Unit 5

Design Considerations and the Unit 4 Websites

The Avalon Project

• This site definitely fits KISS—very simple.
• I think the color used for the cells and words on the menu would be better in a darker color to provide greater contrast.
• The site’s purpose is to provide availability to an archive of documents. It seems that this website uses the right amount of technology given that its objective is apparently to provide access to selected documents. Nothing flashy here.
•  It isn’t that clear when it says “relevant to the fields of Law, History, Economics, Politics, Diplomacy and Government” in its Statement of Purpose and Document Inclusion Policy. Not sure how they decided on relevance and who is making the decisions about what to include.
• The Contact Us had a bad link—nothing there when I clicked on it.
• They do have the copyright symbol and year.
• One can get back to the Home Page from the other pages.
•  The structure of the site looks pretty straightforward—a hierarchy. It has a home page, menu across the top of major sections, list of documents within a section, and list of chapters or parts of a document. It doesn’t give a full “breadcrumb trail” that shows how one got to a particular page.
• I tried using wave.webaim.org on it—it says that (1) it doesn’t indicate what language the page is in, (2) alt text is insufficient in one area, (3) it lacks heading structure, (4) a layout table can cause reading and navigation problems, (5) unordered list can make it harder for users of assistive technologies.

Romantic Circles

• My initial reaction is that this site is too busy and the home page requires one to scroll down 3 times to get to the bottom. I wonder if the target audience (academic) feels overwhelmed, or if it appreciates the abundance of information.
• The font is small. 
• The home page does provide a lot of open space around the boxes in the middle.
•  I like that it says right at the top what the purpose of the site is, who publishes it, and who the editors are.
• It has the About link in top right corner of home page, which is good.

Amiens Cathedral Project

•  My first reaction is that everything is so small—I mentioned that in my previous blog. I saw that Cohen and Rosenzweig had the same reaction. Although it isn’t just the very small thumbnails that I find frustrating, but also that, after I click on a thumbnail, the selected photo is still very small. I tried a different browser, but it made no difference. I end up feeling that this site isn’t very useful. What’s the point of a site centered on providing visual information if you can’t see it?
• On the positive side, it is easy to navigate with the menu at the bottom and the thumbnail pictures and drawing, and there’s plenty of white space around the central artwork on the home page.
• This is one of those sites where one needs to figure out or intuit the site’s purpose on one’s own. I can’t find an About the Site page to explain the purpose, who created it, when it was created, or when/if it has been updated. 

Web Creation Tool Options

I think I’ll start by trying Weebly or something else that is very user friendly. I talked with someone who is a librarian and has developed several web sites. She said that Weebly is really easy to learn. She also said that even though WordPress is the “gold standard” for individuals and businesses, it can be harder to learn. I’ve never created a web site before, so I don’t want to spin wheels and get frustrated trying to figure out technology in the short amount of time we have to complete the project. I also don’t want to invest a lot of money in this since I am just beginning to learn this type of technology.

Possible Project and Web Presence I Might Need

I’ve been exploring the ideas I mentioned in my previous blog. I would like to do something that provides both text interpretation and visuals so I get experience handling both. Also, it seems to me that a text-only page is, to some degree, not using the advantages of the web.

If I go with a set of pages on how home appliances have evolved over several decades in the 20^th century, I would like to be able to present a page for each decade. Something like a kitchen-laundry room with various appliances available in that decade. Each page would be consistent in terms of the placement of appliances. I’d like to be able to allow a viewer to click on an appliance to get some text about its features, use, and related information.

Having said that, I am concerned about copyright on pictures, as well as getting access to what I need. NVCC has the Washington Post and New York Times, but not the Proquest women’s magazine database, which would be ideal. I don’t know if NVCC has agreements with other Virginia public university libraries so that I might be able to access that magazine database. I looked through some 1923 issues of the Washington Post, and I didn’t find ads for appliances (other than radios and Victrolas). Plus, the Washington Post database warns about not reproducing anything—I’m not sure if that prohibits use of ads for educational purposes like a class project.

I was thinking I might need to draw each page by hand to avoid copyright problems. I can draw, but am not sure how easily that would transfer to a web page. I might have less control over color once I uploaded a drawing. I also noted that there are quite a few web sites already out there that show the evolution of home appliances. A different possibility using the Washington Post might be to focus on health tips and guidance in prior decades, but I haven’t explored that yet. It would likely be less visual, although I might be able to use product ads.

It would probably be easier to take photos of the oldest existing Old Town buildings and provide some text on each one. I might need to go to the Alexandria library to look up some information in primary sources. I have a secondary source that contains photos that are about 30 years (?) old that would provide me with a starting point. It is organized by street address, whereas I’d be trying to organize by date or decade. One difficulty, though, is that the date when many old buildings were constructed is not clear.