April 1, 1997 The Power of JPAD: The Rules of Web Design

If there's one thing Gif Girl can't stand, it's people who don't appreciate the primary importance of innovative technologies in Web design and development. As far as Gif Girl is concerned, let the pathetic souls languishing in low modem speeds fend for themselves. By dumbing design down to the lowest common denominator, we give up the opportunity to enhance our pages with vital innovations in Web technology. Gif Girl calls her rule of thumb "JPAD" — Javascript, Plug-ins, Animations, and Dark/Textured Backgrounds.

If you learn one thing from this column, Gif Girl hopes it will be the power of the scrolling Javascript marquee message. The Web generation is the TV generation, and if it ain't movin', people ain't gonna see it. That scrolling text at the bottom of your web browser window enhances communication like no other innovation of the past year.

Plug-in technology is also crucial to good communication via the Internet. Only through technologies like Shockwave, Real Audio and Photo Bubble can you communicate your message meaningfully. Where were we before the advent of roll-over buttons? Or those cool ad banners that move around with your cursor? It makes Gif Girl want to buy the product. And the "Loading Plug-In" message at the bottom of the browser tells your visitor that you are an innovator and a revolutionary.

Beyond the lesson of the power of the scrolling marquee, Gif Girl has found that in order to appeal to elusive younger groups, such as "Gen-Xers" or "Gen-Nexters," you must have a substantial number of animations on your page. Preferably, these should involve cartoon characters, as these kinds of images appeal to computer types. And don't feel limited by file size constraints. If you assume a T1 connection speed, file sizes of 100k are completely reasonable.

Lastly, and most importantly, Gif Girl has found that visual interest as well legibility increase substantially when you use dark colored backgrounds with lots of contrast and texture, like the ones you can create with tools such as Kai's Power Tools. These backgrounds will help set your pages apart from the boring, flat-color-backgrounded pages that litter the Web.

NEXT TIME:
The Blink Tag:
Gif Girl will show how and when to use this powerful tag to it's fullest potential.

Gif Girl, when she isn't out saving the world from dithered graphics and illegible Web pages, helps keep Tripod's pages running fast and furious.

Send your comments, ideas, suggestions, and of course, your solutions for saving the world from bad Web page design, to Gif Girl. She'd love to hear from you.