Unit 6-2 Web Page Design

After completing this unit, you will be able to:

• Identify the basic elements that constitute a Web page.
• Explain the uses and general appearance of the elements of a Web page.
• Begin thinking about the design of your Web page résumé and how to make it engaging and informative.
• Arrange text in the proper size, color, and font on a Web page.
• Choose an appropriate background color and understand how foreground text colors interact with background screen colors.
• Arrange pictures on the screen either as background images or design elements for text to flow around.
• Make text stand out against a background photo.
• Adopt a common look and feel for your Web pages.

Reading

Read chapter 16 of the Internet Literacy textbook to study the concepts covered by this unit.

Online Activities

An Adobe advertisement states, "If you can dream it, you can do it." The goal of this unit is to make you aware of the design elements you can use to create interesting and effective Web pages. The following activities will help you achieve this goal.

• The first Web page you will make in this course is your own résumé. Many students have told how putting their résumés on the Web helped them get jobs. To view a sample résumé on line, go to Professor Hofstetter's résumé.
• Study carefully the résumé design layout at the end of Chapter 16. Then draw a diagram of how you plan to design your own résumé. Think especially about the menu of choices that your résumé will contain. Possible items you might include on your résumé are:
  • Educational Qualifications
  • Work Experience
  • Computer Skills
  • Grants and Awards
  • Honorary Societies
  • Professional Association Memberships
  • Publications
  • Software
  • Presentations
  • How to Contact Me
• Since it is possible to link any document, audio, picture, movie, or software application to your Web page, you will be able to link your résumé to examples of your work to prove your worth to a prospective employer. Think about the examples you would like to link to your résumé, and include these links in your résumé design.
• You need to be careful choosing foreground and background colors for your Web pages. There are sites on the Web where you can see what different color combinations look like. To explore different foreground/background combinations, follow the links to the color tables at the Interlit Web site.
• Tiled backgrounds are created when a bitmap smaller than the screen is drawn repeatedly up, down, and across the screen until all of the screen surface has been covered. Tiles should be seamless, meaning that when the bitmap replicates itself up and down the screen, you cannot perceive the edges of the bitmap or detect a regular interruption in the pattern caused by the edges of the bitmap not fitting against each other smoothly. For some examples of good tiles to use on Web pages, click the tile icon at the Interlit Web site.
• When Web pages contain frames, more than one window appears on your Web page, and you can interact with the information in the windows independently. Some users find frames confusing and prefer not to use them. That's why Web pages with frames often allow the user to turn the frames off. To try an example, follow the Interlit Web site links to frames.