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Web Guidelines: Design Elements (3 of 7)
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1. Include the official affiliate group logo (designed for you by the Penn State Alumni Association) on every page to clearly identify your group. If you do not have a logo for your group, please contact the Volunteer Management Team at alumni-relations@psu.edu.
2. Limit the number of typefaces you use.
3. Avoid using background colors that aren't matched well with text overlays, or text of any shade that is hard to read against the background color. A plain white background with black text is usually safe on any monitor, and easier on the eyes of your audience.
4. Avoid including page elements that move incessantly such as scrolling text, marquees, and constantly running animations. Moving images have an overpowering effect on the human peripheral vision.
5.
 A Web page should not emulate Times Square in New York City in its constant attack on the human senses: give your user some peace and quiet to actually read the text. Of course, the "blink" HTML tag is simply evil.
6. Be careful when using frames. Splitting a page into frames is very confusing and may not be user-friendly or meet accessibility guidelines.
7. Avoid long scrolling pages. All critical content and navigation options should be on the top part of the page.
8. Web sites with large file size graphics take longer to display. Keep in mind the download time of every page. Traditional human factor guidelines indicate 10 seconds as the maximum response time before users lose interest in a page.
9. Please visit our sample Affiliate Group Web site to view how all of these design elements combined.

Images:
Below are links to sites with collections of Penn State images for use on your alumni group Web site:


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