| The purpose of Presentation Design
is to articulate how the site will look.
Visual Theme & Style
Now that you've articulated what the site will cover and how
it will work, it's time to decide how it will look. The green
marble and brass conservative look of money? The extreme rad look
of gen Xers? Something cute for kids? Techno? Warm and nostalgic?
Something conveying futuristic technology or conservative reliability?
The site should have some visual coherence. Even very large sites
representing diverse corporations need some coherence in their
Web site in exactly the same way and for the same reasons that
they work to build and manage a unified corporate identity with
control of logos, slogans and other design elements in print.
Page Layouts
How will pages be layed out? Headers and footers, each with navigation
buttions? Navigation links in the left column? Should navigation
be separated from content with frames so each can scroll independently?
How will you deal with screen sizes varying from 640x480 to 1024x768
and larger? Will graphics be repeated so they can be cached by
the browser, thus improving response time? Speaking of graphics,
how much will you permit yourself to use, knowing the implications
in download time?
Structural Elements
How will the pages be put together? One of the most valuable
aspects of layout is defining a grid. All pages are layed out
within the constraints of the grid. Two common grid designs are
three columns and six columns. Columns may be combined, say into
a 1/3 - 2/3 layout (as this page is).
Grids are usually implemented either with tables or frames. Headers
containing logo, page title and a navigation button bar are also
very common. These are the type of structural elements on which
pages are constructed.
Control Elements
Buttons, links, clickable image maps, active form widgets...by
providing consistent appearance, behavior and placement of these
elements, visitors can more quickly master how to use your site.
Then they are more likely to focus on the content: the real value
of the site.
Media Elements
Text and graphics have been part of the Web since the first graphical
browser was introduced in 1993. Today, these are commonly augmented
by simple animations and increasingly, with audio and video. These
media elements may be part of the content or may simply be part
of the presentation in support of the content. Will the pages
contain background images or colors? Does the background make
a strong statement or support other elements? Does it interfere
with any elements, especially text?
Functional Prototype
Put it all together. With Web sites, there often is little distinction
between a Functional Prototype and an implementation. The Functional
Prototype is a working version of the site. It may be incomplete,
elements and placement may be rough, but it gives a good look
at what the site will include, how it will work and how it will
look. It can be used. Design errors, oversights and missed opportunities
can be recognized and rectified before committing to full-scale
implementation. In many projects, the Functional Prototype is
simply a carefully chosen subset of the full implementation.
Project Plan
We now have a fairly complete view of what will be required to
complete the Web site. The new tasks and required resources identified
in Presentation Design must be integrated into the Project Plan.
Guidelines Document
Many Web sites are implemented by large distributed teams. For
large corporate sites, for example, the overall design is worked
out by a core team. That team then produces a Guidelines Document
(very often an online document) augmented with downloadable page
templates and design elements. The design document details the
hard and fast rules that must be obeyed, the guidelines and any
suggestions the design team may have. The downloadable elements
make it easy for the implementers distributed thoughout a company
to "do the right thing."
This is also the time to ensure that people and systems will
be ready to take responsibility for the site when it goes online.
Comments will start coming in. Have individuals been identified
to respond? Do they know what kinds of response and how timely
a response will be required? Will the site include discussions?
Have moderators been identified. Is appropriateness and legal
responsibility clear? |
