Professional Web Design Principles -  Prof. Raymond J. Kimball

Design Home
Design Principles
Eye Scanning
Basic Layout
Layout II
Storyboard.doc
Storyboard.htm
MC Sites
Winning Techniques
HTML Tutorial


Resources
WebAccess-U.S.
Maryland Web Access
Reno v. ACLU (1997)
About 508
Bobby
W3C Web Access Initiative
New MC Banners!
MC Disability Access Standards
MC Web Standards

Lesson 2 - Practical Web Site Development

Basic Table Design - Basic Design with Endless Possiblities.
Even More Basic Design Table.

Site Components

1. Branding
1. Logos
2. Banners
3. Designs
2. Colors
1. Background (bgcolor or background="image.gif"> Body or Table Tags
2. Textures - Wallpaper
3. White Space
4. Font Colors - Headings
3. Text
1. Amount of Text
1. How much do you want/need to say?
2. How much will your audience read?
1. The Seven-Second Rule
2. The Two Sentence Rule
3. What is the purpose of the Text?
1. Sell your products or services to an unconvinced audience?
2. Pat yourself on the back and tell the world what a great organization you are?
3. Provide Information on your services or products?
2. Use of Text on Web Sites
3. Technical Writing for the Web
1. Write your site through the eyes of your visitor.
2. Use short descriptive sentences which idenfify your products and services and guide your visitors around your site or page.
3. Use links within each descriptive sentence.
4. Less is more.
5. Use small graphics or designs to enhance your text.
4. Links
1. Use Lots of Links! That's the web's "Killer App!"
2. Be Redundant - Use Redundant, Understandable Links
3. Use the text to describe your NavBars
4. Absolute Links - (Links to other sites) -- Give Summaries of what the viewer is likely to find and why you think they should leave your site to visit someone else's site, never to return....
5. Font Choices - Learn your Fonts! Fireworks, PhotoShop, MS Word. Print 'em out.
1. Fonts as Branding tools - 2 fonts, consistent look and feel
2. Serif ("hooked" typeface): for Reading Text.; Sans-Serif (no hooks) - For Headers, Links, Banners
4. Graphics
1. Designs, Drawings -- Commission them using a good graphic artist
2. Photos
1. Photo Variations - slide shows. "Keep it Fresh! See National Gallery of Art.
3. Animation - Fun stuff, but we are a fickle and easily bored species
• Animated GIFs
• Movies - .mov
• Multimedia
• News!
• Flash Animation and Pop-up Ads
4. Sound
5. Web Accessibility
1. Federal 508 Standards
2. Maryland State Standards - Applicable Jan. 1, 2007 to Maryland community colleges.
3. Montgomery College Standards.  Montgomery College has adopted Maryland/Federal 508 standards, consistent with Maryland law.
4. International W3C Standards
5. Building Accessible Web Sites Under 508
6. The "Client's" Point of View - English Dept. Reading and Writing, Language Center
1. Navigation Problems - Use of the Word "Reading"
2. MC Home > Academics > Departments > Reading Center RV, http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/Departments/readrv/
3. MC Home > Academics > Departments > Writing Center RV, http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/studentsvc/lrnglabs/
4. Untitled Document -- Difficult to search on the MC Search Engine, which ranks hits according to Title Tag
1. Writing - Hit No. 1 - Germantown, http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/Departments/writegt/
2. No. 2 - Template http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/Orgs/humanities/PotomacReview/samplings.html
3. Writing Center, Rockville -  http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/studentsvc/lrnglabs/

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