Writing for the Web (Fall 2005)

Today, we’ll:

1) Discuss different types of site testing.

• Functionality: does everything work?
• Usability: can people do what they need to do on the site?
• Accessibility: can everyone use my site?

2) Conduct usability tests on your site drafts.

User testing is an important part of understanding how the writing and design of a Web site work (or don’t work) in the hands of users. It allows you to identify and correct problems at all stages of the design process.

User testing involves three stages, which you will work through in this activity.

1. Task Creation
2. Task Observation
3. Task Write-Up

Task Creation
First, your group needs to make a list of common tasks that users might do on your Web site. Use the following questions to help you make this list.

• Why would users visit this site? What would they want to do or find on this site?
• What information would users look for on this site that is not on the main page of the site?

Based on this list, write a description of a task that users could do when they visited your Web site. Here are some examples:

Find the product page for the FreebleMaster 6000 and add a FreebleMaster to your shopping cart.
Use the site to locate information about the current movies playing at the Arty Art Theatre.

After you’ve written a description of the task, prepare several computers in your area for task observation by pulling up the appropriate page in a Web browser and getting ready to take notes.

Task Observation

In the task observation phase, your group will take turns observing users performing your task and being users for another group’s task. Your group should attempt to observe at least four, and ideally five users completing the task you designed in the first phase.

Each member of your group should observe one user. (If you have less than five people in your group, you may need to do more than one). As the observer:

1. Explain the task to the user.
2. Watch as the user completes the task and take notes on what the user does.
3. Thank the user for their time when they are done.

After each group member has completed observing a user, you should regroup and either participate in the other group’s user test or proceed to the task write-up stage.

Task Write-Up

After you have observed all of your users and participated in the other group’s user test, your group needs to write up your results. Use your notes and observations and the following template to create a brief memo to the instructor about the results of your test.

To: Dr. Karper
From: Your Group Member’s Names
Date: December 5, 2005
Subject: User-Testing Write Up

(Describe any recommendations for changes to the site that should be made based on the testing.)

E-mail your memo to the instructor.

3) Run your site through some accessibility checkers.

Accessibility can have many different meanings. On the Web, it refers to making your site compliant with Web standards, making sure your site works in different types of browsers and platforms, and making sure that all users (including users with disabilities) have equitable access to your site.

This activity asks you to use some Web-based tools to see how your site works in different browsers and works in terms of being accessible by all types of users. As a group, work cooperatively to test your site using the tools below.

Different Screen Sizes

Visit the screen size tester and enter your site into the URL box. Test your site in different screen resolutions by clicking on the different screen resolution buttons. Use at least two of the screen resolution buttons on the site to test the appearance of your site at different resolutions, and then answer the following questions.

• At what resolution(s) does your site look best?
• At what resolution does your site look worst?At what resolution does your site become hard to navigate?How could you adjust your site to make it easier to navigate at smaller resolutions?

Different Browsers

Open your page in both Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. Compare them and answer the following questions.

• Do you notice any differences? Describe them.How would you test your site in different browsers on more than one type of computer?

Different Types of Users

Visit the Bobby Web accessibility checker. Test a page of your site by pasting it into the URL box and clicking on the Submit button. Read over the report and answer the following questions.

• What major problems did Bobby identify with your site?What do the descriptions of various problems tell you about the different issues that users face when examining a site?What issues related to writing and language use does Bobby bring up?

4) Continue to work on your sites.

5) Conduct course evaluations.

Assignment for Next Class

Work on finishing your site.
Work on creating informal presentation for your site to be given in class on Wednesday.
Catch up on any questions of the week that you might have missed.

In class tonight, your group will give a short presentation to the class on your Web site. Your group will come up to the front, load your site on the projector, and each group member will say something about the site. You will then field questions from other group members and the instructor.

Use the list below to help you organize your presentation.

Purpose of the Site

Tell us about the purpose of the site. What type of site is it? What genres does it belong to? Why was it created?

Audience

Who is the audience for the site? How did you take that into consideration when designing the site?

Tour of the Site

Give us a tour of the site and explain the purpose of each page.

Special Features

Are there any special features of the site? Tell us about those.

What You Learned

What did you learn from making this site?

Also be prepared to give feedback and ask questions to other groups as they present their sites.

Please post the answer to this question in your blog by Monday, December 5. Remember that you can also catch up on past questions of the week if you want to get full points for this assignment. All answers are due by December 12.

What have you learned about Web writing during the semester? What do you think the most important or significant differences are between Web writing and other forms of writing?

Monday, November 28

Today we’ll review principles for Web design and you’ll work in groups to develop your Web sites.

Assignment for Next Class

Answer Question of the Week (last one!)
Work on your group Web sites.

Wednesday, November 30

Today we’ll review principles for Web design, briefly discuss usability testing, and you’ll work in groups to develop your Web sites.

Assignment for Next Class

Answer Question of the Week (last one!)
Work on your group Web sites; a working version needs to be uploaded to the Web for testing on Monday.

Today, we’ll:

1) Discuss issues in creating collaborative Web sites.

Certain issues arise when people build collaborative Web sites.

• What roles people will play: editor, designer, page creator, content creator
• How to divide work fairly.
• Creating usable templates.
• How to link up pages that individual people are creating.
• Which person will “host” the site on their NU Web space.
• How to transfer files to the person hosting the final version of the site.

How to make the site building process go smoothly:

• Assign people roles and divide up page creation before building the site.
• Decide who will host the site on their NU Web space.
• Have the host create a folder on their NU Web space that will host the files. (Ask the instructor to show you how.)
• Come up with a process for sending the host completed pages or sending the host formatted content that could be pasted into a Web page. (HTML files and images can be sent as e-mail attachments or put into Zip files and sent via email to the host. Ask the instructor how.)
• Decide on how you will name files.
• Create a template as a group.
• Set up a new Web in FrontPage to work on creating files.
• Use the template to create all of your pages.
• Test the site in browsers frequently to make sure that links work.
• Send your links to the host and have the host assemble the final site.

2) Discuss ways to build templates for your Web pages.

Templates should contain:

• Logo or organization information
• Title of the page
• Navigation, including the names of files that will be linked
• Color scheme
• Places for content

All pages should use the template unless there is a clear reason for them not to do so.

3) Work to build templates for your group Web sites.

Assignment for Next Class

Answer the question of the week; read “10 Tips for Writing the Living Web.”

Instead of coming to class on Monday, participate in the online discussion about community on the Web. You must post at least twice to receive attendance credit. You can post comments without signing up for a LiveJournal account, but make sure you sign your name to the posts so that the instructor and your classmates know who you are.

Today, we’ll:

1) Go over the weekly agenda.

2) Discuss the characteristics of Web writing that is written for promotional reasons.

Genres of promotional writing:

• Product or service descriptions
• Sales assistance
• Text ads/banner ads
• White papers
• Data sheets
• Press releases

Characteristics of good promotional writing:

• Listen to what consumers want and write about them first. (Price & Price 343)
• Write in a way that appeals emotionally to the consumer. (Price & Price 343)
• Cut marketing babble — write concise, crisp, and clear sentences. (Price & Price 343)
• Write like a human being: put yourself into your writing and be passionate about what you say.
• Provide well-organized information.
• Provide more information about products, such as product shots, overviews, benefits, features, results, data sheets, reviews, case studies, but make sure that it’s well organized and clearly presented.
• Give customers a clear sense of where they are when they are locating products.
• Allow consumers to easily ask questions and provide feedback.
• Pay attention to the features of most Web writing: short paragraphs, use of lists, headings, white space, and concise and action-oriented style.

3) Practice creating these types of writing.

You will work in groups for this activity. Each group will be assigned a fictitious product about which to write. If you are having trouble understanding what the features for each product should look like, consult the examples or search the Web for additional information about these genres.

