Design Notes, the footer, my home page, etc.
Design Notes/How People Find Your Home Page
People on the web get to your "home page" by one of two methods -- directly or indirectly . Direct contact is when they come looking specifically for you. Indirect contact is when they are looking for information that you have provided on your web page or for someone like you. The way that you expect web users to find you should influence the type of home page "look" that you use.
The sample "simple" page in the earlier Side Box (for Jane Doe) reflects a two pronged approach. The essays will bring people in who are looking for that information -- search engines will send people to the essays (and then footers on the essays will take them to the author's home page). The home page itself will also register on search engines for people looking for the type of services offered by the attorney, Jane Doe. So, if someone is looking for "Divorce Attorneys" they will find Jane. If they are looking for information about "divorce" or a similar topic, they will find her essays. Either directly or indirectly, anyone looking for her kind of legal practice will find Jane Doe.
If your services can be simply compressed and explained, then they should be on the home page. If you have content, then it should lead to your home page by a link or pointer of some kind. It may be the most useful content in the world, but if it does not also point to you, it doesn't benefit your office for you to post in on the web page.
If your services take "too much" space to simply explain, then you need to do one of two things.
First, rethink the way you are explaining your services.
or, Second, use content and "indexes" to help people find your services and then explain what you do on a page that is linked to your home page. (See below for examples -- I use a footer approach to allow people to find me from my content).
The Footer/Design Notes
Consistent design elements, including footers, are both traditional for web pages and useful.
I'm going to use my old footer for an example to discuss the concepts.
The first thing I did, I used a dividing line to separate the footer from the rest of the page. That is a visual cue that the material below the line is a footer.
Second, I used the varients on the same footer for each page. This gave my site a consistent look.
Then I had the following line: Not Certified by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization.
That is the standard disclaimer required of Texas attorneys (it is only required once on a site). If I had used a graphic here, instead of text, I could have include other information, such as my bar admissions, College of the State Bar of Texas, etc. Rather than quibble about where and how the disclaimer should be located, you may put it in the footer for each page.
Fourth, I had a return tag (which I consider replacing with a button every time I repipeline my site), which let a reader return to the top of the page without scrolling. I've since removed the return tag in light of current browser developments. I used it extensively for online essays to allow for some navigation within the essay. Consider though, if you need too many tags it is time to consider frames (which is something to talk to a web page designer about). Frames are useful and in this context are used to provide a collection of buttons on the side of the page that functions as an index to the site. Note that frames will prevent most (many) search engines from finding much of the material inside the frames. Then, the following:
Fifth, that was my "home page" tag. This tag allows people who are using my content to find me. Anyone who finds my content useful could go directly from the content to my home page . That gave them a chance to consider using my legal services . There are endless choices for how to word and how to use a "home page" button, but a home page tag or button should be part of the footer for any content you provide. Next:
©1996-1997 Stephen R. Marsh [e-mail]
Sixth, I followed conventions and used the copyright notice for e-mail. Clicking on that link allowed people to send me an e-mail or comment. I now have a comment page (a bulletin board) and an e-mail page (see below). Finally:
Last, that was my "anchor" (the tag that the link looks for) for the
bottom of my page. That is a useful convention and a good tool to build in
to a site. If you are using a wider pipeline than I do, you can use graphic
buttons. Literally thousands of button designs and concepts exist. For
some good examples see Jakob
Nielsen.
Now, I use a custom table:
Old table:
| ADR Resources |
Index Comment |
Copyright 1997 adrr.com All rights reserved |
E-Mail to Stephen R. Marsh |
Home Page Stephen R. Marsh |
The table contains links to my site's home page (ADR Resources), the current topic home page (Index -- which has a specific meaning with web pages), the site bulletin board (Comments), e-mail to the author (E-Mail to ...) and my Professional Home page (Home Page ... Note. My home page is very sparse. Too sparse for most uses. If it were on a site without the context of the content here, the "professional statement" page material would probably be best placed on the professional home page, along with some indication of what the content is). The entire site is organized to never be more than one layer (adrr.com/directory) deep, so this navigation bar can be used on every page.
Current table:
My Home Page/Design Notes
My home page is very simple. My practice consists of providing services to other attorneys (local counsel representation and mediation) and of handling litigation matters. The routes to my page are through a building index (what you get when you click on "Other Wichita County Attorneys), content (I have a library of on-line versions of mediation and other essays I have written and published, as well as other materials), or people who know me.
The purpose of my "home page" is to say "hello" without overwhelming my "normal" clients and without being too gaudy or offensive to my attorney clients. I also want it to "come up" and be displayed quickly and to be accessible to a wide range of browsers.
A graphic letterhead instead of the HTML text letterhead would offer the advantage of appearance, but many browsers do not show graphics and search engines do not index them. If your "letterhead" information is in a graphic, then that part of the site does not exist for those doing searches for you on the web. (There are excellent work-arounds, including <meta> tags, etc.). I've been working on one for my site when I repipeline it.
