BUSINESS WEBSITE DESIGN

List two benefits of consistently placing navigation tools.

1. allowing them to orient themselves quickly to your navigation structure. 2. also avoid the need to download a wide variety of graphics.

Name three differences between paper-based and screen-based design.

Although most paper-based media are portrait oriented, the computer screen is landscape oriented—that is, wider than it is tall. While a piece of paper reflects light, a computer screen has light passing through it from behind. Computer screens also use a much lower resolution than the printed page.

Limitations of HTML

HTML is not a What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) layout tool. It was intended only to express logical document structure, not formatting characteristics.

What type of URL links within a server?

Partial

Explain the three issues you should consider when designing for multiple operating systems.

1. Monitors and display software 2. Browser versions 3.Font Choices

The international standard for filenames often is called _____________.

8.3, pronounced "eight-dot-three"

List the two most common screen resolutions.

800 x 600 and 1024 x 768

What is the benefit of purchasing a domain name?

A domain name is an alias that points to your actual location on the Web server. For example, suppose you have purchased the domain name www.mysite.com. The actual path to your content has not changed, but the visitor to the site sees only the domain name. Now you can advertise the Web site with a URL that's easy to remember.

Discuss why you would need to design for accessibility in a Web site.

Any large audience for a Web site includes users who want to access your content despite certain physical challenges. Designing for accessibility means developing Web pages that remain accessible despite any physical, sensory, and cognitive disabilities, work constraints, or technological barriers on the part of the user. As Tim Berners-Lee said, "The power of the Web is in its universality. Access by everyone, regardless of disability, is an essential aspect." Most mainstream Web sites are so heavily image- and media-intensive that they are not suitable for adaptive devices such as screen readers, voice browsers, and Braille translators. Building more accessible content does not mean that you have to forgo more challenging Web designs. Many of the guidelines necessary for developing accessible content naturally lend themselves to creating good design. Two current sets of guidelines are available to Web designers. The W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative publishes the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), and will soon release a second version. The U.S. government has its own set of guidelines, as part of the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998, called Section 508. The law requires federal agencies to provide information technology that is accessible both to federal employees and citizens who have disabilities. Both sets of guidelines help you create more accessible Web content, so which should you use? If you are designing a Web site for the federal government, you must follow the 508 guidelines, but for general public Web sites the W3C guidelines will suffice.

Describe why using "Click here" as link text is ineffective.

Avoid using "Click Here" as the hypertext link because it doesn't reflect the content it is connected to. Instead provide a helpful textual clue to the destination of the link.

Explain how XML lends itself to customized data applications.

Because XML allows better data handling, allowing data to pass between applications and devices with greater ease. For example, tabular data for stock pricing information could be sent to multiple destinations and displayed to best fit the user's individual display type, such as a personal digital assistant (PDA) or cell phone. This arrangement gives the same data greater value; though it only needs to be generated once, it can be displayed in many ways.

Why should you never specify an absolute path in partial URLs?

Because your files will be transferred to another computer, any URLs you specify to link to other pages in your site must include paths that are transferable. You will probably build your Web site on a computer that is different from the computer that hosts your site. Keep this in mind when you are designing the directory and file structure. Because your files will be transferred to another computer, any URLs you specify to link to other pages in your site must include paths that are transferable. This is why you should never specify an absolute path in your partial URLs. An absolute path points to the computer's root directory, indicated by a leading (forward) slash in the file path: /graphics/logo.gif

What are the two types of style languages designed for use with XML?

CSS and Extensible Style Language (XSL)

What are the benefits of viewing source code on the Web?

Can learn new coding techniques and see what works on standard Web pages

What style language allows the separation of style from structure in HTML?

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

List three characteristics of filenames that vary by operating system.

Case sensitivity, character exceptions, and file extensions.

What type of URL links to another server?

Complete

What are the two types of URLs?

Complete and partial URLs.

3. Consult your Web server administrator when you need to determine the _____________ and _____________ for your site.

Consult with them to determine the "Web site's default filename" and "directory structure."

What is a deprecated element?

Deprecated elements are those that the W3C has identified as obsolete and consequently will not be included in future releases of HTML

Describe HTML

HTML is a markup language, a structured language that lets you identify common sections of a document such as headings, paragraphs, and lists. An HTML file includes text and HTML markup (or element) tags that identify these sections.

List three characteristics of HTML that make it ideal for the World Wide Web.

HTML is ideal for the Web because it is an open, nonproprietary language that is cross- platform compatible. All of the markup tags are included with every document and usually can be viewed through your browser

Which HTML elements can you use to create a visual grid?

HTML tables or CSS positioning.

Name two inconsistencies that can cause broken links when you upload your files to a Web server.