For this product, please create:

1. a Web page for the fictitious product, including a product description, features, benefits, reviews and purchasing information. You will need to include more then the initial product description, although you certainly may use that as a starting point.
2. a text ad or a banner ad that could be placed on other Web sites to sell the product
3. a press release announcing the latest release of this product

All product descriptions are taken verbatim from the Time Digital: Special Issue.

Group 1

The Gooey-Glove

Do your kids suffer from frustrating joystick blisters? Molecular Assembly’s Gooey-Glove ($299/liter) will dry those tears forever. The Gooey-Glove is a game controller that comes in a can: just dip Junior’s hand in this self-assembling plastic slush and seconds later it dries, shrinks and cracks into a form-fitting personal smart glove — fast, accurate and full of reactive feedback. It is nontoxic, washes off in minutes with soap and water and is compatible with most home game consoles. Not recommended for other body parts.

Group 2

Play-Doh Omni-Fab 4000

Last year Hasbro debuted the Omni-Fab 3000, a device that transformed ordinary household trash — table scraps, wood shavings, whatever — into a reasonable facsimile of good old lovable Play-Doh. Trouble was, the faux Doh smelled awful and was too hot to touch for several hours. This year’s version ($399) repurposes the extra heat, so the unit is self-powering, and you can choose from a menu of aromas: anything from fresh oranges to warm cookie dough. Not recommended for toddlers, who tend to put small pets in the intake hopper.

Group 3

Swatch Circadian Timepiece

Ever feel like your watch is a part of you? The Swatch Circadian Timepiece ($2,499) practically is. Once a day it quietly, painlessly extracts a drop of blood from your wrist, does some basic bloodwork — checking hormone and glucose levels, that sort of thing — then sets itself based on where your body is in its daily metabolic cycle. The results are approximate at best — it’s a little like strapping a sundial to your wrist. On the plus side, there’s no fiddling with knobs and buttons, and given a few days it even adjusts to changes in time zone. On the minus side, you have to watch your stimulants: drink one extra cup of coffee in the morning, and the darn thing runs fast all day.

Group 4

The GrimeBuster Spectrometer Mop

Apparently the phrase ” too much information” has no meaning to the brainiacs at Consolidated HouseWarez, inventors of the GrimeBuster electronic mop ($299). The GrimeBuster is the first wetware mop that paints a digital picture of household germs while it cleans. Its head features a water-activated protein spectrometer that performs an immediate genomic analysis of whatever it encounters. As you mop, the GrimeBuster provides a running report on the micro- and macroorganisms with whom you’re sharing your home. Cat dander, ragweed pollen, dust mites, spores, amoebas and worse — nothing escapes the keen eye of the GrimeBuster. Trust us: your floor may look spic and span, but after one cleaning with this electronic mop, you’ll never go barefoot agai

Monday, November 14

Today we’ll discuss genres of Web writing that cover marketing, advertising, and writing for customers. You’ll practice creating different kinds of writing in these genres.

Assignment for Next Class

Answer the question of the week; work on generating content for your group’s Web site.

Wednesday, November 16

Today you’ll work to build templates for your site and to begin generating pages.

Assignment for Next Class

Answer the question of the week; read “10 Tips for Writing the Living Web.”

Please post the answer to this question in your blog by November 21.

In “10 Tips for Writing the Living Web,” Mark Bernstein says, “Some parts of the web are finished, unchanging creations – as polished and as fixed as books or posters. But many parts change all the time.”

In this class, you’ve been studying and producing both kinds of writing. Which type of writing do you feel more comfortable with producing — the more fixed and unchanged types of Web pages such as some of the pages for your group Web project or portfolio, or the “living web” exemplified by your blog?

Today, we’ll:

1) Review strategies for constructing usable and readable Web text.

2) Practice editing Web text to make it more readable.

3) Review and edit another group’s text to make it more readable and usable on the Web.

4) Work to develop written content for your group’s Web site.

Using the information architecture you developed last week, begin to devise or revise written, visual, or any other kinds of content your site will need.

Assignment for Next Class

Answer Question of the Week.

Read Ch. 13 in Hot Text.

Today, we’ll:

1) Go over the weekly agenda.

2) Discuss the different types of sites that provide creative writing on the Web.

Sites that promote creative writing that’s primarily distributed in print and sites that showcase traditional forms of creative writing (short stories, poems, novels) and usually emulate the features of a print magazine.

• sites for publishers of books
• print magazine sites
• authors’ web sites
• ‘zines
• little magazines
• literary journals

Sites that provide parody or satire

• Spoofing society or particular aspects of society
• Spoofing Web-specific trends or concepts

Web comics, Web cartoons, and other forms of scripted multimedia

• Require scriptwriting and multimedia production (using image and animation software)

Games and interactive fiction

• Alternative reality games
• Stand-alone games
• Tie-in sites for other types of media (such as TV shows, books, or movies)
• Choose your own adventure/narrative games/hypertext fiction

Questions to ask about Web writing:

Who’s the audience or audiences for these sites?

Why would people visit these sites?

What types of content are provided on the sites? (Stories, poems, comics, animations, movies, images, sounds…)

What types of media are used on the sites?

What’s the tone or style of the sites?

Are any of these sites similar to another genre of Web writing or other forms of media? If so, how? Are any unique to the Web? If so, how?

3) Analyze some Web sites of each type.

In your groups, please download the genre analysis activity and examine the sites you’ve been given.

Group 1

• The Onion
• 30 Second Bunny Theatre
• Evil Overlord, Inc.
• Bud Uglly Design

Group 2

• Weebl’s Stuff
• Homestar Runner
• Sluggy Freelance
• Dinosaur Comics

Group 3

Stephen King’s Web Site
• Tor Books
• SciFiction
• Slow Trains

Group 4

• Last Call Poker
• Oceanic Air
• SpecOps
• Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Assignment for Next Class

Answer Question of the Week.

Bring some samples of possible content (written, visual, or other) for your group’s Web site to class.

Monday, November 7

Today we’ll discuss various manifestations of creative writing on the Web, including the uses of multimedia.

Assignment for Next Class

Answer Question of the Week.

Bring some samples of possible content (written, visual, or other) for your group’s Web site to class.

Wednesday, November 9

Today you’ll work in groups to produce and revise content for your site. You’ll also review some sample content from another group and receive feedback on some of your content.

Assignment for Next Class

Answer Question of the Week.

Read Ch. 13 in Hot Text

Please post the answer to this question in your blog by Monday, November 14.

As we’ve discussed in class, the Web means that anyone with access and knowledge can publish content. The Web also allows people to use written content, sound, video, animations, and images with much more ease than in other types of media. This has lead to an explosion of creative content online.

How do you think this explosion of creative content online will affect the more traditional outlets for creative content such as publishing houses, magazines, ‘zines, television, and video? Is the Web serious competetion for those outlets, or is it just a bunch of amateurs?

Today, we’ll:

1) Review principles related to information architecture as they apply to creating Web sites.

Download Principles of Information Architecture PowerPoint Presentation.

2) Work in your groups to generate information architecture for your sites.

Each group should produce the following content by the end of class and turn it in to the instructor:

• a list of “chunks” of information that will be on the site, with clear names. The list should show the relationship between the chunks of information.
• a site map that provides a visual representation of how pages will be connected on the site. Each page should be clearly labeled.
• drawings of possible designs for the navigation that will be used on the main page and other pages of the site. The navigation should have clear labels that represent the contents of the site.

Assignment for Next Class

1. Answer Question of the Week.
2. Read Ch. 14-15 in Hot Text.

Today, we’ll:

1) Go over the weekly agenda.

2) Discuss characteristics of corporate/business Web sites.

Content of Corporate Web Sites

• Company Description
  • Mission Statement
  • Testimonials
  • “About Us” Page
• Positions at The Company
• Information About Products and Services
  • Descriptions
  • Purchasing Information
  • Online Store
  • Specials and Coupons
  • Downloads (Software and Manuals)
• Help and Assistance
  • Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
  • Embedded Help
  • Manuals and Documentation
• Privacy Policy
• Contact Information

3) Analyze the rhetorical features of corporate Web site content.

Please work in groups to complete this activity. Each group will be assigned a specific Web site to analyze.

• Group 1: Ben and Jerry’s
• Group 2: Amazon
• Group 3: Wegman’s
• Group 4: Target
• Group 5: Canon

Please examine your assigned Web site and:

• Make a list of the content present on the Web site. Use the categories from our discussion to help you categorize the text.
• How does the company use the Web to present information? What features that are specific to Web pages (such as links images, animations, video, sound, or other types of multimedia) and to Web writing do they use?
• Based on the Web site, what do you think the corporate climate would be like at this company?
• Who do you think is the audience (or audiences) for this Web site? How does the company attempt to appeal to that specific audience?
• Do you think this site is usable and accessible? Why not?

4) Write a FAQ file for your organizations.

Please work in your Web project groups for this activity.

Please write a Frequently Asked Question page that answers questions that visitors to your group’s Web site might have. E-mail it to the instructor when you have finished.

Please post the answer to this question in your blog by Monday, November 7.

Based on your reading about the qualities that Web text should have and your experiences with writing and reading on the Web, do you think that other forms of media (such as newspaper and magazine articles and books) are changing to be written more like Web writing in response to the increasing popularity of the Web? Why or why not?

Monday, October 31

Today, we’ll discuss, analyze, and practice the types of writing and multimedia present on corporate and business Web sites.

Assignment for Next Class

1. Answer Question of the Week.
2. Read Chapter 10 in Hot Text.

Wednesday, November 2

Today, we’ll discuss the characteristics of navigation and menu systems on Web sites. You’ll then work to create a site map and navigation from the information architecture you generated last week.

Assignment for Next Class

1. Answer Question of the Week.
2. Read Ch. 14-15 in Hot Text.

Today, we’ll:

1) Discuss the assets that make up a Web site.

• What does your audience need to know?
• What does your audience need to see?
• What does your audience need to hear?
• What does your audience need to interact with?

2) Create assets lists for your Web sites.

In your groups, please create a preliminary assets list for your Web sites. You will use this to start generating information architecture later in the class.

3) Discuss ways to generate an information architecture for a site.

What do users ask when they visit a site?

• “Am I in the right place?
• Do they have what I’m looking for?
• Do they have anything better?” (Wodtke 90)

How can you help users find what they’re looking for or accomplish their tasks?

• Show the range of your offerings.
• Give people a clear indication of how they can get to them.
• Provide various ways for people to find their way around the site.
• Organize and label information based on how users think and talk about that information.

How do you organize based around user needs?

• Observe organization in the physical world.
• Observe how other Web designers have accomplished similar tasks.
• Ask users to sort, categorize, and label content. (Wodtke 96)

4) Generate a possible information architecture for your sites.

Information Architecture Activity

Assignment for Next Class

Read Ch. 12 in Hot Text.

Answer Question of the Week.

Today, we’ll:

1) Go over the weekly agenda.

2) Go over the guidelines for the collaborative web writing (CWW) project.

3) Learn about group assignments for the CWW project.

Kiernan Center site

Rob,
Jessi,
Andrea,
Beth

Niagara Cross Country

Greg H.,
Shawna,
Christine,
Alicia

Gallagher

Mara,
Jackie,
Tommie Jo,
Michael

Men and women’s rugby teams

Dan,
Adam,
Christina,
Katie

High school baseball team

Kristen,
Steve,
Jon,
Maria

Tutorials for AP Bio (Dr. Gallo)

Zoran,
Angela,
Greg D.,
Jeff

4) Discuss principles for user-centered design, audience analysis, and creating personas.

User-centered design

• Effective design must reflect how people think and what they need.
• User-centered design starts with the needs, thoughts, and feelings of the user and shapes a design that will work for them.
• You use the user’s language and thought processes to help you shape the information architecture and content of the site.
• You get information by:
  • Analyzing the characteristics of your audiences
  • Creating “personas” for model users
  • Talking to your users during different stages of the process
  • Conducting usability testing during different stages of site design
  • Providing mechanisms for users to provide feedback
  • Talk about audience analysis and creating personas.

Audience analysis

Defining the different groups of people who might use your site, their purposes for using the site, and any unique needs that they might have.

Example: English department site: students, faculty, prospective students. What would be their purposes for using the site? What needs wouldu they have? What would make them different from the other groups?

Personas

Creating a specific description of a sample user from each potential audience that represent a specific pattern of needs.

Describe:

• Demographics and information about them, particularly related to hobbies, activities, interests.
• Expected level of Web experience.
• Purpose for using the site: what are they looking to accomplish when they visit your site?
• Information needs: what specific types of information would they look for on the site?

What would be some sample personas that would be generated for the English Web site?

Jane is a 17-year old college junior at a local high school who really likes creative writing. She wants to go to college close to home, and would like to major in English. She’s comfortable with using the Web to locate information, so she’s been using the Web to research colleges that are close to home. When she visits the site, Jane wants to learn what it’s like to be an English major at Niagara. She’d like to know what the requirements are to major in English at Niagara, and she’d also like to read some course descriptions so she can tell whether or not they’d be too boring. Since her parents want her to be able to get a job when she graduates, she’d like to know what kind of jobs she could get with an English degree. (Prospective Student)

What would be some other personas?

5) Work in your project groups to exchange personal information, conduct an audience analysis and generate personas for your site.

Assignment for Next Class

Answer Question of the Week (by next Monday).
Read information architecture and navigation reading (given out in class).

Monday, October 24

Today we’ll go over the guidelines for the Collaborative Web project and you’ll be assigned to your groups. Then we’ll discuss principles for user-centered design and you’ll work to conduct an audience analysis and create user cases and personas in your groups.

Assignments For Next Class

Answer Question of the Week (by next Monday).
Read information architecture and navigation reading (given out in class).

Wednesday, October 26

Today we’ll discuss and work on generating an information architecture, assets list, and navigation labels for your group’s Web site.

Assignments For Next Class

Read Ch. 12 in Hot Text

Please post the answer to this question in your blog by Monday, October 31.

In “Web 2.0 for Designers,” Richard McManus and Joshua Porter say:

In Web 1.0, a small number of writers created Web pages for a large number of readers. As a result, people could get information by going directly to the source: Adobe.com for graphic design issues, Microsoft.com for Windows issues, and CNN.com for news. Over time, however, more and more people started writing content in addition to reading it. This had an interesting effect—suddenly there was too much information to keep up with! We did not have enough time for everyone who wanted our attention and visiting all sites with relevant content simply wasn’t possible. As personal publishing caught on and went mainstream, it became apparent that the Web 1.0 paradigm had to change.

Have you experienced the effect being described in this quote? How do you keep up with the variety and quantity of information available on the Web? How do you think that Web writing, Web design, and Web technologies should change to allow people to manage and control information?

As you finish your online portfolio, please use this checklist to review your Web site.

Content

Does my site contain (at a minimum):

• Information about me that helps my reader understand who I am and what I do?
• A Web version of my resume?
• A link to a printer-friendly version of my resume (such as a Word document)?
• Links to work that I’ve done?

Information Architecture

Does my site contain:

• Navigation on each page of the site that presents the reader with clear options?
• Link names that clearly describe content (as opposed to “click here”)?

Web Writing Principles

Is the Web writing on my site (except for links to professional work):

• Using short paragraphs with concise sentences?
• Use headings to separate information and help my reader to skim?
• Using lists to present related information?
• Using white space to separate paragraphs?
• Identifying the content and purpose of links in the text?
• Using correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation?

