Tutorials - Design Tips for Course Web Sites
Do follow campus
guidelines for ADA compliance.
There are a number of
visually impaired students on this campus who must use Lynx, or
some other text-based browser. While Lynx does now support tables
to some extent, it still does not support forms, image maps, or
frames. Review the on-line training regarding accessibilty for web
design at WebAIM (Accessibility In Mind) at ada.ucsc.edu/webAIM/
Do not use distracting background images.
Background images can take longer to load and make a page harder
to read. Background images are also slow to print and often interfere
with text on a page in the printing process. Students trying to
print syllabi and other course materials from the web have found
it nearly impossible to do when a distracting "wallpaper-type" background
image is present. Instead use a subtle design (like stationary)
or background colors
- they don't interfere with the printing process.
Do not put all of your material into one long web page.
Students who have to scroll forever to get to the one piece of information
they wish to see get very frustrated and tend to not revisit the
web site. Also, printing in the Instructional Computing Labs costs
$.15 per page. Putting everything on one page can cost each student
quite a bit. Instead, separate syllabus, lecture notes, lab information,
etc. into separate pages so that the student prints only what s/he
wants and saves money.
If putting large and numerous images on one page, warn
the browser.
Large images and multiple images increase
the size of a web document. The larger the web document, the longer
the document takes to download, particularly if using a modem from
home. Warn the browser so that they can decide whether or not they
want to start such a long download or turn off the image loading
option in their browser.
List file size and type by video and audio files.
This allows the browser to make sure that s/he has the proper plug-in
installed and warns her/him of download time.
Compress your sound and movie files as much as possible.
Many servers on this campus have limited space. AIFF format for
sound files has built-in compression.
Check that you are using the correct type of URL (link
address).
If you are thinking of using putting your site
on a CD for use in the classroom, you'll want to use relative links.
See Instructions on the use of Absolute and
Relative URLs for more information.
Do make sure that you follow multimedia
copyright regulations.
The web is a form of electronic
publication and using copyrighted materials without permission can
open yourself and the university up to litigation.
See the UCSC
World Wide Web Publishing Policies and Guidelines for more information.
An interesting tutorial on fair-use guidelines is available at http://www.stfrancis.edu/cid/copyrightbay/.
See our Tutorials page and the Web
Style Guide for more useful tips regarding web development.