If the Web server runs a different operating system from your local development system, any filename or directory structure inconsistencies encountered in transferring your files to the server may break local URL links.

What is a prime reason users may leave a Web site?

If your pages download slowly because they contain large, detailed graphics or complicated animations, your users will leave before they ever see your content. The average user clicks away from a site if the page does not download quickly.

What is the single most important factor in determining the success of a Web site?

Information design is the single most important factor in determining the success of your site. It determines how easily users can access your Web content.

What is the benefit of building a site with relative paths?

It is logical and simplifies the directory structure of the site.

What work does the World Wide Web Consortium perform?

It serves as a standards organization to set recommended practices that guarantee the open nature of the Web, and coordinates the efforts to develop new markup languages and standards

List two benefits of diagramming your site before you start coding.

It shows the structure and logic behind the content presentation and navigation choices you offer. You can move pages and whole sections of content freely, plan navigation paths, and visualize the entire site.

Describe web structure

Many smaller Web sites follow the Web-type content structure, which is nonlinear, allowing the user to jump freely to any page from any other page. If you choose to use this type of content structure, make sure that each page includes clear location information and a standardized navigation bar that not only tells users where they are, but where they can go.

List the four variables to consider when testing your Web site.

Multiple browsers, multiple operating systems, connection speeds, and display types.

Describe the difference between reading and scanning a page.

On a main page or section page, users want to quickly scan the content, scrolling if necessary, pointing to graphics to see if they are hyperlinked, and clicking linked text. Users interact with a page with large blocks of text more slowly, scrolling and possibly clicking hyperlinked words of interest.

What improvements does XHTML promise over existing HTML?

One of the significant advantages of making HTML part of XML is that XML has stricter code syntax. As more sites adopt XHTML, they will have to clean up code that does not match the standard. With more Web sites using cleaner code, browsers have to do less work judging what is correct code and what is not. Additionally, XHTML is designed to appear properly in browsers that support HTML 4.0.

Name three ways to focus a user's attention.

Organize links into related topic groups and separate groupings with white space, graphics, or background color. Keep paragraphs short for online consumption. Make reading easier by using a text column that is narrower than the width of the screen. Keep your text legible by providing enough contrast between foreground and background colors. Provide links that allow the user to jump quickly to related content.

What is a proprietary element?

Proprietary elements are those developed for a particular browser, such as <font> and <center>, which were developed specifically for the Netscape browser.

What are the four parts of a complete URL?

Protocol, domain name, path, and filename

List four common types of Internet connection technologies.

Regular telephone line, ISDN basic, Digital Subscriber Line, and cable modem

Explain how screen resolution affects the display of a Web page.

Some users choose the highest resolution of 1024 x 768, allowing them to display more on the screen. They may have multiple application windows open at the same time. Users at 800 x 600 usually maximize their browser to full screen. At 800 x 600, screen content might fill the browser window, while users viewing the page at 1024 x 768 would see the content aligned to the one side of the page only.

What are Cascading Style Sheets?

The W3C's recommendation for a Web style language, named Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), allows authors to create style rules for elements and express them externally in a document known as a style sheet. CSS eliminates the need for nonstandard coding practices, that until recently have dominated Web design.

describe the cluster structure

The cluster structure is similar to the hierarchical structure, except that every topic area is an island of information, with all pages in each cluster linked to each other. This structure encourages exploration within a topic area, allowing the user to navigate freely through the content. All pages contain a navigation bar with links to the section pages, main page, and site map.

Describe the benefits of a hypertext table of contents.

The color-coding that shows the users which pages they have visited. By default, links are blue when new; they change to purple after they have been visited.

What affects the format of the URL for your Web site?

The directory structure of the Web server affects the format of your site's URL.

Explain how the browser's caching capability improves download time.

The first time you visit a site, the entire contents of the HTML file (which is plain text) and every image referenced in the HTML code is downloaded to your hard drive. The next time you visit this site, your browser downloads and parses the HTML file. The browser checks to see if it has any of the specified images stored locally on the computer's hard drive in the cache. The cache is the browser's temporary storage area for Web pages and images. The browser always tries to load images from the cache rather than downloading them again from the Web.

Describe hierarchy structure

The hierarchical structure is probably the most commonly used information design. It lends itself to larger content collections because the section pages break up and organize the content at different levels throughout the site. Navigation is primarily linear within the content sections. Users can scan the content on the section page, and then choose the content page of their choice. When they finish reading the content, they can return to the section page. The site map allows users to navigate freely throughout the site. A navigation bar on each page lets the user jump to any section page, the main page, and the site map.

What is another name for the interface the user must navigate in a Web site?

The interface that the user must navigate is often called the look and feel of a Web site.