Design Principles

Does my site:

• Use a limited color palatte (no more than five colors) that makes my site appear professional?
• Use fonts and font sizes that are easy to read from a distance and up close?
• Create contrast between headings and body text?
• Provide enough contrast between background color and text color?
• Repeat color, font, and navigation choices on each page of the site unless there is a very good reason to change them?
• Align body text and lists to the left?
• Group related chunks of information?
• Use images that are appropriate for a professional site?

When you’re certain that your portfolio is finished, please send your Web address (the http://eagles.niagara.edu/yourusername address) to the instructor by e-mail.

Please post the answer to this question in your blog by Monday, October 24.

Do a search for some blogs or journals related to an interest or hobby of yours. Are there a lot of blogs? Only a few? Why do you think this is so? What are other bloggers saying about your interests? do you agree or disagree?

Monday, October 17

Today, you’ll continue to work on your online portfolios. Please make sure that you are able to upload files to your Niagara Web space by Wednesday. If you cannot upload files, please make sure that you talk to the instructor before Wednesday to make alternative arrangements.

Assignment for Next Class

Final URL for portfolio (or copy of all HTML files) are due at the end of class on Wednesday.

Wednesday, October 19

Today we’ll finish up your online portfolios and you’ll submit the URLs for your final version.

Assignment for Next Class

• Answer Question of the Week
• Read guidelines for Collaborative Web Project assignment.

Overview

Throughout this class, we’ve been discussing different aspects of Web writing and Web design. You’ve been asked to practice with different forms of Web writing and to research different aspects of Web writing, as well as practicing Web writing and Web design in creating an online portfoliio. The final project for this class asks you to combine the skills that you’ve learned in this class and will continue to learn throughout the semester. You’ll also be asked to work collaboratively in groups; since most if not all “real world” Web sites are a result of team efforts, this is not an unreasonable undertaking.

This assignment will require you to collaborate with your classmates to create a writing-intensive Web site for some aspect of the Niagara University community or the community around you. You will each participate in identifying the needs of the site audience, producing and revising content, creating a usable and attractive site design, and testing your site for usability and accessibility.

Guidelines

Since you will all be producing different Web sites for different audiences with different needs, it is difficult to provide exact guidelines for the content of your Web site. Here are some general guidelines for what your group will need to do:

• Conduct an audience analysis for the site
• Create an assets list for the site
• Draft and revise copy for the site (which may include text, images, and other forms of media) using your understanding of how Web writing differs from other forms of writing
• Create a site map and wireframes for site planning, and plan navigation and information architecture for the site
• Create the site
• Revise the site based on feedback from your classmates, the instructor, and your client
• Present your site to the class and describe the decisions you made

Activities in and out of class will help you work through these stages of site development.

In terms of content and Web page elements, your Web site should also contain, at a bare minimum:

• A main index page
• Navigation which demonstrates an understanding of information architecture
• Subsidiary pages with substantial content (text, images, and/or other forms of media)
• A design which uses the principles of contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity
• Use of Web-specific features
• The incorporation of feedback mechanisms or contact information

You will need to devise a system for hosting and designing your pages and for dividing the workload fairly among your group members. Strategies for collaboration will be discussed in class.

Grading Criteria

Your project will be graded according to the following criteria:

• How well it meets and exceeds the requirements for content and Web page elements.
• How well it meets the needs of your client and your audience.
• Its information architecture and usability.
• How well it uses contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity
• How well it uses Web writing conventions and appropriate usage conventions for English.
• How well your group worked together to create this project.

You will be asked to evaluate your own performance and the performance of your group members in evaluations that will be turned into the instructor. These evaluations will have an impact on your final grade for this project. The instructor will grade the project, and then decide who in the group deserves full credit for the project based on their contributions.

If you encounter problems with working in your groups, please see the instructor as soon as possible so that she may help broker a resolution to the problem.

Due Dates

• Audience Analysis: October 24 (in-class activity)
• Assets list (preliminary): November 2
• Assets list (Final): November 9
• Site Map/Wireframes: November 16
• Working Version of Site: November 30
• Final Version of Site/Site Presentation: December 7

Monday, October 10

Fall Break: NO CLASS

Assignment for Next Class

First draft of portfolio should be published to your Niagara Web space and ready for peer review. Make sure you’ve answered the question of the week from last week.

Wednesday, October 12

Today you’ll have a little time to finish the drafts of your online portfolios and upload them to your Niagara Web space. Then you’ll review some portfolios and provide feedback.

Assignment for Next Class

Continue to work on your portfolio.
Answer the question of the week.

Please post an answer to this question in your blog by Monday, October 17.

In Hot Text, the Prices describe attention as the “currency of the Internet.” What do you think they mean by that? How will you draw a reader’s attention to your online portfolio or the Web site your group creates? What will keep them there?

Today, we’ll:

1) Go over the weekly agenda.

2) Give you time to complete a “draft” of your online portfolio and upload it to your Niagara Web space.

Uplolading Pages Instructions

3) Conduct peer review of your online portfolios.

• Exchange the Web addresses for your portfolios with your group members.
• Download portolio review questions.
• Answer the questions for each group member’s portfolio.
• E-mail the questions to the group member and to the instructor.

4) Continue to work on your portfolios.

Assignment for Next Class

Continue working on portfolio.
Answer the question of the week.

Today we’ll:

1) Review the content of online portfolios.

Online portfolios should contain:

• Navigation to allow people to explore different aspects of your professional life.
• Qualifications such as education, work experience, transferrable skills (demonstrated in your resume and in your samples).
• Samples of your work that demonstrate qualities an employer would want.
• Personal information so that employers may contact you.
• Credits for information that is not yours.

2) Discuss the meaning of “professional” and how it applies to online portfolios.

Please make a blog entry where you: define the meaning of the word professional for yourself and for your field of study, and discuss how it applies to your online portfolio.

3) Evaluate and discuss some scenarios related to online portfolios.

In your groups, please download the online portfolio scenarios document and respond to each scenario.

4) Discuss ways to make portfolios appear professional.

• Contrast: create visible differences between background and text, between headings and body text, between images and text. You can use color, whitespace, or any number of ways to create contrast.
• Repetition: use the same colors, fonts, heading styles, and navigation across the site. Place navigation in the same place on each page (an exception can be the main index, which can be slightly different).
• Alignment: Left-align text and headings unless you have a good reason to change that.
• Proximity: group related information; separate unrelated information.

5) Review the FrontPage concepts that we’ve worked with this week.

• Creating Pages
• Creating Links
• Changing Background/Link Colors
• Inserting Images
• Resizing an Image in MS Paint
• Creating Tables
• Uplolading Pages

6) Work on online portfolios and ask questions.

Assignment for Next Class

First draft of portfolio should be published to your Niagara Web space and ready for peer review.

Monday, October 3

Today we’ll work on creating navigation for your online portfolios, as well as choosing colors and graphics to fit into your portfolio. You’ll learn how to change the color of text and background as well as how to insert an image, and have time to work on creating pages.

Assignments For Next Class

Continue to work on your portfolio. Read Chapter 16 in Hot Text.

Wednesday, October 7

Today we’ll continue to work on your online portfolios, including creating tables and links. We’ll also review all of the Web design and Web writing skills that we’ve learned so far.

Assignments For Next Class

Have a working version of your portfolio site (with navigation and placeholder pages) in place by class time next Wednesday. Answer question of the week.

Today, we’ll:

1) Go over the weekly agenda.

2) Review the stages of planning a Web page.

• Idea
• Assets list
• Site map
• Wireframes
• Templates
• Content generation
• Page generation

3) Discuss what a wireframe for a Web page contains.

