Week 6: Creating webpages
October 5, 2008 katdp3
The Digital History reading was very informative. As I have mentioned before, I am mostly uninformed when it comes to new technology and Internet possibilities. I feel as though the “Digital History” online-book provided very useful information if one is interested in creating a new website. I have never thought about “picking apart” a website before. I thought it was interesting how the author stated it is not as easy to breakdown a website compared to a book. A book can also survive generations, while a website can easily be altered and deleted or corrupted.
Having a vision for your webpage is crucial before starting the project, allowing yourself time to gather your thoughts and staying on track with the information you want to cover will help with the focus and scope of the website.
There is a unique balance in creating an online project. Too much color or too much text, not enough direction or accessibility can all prove to be fatal. Many of the thoughts are common sense. You want to make sure that your web page is readable (watch out for color scheme), easily navigable and relatively orderly. But other points mentioned were helpful. Choosing who is to host your site can get costly, the benefits of scholarly institutions include funding and help with website problems. Deciding what software to use in creating a web page is also something to be cautious about options like Dreamweaver seems to be the most costly while Blackboard would be less costly, but does not provide as many creative options.
Considering advertising and how that would effect the message you want to send when someone views your site is also something to think about and consider. The tone of the web page could adversely be effected if ads appear on both side columns or above the homepage of the site. Funding is also an issue. That is why having a vision for your site is so important because promoting that vision and finding another institution who shares in that vision will provide the backbone necessary to get your site off the ground.
A key question that is asked in the book is does the web page “enable and inspire me to think about and grasp the past?” That is a great point, and great advice when creating a website. The solid principles of “good design, navigation and accessibility” are also significant. Steps when including audio include: posting a time stamp and the total size of the multi-media file are important details to provide for visitors to your site, so they know how long the audio is and if it will stream or download quickly.
A key component of accessibility is Section 508. This law makes sure that individuals with disabilities can still navigate through your site. If the goal is to have as many people visit your site as possible, all angles have to be considered and provided for. Would your site be pleasing to the eye, even for those who are visually impaired??
The Case study on Podcasts was setup very well and simple to understand. I think podcasts are a great tool and supplement for historical sites. It would help with interviews and background commentary for a site. The four simple steps include: preparation, recording, publication and marketing. I have listened to podcasts before and they prove to be very effective to illustrate a point or enrich a site. I also appreciated the suggested rules to follow if I was to try my own podcast given in “Beginner’s Guide to Podcasts and podcasting.”
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1. walshkam&hellip | October 8, 2008 at 9:55 pm
I agree with what you have to say about never really picking apart a website before. The only times I have really done this has been to teach students about how to tell if a website is accurate. I’ve never really paid attention to color, except to say to myself, oh I like this or I hate it.