Activity 11 –Designing for Usability

You have spent the last 7 weeks researching aspects of web design, now is the time to put it all into practise.
Spend some of this session considering the things you think are key aspects of web design, for example: navigation, layout, colour, text and fonts, images, etc etc.
Do some research if you have forgotten why each is important.
NOW

DESIGN the layout for a small site - three linked (X)HTML pages - using a drawing package, Word or PowerPoint. Include a HOME page in your design.
Include in your plan: navigation, font style, size, colours, images, logos and anything else you think is important.
Make notes somewhere within your design drawings so you can follow your plan when you implement it.
Collect any images that you need to illustrate the basic ideas you have for your mini website.
Create a new folder and use it to store your images and (X)HTML files.
Code the3 (X)HTML pages. (You do not need to include a great deal of content, just enough to demo the site).
Link them together implementing your design as above. Use suitable link names or buttons.
Put some text into the HOME page to describe what your mini-site is about and show you have made good choices with regard to text size and layout.
Ask your neighbour to test your mini-website using usability questions you think are important. Record the results of the test.
Make changes depending on the results of your test.

TIP: Viv and Rowland are happy to give advice on the results of this activity. It is a chance to practise the design and implementation of (X)HTML before tackling Ass2. If you have trouble completing the above activity you still need lots of practise - as the knowledge required for this task is minimal.