Fifteen Web Principles

I can’t believe that it’s taken me over a year to become aware of the BBC’s Fifteen Web Principles, but that’s more than outweighed by how impressed I am at how the essence of their philosophy has been distilled into such a concise document. All of these principles are sound, all are worth reading and all in perpetual draft (so they can change as the web evolves). The particularly relevant ones in my view, are:

The very best websites do one thing really, really well: do less, but execute perfectly.

Do not attempt to do everything yourselves: link to other high-quality sites instead. Your users will thank you. Use other people’s content and tools to enhance your site, and vice versa.

Treat the entire web as a creative canvas: don’t restrict your creativity to your own site.

Let people paste your content on the walls of their virtual homes: Encourage users to take nuggets of content away with them, with links back to your site

They’re all worth reading, considering and taking in, however. If you have time to read just one thought-provoking piece today, make it this.

Also posted on www.outsideline.co.uk