webpage design (was: newcomer guide)

Scott White swhite at cimedia.com
Mon Jun 23 10:55:58 PDT 1997


Thanks, Karl, for bringing up a neat topic.

>Even in the present some folks are "web-impaired" and do not have access
>to such info.

Yes, but browsing web pages is a wonderfully non-committal, non-threatening
way for new folks to peek into our world. Don't forget that most college
students get free internet accounts through their schools ... let's not
downplay this resource.

>Good web-documents tend to be short on content, but have lots of nice
>links to more information.

I disagree with this. 

IMHO, bad websites have lots of links. Surfing for SCA info tends to be
hopping from pages of links to pages of links to pages of links ... USEFUL
INFORMATION is kinda hard to come by.

Good pages have good info -- even if they're short. One page that shows in
detail how to wrap a rattan sword, for example, is worth a hundred "I'm
Biff and I'm in the SCA and here are my favorite SCA links" pages.

>The problem comes when you want to print this info to create a newcomer's
>guide, you end up printing a lot of pages that lose something on paper.
>They're a bunch of pages, each about a different topic, that don't really
>flow together in any sort of progression.

Easy solution -- go REALLY LIGHT on hyperlinks.

Put 'em all on a navigational page. Make your body pages look like, well,
body pages. If your story is long, break it into sections four or five
'scrolls' in length and put a NEXT link at the bottom of each page.

Go extremely light on hyperlinks in the body. They seriously impede the
flow of your text. Group them all in one 'Related Links' or 'Additional
Information' section.

>On the other hand, let's say you're using MS-Word.  You organize it to
>flow logically, maybe follow an outline of what to present.  You break
>to a new page where it makes sense to do so, maybe add headers and footers.
>You design around the printed page.  It tends to come off in print looking
>much better than printing an HTML page.

Shouldn't be a problem with a well-engineered page. The basic principles of
design don't change radically from print to online media.

So you guys don't think I'm blowing smoke, internet design is what I do for
a living. I produce one of the world's largest internet magazines (3400
HTML pages, 1.2 gigabytes). My SCA site is located at:

http://www.GoWest.com/staff/gnith/

Gnith
<swhite at cimedia.com>




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