Directions for Deliverables

1. Read Page Design (Chapter 4 in Web Style Guide – online).

2. Using the information you gather from your reading to guide you as you form a plan that will be represented in a Page Design Plan.

3. Work with your Design Buddy or individually to develop a Page Design Plan. This can be developed in DW or Word. The plan should identify all page elements.

4. Save the document as a pdf file or an html file.

5. Link to online Activities Guide under Lynch as pagedesign.

Questions to Guide your design.

1. What will be the most crucial part of your homepage and how will that affect your design?

The overall graphic balance and organization of the page is crucial to drawing the reader into your content.

The most effective designs for general Internet audiences use a careful balance of text and links with relatively small graphics. These pages load into browsers quickly, even when accessed from slow modems, yet still achieve substantial graphic impact.

2. The author states that the “way readers of English read” is important to page design. Using this concept as a guide, which part of your pages are the most important?

Readers first see pages as large masses of shape and color, with foreground elements contrasting against the background field. Secondarily they begin to pick out specific information, first from graphics if they are present, and only then do they start parsing the harder medium of text and begin to read individual words and phrases.

3. What colors will you use for the background and text in your site?

white background and black text (green menu and header?)

4. What fonts/sizes will you use in your site for heads and sub-heads; for text?

Ariel, Helvetica, sans-serif; haven't decided on size yet

5. What page elements will assist you in developing consistency within your site?

same font, colors or tones, headers, footers, and menu/navigation layout

6. What are some ways that you intend on achieving balance within your site?

balance the text and graphics, clear menu navigation, small consistent graphics

7. How will your web pages compare to a printed page?

A Web page can be almost any length, but you've only got about forty-five square inches "above the fold" � at the top of your page � to capture the average reader, because that is all he or she will see as the page loads. One crucial difference between Web page design and print page design is that when readers turn a book or magazine page they see not only the whole next page but the whole two-page spread, all at the same time.
Print design can achieve a design unity and density of information that Web page design cannot emulate.

8. What types of elements can become graphic distractions if not used sparingly?

horizontal rules, icons, large type, graphic bullets

9. What are considered graphic safe areas and how will it effect your website?

The "safe area" for Web page graphics is determined by two factors: the minimum screen size in common use and the width of paper used to print Web pages.

Most display screens used in academia and business are seventeen to nineteen inches (forty-three to forty-eight centimeters) in size, and most are set to display an 800 x 600-pixel screen. Web page graphics that exceed the width dimension of the most common display screens look amateurish and will inconvenience many readers by forcing them to scroll both horizontally and vertically to see the full page layout.

10. What information will be found in the page header and footer through out your site?

title, author, creation/modification date, copyright, links to sitemap, contact, resources, index/homepage

11. How does the reader’s monitor size affect your page design?

I should try to keep most of my pages within a 800x600 (760x410 pixels) viewing area to avoid horizontal scrolling.

12. The last page of your Page Design Plan will be a model of the homepage of your website. Included will be the header, the menu and the footer. Tables will be used to represent this page and all text should be included. You may use Dreamweaver or Word. If completed in Word, save as a pdf.

model of my webpage