Probably More Than You

1
Probably More Than Youve Ever Wanted to Know
About Web Page Design, But Were Afraid to Ask
Presented to the Faculty Staff of South Pointe
High School
2
Objectives

• Participants will create a title accompanied
  content.
• Participants will edit text, background, and
  background images.
• Participants will create a hyperlink to other
  pages.
• Participants will insert an image into their web
  page.
• Participants will how to upload their web page to
  their account.
• Participants will make changes to their existing
  web page after it has been published.

3
What is a Web Site?

• A web site is a digital page consisting of HTML
  (hypertext markup language) files, images,
  movies, sound, and other media.
• The code in these HTML files are read by your
  internet browser and displayed in the format you
  see every time you go onto the internet.

4
How Web Sites Work

• Web designer creates web page (.html files)
• The web page is uploaded to a FTP server.
• The end user then sends a request to the server
  asking to see the web site based on the web
  address.

Creation
Upload to FTP Server
End-User
5
Designing a Web Site

• Steps to follow when designing a web site.
• 1) Decide on a purpose or main idea for your
  site.
• 2) Flowchart your content graphically.
• 3) Decide on a design interface (navigation,
  links, buttons, etc.)
• 4) Begin web site creation.

6
Designing a Web Site

• 1) The first thing to do when designing a web
  site is to decide on your Main Idea or purpose of
  the site.
• Is it to interface with parents /or students,
  offer additional assignments, promote your class,
  attract new students?

?
7
Designing a Web Site

• 2) Secondly, brainstorm subtopics that relate to
  your site. Make a flowchart and write out the
  content for each page.

8
Designing a Web Site

• 3) Decide on your design interface, colors,
  images, etc. Draw it out on paper if necessary.

9
Designing a Web Site

• 4) Begin website creation.
• When you have all of the preliminary work done,
  you have the "map" or direction in which to go.
  This will make it easier as you start your
  digital design.

10
OK, Now What?

• So, youve got your design all planned, and your
  site storyboarded out, so how do I actually make
  the thing?
• Its much easier than it might appear

11
OK, Now What?

• HTML markup language is very simple, and, among
  computer languages, actually rather intuitive,
  once you get the general idea.
• It relies on markup code, which the browser
  (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari) interprets
  to modify and arrange your text, graphics, video,
  whatever..

12
OK, Now What?

• Here is the HTML code for a basic page
• ltheadgtlttitlegtlt/titlegtlt/headgtltbodygt
• blah, blah, blahlt/bodygtlt/htmlgt
• Which makes a page that looks like this

13
(No Transcript)
14
OK, Now What?

• OK, not overwhelmingly interesting yet.
• Its a blank page, like you start off with your
  word processor documents, which also use markup
  language that you dont see
• So, add some more stuff, and your web page will
  rock

15
OK, Now What?

• Now, you can make web pages with Notepad, using
  the markup language like we saw before, but that
  can get tedious
• So, folks have developed web design software to
  make it relatively painless

16
OK, Now What?

• There are tons of them out there, including
  Microsoft Frontpage Expression, Dreamweaver,
  PageMill, ColdFusion, etc.
• One I like is called CoffeeCup. They are very
  intuitively designed, fast, low footprint on your
  computer, and, they have a free version available.

17
OK, Now What?

• CoffeeCup Web Software can be found here
• http//www.coffeecup.com/
• With the free stuff here
• http//www.coffeecup.com/freestuff/

18
OK, Now What?

• Plan A was to have you all play around with the
  free version of CoffeeCup, create your first
  webpage, and then even have you upload it to
  either the South Pointe or my website.
• Well, best the best laid plans of mice and men
  were laid waste by our friendly and helpful IT
  department, so, well, nevermind.

19
OK, Now What?

• To give you a quick idea of what you might do
  with a web page, lets look at mine, located at
• www.nakedscience.org/mrg

20
(No Transcript)
21
OK, Now What?

• Now, just in case, heres what I use my web page
  for
• Providing a vector for reinforcement of
  curriculum
• Include course syllabi, class lecture notes,
  PowerPoints, sample exams, worksheets, and
  graphics. Anything I can make digital.

22
Nakedscience.org Includes

• separate pages per course with full course
  content
• field trip, lab photos, video
• classroom procedures
• SAT/ACT information
• articles of interest
• contact information
• a Blog for less formal communication

23
http//nakedscience.blogspot.com/

• Includes
• short commentaries, current events, interesting
  science articles
• easy response feedback mechanisms, displayed on
  page dynamically
• calendar and archived postings
• easy hypertext markup

24
(No Transcript)
25
More?

• Maybe we should end it here.
• If you want more, check out a web page of this
  presentation with design tips, additional
  reference and software links, plus more fun and
  adventure in web design
• http//www.nakedscience.org/mrg/WebDesignIntro.htm
  

26
(No Transcript)
27
Designer Issues You Should Know.

• You should always consider your audience, both
  with regard to content and to design
  technicalities. For example
• Computer screen size. As a general rule, a site
  should be developed at 640 pixels wide.
• This will also allow your end user to print out
  the page so it will fit on a piece of paper.
• Any pages over 780 pixels wide will look poorly
  or will be hard to navigate on screen sizes that
  are set at 800x600.

28
Designer Issues You Should Know.
Optimize your images for the web. Make your
pictures download fast for your viewers. Use 72
dpi when scanning or creating an image for the
web.
46KB
6KB
See any difference?
29
Designer Issues You Should Know.

• Contrast colors for better readability.
• Keep it simple.
• As a general rule, using a light background with
  a dark text or a dark background with light text.

30
Designer Issues You Should Know.

• Sans-Serif fonts are easier to read on screens
  that are being projected or on web pages.
• NEVER USE CAPS

Serif Sans-Serif
Times New Roman Arial
Garamond Verdana
Georgia Tahoma
31
Designer Issues You Should Know.

• Your user should be able to navigate to the main
  sections (especially the home page) on your site
  from every page.

32
Designer Issues You Should Know.

• Section 508 Requirement.
• (especially if government funding is involved)
• Websites need to be accessible to all people so
  ltaltgt tags on all images need to be used.

33
Designing Layouts

• Too many animations are distracting to your
  audience, however cool they may seem at the time.
• Example of BAD web page design