Web structure

[emiller at smtpgwy.isinet.com]

          Starting a Web site can be quite and undertaking.  While
          ours is not a university site, many of the planning issues
          are the same.  I started by doing some drawing on flip
          charts, with the home page in the middle and drawing out
          from that.  I used colored dotted lines for links and used
          that as a place to start. (If you are familiar with the
          techniques of Mind Mapping, that is a terrific technique to
          use for this exercise).

          As far as planning your pages, try to use a visual grammar
          so that visitors will know that they are always in your site
          (it helps particularly if you have links outside of your
          site).  Try to keep items of the same hierarchical level the
          same size (headings and the like) and reduce them in size
          the further into the hierarchy you go.

          We have developed a "style book" that helps with this.  We
          developed it as we were working with one group's documents
          and have refined it as we have added others.  Beleive me, it
          is a "living" style book that does change.

          In an effort to teach people HTML, we are using an
          easy-to-use HTML editor called Hot Dog Pro from Sausage
          Software.  (http://www.sausage.com). I use when teaching
          individuals in the various product groups around our company
          and most pick it up very easily.

          I will also recommend a very good book on all of this stuff:
          "The Web Page Design Cookbook" by Horton, Taylot, et al (J.
          Wiley).  I have other books on the subject, but this is the
          resource I turn to most often, now.

          Last, but hardly least, go to Yahoo, go to the education
          pages and look at what other colleges and universities are
          doing with their sites.  Some of the best ideas come from
          other sites.  Go into them, try to diagram the links and try
          to determine how that might be helpful for you.

          ..and one more thing, get students involved.  I think you
          will find a lot of creative energy there.  Many are
          interested in the WWW and it might encourage them to hone
          some of their own research skills and actually spend more
          time in the library!!!

          Good luck,  if I can be of any more help, let me know.

Elisa Miller, WebMaster                 "Whatever you can do or
Institute for Scientific Information    dream you can, begin it.
3501 Market Street                      Boldness has genius, power
Philadelphia, Pa 19104                  and magic in it."
(215)386-0100 x 1395                                   Goethe
emiller at isinet.com
URL - http://www.isinet.com