By being fast I hope to overcome being plain. All of the links (except the disclaimer) offer more information about who I am and what I do and come up quickly enough to encourage a search to continue. That is a design philosophy (of speed) that is important for many (though not all or necessarily even most) sites on the Internet.
Etc./Design Notes
Links
Web pages "traditionally" include things such as links to other sites. Some people even expect an especially good link to make them a site that is revisited. Remember, if the link is that good (that someone would visit or bookmark your site just for the link), people will visit the linked site rather than visit (or bookmark) your site.
Not that a collection of links is a bad thing. I use mine for my own research and use. If you want one for your site, you are welcome to copy any or all of mine and use them (most "Web Page Authoring Software" will let you copy or clone a page). Feel free to add, subtract and modify the information there. You don't even need to give me credit (and should definitely replace my footer with your own!). (Note that instead of one mammoth collection of links, I have a set of research links, but the rest of the various links in my site are located with or in material relevant to the links. I'm not trying to win any awards for confusing browsers by providing more information than they can use).
Have a collection of links for your own use, and for tradition's sake, but do not expect the collection, of itself, to provide much benefit, if any in drawing people to your site. Reference: Link Collection. You are more than welcome to copy my collection and use as much or as little of it as you find useful.
Personal Information, etc.
Web sties traditionally include a great deal of personal information. For most small firms and individuals, this is counterproductive. If you wouldn't want it on your resume, you probably do not want it on your Professional Home Page. On the other hand, for firms over 25 to 30 lawyers, some personal information can be a plus (typically a picture of the lawyer and a carefully culled collection of personal information -- similar to the material that appears on the brochures of people running for President of the State Bar of Texas).
If you include personal information, your goal should be to humanize yourself without sacrificing credibility. Depending on who you are attempting to reach with your Web Site, that may include computer game design credits (if you are trying to attract computer game designers who need intellectual and contract attorneys), your dressage competition (for the horse set), etc. The salient guide to keep in mind is that you do not want to distract or weaken your message. Any personal information should be focused on re-enforcing the message that your page makes.
If you would not put the information or the "value added game" in your lobby, with your receptionist, or in your office, you need to consider the value it adds to your site. Traditional Personal Home Pages are vanity press items, attempting to draw attention, often on the design lines of David Letterman's "Stupid Pet Tricks." A Professional Home Page is designed to enhance your efforts to attract clients. Usually those are two different goals.
Wallpaper, backgrounds, illustrations
Just as your firm has distinctive stationary, your web page can have "backgrounds." These may range from a color selection (e.g. your pages may be cream with dark brown text) to textures (a web page can look as if printed on linen laid papers or other things) to florescent colored textures never before seen. Backgrounds slow the time that your page takes to load, but for most firms the amount of time lost is insignificant.
A good background, like good paper, enhances a site. A poor choice of backgrounds will hurt the eyes of the browsing individual and reflect poorly on you and your firm.
The same is true of illustrations, pictures and similar items.
Since a web page is a cross between many things, many sites use "buttons" rather than text tags. Many sites that expect a wide range of readers use both graphic buttons and text (the software I used for my pages comes with a nice selection of button graphics). "Return to Top of Page" "Home Page" "TOC" (for Table of Contents) "Index" (traditionally, the computer file for a Home Page is Index.html or Index.htm) may all be displayed by a graphic button rather than a text tag.
Those are excellent uses of graphics.
Many sites also have cartoons, illustrations, pictures and similar "value added" enhancements. Some are valuable. When the pipeline revision goes in for our site at Union Square, a picture of the building and a map to the location will be included. Both enhance the office (it is a nice location) and the use of the Page (having a map never hurts a potential client -- though because our office has a unique location it is literally the easiest place to find in Wichita County).
I do not expect that anyone will add a cartoon or similar illustration. While it fits tradition and the ideas of many college-aged web page designers, the image that most people have of their attorneys does without that kind of picture. On the other hand, the most serious trademark attorney I ever met uses illustrations and graphics (of the various trademarks he defends) effectively -- it depends on the intended audience of your site. One firm's brochure is another firm's billboard. An illustration of sharks or of birds falling off of a tree may be a cute metaphor for an index service, but may reflect poorly on an attorney listed by the service. Or, in the right circumstances, it may reflect local connections and an atunement to the local service market.
Final Comment
In the next week, a hundred firms will probably post some kind of web page. The educated guess is that less than twenty of those firms will receive more benefit than cost from what they have done. By thinking through your web page, you can change those odds in your favor.
Some firms will provide content on a regular basis, just as they do now with their firm newsletters. In fact, the content is often the same as the firm newsletter (killing two birds with one stone). Other firmss are putting up bill boards on the Information Superhighway. Some are listing themselves just like a telephone book listing. Web Pages succeed by both getting noticed and by creating the right kind of positive impression that causes people to hire the attorneys who sponsor the pages.
Think through your client base, how you expect to reach them and what you want out of the World Wide Web. A web page should be 75% design, 15% content, 10% execution -- and most of the design effort should be spent on content and execution and what they will mean. It is my hope that by knowing what to think about, and that by following your plan and your metaphor you will construct a site that is one of the successes.
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