Transcript ch03

Chapter 3
Planning the Site
Principles of Web Design, Third Edition
Objectives
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Create a site specification
Identify the content goal
Analyze your audience
Build a Web site development team
Create conventions for filenames and URLs
Set a directory structure
Create a site storyboard
Principles of Web Design, Third Edition
2
Create a Site Specification
Answer the following questions:
• Why are you building the Web site? Can you
write a two or three-paragraph mission
statement that briefly states the site’s goals?
• What do you envision as the goal of the site?
What do you (or your company or
organization) hope to gain from creating and
maintaining a Web site?
Principles of Web Design, Third Edition
3
Create a Site Specification
Answer the following questions:
• How will you judge the success of the site?
What are the measuring factors you can use
to assess the effectiveness of the site?
• Who is the target audience(S)? What
characteristics do they share? How will you
find out more about them?
• What are the limiting technical factors
affecting your site?
Principles of Web Design, Third Edition
4
Identify the Content Goal
• Adopt your user’s perspective
• Examine closely what type of site you are
building
• Your objectives and your users’ objectives
may be quite different
• Think about the type of content you’re
presenting and look to the Web for examples
of how best to present it
Principles of Web Design, Third Edition
5
Identify the Content Goal
Types of web sites:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Billboard
Publishing (Newspaper/Magazine)
Portal
Special interest (usually non-profit)
Blog
Virtual gallery
E-commerce, catalog, online shopping
Product support
Intranet/Extranet
Principles of Web Design, Third Edition
6
Analyze Your Audience
Produce an audience definition:
• What is it that users want when they come to
your site?
• How can you attract them and entice them to
return for repeat visits?
• What type of computer and connection
speed does your typical visitor have?
Principles of Web Design, Third Edition
7
Build a Web Site Development
Team
The following roles are necessary:
• Server Administrators
• XHTML Coders
• Designers
• Writers and Information Designers
• Software Programmers
• Database Administrators
• Marketing
Principles of Web Design, Third Edition
14
Create Conventions for
Filenames and URLs
• Plan your file-naming conventions for your
site
• Talk to your system administrator and find
out what type of operating system your Web
server uses
• Typically you’ll develop your Web site locally
on a PC or Macintosh. You will upload the
files to the Web server as the last step in the
publishing process.
Principles of Web Design, Third Edition
15
Naming Files
• Case Sensitivity - Use lowercase for all file
names and in the HTML code
• Character Exceptions - Leave out special
characters such as /, \, &, and *
• File Extensions - Use the correct three-letter
extension
Principles of Web Design, Third Edition
18
Solving the Filename Dilemma
The International Standards Organization
(ISO) standard specifies a maximum of eight
letters followed by a period and a three-letter
extension. Allowed characters are letters,
numbers, and the underscore character.
Principles of Web Design, Third Edition
19
The Default Main Page Name
• Every Web site has a default main page that
displays when the browser requests the
directory of the site rather than a specific file
• Before you start coding, check with your
system administrator to verify the main page
file name
• index.htm is the most common default main
page name
• At UTD the default page is index.html
Principles of Web Design, Third Edition
21
Example URL
http://www.utdallas.edu/~rfisher/ba4320/schedule.htm
Protocol/Domain/Path/Page(file)
Principles of Web Design, Third Edition
23
Set a Directory Structure
• A typical Web server has a user area that
contains folders for each user
• Your files are stored in your user area, along
with other files from other Web sites stored in
their respective user areas
• The directory structure of the Web server
affects the format of your site’s URL
Principles of Web Design, Third Edition
24
Build a Relative File Structure
•
•
•
You will most likely build your Web site on a
computer that is different from the computer that will
be hosting your site. Keep this in mind when you are
designing the directory and file structure.
Because your files will be transferred to another
computer, any URLs you specify to link to other
pages in your site must include paths that are
transferable
Relative paths tell the browser where a file is located
relative to the document the browser is currently
viewing
Principles of Web Design, Third Edition
28
Principles of Web Design, Third Edition
30
Principles of Web Design, Third Edition
31
Create a Site Storyboard
• Plan your site by creating a flowchart that
shows the structure and logic behind the
content presentation and navigation choices
• This preliminary step is one of the most
important that you take in planning your site
Principles of Web Design, Third Edition
32
Principles of Web Design, Third Edition
38
Hierarchical Structure
• The hierarchical structure is probably the
most common information design. It lends
itself to larger content collections because
the section pages break up and organize the
content at different levels throughout the site.
Principles of Web Design, Third Edition
39
Principles of Web Design, Third Edition
40
Catalog Structure
• The catalog structure accommodates
electronic shopping. The user can browse or
search for items and view specific
information about each product on the item
pages.
Principles of Web Design, Third Edition
43
Principles of Web Design, Third Edition
44
Summary
• Start with pencil and paper. Your ideas will
be less restricted and you can easily revise
and recast without recoding.
• Write a site specification document. You’ll
find it invaluable as a reference while
building your site.
Principles of Web Design, Third Edition
45
Summary
• Analyze your audience and try to create an
audience profile. Focus your site on the
user’s needs, and continue to meet those
needs by adapting the site based on user
feedback.
• An effective site is more commonly the result
of a team effort. Leverage different skill sets
and experience to build a Web site team.
Principles of Web Design, Third Edition
46
Summary
• Plan for successful implementation of your
site by creating portable file naming
conventions. Build a relative file structure
that can be transferred to your Web server
without a hitch.
• Use a pencil and paper to diagram your site.
Even if the design changes, you’ll save a lot
of time and effort by visually detailing the
structure of your content.
Principles of Web Design, Third Edition
47