Determine
Technologies to implement, navigation schemes, colors, visual style,
and all other global site characteristics (i.e. footer statements,
copyright and such) STORYBOARD--STORYBOARD--STORYBOARD
When determining the goal and
concept of a site, you must always look at who your intended audience will
be and what type of experience you want them to take away from your creation.
Some questions you should ask
while going through this phase:
What type of audience is the
site aimed at? (children, parents administrators and politicians, researcher,
and everyone who makes up the general public).
What will the computer and
Internet knowledge level be for each audience type coming to your site?
What type of computer system
will your audience groups be using? (platform, browser and technology
issues should be considered)
Design
Site
Content:
A web site is only as good
as its content. Without well developed content that is accurate and understandable
your site will be as useless as the one you made in the first part of
this course. It has no meaningful knowledge or soul.
Try to keep the content consistent
with the goals of the site determined in Phase A. By structuring and presenting
your information in a consistent manner you will allow the end user to
digest the information much more easily and provide an experience the
user will want to repeat and pass on to others.
Always keep in mind that your
site can be improved. Future changes and additions to your site is highly
recommended. As you learn new techniques and methods of presenting information
update your site. The web is a dynamic creature. It is constantly changing
with new technologies and new methodologies. Don't be afraid to experiment
with an idea.
Layout and Functions:
One of the greatest tools
you can use when creating a site is a stack of blank paper and a pencil.
Storyboarding your site will allow you to visually see how your site will
be before you start coding it and allow you to see problems with he ideas
floating around n your head.
During the storyboarding process
each page and its content will be visually sketched out for its general
location. Technologies and its implementation are decided at this stage.
Some questing to answer when picking technologies:
What type of bandwidth
will your audience have--download times>
What plug-ins and browsers
will your audience have?
Will you want animations?
Gifs, Flash, or movies?
How many graphics should
you include--download speed can be the determinant
When picking the visual layout
of your site you need to assess the sites audience and content then determine
what will empress your information easiest. Contrasting colors for text.
(Black text on white background is always best but other colors with good
contrast can work as well.)
Design Tips and Tricks
If placing content in
a table that has a specified pixel size and you want it to print,
the table should be no bigger than 670 pixels in width.
Tables can be made to
reach all edges of the browser window by setting all the margin properties
to zero in the page properties window of Dreamweaver.
Coding
and Visual Content Development
There are three main coding methods
for developing web sites.
Code by hand using a simple
text editor--code does not have extraneous elements and is very clean
but one does need a full understanding of the coding language and structure
to make good sites.
Use a visual HTML program
that allows user to make pages visually and the program dos the coding
for them. (Dreamweaver)
Create a system that dynamically
generates html code on the fly from simple text resources or from a data
base--much more advanced way of doing things and development time is decreased.
The plus side of dynamic generation is lower maintenance tie an cost and
it is technically superior.
When developing images for your
site one needs to look at many different aspects:
color
size (download time)
compression
intended expression of image
Coding and layout tricks to
make your layout look right.
Test
Site for Functionality
Check Cross Platform issue--Netscape
and IE
check download times
conduct user studies on how they
use the site
Modify site based on user feedback
Publish
Site to the World
Hosting solutions can be dynamic
based on number of hits and usage.
Maintain
and modify site as new content is formed and user feedback is received.
Special
Thanks to San Diego Super Computing TeacherTECH 2001