Week 2 - Designing Your Website

The final project for the course is a 5 page web site. To get started we need a plan. This week we reviewed ways of planning out the web site. Some suggestions included:

• a storyboard: 2 examples & instructions http://www.mcli.dist.maricopa.edu/authoring/studio/guidebook/storyboard.html and http://accad.osu.edu/womenandtech/Storyboard%20Resource/
• a graphic organizer like Inspiration or use a word processor to create similar
• sketching out the site
• using a web site planning worksheet

Also suggested was a visit to other library web sites. The link to school-libraries.net was given for examples.
Finally, we were left with an article by Jennifer Kymin Top Tips to a Great Web Page that reminded us of the following:

1. Know your audience and keep them in mind when you design your site.
2. Keep pages short. Eliminate as much scrolling as possible.
3. Use tables of contents. Like side bars.
4. Keep images small. People get upset if they have to wait long for downloaded images.
5. Use web safe colors.
   
6. Minimize text.
7. Use a spell checker.
8. Make sure to check for working links regularly.
9. Annotate links.
10. Provide contact information on all pages

My first attempt at reorganizing the library web site: