Classroom
0. Planning a website
There are some important points to consider before creating a website. Here are some steps you should take before you start writing your page:
While planing a webpage you should get a piece of paper and a pen to write down all your ideas and considerations. Important is also to have a sketch of the site and how to navigate it.
Before starting the process of designing a web site for your purpose it is worthwhile to gain some some knowledge of current practice, both good and bad, by examining web sites of different institutions. Surf the web.
Goal. Develop a clear idea of what you expect your web site to achieve. It may be to reduce print and distribution costs, to recruit students, to promote research or to advertise events, for example. As soon as you know what you want to achive you know in what direction you have to go.
There is a connection between what you are going to achive and what is your target group. When building up a web site it is vital to have a clear idea of who
you are trying to communicate with. There is always the temptation to provide
information in a form that reflects its creation rather than the needs of its clients. So what are the needs of this special target group? What age are they? What information are the coming for? What is there first language? Are they netnerds or netnewbies?...
The quality of the content is of paramount importance. Out-of-date and poorly presented information will reduce the effectiveness of the site. Resources must be identified to maintain the currency of this information. It is important to remember that more is not always better, a small consistent well-maintained site with clear objectives may be more effective than a vast site. People in the www need the information to be fast and clear.
3. Navigation/Orientation
A uniform look and a consistent navigation style will help create familiarity across all pages. It should be possible for visitors to have a direct access to the information they came for. Links need to be clear (in words and symbols). The orientation has to be easy especially for people that are not familiar to computers or the internet.
Also every source of information on the site should be accessible direct from every point of the site.
A sitemap will make the structure more visible. The easiest way to plan the sitenavigation is to do a sketch of the startingpage and the whole sitestructure like you can see in the example below:
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4. Interaction/Communication
The real value of using the web over other means of publishing is that it can be customised to take into account user feedback. Interactive sites are more likely to be remembered. It is useful to actively seek feedback using forms or email. It is noted here that there are many more web-based options to encourage interactivity, eg a web-based discussions group or a mailinglist.
The design of a site should have a similar professional touch like the contents. Less is usually more. The development of a style guide for the whole site-design will also improve the navigation.
The style sheet has (color of fonts, grafics... ) to fit to the target group.
Here you can go forward to the next step [1. Basic Html] and learn the easy basics about the webpage formating language.