Instructional Technology: Troy State University-Ft. Benning

Goals for Building Web Pages

The astute web page builder has a number of technical concerns which will affect the decisions on each and every page. These issues are significant to insignificant based on some assumptions about the relationships you want to have with visitors to your site.

Goal 1: The website is “friendly” to the visitor to the site.

Pages are quick to load into the computer

The technical issue of loading time is not always something you can control. The visitor to your site may access your site using many, many different processes that affect the speed of loading your pages. For example, a cable modem and a 28.8 dialup modem will access your work at significantly different times. The technical aspect of loading a page quickly boils down to sending the least number of Kilobytes from the host server to the visitor’s computer. A good rule of thumb is to try to target 100 KB for the page and all of its resources. This will require excellent design principles as well as reducing the KB weight of images, sounds, etc. in order to meet the implied criteria of Goal 1 – be friendly.

A second “friendly” page construction issue has to do with building pages with excessive scrolling required to view your material. Currently it is considered “OK” to have vertical scrolling if not too much and horizontal scrolling is considered more of a nuisance. Unfortunately, you may not be able to control the horizontal scrolling without building pages for the minimum viewing screen (640 x 480). Most developers in 2002 target their pages for the 800 x 600 screen resolution unless they are developing commercial sites. (They may develop different versions and automatically route the visitor to the page designed for their screen resolution setting or use the smallest resolution setting.)

A third “friendly” page construction issue has to do with making the pages show identically (or as identically as possible) on each visitor’s computer. This boils down to an Internet Browser issue. How will the developer know which browser (Internet Explorer, Netscape, AOL, Opera, etc.) the visitor will be using? Which version? The practical answer is that you can’t. The only practical thing you can do is to test your work in the most popular Internet browsers before posting.

A fourth issue has to do with the navigation designed for the pages on your site. After visiting a site only once, the visitor learns the navigation strategy from the home page and expects this strategy to be maintained throughout the site. This includes the location of the navigation devices as well as the action required of the visitor. A friendly site will maintain the home page navigation strategy throughout the site.

A fifth friendly strategy has to do with the instances when the content on the page does not allow the developer to be very nice to the visitor. The general rule of attempting to be “nice” still applies. When you can’t follow these principles, at least alert the visitor of what is happening. Examples:

Issue	Solution
A very large image has to be displayed.	Provide "thumbnails" of heavy images. The visitor has the option of viewing the large KB file or is alerted it will require extra time
An application document needs to be downloaded from one of your pages.	Documents require some application to be viewed. Alert the visitor what application is needed (Excel) Save the document in a more popular format (RTF instead of Works)
The page is going to be long and require extensive scrolling.	Allow for internal navigation within the page (target tag) so the movement is quick with links to specific locations like top of page, chapter headings, etc.
Animation, sound effects are often interesting, but reqire extra KB to load and work.	Consider the difference between "sun tan" and "sun burn". Tone down these "extra" attractions if you can. If you need to use them, offer a quick way to turn them off!
There is much to say on a single page.	Smaller font size vs. longer pages. Note that you will have no control over the client's screen resolution and not all people have the same eyesight. You "must" make the chosen font large enough to be read. Can you read this? Consider making additional pages.
I think the font Verbena Supersize is a "cool" font	Whatever font you select, it is only as good as the set of fonts installed on the computers that visit your site. If you choose a very popular font, you can be assured the visitor will see the page just as you intended. Failing to find a font, the browser will select its own default font!

Goal 2: Build pages with an eye on the comfort of the developer

Web pages are not difficult to make. Good web pages take quite a while. Excellent pages take even longer! There are several ideas that will help you complete your work within a reasonable timetable.

Backup your work. Why spend what seems like an eternity building a site and have to repeat it all over again when (not if) there is a hard drive problem?
Build and add to a library of resources. Many times you just want to add something that is visually appealing or a “splash” of color or design. Have a library of images at your disposal. Organize these images so you can get to them in a manner that has meaning to you. The same is true for other resources (sound clips, JavaScripts, Flash files, etc.
Work away from the computer with pencil and paper. Even though you often feel you are “quick” on a computer, there are many, many times when a pencil is the best tool. Have pencil and paper around when you are working on the computer.
Document your work in a way which you can use 6-months later. It is much quicker to read developer’s notes than it is to look back at the HTML code for pages. Do you really think you can remember why you did something last week much less 6-months ago?
Learn the “copy/paste” process and use it religiously. It is often worth the time to build a “typical” page or a “template” page if that page’s layout is going to be repeated many times. It is a good investment if you remember the concept of making an identical copy which needs minor changes from the original.
Let go. Sometimes your best efforts are not turning out. You can spend hours and hours trying to edit an image or correct the HTML code. It may be more efficient to start over. No harm in saying you will just go in a different direction. It also can save stress and time!