Web page content usually includes:

• Navigation
• Text
• Images
• Any other content

A wireframe or a sketch of a page indicates where this content will be placed and also what types of fonts, images and colors will be used. Before you can create a wireframe, let’s talk a little bit more about colors, graphics, and navigation.

4) Discuss choosing colors for a Web page.

In the past, Web-safe color was important, but most browsers have evolved beyond the need for Web-safe color.

In any case, you should create a color palatte for your Web site. This should include:

• Page background color
• Link colors (unvisited and visited)
• Text colors
• Dominant colors in images

To make it look professional, try to limit yourself to no more than three to five colors, and make the colors match each other. You’re creating a color scheme similar to designing a print document or decorating a room.

Make sure to provide enough contrast between background color and link and text colors.

Color scheme designers for you to use: Web Color Theory || Spin the Color Wheel

5) Discuss choosing and using graphics for a Web page.

• Graphics on the Web are separate files that must be uploaded along with an HTML file. You need to save your graphics in the same place that you save your Web pages, and upload them along with the .htm files.
• You can scan pictures or art using a scanner, import pictures from a digital camera, create images in an image editor (such as Paint), or download stock pictures and clip art that people have given permission to use.
• Graphics add to the time that a page takes to download, so it’s important to make sure that they’re as small and as light as possible.
• Graphics should also be in .jpg, .gif, or .png format to be viewed by all browsers.
• You can resize images to make them smaller in programs like Paint or Photoshop.

Clip Art and Stock Photo Directories for you to use: FreeStockPhotos.com ||
morguefile :: archive || Clip Art in the Yahoo! Directory

6) Discuss creating navigation for a Web page/Web site.

Navigation should:

• Explain the various categories of information available
• Provide readers with clear choices for where to go next
• Use unambiguous language and/or images to label links (no mystery meat navigation)
• Provide short and clear labels for each category of information
• Be provided in multiple places on a page:
• Top
• Bottom
• Sidebar

Navigation can take the form of:

• A link bar (with or without images)
• A list of links
• Links in the text

7) Create wireframes for your Web pages.

Draw a wireframe for your page. When you’re done, show it to a partner.

8) Review creating pages, creating links, and uploading pages in FrontPage.

9) Learn how to change colors, insert images, and create tables in FrontPage.

Changing Background Colors and Link Colors || Working with Images || Creating Tables

10) Work on your online portfolios.

Assignment for Next Class

Continue to work on your portfolio. Read Chapter 16 in Hot Text. Answer question of the week.

Please post the answer to this question in your blog by Wednesday, October 12.

Making an online portfolio or personal home page, or participating on a site like Facebook, requires you to divulge information about yourself online. This information then becomes visible to anyone on the Web, including your family, your (future) employers, your friends, and your exes.

How do you decide what personal information to disclose on the Web? What are some of the potential problems with posting information about yourself online? Do you think that employers should be allowed to make decisions about hiring or firing based on information that they can find in Web searches? What do you do if someone close to you finds out information you didn’t want them to know through a Web search?

Today, we’ll:

1) Vote on clients for the group Web project.

Please e-mail your top six choices out of the following choices to the instructor.

1. Kiernan Center site (16 votes)
2. Niagara Cross Country (15 Votes)
3. Gallagher (14 votes)
4. Club hockey team (11 Votes)
5. Men and women’s rugby team (9 votes)
6. Clet Dining Hall site (8 votes)
7. High school baseball team (4 Votes)
8. Page for Commuter Students at Niagara (5 Votes)
9. Phi Sigma Sigma (4 Votes)
10. Dept Web Site at NU (2 Votes)
11. Tutorials for AP Bio (Dr. Gallo) (1 Vote)
12. Amagansett Applied Arts School (1 Vote)

2) Discuss the various types of content that could go into your online portfolio.

• Written Content: resumes, writing samples, self-description, descriptions of work
• Visual Content: images used on pages (decoration, presentation, navigation), pictures of you, pictures that you’ve taken, etc.
• Audio Content: audio samples, music samples, podcasts
• Other Content: animations, multimedia, miscellaneous

3) Discuss the creation of an assets list for your portfolio.

An assets list allows you to organize all of the content that you need to collect for a portfolio and note what content you have and still need to acquire. It explains the types of content that you want to have on your site.

Please downlaoad the blank assets list and fill it in for your site. A final version of this should be e-mailed to the instructor by Monday.

Blank Assets List

4) Discuss ways to design an information architecture for your portfolio.

The information architecture for your site will help you to understand:

• How your information will be organized into categories.
• How your information will be organized into pages (and how many pages you will need to create).
• How your information will be presented to the reader in the form of navigation.
• How your information will be organized on each page

To create an information architecture for a Web site, you need to:

• Create categories for organizing information
• Assign assets to categories
• Decide how to divide information in categories into separate pages or elements
• Create a site map that represents the pages and elements and how they will be connected together

Information Architecture Activity

5) Learn how to create and save Web pages in FrontPage.

First, we’ll create a new empty Web to store all of the files for your online portfolio. You’ll store this in your student network space.

Opening/Creating a Web

Next, we’ll create two new pages and save them in your Web with different file names.

Opening/Creating a Page

6) Learn how to create links in Web pages in FrontPage.

Then we’ll create links from one page to another, and also to an external Web site.

Hyperlinks

7) Learn how to upload Web pages to your Niagara Web space using FrontPage.

Finally, you’ll upload these pages to your Niagara Web space using FrontPage’s FTP extensions.

Uploading a Web Page with FrontPage

Assignment for Next Class

• Read “Creating a Portfolio Site” (given out in-class)
• Create final version of assets list for portfolio; e-mail it to the instructor (ekarper@niagara.edu).
• Read Chapter 5 in Hot Text
• Answer Question of the Week

Please post the answer to this question in your blog by October 3.

In your opinion, what are the three most important qualities of a Web site that make it “good”? Feel free to provide and link to examples.

Please complete the following steps to help you develop an information architecture for your online portfolio.

1) In a Word document or on a piece of paper, create categories for organizing your information. Write each category down.

2) Assign information from your assets list to each category by listing it under the category heading.

3) On another piece of paper, draw a site map that represents each asset and how they are connected to each other. If you need an example of a site map for an online portfolio, see the reading given out in class today.

When you have finished, show your site map to a partner and explain how your site will work.

Today, we’ll:

1) Go over the weekly agenda.

2) Discuss and analyze the characteristics of personal home pages.

Back before blogs were the big thing, people created home pages or personal Web pages. Today, people still create personal Web pages, although they are often done as blogs or journals.

Why do people create home pages? What kind of writing happens on home pages? To find out, let’s look at some home pages and see what they have in common and how they’re different.

Home Page Analysis Activity

3) Discuss and analyze the characteristics of professional Web pages and online portfolios.

People also present their professional aptitudes and interests online, in what’s usually called a professional Web site and/or an online portfolio.

What do professional Web sites and online portfolios look like? How are they different from home pages? How does writing play a part on these pages?

Online Portfolio Analysis Activity

4) Go over the guidelines for the Creating a Web Portfolio assignment.

You’re being asked to create a professional Web site that contains an online portfolio for your next assignment. We’ll work over the next few weeks to help you create one.

5) Brainstorm ideas and assets for the online portfolio.

In order to create an online portfolio (or any other type of Web site), you need to generate ideas about:

• Assets that the site will contain, such as sample documents (newspaper and magazine clips, screenplays, essays, academic papers, short stories, poems) media clips (audio clips, video clips), pictures, and anything else that could represent you.
• Ideas for the “look and feel” of the site — colors, pictures, guiding metaphors…

Online Portfolio Brainstorming Activity

Assignments For Next Class

1. Read “Creating a Portfolio Site” (given out in-class)
2. Read Chapter 16 in Hot Text

Blog about the following brainstorming activity (or take notes in a Microsoft Word document) to help you get started with the online portfolio assignment.

