Web Design School Website Best Practices A Balance Between Professionalism and Creativity Professiona l.

Web DesignSchool Website Best Practices

A Balance Between Professionalism and

CreativityProfessional

Who Is Your Audience?

Students

Parents

Teachers

Administrators

Community Members

What Is Your Web page Purpose

To provide information to the audience that is easy to find, timely, and relevant.

Customize and target your content to your users.

Principles of Design

Essential Question:

What are some principles that I need to consider when creating my teacher web page in order to balance my creativity with making the page look professional?

Layout and Navigation

Should have design consistency

Colors

Navigation - simple, easy-to-use, consistent

Design layout - overall look consistent

(fixed width, centered, etc.)

Maintain Consistent Formats

“Showcasing” dozens of different fonts, graphics and designs hinders performance and violates

design standards.

Maintain Smooth Gliding Formats

When thinking of design consistency:

You do not want random variation but a site that looks smooth and put together.

You will need to be careful especially if others will have pages to design on your site.

What Do Parents Want To Know

Ideas for Home Page

Upcoming Events Contact Information About the teacher

Ideas for other pages

Educational resources Electronic textbook Projects and due dates Instructional lessons

(video, powerpoint, etc) Copy of worksheet/

handouts PT Conference Forms Showcase of student’s

work

First Page Content

Should Include: Easy-to-understand navigation Site search Latest news, important information, upcoming

events Contact information - Provided in header Should: Load quickly Be contained in the first window if possible

Less Is More

Take a minimalist approach

Apply few graphics except where they contribute meaning

Do not waste bandwidth and visitor time loading pages

Distinguish between menu pages and data pages

Menu pages should help visitors move quickly to what they need.

Should be logically constructed with well ordered lists of choices where information is provided.

Be Well-Organized

Balance the number of hyperlinks with page length to minimize scrolling and display time.

Sun Microsystems did an extensive usability study and found that users do not want to scroll.

Where possible, size your pages important content to fit into the typical user’s screen.(465 pixels wide by 340 pixels high for a 15 inch monitor)

Organize Documents

Use thoughtful file-naming conventions for ease of linking.

When using the document manager, cluster all related files in groups.

May be best to hide document manager in the navigation bar and just link.

Document Manager

Provide Valuable, Timely Information

Update regularly

Periodically check links

Follow Policy

PicturesForms on a case-by-case basisNo identifying information with pictures

Student WorkRemember copyright issues-any original work is

automatically copyrighted, even if the author or artist is a 5-year-old kindergarten student. Parents must consent to displaying their child's copyrighted work.

Provide a disclaimer to protect original student work

Things to Avoid

Anything that does not contribute directly to the understanding of the site or does not impart information

Think about music, whistles, and beepsThey play unreliably across browsers and

platformsThey do not really impart information

A busy/inconsistent format

Professionalism vs. Creativity

Remember that your web page should look professional but can be more creative

Let’s Review

Could This Website Use A Makeover?

Watch For Broken Links

Organize And Make Your Site Easy to Read

Watch The Backgrounds

Design Principles Should Be An International Language

Sources

School Websites Best Practices, Zumu Software, 1/16/08, Mike Provenzano

“Net Profit in a Post Modem World”, Jamie McKenzie,

http://www.fromnowon.org, 1/16/08

http://www.angelfire.com/super/badwebs/links.htm, 1/17/08

Creativity