designingpages
TRANSCRIPT
Designing Pages with a Purpose:
Creating a Strategic Approach
to Online SearchingPresented by:
Catherine Nelson – Media Specialist
Great Falls High School
&
Kim Isiminger – Media Specialist
Wagener Salley High School
Goals of Presentation
Discuss an interactive library web page that guides and directs student searching
Pages that keep students focused, undistracted
Web Page Creation Software
Text editor (word pad) & html Netscape Composer Publisher Front page Dreamweaver Microsoft
Word Claris Etc.
Design Basics
Audience Alignment / Proximity Repetition Contrast
Audience
Consider the use of
– Appealing colors and appropriate clipart
– Font size
– Amount of text vs. buttons
Proximity / Alignment
Items too close suggest relationship Make organization purposeful
– Use tables to help align
Repetition Repeat some aspect of the
design to tie the parts together for internal links:
– Same heading style (font, color)
– Same background– Same divider– Same footer– Graphic (school or library
logo)?– Navigational line
Navigation
Provide an obvious navigational base– Back (button or word)– Hyperlinks of all connected pages
reappearing on each page. (Example)Library Home ~ Student Resources ~ Teacher Resources ~
Subscribed Databases ~ Internet Links ~ Subject Sites
Page Layout Page name
Title
Body of Information
Author if not same as contact
Contact:name & email
Date updated
Location
Suggested Internal Links Teacher Sites Student Sites Special Projects/Thematic Topics (History
Day, Black History, etc.)– Long range lesson plans / curriculum mapping
School (District, feeder schools, PTO or PTA)
Community Interest Sites Library Specific Sites (DISCUS,
subscribed services)
Teacher/School Sites South Carolina Teacher Site (www.scteachers.org) State & National Standards Profession Affiliations
– NEA– NCTM– School Board Association– South Carolina Administrators
Lesson Plan Resources State & Federal Departments of Education District Page Professional Online Journals
Students Sites Ensure age appropriate Subject specific links Reading program quiz list Fun sites
– Publishers– Puzzles– Magazines, Teen Lounges
Post high school websites– SAT / ACT Testing– Financial aid– College websites– Career websites– Resumes– Occupational Outlook
Handbook
Special Projects/Themes History Day DAR Science Olympiad Multicultural Sites Holiday Sites School-wide observances
– Dr. Seuss’s Birthday– 100th Day of School– Teen Read Week– Banned Books Week
Community Interest
County/city government websites
Community interest sites
Newspapers Chamber of
Commerce
Library Sites
DISCUS Subscribed Services
– ProQuest– Electric Library– SCOIS
Vendor sites– Renaissance Learning
(Accelerated Reader)– Sagebrush/Follet– Book Vendors
Professional Affiliations– ALA, AASL, IRA– SCASL
SC State Library Library of Congress Union Catalogs
General Program Information
Staff Hours Services provided Policy & procedures Promotional activities
This information does not need to be the FOCUS of your site.
AVOID:
Music– Repeat visitors tire of it
Frames– Unable to bookmark– Distorts true look of page inside the frame
AVOID: Cutting Edge Web design
– Not many k-12 schools have hardware or software that support it
– The average k-12 teacher (and some students) don’t understand or recognize it!
Web Page Novelties– Tools that require plug-ins– Flash– Java applets
AVOID: Scrolling Text, Marques, Blinkers,
constantly running animations– Hard to read, distracting, downright annoying
Complex URLs– Keep them simple and lowercase– Very few students know what a tilde is (~),
ever use it, or know where it is on a keyboard– Spaces in web names become underscores that
do not get easily recognized in a hyperlink (that is underlined as most are)
AVOID: Long Pages to Scroll
– Users dislike it– Users are more willing to navigate if targets
are present – Link to internal pages instead
Non-standard linklink colors– Make the background compliment the links,
not vice versa– When link colors are changed from the
standard, they are harder to find
AVOID:
Long Download Times– Use less clipart and smaller, compressed
images– Consider thumbnails as links to larger images– Note html editors that tell download time
Dead Links– Check your links and pages often and edit out
dead or lost links
Instead, use:
Color balance Backgrounds that are easy on eyes Tables where applicable Simple fonts Limited pictures/use thumbnails Clarity, consistency and conciseness Site map
Disclaimer: Sites Used The following slides list library pages
(hyperlinked) viewed in the presentation. Not all have every recommendation made
in the presentation. Each was chosen for some value or merit. None are from our state (to save anyone
embarrassment), with the exception of our own pages.
High School Examples Mahtomedi High School -- Mahtomedi,
MN Craig High School – Janesville, WI Burnsville High School – Burnsville, MN Manchester Memorial High School –
Manchester, NH Spring Lake Park High School – Spring Lake
Park, MN Mercy High School—San Francisco Springfield Township High
School Virtual Library – Erdehenheim, PA
Middle School Examples Sashabaw Middle School – Clarkston, MI
Bedford Middle School – Westport, CT
Thomas Jefferson Middle School – Teaneck, NJ
Holton Middle School – Holton, KS
North Junior High School, Boise, ID
Elementary School Examples Brookhaven Elementary School –
Rockville, MD
Washington Elementary School – Cloquet, MN
Greentown Elementary School – North Canton, OH
Fielder Elementary School – Katy, TX
Your Presenters’ Web Pages
Great Falls High Schoolcreated by Catherine Nelson
Wagener-Salley High Schoolcreated by Kim Isiminger
Tips Brochure - saved as RTF
Contacting Us! Catherine L. Nelson
– Great Falls High School (Chester County Schools)– Great Falls, SC– (803) 482-2210– [email protected]
Kim Isiminger– Wagener-Salley High School (Aiken County Schools)– Wagener, SC– (803) 564-1100– [email protected]
The End!