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Chapter 2
Developing a
Basic Web Site

Objectives

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Learn how to storyboard various Web site


structures
Create links among documents in a Web
site
Understand relative and absolute folder
paths
Mark a location with the id attribute
Create a link to an id

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Objectives

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Understand URLs
Link to a site on the Web
Link to an FTP site
Link to an e-mail address
Work with hypertext attributes
Work with metadata
Introduction to Web Usability Design
Create effective link

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2.1 Web Page Structures

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A storyboard is a diagram of a Web sites


structure, showing all the pages in the site
and indicating how they are linked together
It is important to storyboard your Web site
before you start creating your pages in order
to determine which structure works best for
the type of information the site contains
A well-designed structure can ensure that
users will be able to navigate the site without
getting lost or missing important information

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2.1.1

Linear Structures

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In a linear structure, each page is linked


with the pages that follow and precede it in
an ordered chain
Linear structure works best for Web
pages with a clearly defined order
In an augmented linear structure, each
page contains an additional link back to an
opening page

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2.1.1

Linear Structures

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A linear structure

An augmented linear
structure

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2.1.2

Hierarchical Structures

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In the hierarchical structure, the pages


are linked going from the home page down
to more specific pages
Users can easily move from general to
specific and back again
Within this structure, a user can move
quickly to a specific scene within the page,
bypassing the need to move through each
scene in the play

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2.1.2

Hierarchical Structures

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2.1.3

Mixed Structures

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As Web sites become larger and more


complex, you often need to use a
combination of several different structures
The overall form can be hierarchical,
allowing the user to move from general to
specific; however, the links also allow users
to move through the site in a linear
fashion
A site index is a page containing an
outline of the entire site and its contents
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Mixed Structures

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Web Site with No Coherent


Structure
Unstructured web site can be
difficult and frustrating to use

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2.1.4

Protected Structures

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Sections of most commercial Web sites are


off-limits except to subscribers and
registered customers

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2.2 Working with Links


A web page contains hypertext links
or items that you could select to
view another topic and document.
This often called the links
destination.
Link can point to:
Another section in the same document
Different document
A different Web page
A variety of other Web objects

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2.3 Creating a Hypertext Link

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2.3.1 Linking to a Document

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To link to a page, you specify the name of the


file using the href attribute of the <a> tag
Filenames are case sensitive on some
operating systems, including the UNIX and
Macintosh, but not on others
The current standard is to use lowercase
filenames for all files on a Website and to
avoid special characters such as blanks and
slashes
You should also keep filenames short to avoid
typing errors
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2.3.1 Linking to a Document

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Hands-on Trying 1:
hometxt.htm ,glossary.htm,
tipstxt.htm (open them with
Expression Web)

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2.4 Specifying a Folder Path (Linking


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to Documents in Others Folders)
To create a link to a file located
in a different folder than the
current document, you must
specify the files location, or
path

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2.4.1 Absolute Pathnames

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An absolute path specifies a files


precise location within a computers
entire folder structure

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A sample folder tree / absolute path:


Figure 2.7

An absolute path specifies


a files precise location
within a computers entire
folder structure

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2.4.2 Relative Pathnames

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A relative path specifies a files


location in relation to the location of
the current document

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A sample folder tree / relative path:


Current document is in
tips folder

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If the file is in the same location as the


current document, you do not have to
specify the folder name
If the file is in a subfolder of the
current document, you have to include
the name of the subfolder.
If you want to go one level up the
folder tree, you start the relative path
with a double period (..) and then
provide the name of the file.
To specify a different folder on the
same level, known as a sibling folder,
you move up the folder tree using the
double period (..) and then down the
tree using the name of the sibling
folder.

2.4.3 Changing the Base

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The base element is useful when a


document is moved to a new folder.
Rather than rewriting all of the relative
paths to reflect the documents new
location, the base element can redirect
browsers to the documents old location,
allowing any relative paths to be resolved
The base element is useful when you
want to create a copy of a single page from
a large Web site on another Web server

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2.5 Link to Locations Within

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Documents

Link to locations within same document


Link to locations within different
documents

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2.5.1 Link to Locations Within


Same Document

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A) Mark that location


To jump to a specific location within a
document, you first need to mark that location
One way to identify elements in an HTML
document is to use the id attribute
Id names must be unique
Id names are not case sensitive
<h2 id ="A">A</h2>
Or
<h2><a name="A">A</a></h2> (old code)

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<h2><a name=A>A</a></h2>
code)

(old XP

Hands-on Trying 2a: open glossary.htm ,


mark the location (links destination)

