, they scan them. Large blocks of text and Acrobat (pdf) files of the company annual report will simply not be read.
• Keep it simple - There are no manuals on how to use your web site. It should be instantly clear to a even novice user how to use the site. Do not make things more complicated than absolutely necessary.
• Small is good. This applies to the number and size of graphics, amount of text and the amount of information. It is much better to have 5 small pages with the right information rather than 20 pages filled with semi-relevant information.
• Leave a clear trail back to the home page from any page on the site. This provides much-needed navigational context and lets visitors jump to any higher point.
• Sites must include Mailto: tags enabling users to send in their comments or feedback or even requests. It is worth bearing in mind that users might want to find out about the author, but not actually contact him/her. A Contacts/About page with the Mailto: tags is often a good solution.
• Test out your site with real people and mobile wireless users before you go live. This will turn up all sorts of things you would have never thought of. A good way to do this is to put the web site in front of a small number of people of mixed ability with a list of tasks. Stand next to them and watch where they go. If you ask them to think aloud whilst they are doing a task you can find out how a the site appears to someone else. A web site should be intuitive and only by putting it in front of users will you see if it is.

Technical Factors

• Develop pages that are either text-only or use light graphics.
• A site for mobile users should not require anything that doesn't come with either Windows CE or the standard installation of Windows 95
• Assume that plug-ins are non-existent or disabled on all users browsers. On palmtops/laptops/ other mobile devices, the cost/time/knowledge required to install plug-ins is often too high.
• Design in line with de facto standards. This can be facilitated by using templates which make the web site familiar and easy to use. If your web site breaks conventions (e.g. radio buttons as action buttons) users will feel less confident in using your site as they will not know what to expect.
• HTML written by hand in an editor like Notepad can be as little as 15% of the byte count of the same page written using something like FrontPage Express.
• Use of identical designs helps reduce additional graphics download. This means that it is important to develop and use design templates. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), are definitely worth investigating.
• Avoid animated GIFs, scrolling text, <BLINK> and tickertape banners. They are irritating and in the case of GIFs, take a long time to download over a slow connection .
• A site should be tested at all resolutions with as many versions of browsers as you can get your hands on. You may have Internet Explorer 5 and 1024x768 but many users are still running Internet Explorer 3 with 640x480, if you don't check your site it may well look poor to the majority of users.
• Users can be offered alternative sub-sites, depending upon their specific requirements from the home page.
• Example: one that is mobile-friendly, or one with frames and Shockwave plug-ins etc.
• You can also use self-update features for automatically forwarding the user to a new location depending upon user connection characteristics determined through automatic detection.
  

Layout

• Use white space and blank lines to reduce clutter and improve readability.
• If graphics are necessary, ensure that you use placeholders for graphics to download pre-formatted. This will give the impression that the page is downloading faster.
• Think columns - like how newspapers and magazines display text. Use a single narrow column to present information. It works particularly well on Palmtops.
• HTML text should be composed of standard and reliable fonts. If absolutely necessary add a few new fonts using GIFs. This should be readable on all platforms and browsers.
• Do not mix different fonts in a web site, it looks untidy and removes user certainty. Good fonts to use are Arial and Helvetica, all browsers can deal with them and most displays show them well. Sans Serif is not displayed well and should be avoided.
• Use subheads and bullets to break up information into manageable chunks. It will facilitate scanning of the page to find relevant information.
• Avoid labelling icons. It tends to make them larger and bulkier. Keep it simple.
• Avoid the use of borders and Microsoft templates. They are usually bad at creating pages with a small byte footprint.
• Beware of browser specific issues
• Do use simple or plain backgrounds.
• If necessary, use Tiled images that will create a repetitive background.
• Bright, garish backgrounds are guaranteed to put people off your site. Use light, simple backgrounds with strongly contrasting text. Many palmtops have grey-scale displays and colour schemes like red on blue show up as grey on grey.
• To maintain a clean design (well formatted and orderly), you can use a table to set the boundaries of a document.
• If large amounts of text are unavoidable, ensure that you break the tables into several separate tables to allow individual download and organisation.
• If you have to use JavaScripts or VBScripts, break them into small portions and place them immediately before the sections that need them.
• Avoid using multi-layered frames. It slows the page down as the browser must read the page twice. It also makes saving/ printing difficult for a novice user. Careful use of tables can give all the functionalities of frames, but without the inherent problems.
  

Browser Caching

• Use elements of page design that makes best use of a cache memory.
• Wherever possible, keep in mind template characteristics by using the same images repeatedly across multiple pages.
• Sometimes it is faster and more efficient to use graphic images than HTML, particularly if the image is used repeatedly on more than one page.
  
