Wisdom from Gerry

Some great words from Gerry McGovern

A graphic designer complained recently that I didn’t understand professional web design. So, I decided to go to his website to see just how a professional does it. I found that:

1) The first paragraph I read was 139 words long. I would recommend 70 words or less.

2) The first sentence of the first paragraph was 39 words long. I would recommend 15-20 words.

3) The font was grey on white. I would recommend black on white.

4) The font size was 8 point. I would recommend a minimum of 10 point for body text.

5) The font size was locked.

I once asked a graphic designer why he had locked the font size on his website. “If users were able to change the size, it would ruin the look of the page,” was his reply.

The text comes from his weekly newsletter and is titled “Words come before looks in web design”.

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