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BIS325 - Principles of Web Development

Links for Design Commentary...

6:00 PM 5/23/2006

I just wrote this for online class discussion:

Effective navigation is essential in a quality web site. Identify effective navigation techniques and post links to examples on the web.

Pike Place Fish Market

This might have something to do with my own peculiar strengths and weaknesses, but I think good navigation should be very easy. It is a trivial task, once you know what exactly it is that you offer. The fish market sells fish, so does the web site also sell fish?

Two kinds of people arrive at a web site in my estimation: The first kind know your business already, and are expecting to see something in particular. So their thought process is "Where's the fish?" Sometimes those people know the name, and sometimes they arrive from a search engine. The second kind are exploring, don't know what they are looking for, and see what is available.

Every design has to consider both types of user. The designer might make a conscious decision to snub the explorers, but a portion of those users wind up as customers, so there is still some value to each of those visits.

Which brings us to the navigation: Good navigation accommodates both types of users. The categories have to be worded just so. Users miss what they are looking for because the right link suggests something that they aren't looking for. It is a process of elimination. Users are not necessarily in a hurry, but something about the computer makes everybody impatient.

BIS 325 Lab 1

You will be creating criteria to be used when evaluating web sites. After you are happy with the content, you are going to use Notepad and HTML to create a web page to present your criteria in your first web page.

  • Step 1: Review the Web Site Design principles you read about in Sklar this week.
  • Step 2: Create evaluative criteria that can be used to classify web sites as “good” or “bad.” Write up your evaluative criteria using Word or other word processing software with which you are familiar.
  • Step 3: Open up Notepad. DO NOT USE “SAVE AS HTML” OR ANY OTHER WEB PAGE CREATION PRODUCT. It is very important at this stage that you type in the HTML all by yourself. Type the following at the top of the page:

<HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE> Your Name Here’s First Web Page <BODY> <H1> Your Name Here’s First Web Page

Copy and paste your content that you wrote in step 2 into the Notepad document. Each paragraph should be surrounded in <P> and

.

Words that are in italic should be so indicated by <I> and . Words that are in bold should be so indicated by <B> and . Words that are underlined should be so indicated by <U> and .

When you have finished typing up your HTML document, end it with the following tags:

  • Step 4: Save your HTML file by naming it according to this model: your name and Lab1 with an HTM file extension as follows (if your name is Nancy Stegall): NancyStegallLab1.HTM
  • Step 5: Test your work by opening up a browser window and selecting File Open, then opening your HTM file.
  • Step 6: Correct any mistakes that you find and save your work again.
  • Step 7: Submit your work to the appropriate Drop Box on eCollege. It will be evaluated both on your use of the basic HTML tags as well as your evaluative criteria for websites.

last updated 3 years ago #