Site Design – Lynch & Horton

Directions for Deliverables

1. Read Site Design (Chapter 3 in Web Style Guide – online site provided).

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

3. Work with your Design Buddy or individually to develop the Site Design Plan

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

5. Link to online Activities Guide under Lynch – site plan.

Questions to guide your design.

1. What is the fundamental organizing principle that you will use for your site?

Lynch says the main principle is "Meeting users' needs." My main audience is UT Library staff and faculty, so I do need to describe how our new departments are organized and run (who does what). However, I will definitely plan to add links to the actual "services and information" so that our staff can easily tell our patrons the correct information.

2. What are the five basic steps your will use to organize the information in your site.

1) Divide contents into logical units (DPS, LX, ILS)
2) Establish a hierarchy among units (1. DPS, 2. ILS, 3. LX)
3) Use hierarchy to structure relations among units
4) Build a site that closely follows my information structure
5) Analyze the functional and aesthetic success of your system (feedback)

3. How will you use “chunking of information” in your design?

Our Library functions and services lend themselves well to "chunking" concise pieces of information (scanning, searching, online reserves, Ariel, ILLiad, Distance Education and Storage requests).

4. What is the hierarchy of importance in your upcoming site? List the sections that you will create in their hierarchy of importance.

see Inspiration site design

5. The author presents three site structural themes. Which of these will you use and why?

(sequences, hierarchies, and webs) I will basically use a hierarchial structure because of the distinct and seperate services each department provides. There will be elements of the web structure because of the overlap of similar services.

6. Which homepage design strategy will you use and why?

I will use a "continuing education" model since my audience will be knowledgeable about the general Library services. I will want them to be able to skip parts that they are already familiar with, so I would not want to use a linear "training" model. After going through my site, I would want staff to also be able to find quick "reference" links to services.

I will use a "menu" homepage with graphic imagemaps to represent the three departments as well as the services under each of these main sections. My subject does not lend itself to news-oriented, path-based, or splash screens.

7. Discuss the pros and cons of using graphics on the homepage. Describe the graphics that you will use on your homepage.

According to Lynch, "immediate graphic impact" on the home page can grab a reader, but that only works for about 10-15 seconds before the reader gets distracted by it. "Large graphic menus are attractive but impose long loading times."

I will be using some basic graphics similar to those on the Library's pages (www.lib.utk.edu) and to those from our software, with permission (Ariel, ILLiad, Aleph). The Library uses a graphic banner with text-based links, like Lynch's example from "The Atlantic Online" (www.theatlantic.com).

I like the graphic layout of the Guggenheim New York site. (http://www.guggenheim.org/new_york_index.shtml)

8. What will the contents of your menu be? (Refer to Question 4)

see Inspiration.html

9. What will the site map consist of? (Extention of question 4)

see Inspiration.html

10. The last page of your Site Design Plan will be a computer generated diagram (storyboard) of the structure of your website. Label each page. Your diagram should minimally show the homepage (index), sub-menus (introduction, content sub-menus, and a reference sub-menu) the additional content pages and the site map. Insert arrows to show the navigation pattern between pages. Refer to the examples on the course website to assist your thinking. Use the Site Design Plan Guide.

see Inspiration.html