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Developing Educational Materials for the World Wide Web
Week 2 - Hypertext, Hypermedia, and Learning
Why do people create web sites? There are many reasons. Some want to play with a new technology. Some want to sell a product or services. Others want to share their experiences or their knowledge. Some want to connect with other people. Some are interested in creating an online community. In general most people take the time and effort to develop a web site because they want to share information with other people.
What do people who create web sites expect? Some people who create web sites have no expectations. They create the sites for themselves as an exercise in self-expression. But most people who create web sites expect that people will come to visit their site. Some only expect people to visit their site once or occasionally but others expect that visitors will become regulars and will visit their site frequently.
Developing a web site is a creative act and in this sense the web developer is no different than the playwright, or the artist, or the musician. The process of creation does hold its own rewards but most creative artists, consciously or unconsciously reach out to an audience and to someone to connect to. There is a unique aspect to web development. In no other creative medium does the creative artist enjoy the extent of powers that they do when utilizing the web. The web developer connects directly with his or her audience.
A+ examples of websites created by teachers http://www.shayes.net/profresource/NCTE/teacher.html
Take a look at the websites listed above, created by teachers. Choose six or so and ask yourself the following questions:
- What kinds of fonts, colors, and images are used?
- How long does it take for images and pages to download?
- Do the images make any sense and do they add to the content or distract?
- How is the information divided -- are horizontals used, frames, tables, etc.
- Are headings used, if so are they are they used consistently?
- Is the background a solid color, a default, or an image?
- Is the text well-written? What kind of writing style is used? Will this style satisfy the target user population?
- How integrated are graphics and text?
- Is the text legible?
- Will this likely be read online or downloaded and printed onto paper?
- Is this information useful, engaging, and interesting?
- Is this information dynamic? Would the useful come back after a first visit to access this information?
- What kinds of navigational systems, if any, are used?
- What kinds of technologies are used, such as Flash, Shockwave, etc., requiring plugins?
- Will visitors to this site get lost?
- Would you bookmark this site and come back regularly to visit and use it? Do you think the target audience would bookmark this site? .
Take a look at a few websites that have to do with interface design:
Activity & Assignment:
Now that you are an expert in what makes a good website, ake a list of your own ten (10) do's and don'ts for website design. You can email these to me.
Also begin thinking of what theme, written content, images, text, links, etc. you want for your web pages. You will need to start gathering these things since next week we will start putting them into a web page!
Preparing Educational Materials for the World Wide Web
EOU Malheur County Center (541) 889-7468 or (541) 889-6222
