Using storyboards during the initial design process has multiple benefits and advantages. Their purpose is to create a layout/draft of your entire site on paper for the purpose of easily editing and organizing your content. It will help to establish and improve the navigation of your site in terms of how the content is presented (flow and usefulness) and allow for revisions to be made in order to prevent mistakes that could end up being costly in the end. Creating a story board gives you something to look at directly and then visually absorb to consider....if I was a visitor of this site, what will I be seeing? In the process of creating my own storyboard, I have been able to see how my information will be displayed on my site. Some of my initial ideas have been erased and reorganized already! Once the thoughts in my head were put onto paper, I realized that some of my initial ideas looked good to me, but when considering how the reader would perceive and view them, I definitely needed to make changes. I think that it is way easier to erase and fix information on a piece of paper than to have to do it later. Of course, you always have the ability to change and edit at a later time, but having a good foundation to start designing will help smooth the process and allow for you to be more efficient in the end.
Writing for the web vs. print
The main thing to keep in mind here is that people don't read information on the web in the same way that they read printed material. Writing for print is typically done in a logical sequence.....we know what the reader is going to read and in what order. When information on the web is read, content is often skimmed through fast and quickly, with a reader pulling out what information they feel is most valuable to them. When writing for the web, it is all about how to catch a reader's attention.....
Here are some tips:
- Keep it simple and short....don't include too much that you lose the reader's attention
- Use key words/phrases....highlighting or bolding key words will grab the attention of your reader and organize information so it is easy to find and read
- Put your most important information first....this will increase the likelihood that it will be recognized and acknowledged
- Break-up large chunks of information into smaller sections or utilize having various pages within your site to separate topics and increase reader interaction on your site
- Use bullets or numbering to pull attention to main ideas and to simplify the way information is presented and read
I chose Webs.com to use for designing the Web 2.0 version of my site for a few different reasons. One of the main reasons was because Mrs. Mislevy mentioned that this is the site that she often uses, despite that it puts an advertisement on your site. I also chose it because I liked the templates that they offered, as well as that it seemed to be easy to navigate through. I don't need all the animation or extra perks that the other sites offered....not that I want my site to be simple and dull, but I wanted to ensure that for me as a designer, I kept it simple and not too confusing throughout the design process.
Additional comments on reading....
Chapter 13 was resourceful for me in learning more functions of using a table. My website will contain a somewhat lengthy menu, and I think using a table to organize the information is gonna work the best! A lot of the other tips and tricks mentioned in this chapter are kind of advanced for me. I won't particularly be using any of them when designing my sight, but I do plan on exploring them when I get some free time..especially the rollovers and image swaps.
Chapter 14
Site management software??? Really??? I have evolved from thinking that designing a website should be left for professionals to realizing that there are so many tools out there to assist you in the design process, that a ten year could probably make a great site! All the fix tips and ways to test a site can kind of take away any of the uncertainties or confusion that one might have. It's an awesome tool that reassures the functionality of a site and ensures it will work properly.
Chapter 15
This is one of the steps in designing a site that I was unsure about....the uploading process. Before this class, I had no idea that the ISP you have provides you with the space needed to post a website. I learned additional information on the process and necessary steps needed in order to go live with a website, as well as the abilities to change or update information within the site after the fact.
Diigo
There was an abundance of readings from Diigo this week...woof! The first few articles focused on writing on the web which focused largely on looking at how it is read. I took a lot of information away from these articles. Some of it was review and some of it was things that I found to be obvious. I focused more on the tips that were offered for how to write on the web, especially in regards to content and how it is displayed.
The articles on storyboarding helped me to create an outline for my own website as far as what type of content to include and how I should utilize subheadings when organizing the content......definitely sparked the brainstorming process! The links for the Web 2.0 sites allowed me to browse through several choices and helped me to make my end decision of using Web.com for designing the live version of my site.
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