Every web page needs:

• An informative title (which also becomes the text of any bookmark to the page)
• The creator’s identity (author or institution)
• A creation or revision date
• A copyright statement, Creative Commons statement, or other statement of ownership to protect your intellectual property rights
• At least one link to a local home page or menu page, in a consistent location on all pages
• The home page url

Most web pages should also incorporate these additional elements:

• An organization logo or name near the upper left corner, with a link back to your home page
• Navigation links to other major sections of your site
• At least one heading to identify and clarify the page content
• Address and contact information or a link to this information
• Alternate (“alt”) text identifying any graphics on the page

Include these basic information elements and you will have traveled 90 percent of the way toward providing your users with an understandable web user interface. Once we have strategically developed and that information has been designed to fit coherently and consistenly into a web page format, we are ready to consider the visual design of the website.