10/6/2015Page 1 Web Site Design Modified by Linda Kenney April 6, 2008.

04/19/23

Web Site Design

Modified by Linda Kenney

April 6, 2008

04/19/23

• Learn the basics about copyright law and the Web.

• Learn the fundamentals of Web page design.

Learning Objectives

04/19/23

You already know

• how to add absolute URLs, relative links, mail links, and internal links using named anchors to your Web pages

• how to add pictures and colors to a Web page

• how to use tables• how to publish a Web page• about browser-safe colors

04/19/23

• It’s very easy to capture content (text, images, video/audio files) from the Web.

• These same items can just as easily be placed onto your Web page.

• Everything you see/hear over the Internet is copyrighted, whether it explicitly says so or not!

• Technically speaking, you can use content from other sources only when you have explicit permission to do so.

Copyright Basics

04/19/23

• Content from public domain sites is available for use.

• Some sites grant explicit permission to use their content, as long as it is not used in a commercial product.

• Most everything from a government Web site is in the public domain.

• Always acknowledge the source of any copied material on your Web page.

Copyright Basics (cont.)

04/19/23

• Consult Appendix D for further information about copyright law.


04/19/23

Copyright Basics (cont.)• Authors and inventors have exclusive right

to their respective writing and discoveries for a limited time.

• Usually during their lifetime; heirs may extend the copyright for another 70 years.

• A copyright protects the creator’s economic interest and the integrity of the work.

04/19/23

Possible copyright statements:• Permission is granted to freely copy this

document in electronic form or in print as long as you’re not selling it. On the WWW you must link here rather than put it on your own page.

• This work may be redistributed freely, in whole or in part, but cannot be sold or used for profit or as part of a product or service that is sold for profit.

• NOTE: You still must identify the author, source, and publisher (if there is one).

04/19/23


• To reference another web page, make a link to it. Do not copy the entire page onto your server.

• Do NOT, however, link directly to images. This is known as deep linking. – What should you do instead?

• Do not alter downloaded images.

04/19/23

Fair Use Guidelines

• See page 858 - 859

04/19/23

• Think about the theme or purpose of your Web page. – What about the target audience?

• Think about what you want to place on your page, and the source of the material you will use.

• Ensure that your content is consistent with your theme.

Planning Your Web Page

04/19/23

• Then consider the organization of this content.

• Create a storyboard.

• The storyboard shows the layout of the material you plan to place on your Web page.

Planning Your Web Page (cont.)

04/19/23

Planning Your Web Page (cont.)

04/19/23

Web Site Organization

• Hierarchical

• Linear

• Random (sometimes called Web Organization)

04/19/23

Hierarchical Organization

• Characterized by a clearly defined home page with links to major site sections

• Often used for commercial and corporate web sites

04/19/23

Hierarchical -- Too Shallow

• Be careful that the organization is not too shallow.– This provides too many choices and could

result in a confusing and less usable web site

04/19/23

Hierarchical -- Too Deep

• Be careful that the organization is not too deep.– This results in many “clicks”

needed to drill down to the needed page.

– User Interface “Three Click Rule”

• A web page visitor should be able to get from any page on your site to any other page on your site with a maximum of three hyperlinks.

04/19/23

See

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/gmdhome.html

What are good points?

What are some problems?

04/19/23

Linear Organization

• Used when the purpose of a site or series of pages on a site is to provide a tutorial, tour, or presentation that needs to be viewed in a sequential fashion.

04/19/23

Linear Organization Example

• http://echoecho.com/javascript.htm

04/19/23

Random Organization

• Sometimes called “Web” Organization

• Utilized when there is no clear path through the site

• May be used with artistic or concept sites

• Generally not used for commercial web sites.

04/19/23

Random Organization example

• http://www.leoburnett.ca/

04/19/23

Design Principles• Repetition

– Repeat visual elements throughout design.

• Contrast– Add visual excitement and draw attention.

• Proximity– Group related items.

• Alignment– Align elements to create visual unity.

04/19/23

Web Site Navigation Best Practices

• Make your site easy to navigate– Provide clearly labeled navigation in the same

location on each page.

– Most common – across top or down left side

• Another option is “breadcrumb” navigation Examples:

http://usability.about.com/od/aboutusability/p/Breadcrumbs.htm

04/19/23

Web Site NavigationBest Practices (cont.)

• Types of Navigation– Graphics-based– Text-based– Interactive Navigation

Technologies• DHTML • Java Applet • Flash

04/19/23

See

http://www.dot.gov/

What are good points?

What are some problems?

04/19/23

See

http://www.usdoj.gov/

Note contrasting links for current page.

04/19/23

Web Site NavigationBest Practices (cont.)

• Accessibility Tip– When graphics, DHTML, a Java Applet,

or Flash is used for the main navigation of a web site, provide clear text-based links on the bottom of each page.

04/19/23

• A table can be used to create a graphical navigation bar.

• Insert each section into a single row table with zero border, spacing, and padding.

• Convert each image section into a link.

Creating a Graphical Navigation Bar

04/19/23

More Web Site NavigationBest Practices

• Use a Table of Contents (with links to other parts of the page) for long pages. (for example, the class web sites page -- http://pubpages.unh.edu/~ltv6/cs403/resource/web.html

• Consider breaking long pages into multiple shorter pages.

