Although the purpose here is for educators, anyone wanting to build webpages can use
this site. Keep in mind a few pointers about web building. Read below, then
view some examples.
- Content takes priority over pizzazz.
There are lots of snazzy looking sites with weak information or difficult to navigate.
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- The Home page (index.html) should be no longer than a half page. The most important
links of the site should be visible in anyone's screen without
having to scroll.
The first page is like a table of content, guiding viewers to where they need to go
quickly and efficiently. Long opening pages tend to be too busy, or worse bore one
with dry information without providing the links a person needs to get where one wishes to
go... NOW.
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- Keep pages to under 2 pages in length.
Any longer can usually be broken into sub categories of linked information.
Sometimes this is not possible, but do the best you can. Still why? See the
above bullet.
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- Easy Navigation - Easy to Email
Links should be clearly marked and easily located. Avoid placing important links in
a sea of paragraphs. Maintain a main table of content links at the top (and
sometimes bottom) of each page. Place email links at the bottom of most, if not all,
pages. Students (myself included) find it frustrating when they can not find an
email to send a question or comment regarding information they are researching or using.
Students consistently get frustrated and stop working when there is no means of
immediate contact to clear up a problem.
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- Simple is Best
Images, animations, colorful backgrounds, and programs are great whiz bang stuff to take a
viewer's breath away. But if it gets in the way of being able to read and navigate
through content, then the web site is simple a smokeless whiff.
Like an illustrated book, use pictures where it enhances the content (not itself) and is
preferably a link to somewhere important. Backgrounds should be squintless for text.
Programs such as applets and java should have a content enhancing connection.
Don't get me wrong, these are great ways to beautify page layout. The more
stuff there are on the page, the longer the download of page in a browser. There are
those who have to wait a looooooooooooooooooooooong time for pages to load.
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- Important Note
Microsoft FrontPage is one of several excellent WYSIWYG programs. Dreamweaver is
another user friendly program is undergoing webtesting. So far it is a worthy
program. Eventually a tutorial will be in place for it. Additional
programs
such as Pagemill and Hotmetal Pro will be studied. If you have a recommendation or
request for a program review let us know.
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