Web Site Design ConsiderationsOttoson Middle School |
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Web Site Design ConsiderationsOttoson Middle School |
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APPEARANCEThe boring lookCompared to most web sites, our web site is rather austere and boring. Perhaps in the future we can embellish it with fancy layouts and pretty graphics, but for now, our primary goal is to provide essential information in an easy to navigate structure. We also want the web site to be usable on old computers with old browsers and slow connections. The web site is therefore text-based, with a low level of formatting. Its main technical drawback is the dynamic menu structure that takes a long time to come up on slow computers, especially those that use Netscape Navigator 4.x browser. Arlington specificationsAll school-related web pages in Arlington should eventually have a common appearance. This is the desire expressed by the Technology Department of our school district. Unfortunately, that appearance has not yet been clearly defined or uniformly implemented. To the best of our knowledge, the common appearance consists of:
Our home page has a side bar, but none of the other pages do. If you wish to contribute to the specifications of the Arlington Look for web pages, please direct your suggestions to the Arlington Technology Council. Navigation criterionTo facilitate quick and easy access to information, we chose the following strategy:
Eventually we will have a search function on the Site Map page. Although the breadcrumbs and Site Map provide information that is redundant with the menus, it facilitates navigation for browsers that do not implement or have disabled JAVA script interpreter, so the menus cannot be used. Use of style sheetsThe web site uses a style sheet to achieve a consistent look, and to allow easy modifications of that look without having to edit each of the pages. Some of the older browsers may not handle the style sheet correctly, or not at all. We designed the web site so even without the style sheet, the appearance should be acceptable. Font sizeThe font (text) size is specified as relative for all formatting elements. This means that the reader can always increase or decrease the size of all fonts for better readability. Please be aware that all browsers allow you to do that, i.e. you can increase or decrease the sizes of the fonts that have been specified in the web pages as having relative sizes. HeadingsLonger pages are divided into sections, with links to the individual sections at the top of the page. Very long pages have two levels of headings. PicturesPhotographs may take a long time to download, so should not be included on most pages, and should be relegated to a section of the web site specifically designated for photographs. Simple graphics or cartoons take little time, and can be added to provide a little bit of color and to break up the dullness of plane text. We took the liberty of adding a few cartoons to lighten the mood of the pages, and to encourage browsing. PrintingInformation that one may wish to print, should have a reasonable appearance when printed. The menu buttons are usually not printed correctly. Home page appearanceThe appearance of the home page is very simple, and not particularly attractive. It is meant to be a bulletin board, with a few links to the most important information. PDF filesSome of the documents are in Adobe PDF format (can be viewed and printed with Acrobat Reader). These documents are always opened in separate windows. Links to the outsideLinks to the outside that do not conform to the Arlington Look are opened in separate windows. Prior to opening of any page that does not reside on Arlington Schools' web server, a warning page is displayed, as required by Arlington web site policy. ORGANIZATIONImportance of web site layoutInformation is easy to find if it is well organized. We therefore considered web site organization to be very important. Unfortunately, school related information comes in a large number of small items that do not easily fit into a simple hierarchical structure. So every organization is a compromise. We hope we have selected a reasonably good compromise. The organization is embedded in the menu structure. One approach to designing a menu structure is to have just one level of menus, usually in a sidebar. Clicking on an item in such a menu opens a new page which may contain further choices. This is easy to use and is preferable for most web sites. We chose a different approach, with pull-down menus that in some cases are three levels deep. Although such menus are more difficult to use, they provide one major advantage - the entire organization is accessible from any page. One can usually find things by just reviewing the menus, without having to go to the various pages and then have to backtrack. We also opted to have more smaller pages rather than a few large pages. Smaller pages are easier to organize and maintain, and they also fit better on low resolution screens. The overall organization can also be seen on the Site Map page, but that page is rather long. Top level menu buttonsThe menu buttons that are always visible comprise the top level organization, with the following interpretations: OUR SCHOOL contains static information of general nature. WHAT'S UP is for time-dependent information. It contains announcements and calendar. LEARNING deals with academics. It contains curriculum and resources. CLASSROOMS is a place for web pages of individual classrooms. STUDENT GUIDE has information that students should know. PARENT GUIDE has information that parents should know. DISTRICT contains links to the rest of the school system. Home pageHome page, like all other pages, has the menu buttons at the top. The side bar on the left contains either things that one may want to access most frequently, or things that a visitor or a person new to the school may need. Web designers believe (based on usage research) that it is best to put as much information on the home page as possible, even if it looks ugly. We chose instead to have a simple home page with just the essential information and announcements. The rationale is that most people who will visit the web site will either want to see just the announcements, or will want to access a specific item, and therefore do not need a tabloid layout. It also goes along with the requirement that the web site be easily usable with a low resolution screen. ResourcesThe web side provides links to important resources and to Arlington school district. Many of these links can be accessed directly from the menu buttons. Maintenance and reusabilityThe organization of the web site was also influenced by the considerations of maintenance and reusability. CONTENTEssential informationThe web site must obviously contain essential information such as, school address, directions, directory, visitation rules, car access information, etc. Announcements and calendarMost school web sites contain primarily static information and a school calendar. We hope that our web site will be better by including announcements of upcoming events and important dates. Terse versions of announcements occupy the central portion of the home page. If there is more information, a distinct MORE button at the end of the text opens a separate page containing the rest of the information The announcements are repeated in the Announcement page. That page, besides the current announcements, also contains a link to old announcements (that can be reused next year). The current version of the school calendar is just a static yearly calendar that can be easily printed. We may eventually augment the static calendar with an automated calendar. ActivitiesBesides essential information and announcements, the web site must also provide information about other, regular activities that involve parents or students. More stuffOptionally, the web site may include less important information, such as statistics, fun facts, history, etc. RulesThe official web site policy is relatively simple. To see the policy, click here. One item that must not be overlooked is that student names, pictures, phone numbers, or addresses are not allowed. All postings and changes on the web site must be approved by the principal or a designee. |
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This page was last updated on Sunday, March 09, 2003 |