• My major is:
• I would describe myself as:
• When I leave Niagara, I want to:
• To work in my chosen field, I will need to:
• Ways in which I’ve already demonstrated my professional skills include:
• Activities that I feel contribute to my professional life include:
• I have/have not written a resume.
• I do/do not know how to write a resume
• If I wanted to show someone how well I write, I would show them:
• If I wanted to show someone how well I take pictures or video, I would show them:
• If I wanted to show someone how well I communicate, I would show them:
• Professionally, I am most proud of:
• Personally, I am most proud of:
• Colors that I feel represent me include:
• Types of images that I feel represent me include:

Feel free to add other ideas for documents, pictures, or components that would be appropriate for your online portfolio.

Please examine the following online portfolios and professional sites and use them to answer the questions. Please create a blog entry where you answer the questions.

Portfolios and Professional Sites

• Jay Lohmann
• Jacqueline Jones Design
• derek m. powazek
• Gina Pace
• ron whitman online portfolio
• Fifty Nine Ltd : : Portfolio

Questions

Answer the following questions in a blog entry:

• What elements do these online portfolios have in common?
• Are there aspects that they all present, such as a resume or an opening statement?
• What elements are unique to each portfolio?
• What textual features do these online portfolios have in common? What textual features are unique?
• Who do you think the audience for each portfolio is? How does that affect what’s being presented?
• What Web-specific elements (such as navigation, colors, fonts, graphics, etc) do these portfolios have in common?
• Based on your observations, how would you describe the genre of online portfolios? What’s it like?
• What aspects of these online portfolios would you include in your online portfolio?

We can learn about how genres of Web writing work by conducting a rhetorical analysis. In your groups, please examine these home pages (located by using a random homepage generator) and use them answer some questions. Write the answers to your questions in a Word document and e-mail them to the instructor (ekarper@niagara.edu).

List of Home Pages

• http://www.geocities.jp/kitagawa_masayuki/
• http://www.mlode.com/~ggorman
• Hellkvist.org - Index
• Cacciatore Creations
• http://www.geocities.com/manfrog_2000/

Questions

• What elements do these home pages have in common?
• Is there anything that they all present, such as pictures or personal descriptions?
• What elements are unique to each home page?
• What textual features do these home pages have in common? What textual features are unique?
• Who do you think the audience for each home page is? How does that affect what’s being presented?
• What Web-specific elements (such as navigation, colors, fonts, graphics, etc) do these home pages have in common?
• Based on your observations, how would you describe the genre of home pages? What’s it like?

Monday, September 26

Today we’ll discuss the home page and the personal portfolio as genres of Web writing, discuss aspects of personal expression online, and analyze some examples from this genre. Finally, we’ll review the guidelines for the Creating a Webfolio project, and brainstorm content and design ideas for your portfiolios.

Assignments For Next Class

1. Read “Creating a Portfolio Site” (given out in-class)
2. Read Chapter 16 in Hot Text

Wednesday, September 28

Today we’ll discuss choosing assets for a portfolio, practice designing an information architecture for your portfolio, and consider textual choices and self-descriptions.

Assignments For Next Class

1. Answer Question of the Week
2. Create an assets list for portfolio; e-mail it to the instructor (ekarper@niagara.edu).
3. Read Chapter 5 in Hot Text

Portfolios as a genre have been a part of many professional endeavors for many years. The advent of the World Wide Web changes many of the ways in which one can present oneself and one’s work. This assignment asks you to create an online portfolio that demonstrates your unique skills and characteristics and gives you a chance to practice Web writing and Web design using a subject you know well — yourself.

Guidelines

For this project, you will create and publish an online portfolio that could be used to help you gain employment or employment experience in your chosen field. Since you all are in different fields, the specific content of your portfolio will vary. However, your portfolio should include:

• a resume (Web and print-friendly versions) detailing your accomplishments, presented in a style that is appropriate to your field
• evidence of your experience and accomplishments in the field, such as writing samples, music samples, video samples, images, or other ways of demonstrating your skills and creativity
• a statement from you that explains your self-presentation and provides context for visitors to your portfolio
• engaging and appealing writing that presents you as a qualified and competent professional

Your portfolio should be presented on the World Wide Web, using your Niagara Web space. Time will be spent in class learning how to edit and upload files to this Web space, as well as on learning about the basics of Web design and site architecture.

In terms of content and Web page elements, your portfolio should also contain, at a bare minimum:

• a main index page
• a page or pages that showcases your samples
• a page for your resume or vita
• information architecture, including navigation and usable page designs

Additionally, you will be expected to pay attention to Web-specific elements such graphics, fonts, and color choices and to demonstrate an understanding of how these elements work in your portfolio. You’ll also be expected to demonstrate your growing knowledge of Web writing and how it’s different from other types of writing.

The goals of this project are for you to showcase your best work and professional experience, and to be creative and innovative in your self-presentation. These guidelines should be seen as minimum, not maximum requirements.

Grading Criteria

Your portfolio will be graded on:

• How well it meets and exceeds the minimum requirements for content and Web page elements.
• How well it uses Web-specific features to enhance your self-presentation.
• How usable it is in terms of information architecture, readability, and usability.
• How well it uses Web writing conventions and appropriate usage conventions for English.

You will receive comments from the instructor and from your classmates on your portfolio as you build it. You will also receive a grading rubric that explains your grade after the “final” version of your portfolio is turned in.

Due Dates

• Assets List for Portfolio Due: October 3
• First Draft of Portfolio Due: October 12
• Final Draft of Portfolio Due: October 19

Today, we’ll:

1) Discuss issues related to establishing and understanding credibility on the Web.

2) Analyze and discuss an example of credibility issues on the Web.

This activity asks you to think about how we evaluate the credibility and accuracy of information and how those ideas change when we develop new ways of writing and new genres of writing. The new genre of writing under consideration is a Wiki. You will be asked to read more about this genre and one of the controversies surrounding it, and to take a position in a debate.

What is a Wiki?

• A wiki is a dynamic Web site that’s database-driven — this means that the content is generated automatically and can be edited from an interface on the Web rather than one or many users. Wikis allow anyone to edit pages right on the Web — this allows for the quick and easy creation of Web pages without a lot of specialized tools or specialized knowledge.

• According to the “What is Wiki” portion of the Wiki.org site:
  

  Wiki is a piece of server software that allows users to freely create and edit Web page content using any Web browser. Wiki supports hyperlinks and has a simple text syntax for creating new pages and crosslinks between internal pages on the fly. Wiki is unusual among group communication mechanisms in that it allows the organization of contributions to be edited in addition to the content itself. Like many simple concepts, “open editing” has some profound and subtle effects on Wiki usage. Allowing everyday users to create and edit any page in a Web site is exciting in that it encourages democratic use of the Web and promotes content composition by nontechnical users.

• People have been using Wikis to create various collaborative efforts for organizations, businesses, or large-scale projects. One of the largest is the Wikipedia, which is a collaborative encyclopedia. Anyone can add articles to it or edit existing articles. And it’s there that the controversy begins…

The Activity

Your mission is to learn more about the issues related to the credibility of Wikipedia and to form an opinion that you can express in a debate. To do that:

1. Read the column from Al Fasoldt expressing an opinion about the information quality and credibility in Wikipedia.
2. Read a blog entry from TechDirt responding to the column (you don’t have to read all the comments).
3. Read the Wikipedia page about replies to common objections regarding this issue (you can also read the pros and cons pages if you need or want more information).
4. Write a position statement of at least a paragraph in which you express an opinion about the credibility of using information from Wikipedia and agree or disagree with the positions expressed by the three previous texts. You will be expected to present and defend this position in a debate, so make sure you spell out some specific reasons for your position.

Assignment for Next Class

Final Draft of Research Paper is Due

Monday, September 19

Today we’ll discus strategies for responding to research about the Web and how to use track changes and comments in Word to add comments to a paper. Then you’ll conduct peer review on the drafts of your classmates.

