Wading through the Web
Module 2, Activity 4.4 - Introduction to Web Design
Student Page
(teacher lesson for this page)

Introduction:

You will be learning about what makes a good web page and what makes a site that "sucks". You will also start planning your own site.

Activities:

Task One - Sites that "suck"
You will start by looking at a number of sites that have big problems built into them. Some of them are very beautiful sites.

Visit Web Pages That Suck.com

Once you have looked through the site about bad web sites, you will notice some basic common problems. Bonnie Skaalid tackles the problem of web design through 5 basic principles for good design:

• Simplicity
• Consistency
• Clarity
• Balance
• Harmony & Unity

You will:

1. Plan out everything about the site
2. Create the basic framework for the site (navigation, header, file structure)
3. Create the content, including text, images and video
4. Put the content into the framework
5. Edit, proof and debug the site
6. FTP the site to your server and publish it on the web OR hand it in to your teacher on CD

Let's say that my community is Saskatoon. The on-line version of news for university students in Saskatoon, The Sheaf, is very different from a paper from The Eagle Feather Newspaper. The Eagle Feather Newspaper has a mandate to "promote positive people, events and businesses in the Aboriginal communities of Saskatchewan". Because the papers are writing for different audiences, their design, content, voice and writing style are all different.

Not sure about Tone or Voice?
Review the concepts.

Task Two Continued. . .
Now you are ready to start planning. Begin by brainstorming everything that goes into an on-line newspaper. Remember to include advertisements, the date and all the little details that define a paper. Remember to KISS - you are one person planning a small paper and you probably do not need obituaries and a help wanted section!

Now group your list of ideas into related topics. For example, all the things that go on the cover of a newspaper might go together.

Next figure out how many pages you will need and what will be on each page. Remember that on the web we put about 1/3 of the content that might go on a printed page. You want to avoid horizontal scrolling and keep vertical scrolling minimal.

One of the important steps in web page design is to consider how the reader gets from one page to another. Remember that I should be able to get to each page on the site from each other page, as this is a small site. Plan how your navigation will work. Will it be on the left or across the top? Will it be buttons or a menu that flies out. Again, remember to KISS.

Finally, you are ready to draw a basic picture of your home page. Roughly sketch out what the home page (index page) will look like, but don't try to fill in the content.

When you have finished all of the planning, you are ready to move on to the next lesson, Making Web Pages. Double check that you have completed everything on the list bellow:

Web Planning Checklist

1. Determine focus and intended audience
2. Brainstorm the content
3. Group ideas into related content
4. Convert grouped ideas into a number of pages
5. Plan your navigation
6. Draw a sketch of the layout, particularly of the home page