User Guide

In general, the site creation process is a bit of a misnomer because it suggests that once you
create a site, your work is done, when in reality, publishing the site should signal the need to
begin the cycle again. Based on feedback and information you receive from clients or people
who visit your web, you will want to plan, implement, and publish changes and updates for
the life of the web. How you will keep the site updated is part of the planning process.
Are You a Good Web or a Bad Web?
Before we begin, we should mention that distinguishing between good and bad webs is purely
subjective: “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”; however, there are certain things you can do
to your web to make it more usable. In general, you want your web’s organization and graphic
design to support your message—not overpower it! Subtle, yet purposeful, design decisions are
best. To that end, here are two sets of “common-sense” guidelines to help you make those
decisions: organizational and graphical.
It helps to get target audience feedback regarding a web’s usability at every stage of the site
development process.
Guidelines: The following organizational dos and don’ts will help you to create a “good
web” that’s easy to use.
• Place similar page content in the same category. At first this sounds rea-
sonable, doesn’t it? But when the content begins to flow in, you might not
take the time you should when considering where you should place
content.
• Consistent placement of repeating elements (navigation bars, logos, and so
on) by putting these items in the same place on every page. This way,
visitors don’t have to “re-learn” where to look for things on each page in
your site.
• Place the most important page items in the upper-left portion of the
screen. This will help ensure that the item is seen immediately—without
requiring a visitor to scroll around the screen.
• Keep your web structure’s hierarchy relatively flat—not too many layers
of content below the home page—and organized. As you can see in Fig-
ure 1-2, try to arrange web pages to be as near to the web’s home page as
possible—between three and five levels is ideal. A common web hierarchy
is home page, category pages, and then detailed pages. If it takes a person
more than a few clicks to get to the information, they will likely give up
and go elsewhere.
• Present generic information in pages residing in a web’s upper levels and
place more specific information on pages at the lower levels. This creates
a “drill-down” effect. Figure 1-2 shows the generic home page above gen-
eral categories. Those categories have specific pages below them.
• Keep your web lean. Don’t publish superfluous files to your web. Not
only does it waste valuable storage space, but it also slows web
performance. And whenever possible, try to reduce the file sizes for web
pages and graphics. You want fast-loading pages.
LESSON 1
FrontPage 2002 – Level 1 4
Reference Material
Please Do Not Copy