Web Site Design Web site diagrams from the Yale Style Manual at: http://info.med.yale.edu/caim/manual/contents.html

General Items of Interest People usually do not invest the same time into reading a Web page as they would a magazine or book. You want to keep the reader interested - so you want to grab their attention and keep it. Since Web pages are hyperlinked, most people do not read through them sequentially.

Why are you creating your site? Have clear goals for your Web site in terms of why it is there and what it means to provide. Who is your audience? Where are they from? How are they accessing your site? Timeframe Type and amount of information Maintenance

Site Design is Information-Centric Your information and goals and audience are among the factors that guide your design. You need to decide how you can “chunk” (divide) the information that you want to present. (Sub) categories or by sections? By the type of information or chronologically? You use this to help create the site structure.

Strategy 1: Sequential Good for sequential chunks of information. The viewer can wander backwards and forwards through the sequence and even start over when finished. Easy to use, but hard to explore.

Strategy 2: Hierarchy Main page has a list of links to get to the subcategories. Each of those pages leads you to the pages below it on the hierarchy. Can be effective unless information is divided up too fine. Can be easy to use for the user. Can be easy to maintain.

Strategy 3: Grid Can be good for organizing information into related sections. Can be difficult for the viewer to see how the structure works Can be difficult for the viewer to understand how the information is related to other info Can be easy to maintain.

Strategy 4: Exploratory/Web Allows the user to go from a page to (nearly) every other page. The user determines the order and amount of information they want to see. Can be hard to figure out where you’ve been. (user) Can be hard to maintain.

Web Site Design Choose colors so that the text is easy to read. Be consistent in your design and how you use color and other formatting elements. Well chosen backgrounds, font size, alignment and other items make the site easy to use. Relative links are easier to maintain then absolute links

Web Site Design Use components for a purpose and not to show off. Too many things can take too long to download Can make the page/site too cluttered Proofread. Proofread. Proofread. Make it easy for your audience to navigate. Make sure that your writing is descriptive and concise.

Page Layout Samples

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