Web Design

Since so much of website creation lies in the content - the steady writing each of you is hopefully steadily producing, we've held off on doing much with website design until you've produce ample content. But good communication - presenting a complex answer to your question - also requires some basic design skills. During today's class I'd like you to shift gears and think about how you're presenting your work. If you've started creating a site, that's no problem. Everything is adjustable. The key to keep in mind, though, is that no site design or slick video can make up for low-level or missing content.

The GoogleSites tutorial is a good place to start when considering how to build a website to present your work; and don't forget, using a blog through www.blogger.com or another site is also a possibility.

Today, I think most of you will find this assignment helpful:

Read: About.com's page on website design and explore some of the basic links underneath.

Explore Web Pages That Suck and especially look at the link and sublinks under the lead post (following the advertising links). Please note: some of the sites they use as examples are hateful and offensive. But they are examples of the way website layout can go extremely wrong. Some are definitely over the top.

Explore the links at:

Best GoogleSites  for design and layout ideas

And you'll want to examine the sites posted below for basic design ideas:

Make It Right New Orleans

This Emotional Life

Good layout, as I think you're seeing, uses a website in sections. Inserting tables lets you organize your site so that content is where you want it, available simply for readers, and not imposing. Takes keep you from having text that stretches across a page, or photos that seem to float in mid air.

Once you've examined the sites and links, go back to your own work and sketch out what you're planning for each page of your website. Use a separate page for each page you're creating. List the links you're planning to use, identify what text will appear where, and come up with general lengths (word counts) for each piece of writing you're producing. If you are producing a weblog, rather than a website, plan out your posts and pages; identify the topic for each, and consider the same design principles. As you work, refer back to the concept map you created so that you ensure that your project will cover the ground you want it to and reach the point on the rubric that you're aspiring to reach. Have your site sketches prepared by the end of class today.

A note on photo citation:

Here's a model for the proper citation of images on websites:

 

Image Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/scfiasco/49918570/sizes/l/in/photostream/

When  you cite your resources on a separate Resources page or post, list the photo as:

Siasoco, E.  2005. Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers. Accessed under a Creative Commons license at http://www.flickr.com/photos/scfiasco/49918570/sizes/l/in/photostream/

The following link provides a formal style sheet for citing online images: 

http://www.clinton.edu/DouglasLibrary/MLAImage.cxml

TED and 700 Sources

Here's a link to 700 talks on TED (Technology, Education, Design). You might find a title that connects with your topic. You also might try searching the TED site - there's a search window in the upper right corner. My guess is that every topic you're working on will connect in some way.