Dudsville Online
Community Newspaper
Dudsville OnlineCommunity Newspaper |
|
| Home - Diary | |
The company logo is only shown in the top right of the front page (Index) page of the website. The raster image is a photo with the letters DOCN ( Dudsville Online Community Newspaper) moving across it. This was developed using Adobe Flash CS3 Professional software.
The raster image was going to be laid across the top of each page, with the full name of the paper moving across it. I decided against doing this to avoid the end user having to wait to download each page. I want the transition between pages to be fast therefore it was decided to put a smaller version of the logo with the letters DOCN moving across it in the top right hand corner of the page.
Each sub page within the site has a moving .gif file in the top right hand corner which is consistent with the .gif files on the Index page. This is a visual aid to show the user they are on the relevant page they have chosen. Any sub pages within the site would also have the related .gif file attached. (for this assignment there is only 1 page for each of the sub pages)
The layout chosen was kept simple to cater for the variety of users of this website. Each page has the same style heading across the top of the page and the Site Map on each page has also been kept uniform, this was done so the user can easily identify that they are on the Dudsville Website.
The colour scheme was chosen as a visual aid to the user. Each of the 5 sub pages are coloured on the index page, as the user navigates to each of the pages their backgrounds are coloured to match the index page colours.
All images, audio, video and animations in this website have been developed or chosen using common file types, i.e. .gif was chosen for the sub page animations as it is a common format for moving pictures and therefore should be supported by most software products.
Using the standard software packages available allows costs to be kept to a minimum and removes any issues with licensing, and allows the user to seek support from the relevant IT support.
The software packages used in creating this website were Microsoft Office Picture Manager, Adobe Flash CS3 Professional software and Macromedia Dreamweaver was used to put the site together.
The animation / logo on the Index page was created using Adobe Flash CS3 Professional software. With the raster image on the bottom and the DOCN text created to back and forth over the image.
The ‘jack.tif’ was scanned in and cropped using Microsoft Office Picture Manager. The compression used was chosen to allow for on screen display and fast loading for outputs such as and websites. The file was resized to fit a window of 448 x 336 pixels. The estimated original size was 648 kb and it was compressed to 4.53kb. Unfortunately during the compression of this image some quality was lost. I decide to stay with the compressed version of the image for ease of downloading.
The jack audio file was recorded using an external source and uploaded as an .mpg file into the website.
The video used was recorded by myself at a function last year and as I had previously uploaded the file to my computer I decided to use this .wmv file in the website.
Both these files did not require any compression. As I was testing the site they were downloading without any delays therefore I deemed it unnecessary to compress the files.
Transitional XHTML code was used to mark up the website. All pages within the website validate using the Validator W3 website
CSS was used as a basic building block to keep all the contents within the website uniform. Using CSS allowed me to keep each page within the site using the same text and heading styles, which allows the user to navigate around each page without confusion.
The usability and accessibility guidelines were adheared to as much as possible the website is easily understandable by the user. The website is easily navigated around by the en
The website was designed with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (Version 2) in mind.
Principle 1 – perceivable – the website has been kept simple to allow all users to easily become familiar with the site and therefore gain some confidence in using the site.
Principle 2 – Operable – I have allowed the uploading of images and information (Diary Events and Letters) to be easy for the user, this was done by setting up the site to automatically open an email with the appropriate email address and heading.
Principle 3 – Understandable – The website has been developed in plain english with no jargon or idioms used. There are no technical terms which require definitions.
Principle 4 – Robust – The website has been developed within the guidelines with assistive technologies such as video and voice recordings within the site to cater for all users. Colours have been used to help navigate around the site
Changes have been made to the site as the development of the site progressed. These include the website links within the ‘Local Links’ page opening straight into their prospective webpages without the proposed dialog boxes popping up to notify the user they have left the Dudsville website, this was abandoned because I could not get the pages to pass validation with this option attached.
The file structure changes through the process as well, I stated previously that each page would have its own folder, I decided not to do this as there was only 1 of each of the pages that are shown on the Index page, for example if there was more than 1 news item then a folder would have been created to place each of the sub pages into the file.