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B) create a link
To create a link within a document, you
enclose the content that you want to
format as a link in an <a> tag, and use the
href attribute to identify the link target
A links content is not limited to text
Generally, a link should not contain any
block-level elements
<a href="#A">A</a>
Hands-on Trying 2b:
Open glossary.htm , create links within a document
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2.5.2 Link to Locations Within


Different
Documents
To create a link
to a specific location in another

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file, enter the code


<a href="reference#id">content</a>
where reference is a reference to an HTML or
XHTML file and id is the id of an element marked
Hands-on
within
that Trying
file 3a: Open glossary.htm , mark the location
<dt id="aperture"><b>Aperture</b></dt>
:
<dt id="exposure"><b>Exposure</b></dt>
:
<dt id="f-stop"><b>F-stop</b></dt>
:
<dt id="flash_mode"><b>Flash Mode</b></dt>
:
<dt id="focal_length"><b>Focal Length</b></dt>
:
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Hands-on Trying 3b:
Open glossary.htm , mark the location
open home.htm , create links to specific
locations in another file,

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2.6 Working with Linked ImagesXP


A standard
practice
and
Image
Mapson the Web is to turn
the Web sites logo into a hypertext link
pointing to the home page
To mark an inline images as a hypertext
link

<a href="reference"><img src="file alt="text"


/></a>
Demo 1

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2.6.1 Introducing Image Maps

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HTML also allows you to divide an image


into different zones, or hotspots, each
linked to a different destination
A hotspot is a defined area of the image
that acts as a hypertext link. When a user
clicks within a hotspot, the hyperlink is
activated.
There are two types of image maps:
server-side image maps and clientside image maps.
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2.6.2 Client-Side Image Maps

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A client-side image map is inserted in an


image map into the HTML file
The browser locally processes the image map
Because all of the processing is done locally,
you can easily test Web pages
More responsive than server-side maps
The browsers status bar displays the target
of each hotspot.
Older browsers do not support client-side
images
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To define these hotspots, you create an


image map that matches a specified region
of the inline image to a specific destination.
Use the syntax of the map element to create
a client side image map
<map name=map id=map>
hotspots
</map>
map is the name of the map and hotspots
are the locations of the hotspots within map.
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2.6.3 Defining Hotspots

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Define a hotspot using two properties:

Its location in the image


Its shape
Syntax of the hotspot element:
<area shape=shape coords=coordinates
href=url alt=text />

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Creating a Rectangular Hotspot
Two points define a rectangular hotspot:
the upper-left corner
the lower-right corner
A sample code for a rectangular hotspot is:
<area shape="rect" coords="168, 110, 225, 145"
href="tips.htm" alt="Tips" />
Coordinates are entered as a series of four numbers
separated by commas
HTML expects that the first two numbers represent the
coordinates for the upper-left corner of the rectangle, and
the second two numbers indicate the location of the lowerright corner
The hotspot is a hypertext link to tips.htm

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Creating a Circular Hotspot


A circular hotspot is defined by the
location of its center and its radius
A sample code for a circular hotspot is:
<area shape="circle" coords="82, 78, 80"
href="home.htm" alt="Home" />

Coordinates are (82, 78), and it has a radius


of 80 pixels
The hotspot is a hypertext link to karts.htm

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Creating a Polygonal Hotspot


To create a polygonal hotspot, you enter
the coordinates for each vertex in the
shape
A sample code for a polygonal hotspot
is:
<area shape=polygon
coords=13,60,13,270,370,270,370,225,230,225
, 230,60 href=rides.htm>

Coordinates are for each vertex in the shape


The hotspot is a hypertext link to rides.htm
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Creating a Default Hotspot


<area shape="default" coords="0, 0, x, y"
/>
where x is the width of the inline image in
pixels and y is the images height
Any spot that is not covered by another
hotspot will activate the default hotspot
link
<area href="pearlake.jpg" shape="default" coords="2, 5, 777,
163">
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2.6.4 Applying an Image Map

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Hands-on Trying 4:
open home.htm , create image map and
hotspots , applying an image map

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2.6.5 Server-Side Image Maps

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In a server-side image map, the image


map is stored on the Web server
Server-side image maps are supported by
most graphical browsers
Server-side image maps can be slow to
operate
The browsers status bar does not display
the target of each hotspot

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2.7 Linking to Resources on theXP


Internet
To create a link to a resource on the
Internet, you need to know its URL
A Uniform Resource Locator (URL)
specifies the precise location of a resource
on the Internet
A protocol is a set of rules defining how
information is exchanged between two
resources