Assignments For Next Class

1. Work on research paper.
2. Read We’ve Got Blog pp. 89-98.

Wednesday, September 21

Today we’ll discuss issues related to credibility and authorship on the Web. Then we’ll read and debate about the manifestation of some of those issues in the form of the Wikipedia.

Assignments For Next Class

1. Answer Question of the Week.
2. Final draft of your research paper is due; please bring a print copy to class on Monday.

Please post the answer to this question in your blog by Monday, September 26.

How do you think changes or trends in technologies are changing writing for the Web? In other words, does how we can produce writing and what we can do with it on the Web change what kinds of writing are done or will be done in the near future? If you think that there are changes, what genres of Web writing are changing the most (or being created)?

Today, we’ll:

1) Discuss possible clients for the Collaborative Web Project.

Niagara Clients

• Phi Sigma Sigma
• Kiernan Center site
• Clet Dining Hall site
• Gallagher site.
• High school baseball team
• Men and women’s rugby team (4 nominations)
• Departmental Web site at NU (2 nominations)
• Club hockey team
• Niagara Cross Country
• Page for Commuter Students at Niagara
• Tutorials for AP Bio (Dr. Gallo)

Outside Clients

• Amagansett Applied Arts School
• United States Secret Service
• FBI
• Argo

Please e-mail your top five choices to the instructor (ekarper@niagara.edu).

2) Discuss guidelines for giving and receiving feedback on writing.

We’ll also talk about using Comments and Track Changes in Word.

3) Conduct peer review of your research paper drafts.

a) Please e-mail your drafts to your other group members.

b) Please download a peer review document for each group member.

c) Please follow the instructions in the peer review document for commenting and editing the draft.

d) Please send the edited draft to the author and to the instructor.

e) Please read and discuss your feedback in groups.

Groups

One

• Alicia
• Andrea
• Angela

Two

• Beth
• Jon
• Adam

Three

• Shawna
• Mike
• Katie

Four

• Greg D.
• Jackie
• Jeff

Five

• Jenn
• Jessi
• Kristen

Six

• Mara
• Greg H.
• Dan

Seven

• Christina
• Maria
• Rob

Eight

• Steve
• Christine
• Tommie Jo
• Zoran

Assignments for Next Class

1. Work on research paper
2. Read We’ve Got Blog pp. 89-98

Monday, September 12

Today we’ll discuss the various media that make up Web writing and learn about basic principles of information architecture and how they relate to organizing Web writing and Web sites.

Assignments For Next Class

1. Read Ch. 3-4 in Hot Text
2. Read Ch. 4 in Learning Web Design

Wednesday, September 14

Today we’ll discuss the variety of textual and organizational features that make up some of the common genres of Web writing. You’ll also practice rewriting and reorganizing text to make it more Web-friendly.

Assignments For Next Class

1. Answer Question of the Week (posted on course Web site).
2. First Draft of Research Paper Due
Bring digital copy to class (e-mail/ save to network space/ save to USB drive or CD) and e-mail copy to instructor (ekarper@niagara.edu).

Today, we’ll:

1) Set up your Niagara Web space for later use.

1. Login to myNU and click on the resource tab. Under Information Technology, you’ll see ‘Configure Web Space’. Click on that link.

2. You will then review and agree to the guidelines for students web space.
3. Once you agree to the terms and click the ‘I Agree’ button, your web space will be queued for creation. This is done nightly. Your web space will be available the following day and you will be e-mailed (this is sent to your NU e-mail account) instructions on logging in.

(From “Student Web Pages“)

2) Discuss the features of Web text.

How is the Web different from print?

• “The Web, as a medium, makes reading hard, limits content, challenges even the most eager skimmer, destabalizes the text we devote to content, stabilizes and solidifies the text that acts as part of an interface.” (Price & Price, 65)
• It’s harder to read on-screen than it is on the page: “People often read slower, comprehend less, recall less, and do less in response” (66)
• It’s hard to know what information and ideas come next on a Web site or Web page.
• Text works as both content and interface on the Web:
• “As content, text responds to questions the users ask about topics they care about.” (70)
• Words are used as labels for navigation as well as to provide other types of information on the Web
• People rely on textual cues to help them understand the purpose of a site, a section, or a page before they actually start consuming or processing the information contained there.
• Readers need verbal cues to help them understand a page.
• “Within a page, people rely very heavily on your title, headings, boldfacing for indications of your structure, and their location within it. […] Moral: you have to be more aware of structure when you write online than you were when you wrote for paper. The shape and scope of your online writing is dificult for users to perceive. So you have to work hard to communicate your main point, your organizing patterns, and your starting and stopping points.” (68-69)

How can you make usable and readable Web text?

Style

• Consider the purpose of the text when following any of these guidelines.
• Break text up into sections and paragraphs.
• Provide headings and subheadings to break up sections of text and to communicate a sense of content.
• Use key terms and concepts in headings and in introductory paragraphs.
• Use terms that visitors know and use to present your content.
• Focus your text on a specific purpose; cut off-topic text, links, and images.
• Write shorter text:
  • Write short paragraphs (2-3 lines of text)
  • Revise sentences to be concise and precise.
  • Cut text that doesn’t serve your purpose, or move it to another page, pop-up window, or sidebar.
• Write simple text; aim it at the reading level of the expected audience or provide different versions of the text for different audiences. Use short, common words.
• Organize key concepts, ideas, or instructions into ordered or unordered lists.
• Use tables, charts, or graphs to help people visualize and compare data.

Formatting

• Place key terms where people pay attention first: top of the page, and in headings. Put key terms in a format that stands out from the text.
• Use HTML heading tags to create a hierarchy of headings and subheadings that people can easily skim.
• Make headings stand out by making them a different color or a different font.
• Use an appropriately sized font for body text.
• Use white space to separate paragraphs and sections.
• Break longer texts into multiple pages and provide navigation.
• Use bold or italics to emphasize key words or ideas within paragraphs.
• Create bulleted or numbered lists.
• Make sure charts and graphics are clearly labeled.
• Make sure links are easy to identify and readers know where they will be going when they click on one.
• Provide a printer-friendly version of text for people to read offline.

3) Practice revising texts to make them more Web friendly.

Samples for Whole-Class Practice

I found out how to sort my messages, something you were wondering about last week, and I thought you might like to know. I noticed that at the top of the message List there are words like New, and From, and Date, and Subject, and so on, and if I click one of those, the whole list gets reorganized that way. You know what I mean?

As the world’s premier provider of e-mail services to the beauty industry, we are extremely proud to offer you the most imaginative creation and fastest delivery of highly targeted e-mail messages aimed at consumers, spa owners, and staff in beauty boutiques.

Samples for Individual Practice

1. Download the sample text.
2. Revise and edit the text to be more Web friendly using some of the style and formatting tactics.
3. Save the revised text.
4. E-mail it to the instructor as an attachment.

4) Learn how to format text in FrontPage (a Web editor).

Using FrontPage to Create Pages and Format Text

• Opening/Creating a Page
• Formatting Toolbar
• Using Text
• How to Preview a Web Page in FrontPage

5) Revise and format a sample text in FrontPage and preview it in a browser.

1. Download the sample text.
2. Open the text in Word.
3. Select the text and copy it.
4. Create a new page in FrontPage.
5. Paste the text from the Word document into the FrontPage document.
6. Revise and edit the text to be more Web friendly using some of the style and formatting tactics.
7. Save the revised page.
8. Preview it in a browser.

Assignments For Next Class

1. Answer Question of the Week (posted on course Web site).
2. First Draft of Research Paper Due
Bring digital copy to class (e-mail/ save to network space/ save to USB drive or CD) and e-mail copy to instructor (ekarper@niagara.edu).

