The Most Important Rule

After looking over the rules of SpiderPro 100 Do's and Don'ts of Web Design, the most important rule when designing a web page is Do Know Your Audience.

I think that this is the most important rule because so many times I open web pages that are not what they say they are. Some of these particular sites are not specific to their links and end up being something completely different then what they appear to be. To me it is a waste of time and energy to look at these sites.

In terms of our Website Assignment I reminded myself often of this rule. Sure I could have put many different sites on there that interest me and sure it's okay, but I wanted to stick to my specific audience, my fellow English 328 classmates. I tried to put on my page a couple of sites that might interest my classmates and be a resource for them. I think it is a balancing act of what to put on our pages and what not to. So I tried to be specific and stick to my specific audience.

In order to know my audience I have read several classmates papers throughout the semester. I think it was a good idea to have an initial web page posted that was less specific and allowed us to get to know one another. You can get a feel for people which is so important because we do not have that face to face contact as in a regular setting in a classroom. I tried to write and develop my page based on this limited knowledge of my classmates. For most it was the first web pages developed, so I tried to keep the language and context of my page simple and easy to follow.

Without knowing your audience, you are more likely for "short-term visitors" to your page. People want to look up an address and have the information and links readily available. It's kinda like sentence development we learned from Williams-leave out the unnecessary words and write concisely using the least words possible.