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Your Web browser communicates with Web


servers using the Hypertext Transfer
Protocol (HTTP)
The URLs for all Web pages must start
with the scheme http
Other Internet resources use different
protocols and have different scheme
names

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2.7.1 Linking to a Web Site

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A sample URL for a Web page

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If a URL includes no path, then it indicates


the topmost folder in the servers directory
tree
If a URL does not specify a filename, the
server searches for the default home page
The server name portion of the URL is also
called the domain name
The top level, called an extension, indicates
the general audience supported by the Web
server
<a href="http://www.apogeephoto.com">Apogee Photo</a>
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Hands-on Trying 5:
open tips.htm , create links to Web
sites

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2.7.2

Linking to FTP Servers

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FTP servers are another method of


storing and sharing files on the Internet
FTP servers transfer information using a
communications protocol called File
Transfer Protocol, or FTP for short
An FTP server requires each user to enter a
password and a username to access its
files

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2.7.3

Linking to FTP Servers

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2.7.4 Linking to an E-Mail


Address

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Many Web sites use e-mail to allow users


to communicate with a sites owner, sales
representative, or technical support staff
You can turn an e-mail address into a
hypertext link, so that when a user clicks
on an address, the browser starts an e-mail
program and automatically inserts the
address into the To field of the new
outgoing message

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The mailto protocol also allows you to add
information to the e-mail, including the subject
line and the text of the message
mailto:address?
header1=value1&header2=value2& ...
mailto:ghayward@camshotscom?
Subject=Test&Body=
This%20is%20a%20test%20message
To preserve information about blank spaces, URLs
Hands-on Trying 6:
use escape
characters
open home.htm , create links to email address
Demo2 <a href="mailto:ghayward@camshots.com?subject=CAMshots
%20Message"> contact me</a>
%20Message"> contact me</a>

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If you need to include an e-mail address in


your Web page, you can take a few steps
to reduce problems with spam:
Replace all e-mail addresses in your page with
inline images of those addresses
Write a program in a language JavaScript to
scramble any e-mail address in the HTML code
Replace the characters of the e-mail address
with character codes
Replace characters with words in your Web
pages text

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2.7.5 Working with


Hypertext Attribute

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HTML provides several attributes to control


the behavior and appearance of your links
You can force a document to appear in a
secondary window or tab by adding the
target attribute to the tag <a> tag

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Hands-on Trying 7:
open tips.htm , specify a link target.
<dt>&#9758; <a href="http://www.apogeephoto.com" target="new">Apogee
Photo</a></dt>

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If you want to provide additional


information to your users, you can provide
a tooltip to your links
A tooltip is a descriptive text that appears
whenever a user positions the mouse
pointer over a link

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Hands-on Trying 8:
open home.htm , create tooltip
<a href="gloss.htm" title="Study photo terminology in the CAMshots
glossary"> [ Glossary ]</a>

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2.8 Using the Link Element

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Another way to add a link to your document is to add a


link element to the documents head
Link elements are intended only for the browsers use
Link elements have primarily been used to link style
sheets
Because no single list of relationship names is widely
accepted, you must check with each browsers
documentation to find out what relationship names it
supports

<link rel=top" href="home.htm">


<link rel="help" href="tips.htm">
<link rel="glossary" href="gloss.htm">
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2.9 Working with Metadata

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Web authors often turn to companies that


specialize in making sites appear more
prominently in search engines
Information about the site is called
metadata
Add metadata to your Web pages by
adding a meta element to the head section
ofname="text"
the document
<meta
content="text" scheme="text" http-equiv="text" />

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In recent years, search engines have


become more sophisticated in evaluating
Web sites
The meta element has decreased in
importance, but it is still used by search
engines when adding a site to their indexes

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You can add commands to this communication stream


between the Web server and Web browser with the meta
elements http-equiv attribute
Force the Web browser to refresh the Web page at timed
intervals
<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="60" />
Redirect the browser from the current document to a new
document
<meta http-equiv="refresh"
content="5;url=www.camshots.com" />
Specify the character set
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type"
content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" />

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Hands-on Trying 8:
open home.htm , create metadata
<meta name="author" content="your name" httpequiv="refresh" content="60" />
<meta name="description" content="A site for sharing
information on digital photography and cameras" />
<meta name="keywords" content="photography, cameras,
digital imaging" />

2.10 Creating Effective Links


Storyboarding
Easy navigation with link to home page and a page
containing site index
Avoid using Click here in links
Never place 2 links adjacent to one another. Separate
them with text, spaces or symbol.
Use lowercase filenames for all document

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Avoid long pages unless necessary.


