Here is an article regarding Web.TV viewing which may prove useful to all webmasters. Some points and tips to keep in mind for this popular Net Surfer base.

INTERVIEW: Designing Your Site For WEB.TV

It seems like every week people are finding more and more ways to connect their everyday appliances to the Net. First it started with TV, now you can even surf the Web from your Palm Pilot or cellular phone. This will eventually (if it doesn't already) drastically affect the way sites are designed and should have you thinking whether your site needs to adjust to appear optimally on these new platforms.

But before you go and alter your site completely find out if it's necessary yet. By checking your Hitometer (http://www.Hitometer.com) reports you can learn how your visitors are accessing your site and then design it accordingly.

With more than 1.5 million people already using Web.TV this is probably one of the audiences you should be thinking about. So this week we interviewed Jos Claerbout, Manager of Web.TV Networks Developer Support to learn how Web site owners can improve their sites for Web.TV.

---

Editor: What should Web site owners consider when designing their sites to look good on televisions?

Claerbout: The most important thing to remember is that televisions are very different display devices than computer monitors; resolution is considerably lower (making text embedded in images difficult to read), and highly saturated colors can distort on a TV screen (making those deep red backgrounds painful to look at!).

Editor: How fast does the average Web.TV user connect to the Net?

Claerbout: The Web.TV Classic has a 33.6 modem, the Web.TV Plus has a 56.6 modem.

Editor: Which browser does Web.TV use?

Claerbout: Web.TV products use a proprietary browser that is compatible with content developed for Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer.

Editor: What fonts does Web.TV support? What typeface does text appear in?

Claerbout: The default font of the Web.TV browser is a large Helvetica; monospaced fonts are represented in Monaco. No additional fonts are supported at this time.

Editor: How does Web.TV display content on a television? (i.e. resizing the screen, screen dimensions, etc..,)

Claerbout: Text is increased in size and pages are reformatted to layout in a 544 pixel-wide space; Web.TV users never see those dreaded horizontal scroll bars.

Editor: Does Web.TV have a size limit for Web pages overall or for text, graphics, animation, audio, or video?

Claerbout: It depends on what is on the page and how much information is already in the Web.TV box's cache. In general, Web pages should be smaller than 200K. Audio and video limits vary upwards from there, going as high as around 500K on the Web.TV Plus.

Editor: What are common problems sites have when viewed by Web.TV viewers?

Claerbout: Overly complex layouts and text embedded in images present the biggest problems for Web.TV users. Since the resolution of a TV screen is significantly less than that of most computer monitors, not as much information can be clearly presented on the screen. Also, fine detail in graphics is lost. If Web sites rely on text embedded in those graphics for navigation, Web.TV users may have a problem.

Editor: What should Web site owners do to fix such problems?

Claerbout: To avoid most problems, simply follow the rules of good Web design:

• Avoid "bleeding-edge" technologies, or pages that take a long time to download.
• Don't "cram" your pages with content. Design with plenty of whitespace. This makes them more readable to computer users, and resizable for Web.TV.
• Avoid garish colors and backgrounds.

Editor: What is the most important thing Web site owners should do to improve their site for Web.TV?

Claerbout: Testing on the Web.TV Viewer will show Web designers how their site lays out on a television screen, but the Viewer cannot emulate the color or resolution differences between the two mediums. While our developer site has articles on how to use text, and are working on tools for "TV-Friendly" color, there is no substitute for dropping by a local retail store to see how your site looks on Web.TV.

In general, if a site's usability on a PC is "marginal", there's a good chance it won't work well on a Web.TV either. That being said, the vast majority of Web sites out there display just fine on a Web.TV, and by following the rules of common sense, your site will be one of them.

---

About the Expert: Jos Claerbout is the Manager of Web.TV Networks developer support. For more information on how to build your site to be viewed optimally on Web.TV, please visit the Web.TV developer site at http://developer.Web.TV.net.

---

TIPS & TRICKS - Background Colors On WEB.TV

Most sites have white backgrounds with dark colored text. While this appears just fine on a monitor, white and red backgrounds can cause severe screen distortion to Web.TV viewers.

To appear optimally on Web.TV consider using a dark colored background with light colored text. If you absolutely have to use that white background and you know a good portion of your visitors are using Web.TV to access your site try using a 90% white such as linen or whitesmoke. Keep in mind that optimizing your site for Web.TV may not translate into a good site for the rest of your viewers, so be sure you know who your site should be catering to.

METRICS - What Are The Top Domains Visiting Sites?
(Note: these figures were taken in 1999 and have changed since then.)

According to our Hitometer statistics, these are the top domains visiting sites:

1. AOL.com 9.0%
2. uu.net 2.9%
3. Web.TV.net 1.6%
4. att.net 1.4%
5. home.com 1.0%

---

How many of your visitors are using Web.TV? FIND OUT:
--->http://www.hitometer.com +++ Sponsored by Hitometer +++ Start Tracking and Analyzing your Web Site Traffic Today!

---

Web Site Journal, Copyright 1999 by Netscape. May be reproduced for noncommercial purposes as long as attribution is given.