Transcript Chapter 16 Web Sites and Online Environments

Chapter 16
Web Sites and Online
Environments
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
Basic Differences between a
Website and a Print Document
‣ Size and dimension
‣ Navigational features
‣ Visual components
‣ Multimedia
‣ Accessing speed
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
Intranet & Internet
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
Intranet Web Pages
‣ Serve internal network systems and are designed
only for members of your company or organization
‣ Serve a smaller, more easily defined audience
‣ Are usually not designed to sell products
‣ Are generally information heavy and graphic light
‣ Often rely on a standard format
‣ Establish easily extractable templates
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
Internet Web Pages
‣ Should be considered “public” documents
‣ Often contain more introductory or
contextual information about your company
‣ Are more likely to contain “splash” pages to
introduce the site or company
‣ Are more likely to use design variations to
create reader interest
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
Internet Web Pages
‣ May contain a greater number of textual
elements, visuals, and multimedia
‣ Are more likely to include branding or
marketing information to identify the
company to potential customers
‣ Are more likely to provide clear navigational
features, since readers can be more diverse
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
Terminology
‣ Web page — a document that is made available through
the internet (or intranet)
‣ Web browser — a software program that reads web pages
‣ URL (Uniform Resource Locator) — a website’s unique
address
‣ Home page — the main page users see when they access
a website
‣ Hypertext — any text found on a web page that is linked
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
Terminology
‣ Link — a connection from one web page to another
‣ Interface — the connections between a user’s computer
and the WWW
‣ Navigation — the way in which a reader is directed to
move through various web pages
‣ Search Engine — locate and list web pages containing
information relevant to the reader’s search parameters
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
Terminology
‣ Site Architecture — the structure of an entire website
‣ Site Map — a web page that describes the architecture of
the entire Web site
‣ Server space — the physical space where web page
information is housed
‣ Cookies — software that stores visitor information
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
Web Technologies
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
HTML
‣ Is the basic “language” for web page writing
‣ Stands for “Hypertext Markup Language”
‣ Uses codes called “tags” presented in
<brackets>
‣ Provides structural, presentational, and
hypertextual codes that tell a browser how to
display a web page
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
Basic Web Site Tags
(Table 16.1)
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
XHTML
‣ Stands for “Extensible Hypertext Markup
Language”
‣ Is the newest version of markup language
‣ Uses a stricter set of syntactical codes than
HTML
‣ Leads to fewer errors in presentation
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
Tables and Frames
‣ Place text and visuals on specific portions of a
page, like in rows and columns
‣ More accurately control how a page is
presented, like its width
‣ Can often pose display problems
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
CSS
‣ Stands for “Cascading Style Sheets”
‣ Provides a given style throughout a web site
‣ Allows writers to keep style files separate from
HTML files to improve speed, accessibility,
customization, and maintenance
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
Web Authoring Programs
‣ Are designed to assist web page construction
without the need to know HTML and CSS
‣ Are generally as simple as word processors to use
‣ Often used to create extensive or complex web
sites that would take too long to code
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
Javascript
‣ Can be inserted into HTML documents to create
“dynamic content” in a website
‣ Can also be used to “react” to events, such as
loading an image after a specific amount of time
‣ Is sometimes used to detect or save information
about the readers of a web site
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
CGI
‣ Is an acronym for “Common Gateway
Interface”
‣ Are programs executed in real-time, so that
they can transmit and receive dynamic
information
‣ Can allow designers to create shopping carts,
page counters, guestbooks, order and
complaint forms, and response sheets
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
CMS
‣ Are “Content Management Systems”
‣ Are programs that allow for collaborative
writing of web pages
‣ Are used to create virtual meeting spaces,
image galleries, and podcasts
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
Plugins
‣ Are small computer programs that interact with a
web browser
‣ Allow the browser to display certain types of
documents, show interactive images, play music,
or play video
‣ Add multimedia functionality to web pages
‣ Are generally free and can be easily downloaded
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
Ethics
‣ Considers accessibility
‣ Maintains the company image
‣ Informs the general public
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
Standard Web Page Guidelines
‣ Practice continuity throughout a site
‣ Make sure the flow through a site is uninterrupted
‣ Use repetition of key elements for branding
‣ Be consistent and logical in navigation
‣ Consider using a splash page for interest and
branding
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
Standard Web Page Guidelines
‣ Be sure your first page is clear, clean, navigable,
substantive, and efficient
‣ Use node pages to serve as introductions to sub
pages or other content areas within the site
‣ Use meta tags, like keywords, to help search
engines find and catalog the site
‣ Consider incorporating a FAQ or site map
‣ Use consistent RGB colors
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
Web Site Organization
‣ Is linked and often non-sequential
‣ Is sometimes hierarchical, resembling a pyramid
‣ Is sometimes a network, where all of the pages are
interconnected, with no one page being more important or
central
‣ Is often begun by sketching their website organization in
graphical form using a large sheet of paper, a chalkboard, or
a whiteboard
‣ Is best structured when the web site’s main idea is clear
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.
Web Sites & Usability
‣ Address navigation: where users are in a site
and how they get around
‣ Address content: is clear and consistent
throughout
‣ Address visuals: pertain to the content and do
not overwhelm the users
‣ Address other aspects, like purpose and
branding
Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century.
© 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 07458. All Rights Reserved.