Initial Design Considerations
You may already have some idea of what you would like
your web site to look like. You might have seen other webs that look appealing
and noticed that product sites typically have more " wow" factor, while information sites have a simpler design
to support a higher
information density.
Design Style
An essential part of the design is the selection of
the overall color scheme of the graphics and the font type,
style size and color. It is tempting to create an overly bold design and use
unique looking fonts, but beware; this approach can distract the user from the content of the site.
Wrap Around Style
After deciding on the general look of the web
site, the implementation starts by selecting the type of wrap-around effect to
implement. The 'r', 'n', 'c', 'o' styles (shown below) are the most popular
wrap-around types The 'r' and 'n' wrap-around themes are where the graphics wrap-around the left-top (type 'r') or left-top-right (type 'n') shared borders.
The 'c' and 'o' wrap-around themes are where the graphics wrap-around the
top-left-bottom shared borders (type 'c') or completely around the
browser window (type 'o'). This decision will determine the number of shared
borders in the web template.
Navigation
The organization and placement of the FrontPage
navigation buttons is the next major design issue. The size and location of the
buttons will determine the structure of the web navigation. Our designs
usually include a set of global navigation buttons along the top of the
web page and then a set of area specific navigation buttons in the left
shared border. The bottom border will usually contain a set of Back-Next
buttons.
FrontPage 2002 has expanded its navigation capability
via Link Bars, which allows the designer to create multiple navigation
bars. This is a great way to implement the top navigation bar. We
recommend that you use a small text font for the top link bar so that
you can fit a reasonable number of buttons along the top of the page.
In our web template designs, we look for a more subtle way on
integrating the page banner component. We also leave room for a company
logo, tag line, FrontLook
Series 3 Scroller applet and other small banners images. In the bottom
border, we leave space for the typical copyright and legal notices.
Browser Resizing
When the browser is resized, usually some part of the content area
resizes also. The designer will need to decide what
pieces of the design will stretch with the browser resize. Our designs
track the width of the browser window only.
Content Area
Another important consideration is the minimum size of
the content area. If the borders graphics are too wide or the top border
area too tall, it can obscure the view of the content area when viewing
the page in a small browser window.
Browser Compatibility
Browser Compatibility is an important consideration
as browser capabilities vary widely. Most designers settle on supporting
the version 4 browsers and up. This means you will need to test your pages in
the following browsers:
