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This screendump illustrates the initial page for the www.ww2poster.co.uk
website, which uses a poster image that rotates daily over
the week.
- The site started from humble beginnings in 1997, with
a single page, detailing the aims of my PhD, on Tripod.
- The site continued to grow and grow organically, until
I decided that it had spiralled out of control, and set
to develop a well planned and aesthetically pleasing site,
but was limited to using Word 97.
- I soon realised that Word produced 'mucky code', and started
to learn basic HTML, and in 2001 attended one-to-one training
to learn Macromedia
Dreamweaver 4.0 and Adobe
PhotoShop 5.5, and redesigned and restructured the site
using the techniques learnt.
- The design is formed on tables, which means that the design
works with whatever size screen the user uses (I try to
do this wherever possible), and is heavily information focused.
- Usability and accessibility are key to the design of the
site, although more recent developments need to be studied,
as my site is not entirely 'Bobby
Approved', to comply with disability legislation. Some
examples of accessible features include the use of Alt Tags
and Meta Tags, breadcrumbs and search fucntions.
- The search function is essential to the site, as approximately
50% of people are 'searchers', but a clear structure to
the site is also important, as the other 50% are 'browsers'.
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With the PhD is now finished, and in response to the various
questions that I get asked, the site underwent redevelopment.
- I wanted to use XML, but poor teaching techniques mean
that this was not learnt, and I have decided to use a simple
contemporary (HTML) design which facilitates easy use of
the information on site.
- The new site still used information from the old site,
but gives more options for development, and uses transferable
skills from research PhD in extracting relevant information
and structuring it in a useful way to those who use the
site.
- Re-thinking the site has meant thinking about those areas
that are most heavily used and make my site unique, for
instance, the information on artists has been given its
own section, rather than hidden.
- Usability and accessibility, through the use of careful
structuring, thoughtful information and images, colours
and layout, is expected to be key.
The site uses a dual structure for webpages. The top screendump
is the top half of the front page of the new site, whilst
the lower screendump illustrates the base of the page.
- Again, the site is built on a table structure, and the
flow of text is demonstrated as highly readable on both
the above screendump (1024 x 768) and this screendump (800
x 600).
- The key content navigation is available at the top of
the screen, but extra navigation is available at the base
of the page (as convention allows for this), with links
to information about the author (me), a site map, 'FAQ',
and copyright information, as I look to comply with legal
and ethical considerations. These all need to be developed
further.
- A discrete visitor count is available at the base of the
front page (which assumes that all visitors come through
this page, although this is not always the case), and more
information on this can be obtained from my site
host.
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