Describe the linear type structures

The linear information structure guides the user along a straightforward path. This structure lends itself to book-like presentations; once into the content, users can navigate backward or forward. Each page can contain a link back to the main page if desired. Pages may also contain links to a related subtopic. If the users jump to the subtopic page, they can return only to the page that contains the subtopic link. This structured navigation returns them to the same point in the content path.

Explain how different browsers affect the display of a Web page.

The logic for interpreting HTML tags varies from browser to browser, resulting in many possibly conflicting interpretations of the way the HTML file is displayed. The results of HTML code can look very different when viewed with different browsers.

What feature distinguishes XML from HTML?

The major difference between XML and HTML is that HTML is a predefined set of elements that the browser understands, while XML is a metalanguage, meaning it is a language about a language. XML lets you describe a markup language, allowing you to create your own elements to meet your information needs.

Describe some common reasons HTML code might not validate correctly.

The most common mistakes that will make your code invalid include: • Non DOCTYPE declaration • Missing closing tags, most commonly on paragraphs • Missing ALT attributes in IMG elements • Incorrect tag nesting • Unquoted attributes

How can you plan for clear presentation of your information on a Web site?

The screen's low resolution makes the computer monitor a poor reading medium. The light source coming from behind the text tires the user's eye. Environmental factors such as glare or physical distance from the screen affect the user as well. To counter this, design your information so it is easy to read. Many Web sites fail this criterion by using too many fonts, colors, and lengthy passages of text. Break text into reasonable segments that make for easier on-screen reading. Think about providing contrasting colors that are easy to read and easy on the eye, such as dark colors against a light or white background.

How does a grid layout enhance Web design?

The structure of a Web page is imposed by the grid or page template you choose for your page design. The grid organizes the page into columns and rows, and provides visual consistency throughout your site. You can use the grid to enforce structure, but you also can break out of the grid to provide variety and highlight important information.

Describe a good strategy to format text for online display.

The text width should be short and easy to read without horizontal scrolling. Design the font for online reading. The white space on both sides should create a text column that enforces the vertical flow of the page. The illustrations should break up the text and relieve the user's eyes.

List three technology constraints that can affect the way a user views your Web site's content.

The user's browser, connection speed, operating system, and screen resolution.

What is a common mistake Web designers make when testing their site?

To be successful, your Web site design must be portable and accessible by users who have different browsers, operating systems, and computer platforms. Many designers make the mistake of testing in only one environment, assuming that their pages look the same to all of their users.

How does a Web site become live?

To make your Web site live, you transfer your Web site files to a Web server, a computer connected to the Internet and running server software. The software lets the computer use the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to serve HTML files to Web browser clients. Unless your company or organization has a Web server and hosts its own content, you must use the services of a Web hosting provider. After you choose a server to host your files, you need to select file transfer software and upload the Web site files from your development machine to the Web server.

Which computer operating system is case sensitive?

UNIX

List three ways to create a smooth transition between pages of a Web site.

Use repeating colors and fonts, a page layout that allows different hierarchical levels, and consistency in the placement of design and navigational elements.

Why is the alt attribute so important to navigation?

Use the alt attribute to describe the function of each visual. For users with assistance devices such as screen readers, a text-only alternate is desirable.

Name three ways to create a unified look for your site.

Use unifying themes and structure that hold the pages together. Choose colors, fonts, graphics, and page layout that communicate a visual theme to users that orients them to your site's content. The theme should also reflect the impression that you or your organization wants to convey.

What is the default main page filename for a Web site?

Usually, this page is named index.htm. Windows NT, however, defaults to an index filename of default.htm, and other servers may be set to other names such as main.htm or home.htm.

Describe the benefits of semantic markup.

When you use semantic markup, the document elements match the meaning and usage of the document sections; a <p> signifies a paragraph, a <blockquote> is for a lengthy quotation and so on. Semantically correct markup is readable not only by humans but by machines as well, lending itself to improved recognition by search engines, news agents, and accessibility devices.

What is white space? What is the difference between active and passive white space?

White spaces are the blank areas of a page, regardless of the color you choose to give them. Use white space deliberately in your design, rather than as an afterthought. Good use of white space guides the reader and defines the areas of your page. White space that is used deliberately is called active white space and is an integral part of your design that structures and separates content. Sometimes the strongest part of a design is the active white space. Passive white space includes the blank areas that border the screen or are the result of mismatched shapes.

Why are CSS useful?

You can place this rule in an external style sheet, and then link every page on your site to that style sheet; with much less code you can achieve the same result. Later, if you want to change the <h1> color to red, you simply revise the style sheet rule to change every page on your site.

Describe the benefits of contextual linking.

You can replicate this nonlinear reading method on your Web site with links that let users move from page to page or section to section. With thoughtful hypertext writing, you can engage readers in a whole new way.

Files that reside in the same directory need only the _____________ to refer to each other

filename