As our Webmaster skills grow, it's easy to get away from the basics. Review your site against my Top 15 Design Truths.

1. Break up long passages of text with headers. Readers skim pages, use headers like newspaper headlines to draw a reader into your message.

2. Line lengths on a monitor are longer than on paper. Full screen width text passages make it difficult to pick up the next line. Studies have shown the best line length for text is 50 - 80 characters wide. This is about 400 to 480 pixels. If you place your text inside a centered table set to that, you'll optimize your message for web readability.

3. Don't use all caps. All caps are difficult to read because our eyes are trained to recognize word shapes, and all caps slows down our shape recognition. It's also considered rude.

4. Include "white space." White space means open areas of the page without graphics or text. Lack of white space is visual clutter. It's confusing to visitors.

5. Don't center text. You can center headlines, but a page full of centered text is the first sign of a newbie. Most sites use left justified text but I prefer justified text. Most people don't know you can do that in HTML. Simply use a paragraph tag with an align attribute of justify:

<p align="justify">

Looks very professional. You may have to reword a line here and there to keep some sentences from becoming too strung out, but it's worth it.

6. Use short paragraphs. Important points are often lost in long paragraphs.

7. Keep each page's file size under 40k, including graphics. This keeps your pages fast loading. If they aren't, no one will stay.

8. Minimize animation. It's visual noise and slows pages down.

9. Keep your graphics sizes down, both in bytes AND the dimensions. Graphics should compliment, not overwhelm.

10. Background images that are too "busy" interfere with the message. If background images are used, most business sites are better off using left border styles.

11. Use colors that compliment each other and provide enough contrast between the text and background that it's easy to read.

12. Spell check your pages AND proof read them. Spell checking catches misspelled words. Proof reading catches other mistakes, like: Eye doesn't think a smell check her wood help hear.

13. Don't overdo banner ads. Like most people, I don't mind an ad or two per page if there is good content, but shove banners down my throat and I'll respond with my back button.

14. Keep a consistent navigation structure. Make it easy to go back and forth between pages, or on a large site like mine, between content areas. Visitors will be more inclined to explore your site.

15. Keep a consistent look if you're trying to earn money. Changing the background on every page may be OK for home pages, but on a business site it shouts amateur.

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Boogie Jack is a professional web designer and is writing a book on web design at a publishers request. Sign up for his Nutty Net Tutor ezine at http://www.shagmail.com/al/affiliates.cgi?379 - Or for his monthly ezine, send mailto:almost-a-newsletter-subscribe@egroups.com or visit http://www.boogiejack.com