Conventions

"users spend most of their time

on other sites than your site"

- Jakob's rule... Jakob Nielsen

So, it is important to be aware of the conventions being used by others

The following stats are from "Homepage Usability" and their research of 100 corporate sites:

	The average download time was 26 seconds Convention: Make your page(s) load in less than 30 seconds
	The average page size was < 800 pixels wide and 2 screens long Convention: Don't make your page wider than 800 pixels (avoid fixed width tables anyway) and less that 2 screens of information per page
	84% of the sites had logo or ID information in the upper left Convention: Why not?
	Only 6% of the sites had splash pages Convention: There's a real backlash against non-content first pages
	Most sites had navigation areas located either on the left, as tabs near the top or in the center of the window (ala Yahoo) Convention: This is where users will look for your navigation info too
	Only 4% of sites used white text, 72% used black Convention: Use black or dark text and light background
	80% used underlined links, 74% changed the color of the links when they were visited Convention: There is a strong expectation by users that you will do this
	The median font size is 12... the most popular fonts are Verdana and Arial Convention: Also, if you don't use these fonts, then you risk exotic fonts not being available