Some integrated software packages and cut down versions of software may allow you to create web pages. This can be extremely useful within an organisation where the supported software environment is highly predictable having been defined, setup and tested by your organisation’s IT professionals.

The packages may even provide a facility for uploading your pages to the web. The issue is that they can make assumptions about the web environment that your visitors use.

For example, Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator have a different way of defining your page margins. In short, page margins defined in Internet Explorer aren’t understood by Netscape Navigator, and vice versa.

There are many other examples of stumbling blocks for the the web designer. This means that your carefully crafted page doesn’t look the way you intended, and can often look amateurish: not something you can afford when your aim is to present your organisation to visitors with the professionalism it deserves.

The following issues need to be considered by anyone developing their own web site or hosting it with an Internet Presence Provider or an Internet Access Provider (generically called ISPs).

Not all designers are aware of how web robots work. Search engines may never catalogue your site, or update their catalogue when your site changes.

The technology used in web site design can affect the ability of robots to collect information from your site even though the information is provided.

Providers of free space often limit the functionality of web sites using this space for security reasons or to prevent the site from using server processing resources. For example, feedback pages or search pages may not work: for instance, sites developed with some Microsoft tools require facilities not supported by many web servers.

Providers of free space need to recover their costs. One common way of doing this is by advertising using banner ads, or collecting information on visitors for use in direct marketing. Hence your site’s messages may become subordinated to the flashing banners of the paying sponsors.

Unoptimised graphics can take up to 2 hours to download. Even a small graphic can take a minute to download. Visitors do not wait.

Unoptimised graphics do not take account of the limitations of web browser technology or the visitor’s monitor capabilities, which may prevent items from being displayed or not displayed correctly.

Not all designers are aware that web browsers are limited to just over 200 colours and that the supported colours differ between Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer. This can radically affect how your graphics and text are displayed. Unrecognised colours are substituted by other colours which bear no relation to the original colour.

Not all designers are aware which fonts are supported by the leading browsers resulting in font substitution which can affect how your pages are displayed and aligned. Font scaling can also be a problem.

Your site can display differently, or not at all, depending on which version of a web browser your visitor is using. For example, Internet Explorer Version 5 differs from Internet Explorer Version 4, differs from Internet Explorer Version 3. Ditto Netscape Navigator versions.

Your site may display differently, or not at all, according to the browser your visitor is using: Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator have many features in common but also many frequently used features differ or are not supported.

The visitor’s monitor resolution can radically affect how your site is displayed.

The bottom line to all this is that without considered design your visitors may not see your site displayed acceptably you can severely limit the number of visitors who have the technology to view your site.

Research consistently shows that many people using the web do not have the latest or even recent technology. Web Pages ‘R’ Us takes account of these issues to ensure that a wide range of visitors can display your site.

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