Break up a long page to different
sections. Include links throughout
the page that users can click to
jump to the top of the page.
Use anchor if internal document
must link with older browsers

2.11 Phases of Planning and


Designing Web

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Phase1:Preparation
(A)Research and idea generation
Main Goal:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Define the user.


Define information the users need and want.
Define presenters objective.
Define the potential information to be used:
ideas, facts, images, prices and so on.

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End product of idea generation are:


The definition of expected information content for
each group of users.
A statement of what the Web Presentation will do.
A list of information sources.

Key Roles in idea generation:


They know the possible users.
Know the information that most likely wanted by
users.
Know the availability of information to be put on
site.
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(B)Information decomposition and structuring
Question: What contribute to a well-organized site? AND How to
achieve it?
Answer: Task of the designer to perform information
decomposition (Step 1) and structuring (Step 2).
Decomposition:
It is the process of separating something into smaller parts
or pieces.
Decomposition in Web Presentation Concepts: separate the
information identified during the research and idea
generation into chunks information objects.
Structuring:
Create an information object map to satisfy the presenters
and the users.
Designers Task.
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Phase2: Design
Text analysis and composition
Text Analysis:
The development of text statement that most clearly
convey the intended message of each information
object.

Text Composition:
All objects with complete text are rearranged, and
regrouped to achieve effectiveness, affectiveness and
navigational efficiency.

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Linkage analysis and composition


Linkage Analysis:
Define hyperlinks for information objects and are
threaded to each other.
Reevaluated to avoid affecting its original information
content and misinterpretation.

Linkage Composition:
Phrasing links and incorporates them.
Apply suitable color to links.

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Multimedia analysis and composition


Multimedia:
Text, graphics, sound, animation, video, or other media
combined into a single production or presentation.

Multimedia Analysis:
Decide appropriate multimedia.
End product: a list of potential multimedia selections.

Multimedia Composition:
Select, create, install, and integrate multimedia in the
Web presentation.

End product of multimedia analysis and


composition is a complete, up-to-date, multimedia
web presentation.
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Phase3: Maintenance and Continuous


Improvement
Reasons for maintenance and continuous
improvement
Reasons:

Information could be out-dated.


Visions changes when experience grows.
Competitions between competing organizations.
New technologies inventions.

If no improvement over Web sites look,


technology, content and navigational
techniques resulted losing a lot of users.
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2.11.1Key roles involved in


supporting
a
site

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Involves presenters, information stewards and designers.


Presenters:
Direct & Funding.
Determine a Web strategy.
Decide the extent of electronic commerce on the Web.
Information Stewards & Designers:
Same area of responsibility
Steward Web content, monitor pages relating to the
business function for which they are responsible.
Designer implementing changes recommended by
presenters and information stewards.

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New Key Role Webmaster/operations manager:


Primary user contact and his email posted on the site.
Responsibility includes:
Forwarding mail from users to appropriate parties. Example:
customer service or sales.
Evaluating technologies beneficial to the Web site.
Recommending upgrades to phone service, operating
systems, hardware and software as necessary.

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2.11.2 Strategies used for


technology
surveillance
Performed for the purpose
of identifying news technologies

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to improve Web presentation.


To determine whether or not using the new technology will
improve the existing systems performance or better
achieve the sites overall objectives.
It is the ongoing observation and evaluation of new
technologies from the time they are announced until they
are mature enough to be incorporated into a Web
presentation.
Surveillance includes:

Reading magazines.
Visiting E-zines (electronic magazines).
Attending trade show.
Talking with vendors.
Discussing developments with other people in other organizations.

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2.12 Introduction to Web


Usability Design
Areas

Page Design
Content Design
Site Design

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2.12.1 Page Design

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A careful, systematic approach to page design can


simplify navigation, reduce user errors, and make it
easier for readers to take advantage of the information
and features of the site.
The spatial organization of graphics and text on the Web
page can engage readers.
With graphic impact, direct their attention and prioritize
the information they see

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Dense text documents are hard to read, particularly on


the low-resolution screens.
Without the visual impact of shape, color, and
contrast, pages are uninteresting and will not motivate
the viewer.
Highly graphical pages risk disappointing the user by
offering a poor balance of visual sensation, text
information, and interactive hypermedia links.

2.12.2 Content Design

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Be VERY concise write 50% less text than you would on paper.
Write for SCANNABILITY no long paragraphs, use subheads and bullet lists
Use HYPERTEXT LINKS to break up lengthy information across separate
pages.
Readability research shows that:
Reading from a computer screen is 25% slower than from paper.
Prolonged reading from a screen is unpleasant.
Tips:
Write 50% less text than for a print publication.

