Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Chapter 16 Web Sites and Online Environments

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Basic Differences between a Website and a Print Document ‣ Size and dimension ‣ Navigational features ‣ Visual components ‣ Multimedia ‣ Accessing speed

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Intranet & Internet

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Intranet Web Pages ‣ Serve internal network systems and are designed only for members of your company or organization ‣ Serve a smaller, more easily defined audience ‣ Are usually not designed to sell products ‣ Are generally information heavy and graphic light ‣ Often rely on a standard format ‣ Establish easily extractable templates

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Internet Web Pages ‣ Should be considered “public” documents ‣ Often contain more introductory or contextual information about your company ‣ Are more likely to contain “splash” pages to introduce the site or company ‣ Are more likely to use design variations to create reader interest

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. ‣ May contain a greater number of textual elements, visuals, and multimedia ‣ Are more likely to include branding or marketing information to identify the company to potential customers ‣ Are more likely to provide clear navigational features, since readers can be more diverse Internet Web Pages

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Terminology ‣ Web page — a document that is made available through the internet (or intranet) ‣ Web browser — a software program that reads web pages ‣ URL (Uniform Resource Locator) — a website’s unique address ‣ Home page — the main page users see when they access a website ‣ Hypertext — any text found on a web page that is linked

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. ‣ Link — a connection from one web page to another ‣ Interface — the connections between a user’s computer and the WWW ‣ Navigation — the way in which a reader is directed to move through various web pages ‣ Search Engine — locate and list web pages containing information relevant to the reader’s search parameters Terminology

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. ‣ Site Architecture — the structure of an entire website ‣ Site Map — a web page that describes the architecture of the entire Web site ‣ Server space — the physical space where web page information is housed ‣ Cookies — software that stores visitor information Terminology

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Web Technologies

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. HTML ‣ Is the basic “language” for web page writing ‣ Stands for “Hypertext Markup Language” ‣ Uses codes called “tags” presented in ‣ Provides structural, presentational, and hypertextual codes that tell a browser how to display a web page

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Basic Web Site Tags (Table 16.1)

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. XHTML ‣ Stands for “Extensible Hypertext Markup Language” ‣ Is the newest version of markup language ‣ Uses a stricter set of syntactical codes than HTML ‣ Leads to fewer errors in presentation

Tables and Frames ‣ Place text and visuals on specific portions of a page, like in rows and columns ‣ More accurately control how a page is presented, like its width ‣ Can often pose display problems Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved.

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. CSS ‣ Stands for “Cascading Style Sheets” ‣ Provides a given style throughout a web site ‣ Allows writers to keep style files separate from HTML files to improve speed, accessibility, customization, and maintenance

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Web Authoring Programs ‣ Are designed to assist web page construction without the need to know HTML and CSS ‣ Are generally as simple as word processors to use ‣ Often used to create extensive or complex web sites that would take too long to code

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Javascript ‣ Can be inserted into HTML documents to create “dynamic content” in a website ‣ Can also be used to “react” to events, such as loading an image after a specific amount of time ‣ Is sometimes used to detect or save information about the readers of a web site

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. CGI ‣ Is an acronym for “Common Gateway Interface” ‣ Are programs executed in real-time, so that they can transmit and receive dynamic information ‣ Can allow designers to create shopping carts, page counters, guestbooks, order and complaint forms, and response sheets

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. CMS ‣ Are “Content Management Systems” ‣ Are programs that allow for collaborative writing of web pages ‣ Are used to create virtual meeting spaces, image galleries, and podcasts

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Plugins ‣ Are small computer programs that interact with a web browser ‣ Allow the browser to display certain types of documents, show interactive images, play music, or play video ‣ Add multimedia functionality to web pages ‣ Are generally free and can be easily downloaded

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Ethics ‣ Considers accessibility ‣ Maintains the company image ‣ Informs the general public

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Standard Web Page Guidelines ‣ Practice continuity throughout a site ‣ Make sure the flow through a site is uninterrupted ‣ Use repetition of key elements for branding ‣ Be consistent and logical in navigation ‣ Consider using a splash page for interest and branding

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. ‣ Be sure your first page is clear, clean, navigable, substantive, and efficient ‣ Use node pages to serve as introductions to sub pages or other content areas within the site ‣ Use meta tags, like keywords, to help search engines find and catalog the site ‣ Consider incorporating a FAQ or site map ‣ Use consistent RGB colors Standard Web Page Guidelines

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Web Site Organization ‣ Is linked and often non-sequential ‣ Is sometimes hierarchical, resembling a pyramid ‣ Is sometimes a network, where all of the pages are interconnected, with no one page being more important or central ‣ Is often begun by sketching their website organization in graphical form using a large sheet of paper, a chalkboard, or a whiteboard ‣ Is best structured when the web site’s main idea is clear

Dobrin / Keller / Weisser : Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century. © 2008 Pearson Education. Upper Saddle River, NJ, All Rights Reserved. Web Sites & Usability ‣ Address navigation: where users are in a site and how they get around ‣ Address content: is clear and consistent throughout ‣ Address visuals: pertain to the content and do not overwhelm the users ‣ Address other aspects, like purpose and branding