| Peer Council | Search and Ref |
So, you're the new web focal for your group. Don't panic! It's not that hard. We're here to help you. We're going to provide jump-start instructions on basic web design, links to more information on nearly everything, and lots of opinions on the right ways to do this Web Thing™. We might even have some fun, too.
We'll take you through the basics as if this were a newspaper story. The six basic questions of journalism are Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How. Some of these questions you will have to answer, some we can help you with.
What is your target audience? What is the common factor which brings these people to this site?
Is this a repository for information, a phone book, an interactive super-nifty application, a gateway, a news source, a forum, a reference work, a collaborative editing effort, a way for you to 'get into the web', or an excuse to play on the computer?
Is it likely that it will be used every day? Or maybe only once every great while - but everyone piles on at the same time? Will this site be a part of the daily routine of it's users, or someplace they come every once in a while to get something done?
Will people be reading at their desks on big CRTs, or on laptops while in a hotel room, or on their PDAs while riding on the bus? Will they have speakers hooked up? Might the sun be glaring off of the screen?
If you have a group which is spread over a large geographic area, or changes often, a web site can be a useful method of communication. If your group is small and concentrated, you can save money by keeping the authoritative information source electronic - no duplication fees.
Revisions can be more frequent and smaller because creation costs are reduced.
We'll take you through the how, it's not too hard.
Note that there is a common theme to these questions: people using your web site. The purpose of your web site is to communicate to people. The point of communication is to be understood.
Screen readers don't read the screen as you see it, they read the raw code and tell the listener what is in the page, including all sorts of things which are invisible on screen.
White-space is your friend.
This is the End