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Scannability shows that:
80% of web users don't read they scan for keywords, headings, bullets and links.
Tips:
Structure texts with 2/3 levels of headings.
Use indentation to show structure & heading

Use highlighting italic, bold and colored text, but NOT underlining because of
the confusion with links.
Use bullet lists or numbered lists.

2.12.3 Site Design

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The design of the site will determine its organizational framework.


The overall organization of the site will have the impact on the
users experience.
At this stage you will make the tactical design decisions about what
your audience wants from you, what you wish to say, and how to
arrange the content to best meet your audience's needs.

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The fundamental organizing principle in Web site


design is meeting users' needs.
Many organizations and businesses make the
mistake of using their Web sites primarily to
describe their administrative organization, and only
secondarily do they offer the services, products, and
information the average user is seeking.
Most readers won't care how your company or
department is organized and will be put off if such
inside information is all your site appears to offer.

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Talk to the people who make up your target audience, put yourself in their shoes, and
make the items and services they want the most prominent items on the home page.
Web site's should have:

A user-centered design.
Straightforward architecture (logical relationships between pages).
Easy to understand, consistently c navigational controls.
Offer consistency of layout and textual and graphical style.

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2.13 Issues in Web Page Design


Latency & Responsiveness
There is a factor of different users having different connection speeds. It
can range from a low-speed 56K modem connection to a high-speed
broadband connection.
The single most important page design issue is download time. Page
download and rendering speed is a big factor in usability.
Rules of thumb:
a 0.1 sec response time limit is needed for the user to feel in real time control.
a 1 sec response limit is needed if user's flow of thought is to remain
uninterrupted.
There is a 10 sec limit for keeping user's attention focused on the dialogue.
Real world times will be 2 to 3 fold the optimal time.

Tips:

Minimize the number of graphics.


Keep graphics small. Crop them if possible.
Reduce the color depth or increase compression.
Use tables with colored backgrounds to structure pages.
Warn users if a link goes to a page bigger than 50K.

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Media file size
Perhaps the most powerful aspect of computing technology is the
ability to combine text, graphics, sounds, and moving images in
meaningful ways.
The promise of multimedia has been slow to reach the Web because
of bandwidth limitations, but each day brings new solutions.
Although there are numerous methods for creating Web multimedia,
we recommend using stable technology that works for the great
majority of client machines.
Multimedia places high demands on the network, the computer, and
the user. The challenge thus lies in preparing files that are small
enough to be accessible to the broadest possible audience yet are of
sufficient quality to be worth the effort.
To balance quality against accessibility you'll need to understand
both the characteristics of different media formats and the
limitations of delivering media in a networked environment, and you
must be ready to compromise.
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Resolution
Although Web pages and conventional print documents
share many graphic, functional, and editorial similarities, the
computer screen, not the printed page, is the primary
delivery site for Web-based information, and the computer
screen is very different from the printed page.
Computer screens are typically smaller than most opened
books or magazines.
A common mistake in Web design is spreading the width of
page graphics beyond the area most viewers can see on
their seventeen- or nineteen-inch display screens:

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Graphic safe areas
The "safe area" for Web page graphics is determined by two factors: the
minimum screen size in common use and the width of paper used to print
Web pages.
Most display screens used in academia and business are seventeen to
nineteen inches (forty-three to forty-eight centimeters) in size, and most
are set to display an 800 x 600-pixel screen.
Web page graphics that exceed the width dimension of the most common
display screens look amateurish and will inconvenience many readers by
forcing them to scroll both horizontally and vertically to see the full page
layout. It's bad enough to have to scroll in one (vertical) direction; having to
scroll in two directions is intolerable.
The graphic safe area dimensions for printing layouts and for page layouts
designed to use the maximum width of 800 x 600 screens are shown below:
Graphic "safe area" dimensions for layouts designed to print well:

Maximum width = 560 pixels


Maximum height = 410 pixels (visible without scrolling)

Graphic "safe area" dimensions for layouts designed for 800 x 600 screens:

Maximum width = 760 pixels


New Perspectives
HTML
Comprehensive
Maximum on
height
= and
410 XHTML,
pixels (visible
without scrolling)

87

Chapter Summary

XP

Create a Web site with several linked pages


Storyboarding and complex Web structures
Creating Web pages linked together
Links to locations within documents and from
another document
Create links to sites and to non-Web locations
Different hypertext attributes
Meta element
Introduction to Web Usability Design
Create effective link

New Perspectives on HTML and XHTML, Comprehensive

88

XP

End of Chapter 2
Developing a
Basic Web Site

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