  

• Use the same image (which gets locally cached), across multiple pages. This trick can be extended by using slices of an image, and only downloading what has been altered.
• Use thumbnails or postage stamp sized views of images that link to larger versions of the images.
• Use Web-safe colours for everything. This is a set of 216 colours that appear identically on any platform or browser. It takes hexadecimal values of 00, 33, 66, 99, cc or ff for each colour channel.
• Non-dithered images tend to have smaller file sizes than dithered images.
• Select sharp colours with clear distinctions between backgrounds and images (grey scale/low resolution displays).
• Try to keep horizontal colour changes in GIFs to a minimum, otherwise the file tends to be larger.
• Specifying the exact height and width attributes of an image ensures that the download is smoother and the page layout appears much sooner.
• If possible use small images and tell the browser to scale them up to the required size
• Avoid using animations. If absolutely necessary, package them as compressed files that can be downloaded separately.
• Use the lowsrc attribute which displays a low-resolution image first and then downloads the higher quality image later. Ensure that the difference in size between these images is significant to make this method worthwhile.
• Use Interlaced GIF image files if possible.
• Use ALT tags. This provides an explanation of what the missing images are - for users who browse without downloading images.
  
  

• Bear in mind that the users wish to find, identify and download their information as quickly as possible.
• Provide suitable categories to enable quick links to user requirements.
• Follow the three-click rule - enable the users to be no more than three buttons away from the information they are looking for.
• Use Meta Tags such as Meta Keywords and Meta Descriptions to allow search engines to index your site more efficiently. Do not repeat keywords more than twice.
• Design elements become imperative if page layout enables 2 or 3 forms of indices or menu options to be made available for the user to select.
  Updating Pages
• When presenting information that updates regularly/frequently, ensure that the update is made to the same file/web page (and thus URL) which is likely to have been saved as a users favourite link.
  
  

If you believe that a substantial majority of your target audience will have the necessary applications to deal with compressed files or Adobe PDF files then there should be a section downloading for offline viewing of information .

Appreciate the different uses and benefits of these formats.

• PDF files are good for documents where presentation, layout, originality are important. E.g. User manuals, plans, reports etc. This can then be additionally compressed into ZIP / RAR. (N.B. Many mobile devices will not have Acrobat installed and the screen may not have sufficient resolution to get best use of PDF files)
• Zip files are compressed files good for packaging of very large documents, executables or even directories.( A self extracting ZIP will work even on a computer without a ZIP utility)
• RAR files are a new emerging compression system providing about 15% better performance than zip files.
• Add Download instructions. Do not assume that the user knows how to download or that the browser is not enabled to automatically view but not download the file.
  

• Use all new mechanisms for information management and delivery. These can include:
• Offline viewing, Push technology, Mobile Channels etc.
• Synchronisation capabilities to enable information updates to take place prior to download.
• XML (Extended Markup Language) for trading applications.
• Personalisation / customisation through option menus, pre-defined content categories, etc.
• Help and online support including FAQ's (list of responses to Frequently Asked Questions)
• Produce focused content and further references that provide the users with only the information they seek.
• Develop technical support briefs, well laid out updates & descriptions.
• Use channels for off-peak downloading and off-line viewing.
  

Security

Security has always been an issue on the web, as by it's nature it is open to all users with few controls on what you can put on a web page. The biggest problems are usually caused by viruses.

Viruses can to a large extent be tackled using the many commercially available anti-virus software packages that should be set up to scan all information downloads, including email and web pages. The effectiveness of such software is to a very great extent reliant on how frequently the virus database is updated; this database contains descriptions of all known viruses so the programme can recognise them. As updates are very small in size it is recommended that they should be downloaded on at least a monthly basis if not more often.

Other issues involve the security of information sent over the Internet, such as credit card details. There are security protocols that are used to transmit sensitive information and these are very safe, however it is what happens to the information when it gets to its destination that may be unsafe. There are some credit cards (American Express) that offer to refund you in case of web fraud.

For companies that want to use the web to connect outside users to their internal IT network, there is a system called the Virtual Private Network (VPN). This allows you to send encrypted data over the Internet with password protection, maintaining the network's security.

The use of cookies to store login information on PC's can cause problems if there are multiple users. Some sites, such as Amazon for example, use cookies to automatically log a user into the system. This means that a person could easily use the computer to order books on someone else's account.

Restricting Internet access

For users on ships, it may be desirable to restrict access to some pages: most companies are sensitive about the access of pornography over the net for example.

This is done through a piece of software that will refuse access to sites listed on its database, which is continually updated by the company with lists of sites in various categories, so that it is possible to select a level of viewing. There are several commercially available solutions, including SurfControl, Cybersurf and Net Nanny. Inmarsat recommends Net Nanny, which has been tested over the satellite link and proven to be effective.

Internet Explorer also employs a system of ratings to limit access to sites containing violence, sex or obscene language. This can be enabled using the "Content" section of the options panel. It is also possible to make up a list of sites that can or cannot be viewed, so for example a company can restrict access to all but a few essential web pages.