Libby Walker LSC 776: Midterm Project June 19, 2008

the assignment… A wealthy alumni is donating her vast collection of photographs to your school district. The school that puts together the most creative means to showcase the collection will be given the entire collection to display in their library. The wealthy alumni specifies that in addition to current students, she would like other members of the community and alumni, many of whom do not live in the area, to view the collection as well. Your boss knows that you recently completed a web design course and puts you in charge of the task. For this project, describe your web design and the rationale behind it, define your audience, and finally, provide a blueprint of your site.

web design - things to consider… Make good use of the area “above the fold” – grab the users attention at the top of the page – entice them. Offer users all that they need on the homepage – providing a sense of context and organization. Make sure all pages easily link back to the homepage. It is also useful to provide links to other areas of the site, too in addition to other websites when relevant (and make sure they all work!). Use the same graphic header on each page – same user interface throughout the site. Be consistent – it helps users access your info quicker and provides them a sense of direction within your site. Provide a rich set of graphics. But don’t overdo it - users have varying degrees of bandwidth and no one wants to wait for long downloads. (Note - after you have wooed users with your homepage, it is ok to provide a little more graphics on the internal pages, that is, users will be more willing to wait if they know the info is good and useful to them – give them warnings though).

web design – more things to consider… Provide direct links to the website editor or person responsible for maintaining the site. Make information accessible in as few clicks as possible. Although only a small percentage of display screens are still set to 256 colors, use browser safe colors particularly where navigation graphics and design elements are concerned. Keep these simple, too. Provide alternate navigation routes, that is, more than one way to access the same information. Remember that some users may have disabilities and require alternate ways to access your content - make your info available in as many different formats as possible. JPEG file format will work best for this photography collection. Although in a few years when it is more widely used, PNG format would be great so that users can “search” for images like they do text.

the audience The user consists of a variety of ages and ranges in user ability/skill. The alumni who no longer live in the community may have different needs than those who still reside in the community; those that do reside in the community may have different needs than those who live in the community that are non-alumni but still have an interest in the collection; even still the students currently enrolled also have different needs and may need a little encouragement to enjoy the collection… and so forth! Bottom line: the audience is not specific to one particular group. The site needs to be flexible to accommodate a variety of users.

site design… I envision a site that is sophisticated for mature users yet has an element of fun for the younger users (optional for the mature users, too!). The design needs to be universal, not just creative but instructional, not flashy yet sleek, something elegant but with a splash of playfulness. Obviously the focal point of the site is the photography collection. To make the collection interactive, I imagine the photo’s displayed in a simple timeline. The next few slides include a basic design of my “vision”. I’ve tried to incorporate all the “things to consider” from the earlier slides and I included within the blueprint some more detail but let me explain the basic gist here.

site design, continued… The timeline is my catchy graphic, placed at the top of the page so that the user has something to view while the site finishes loading. I think any user likes to look at photos, young and old. One can click on a photo to view the collection (via decade) or one can use the tool bar at the bottom of the page to search via decade, text keyword, or title. Also on the tool bar is information on “us,” who we are, our address, phone, … I also placed a link for the Alumni – not sure exactly what would be here but obviously information geared specifically towards them, a place where they can “sign up,” maybe even a link to a blog where they can all catch up with each other, share their thoughts on the collection…

site design, continued… I included a couple games although I am not exactly sure how they will work! The matching game would somehow have the user match up images of yesteryear with the images of today. Cracking the code would involve some sort of scavenger hunt, it could even be broken down by skill level. As each image will have a detailed description of what it is all about, I would try to incorporate the game here, maybe placing a symbol representative of the decade on one of the photos in that particular decade. That symbol would be a clue. Find all the clues and figure out the answer to some related question. The question could change every month… and there would be prizes offered for those that figure it out. Winners would come into the library to collect their prize. Like I said, I don’t really know how these games would come together – this area would definitely need more work! But my thought is to provide incentive and encourage users to view the collection (virtually and eventually in person) who may otherwise not be interested.

site design, continued… Finally, the internal pages of the site would follow the basic design of the homepage. When a user gets to the collection of a particular decade, the image would open like a book and provide description of the decade. Then they would use arrow keys to “turn the pages” and view individual photo’s each of which would have a detailed description. I would include links to other sites when relevant… “to learn more about this era, follow these links….” I also would include audio so that users can listen to the descriptions rather than read if they so choose. And of course these are not old timey photos but I chose them because they go with the black and white of many photo’s in the collection!

the blueprint…

home help search browse titles browse by decade contact us comments alumnae Loudoun Valley High School presents the Richard Pants Historical Photography Collection Generously donated and maintained by the Richard Pants Family, our collection consists of over 200 historic photo’s dating from the 1800’s through the mid 1900’s. The collection contains images of people, buildings, streets, scenes, and town views of Loudoun Valley and surrounding communities. View our collection digitally or come see for yourself! Crack the Code ! Name that Place!

home help search browse titles browse by decade contact us comments alumnae Loudoun Valley High School presents the Richard Pants Historical Photography Collection Generously donated and maintained by the Richard Pants Family, our collection consists of over 200 historic photo’s dating from the 1800’s through the mid 1900’s. The collection contains images of people, buildings, streets, scenes, and town views of Loudoun Valley and surrounding communities. View our collection digitally or come see for yourself! Crack the Code ! Name that Place! 2. Clicking here leads to info about Richard Pants 4. Click here for directions to the school 3. Click here to learn about the RP Family 5. Learn how to play the Interactive Games home help search browse titles browse by decade contact us comments alumnae Loudoun Valley High School presents the Richard Pants Historical Photography Collection Generously donated and maintained by the Richard Pants Family, our collection consists of over 200 historic photo’s dating from the 1800’s through the mid 1900’s. The collection contains images of people, buildings, streets, scenes, and town views of Loudoun Valley and surrounding communities. View our collection digitally or come see for yourself! Crack the Code ! Name that Place! home help search browse titles browse by decade contact us comments alumnae Loudoun Valley High School presents the Richard Pants Historical Photography Collection Generously donated and maintained by the Richard Pants Family, our collection consists of over 200 historic photo’s dating from the 1800’s through the mid 1900’s. The collection contains images of people, buildings, streets, scenes, and town views of Loudoun Valley and surrounding communities. View our collection digitally or come see for yourself! Crack the Code ! Name that Place! 1.Interactive timeline. Click on an image to view by decade

Click on a image from the home page to open a decade. It will open like a book and display a brief historical description, here, about the particular decade. Use arrows to browse “turn the page” of the collection. Individual images all contain specific information regarding the photo. back next decade home Richard Pants Historical Photography Collection click for audio This banner will appear on each page Access to home on each page