Quote Originally Posted by markwolff View Post
I would agree with most everything patti has mentioned, with one exception that being videos with no DRM.... i am really having a hard time justifing it these days.
That's a fair enough point and your decision to make, Mark.

But remember, I asked this question from the customer's point of view. There are no circumstances that I can think of where a customer prefers DRM to no DRM.


Anyway, here are a few other things customers like.

- Billing options that reflect the needs of non-North American customers.

- A site that has been thoroughly examined for typos, bad links, missing gallery pictures, etc.

- An internal "bookmark" function whereby users can specify their favorite photo, videos, etc. Then they can return to the bookmark page for instant access to their favorites.

- Downloadable .zip files of all photos in a photo set.

- Sites that avoid gratuitous animation such as scrolling text, flashing or moving icons, funky effects on the cursor, morphing or transition effects when switching pages or pictures, etc.

- Multiple resolution sizes for photos sets.

- Flex-width sites that work on varied screen sizes.

- An entry page in the members area that is neat, concise, up-to-date, and makes it easy to locate the content you are looking for.

(Funny story on this one -- GayGeek reviewed a website that shall remain nameless. The "entry page" in its members area was a whopping 27 screens tall in my browser. The site was overflowing with content and you could stay busy there for months, but the site was so badly put together that with the exception of the latest updates it was difficult to find what you were looking for. Even the "help, I'm lost!" page was 19 screens tall.

Our reviews gave the site a D to D-minus for the website's visual appeal and ease of use. This was based on the opinions of four reviewers who reviewed the site independently of each other.

The webmaster was outraged at his overall scores and sent me an e-mail demanding we remove/change the reviews. In the ensuing conversation he stated that he spends over $30,000 annually on web design. I told him that if I were running his website I'd fire the designer and rebuild the site infrastructure from scratch. He was outraged and canceled our affiliate membership to discourage us from listing his reviews. (Didn't work -- we still list it along with his site's mediocre overall grade.)

Moral of the story -- Webmasters are often convinced that user experience on their website is high even in the face of evidence to the contrary. Never be so sold on your website design that negative opinions are inherently wrong and invalid.)


Anyway, let me know what else you come up with.

I want to put together a list of guidelines for good website design. No webmaster will ever use them all, but the list will be a a good place to start when looking for inspiration on how to redesign a website.

--Aaron