• Large sites may benefit from a site map or site search feature.

http://www.conferences.unh.edu/sitemap.html

04/19/23

See

http://www.starbucks.com/

04/19/23

Web Page DesignLoad Time

• Watch the load time of your pages.

• Try to limit web page document and associated media to under 60K on the home page and 100K on other pages.

• Why should your home page be smaller than the other pages?

04/19/23

Web Page DesignTarget Audience

• Design for your target audience.

– Appropriate reading level of text

– Appropriate use of color

– Appropriate use of animation

04/19/23

Web Page DesignColors & Animation

• Use colors and animation that appeal to your target audience. – Kids

• What?

– College students• What?

– Older users• What?

– Everyone: • Good contrast between background and text • Avoid animation if it makes the page load too slowly.

04/19/23

Web Page Design Browser Compatibility

• Web pages do NOT look the same in all the major browsers

• Test with current and recent versions of: – Internet Explorer– Firefox, Mozilla– Opera– Mac versions

• Design to look best in one browser and degrade gracefully (look OK) in others

04/19/23

Web Page Design Screen Resolution

• Test at various screen resolutions– Most widely used: 1024x768 and

800x600

• Design to look good at various screen resolutions

04/19/23

Web Page DesignMore Best Practices

• Page layout design

• Text design

• Graphic design

• Accessibility considerations

04/19/23

Web Page DesignPage Layout

• Place the most important information "above the fold“ (the area before the user scrolls).

• Use adequate "white" or blank space.

• Avoid horizontal scrolling.

• Use an interesting page layout.

04/19/23

Page Layout (cont.)

This is usable, but a little boring. See the next slide for improvements in page layout.

04/19/23

Page Layout (cont.)

Better

Columns make the page more interesting and it’s easier to read this way.

04/19/23

Page Layout (cont.)

Best

Columns of different widths interspersed with graphics and headings create the most interesting, easy to read page.

04/19/23

Page Layout Design Techniques --Ice Design

– AKA rigid or fixed design– Fixed-width, usually at left margin

– Examples:

– http://www.shire.net/learnwebdesign/index.html

– http://www.w3schools.com/

04/19/23

Page Layout Design Techniques -- Jello Design

– Page content typically centered and often configured with a table of percentage width.

– Even margins on both sides.– Examples:http://www.officemax.com/

http://www.pbs.org/

http://www.cnn.com/

http://www.ebay.com/

04/19/23

Page Layout DesignTechniques -- Liquid Design

– Page expands to fill the browser at all resolutions. Often configured with a table width of 100%

– New Trend: Use CSS to configure liquid design page layout.

– Examples:

http://www.illinois.gov/tech/

http://www.digital-web.com/

04/19/23

• Basic Elements – Descriptive title (Keep it short but accurate.)– Include your name and contact info (e-mail)– Show the creation/modification date– Use pictures to highlight and emphasize the

purpose of the page.– Provide navigational content if multiple

pages are used.

Important Web Page “Requirements” (1)

04/19/23

• Design & Organization Recommendations– Put the most interesting/important info at the

top of the page.– Keep the image files small and few. Use

thumbnail image links to full size images if there are many.

– Add alternate text to your images. Not all the Web page visitors are sighted. The alternate text will clue them in about the purpose of the picture.

– Use browser-safe colors. Non-standard colors may appear differently on other systems.


04/19/23

• Design & Organization Recommendations– Use the default fonts. Specialty fonts may not

be installed on the viewer’s computer - so an alternate font will be used, potentially affecting the impact of your page.

– Use only a few fonts. The display may become too “busy”.

– Use a style sheet. Separate display info from content. This simplifies cosmetic changes.

– Use subtitles and headings to break up content.


04/19/23

• Design & Organization Recommendations– Use the spell checker! TextPad vs. Notepad– Preview/test your page. Nothing is more

frustrating than a Web page that is incomplete because the author failed to fix display issues.

– Write, view and test all Web pages before installing them on a Web server.

– Make sure you test them again once you have uploaded them to your server.


04/19/23


• Keep download times short.

• Make your pages portable! (Use relative links!)

04/19/23

Check your work. • Validate. http://validator.w3.org

04/19/23

• Remember the three C’s of Web page design: – quality Content– reader Convenience– artistic Composition.

A Web Site Construction Checklist

04/19/23

Best Practices Checklist

Table 7.1 in Web Developer & Design Foundations with XHTML , (p. 303-305)

http://terrymorris.net/bestpractices

•Page Layout•Browser Compatibility•Navigation•Color and Graphics•Multimedia•Content Presentation•Functionality•Accessibility

04/19/23

Information from

• Web 101 ,Third Edition, by Wendy G. Lehnert & Richard L. Kopec (Addison Wesley)

• Web Developer & Design Foundations with XHTML , Third Edition, by Terry Felke-Morris (Addison Wesley)

10/6/2015Page 1 Web Site Design Modified by Linda Kenney April 6, 2008.

Documents

Transcript of 10/6/2015Page 1 Web Site Design Modified by Linda Kenney April 6, 2008.