Today we’ll:

1) Go over the weekly agenda.

2) Discuss features of the World Wide Web as a medium.

• Can be used as a one-way medium (broadcasting information one-to-one, one-to-many or many-to many)
• Can be used as a two-way medium (exchanging information; discussion; collaboration)
• Primarily accessed through computers equipped with specialized software (Web browsers and their accompanying plugins) and read on the screen (although many Web pages and Web services are also accessed through mobile phones and mobile devices such as Blackberries, Sidekicks, Palm Pilots, etc)
• The Web as a medium is usually classified into “Web sites” which contain:
  • multiple nodes or “pages” of information
  • specific textual features and ways of presenting text (to be discussed on Wednesday)
  • links between these nodes as well as links to other Web sites
  • a navigation system that provides an information architecture for using the site
  • writing and often other forms of media (graphics, video, sound, animation)
  • sites sometimes (but do not always) contain the capacity for interactivity (chat, discussion forums, e-mail and feedback forms) and search capacities
• There are multiple ways of using a Web site and of experiencing the Web as a medium. This means that Web writers and designers need to build redundancy into Web site and webtext features to allow for easy access and usability.

What does this mean for me? When you have to write a Web text or design a Web site (or both), you need to consider the features of the Web as a medium:

• What forms of media will you be using to provide information? What are the writing and production needs for those media?
• How will you organize information (in multiple forms) into multiple nodes or pages? How will you connect these nodes of information to each other?
• How will you classify and connect information at the page level, the section level, and the site level?
• How will users locate the specific information that they need on a page, in a section, and on the site as a whole? What cues can you give them to help them do this?

3) Discuss information architecture and how it relates to Web writing and Web design.

The big secret of Web writing/Web designing: Writing for the Web requires the classification, arrangement, and presentation of information on multiple levels.

The classification, arrangement, and presentation of information is also called information architecture. (On a larger and slightly different scale, it’s also called rhetoric.)

Information architects decide how the content for a site will be arranged at the macro and micro-levels.

• They divide information into categories, sections, and pages.
• They label categories and sections of information so that users can identify them.
• They decide how parts of a Web site will be linked to each other and connected to other sites on the Web.
• They design navigation aids (such as navigation bars, link lists, headers, and footers) and search capacities for sites so that users can find the information they need.

Information architecture for a site works at multiple levels on larger sites:

• Design and navigation of the whole site (Niagara University Web site)
• Design and navigation of sections of the site (Niagara University English department)
• Design and navigation of individual pages within sections (Course description page for the English department)

Sometimes you may design an entire Web site and arrange all of the content for that site. Other times you may be working within an existing larger site structure and just be designing or re-designing the classification, arrangement, and presentation of a certain section or amount of content. In either case, information architecture can help you – it can even help you arrange content on a page.

Whether you are designing an entire site or a certain section of a site, you need to:

• Be aware of how different groups of users approach your site and the terms and ideas they use for locating information. Use these terms and ideas to help develop the organization and navigation.
• Be consistent in your arrangement of information (make sure it works with the larger site structure and organization).
• Be consistent in your use of terms in navigation and also in the Web text.
• Be sure to test your designs with users and get their feedback.

For example, the Niagara Web design staff had already created an information architecture for the entire Niagara site. They’d also created page templates that contained navigation for the entire site and a place for navigation of each section of the site (such as the English department).

However, the content for the English Web site still needed to be classified, labelled, and arranged for presentation on the Web in a way that fit into that template. There were multiple ways of arranging and presenting this content to the user. As the Web content creator, I needed to know how to best organize and present the content.

How do information architects decide how to classify, label, and arrange information for presentation? There are many ways, some of which we’ll practice in class, such as:

• Site maps
• Wireframes
• Analysis of usage patterns from exisiting sites
• Asking for feedback from users and groups
• User testing and focus groups
• Card sorts

To help you understand how information architects learn from their users, I’m going to ask you to play the role of users in an information architecture exercise.

4) Play the role of users in the card sort exercise and then discuss the results.

First, you’ll divide into groups of five. Each group of five will receive a pack of index cards — 38 labelled cards and some blank cards. The possible content for the Niagara English Web site is available on the labelled index cards.

Second, your group should try and sort the cards into groups that make sense to you. Don’t try to design a navigation scheme and don’t look at the English department Web site for the actual scheme. Just sort the cards into groups that make sense to you as a group.

Third, once your sorted groups are established, please give each group a name that makes sense to you. Write the name on a blank card and put it on top of the pile. You are allowed to make sub-groups if you feel that’s appropriate; label those the same way. If you feel something is missing, you can use a blank index card to add it. Additionally, if you think a label is unclear, feel free to write a better label on the card. Finally, if you think something doesn’t belong, you can make a miscellaneous pile.

Finally, your group should present your organization of content (the labels you gave to each group, the content you put in each group, and why you put it there) to the class.

How did your arrangements compare with the actual information architecture for the site? Why do you think they are different?

What can differences in how users arrange information tell us? Areas of difference tell us about:

• “content that participants haven’t understood well
• content that could belong to more than one area
• alternative paths to content (for example, a list of all “how-to” articles could be created)
• how different types of participants see information” (Wodtke)

Things to think about when studying and practicing Web writing:

• What are the medium-specific features used on the sites I’m looking at?
• How do the sites incorporate other forms of media in addition to writing? What does that do?
• How do the sites classify and present information? Why do they do it that way? Does the site’s information architecture reflect the information architecture of the print version? If not, how and why is it different? How does that make the site more or less appealing? Are there places where they need to make changes to make the site more accessible to their audience?

Assignment for Next Class

1. Read Ch 3-4 in Hot Text
2. Read Ch. 4 in Learning Web Design

How would you describe the textual and media-intensive features of the Web writing that you are examining for your research paper? How is information architecture used to structure and present content on the sites that you are studying?

Today we’ll:

1) Discuss client possibilities for the Collaborative Web Writing project.

A good client:

• Has a real need for a new Web site or an upgraded Web site.
• Requires a site that has a substantial amount of writing.
• Will let you talk with members of their group and their intended audience about their needs and the context for the site.
• Is not so complex that beginning designers could not take on the task.
• Can be created and edited during the semester.

For Monday, please make a blog post about possible organizations that you think would be good clients. The instructor will compile a list and ask people to vote on their favorites.

2) Learn about and discuss ways to analyze contexts for Web writing.

Download the PowerPoint presentation used in the discussion.

3) Practice analyzing the context for particular Web sites.

You’ll work in groups to analyze the context for a Web site given to you by the instructor. After you’ve answered the questions in the activity, put your group members’ names on it and e-mail it to the instructor (ekarper@niagara.edu).

Sites for Groups

1. The Onion
2. The White House
3. Salon
4. Flickr
5. Niagara University

4) Answer questions that you might have about the research paper.

Additional questions can be addressed to the instructor after class, during research time, or by e-mail, IM, or office visit.

5) Discuss possible sources of information for the research paper.

Possible sources that you could use in the research paper include:

• Sources of Web and print writing that you analyze
• Information about the genres that you are studying (definitions, descriptions, analyses)
• Information about the media sources you are studying (in general or specific)
• Information about trends in the genres or types of writing that you are studying
• Information about the technologies being used to present the writing you are analyzing
• Surveys or statistics that show evidence for trends, changes, preferences, or opinions related to producing or consuming the writing that you are studying
• Ideas, opinions, and theories about communication ideas and practices that help you to describe and analyze writing
• Analyses similar to the one you are conducting
• Guidelines for Web writing and/or print writing

So, if you were comparing the online version of USA Today’s sports section with the print version, you could read and use articles on:

• Print versions of USA Today and their Web site
• Articles that discuss, criticize or analyze how USA Today works as a newspaper and as a Web site
• Articles that discuss, criticize, analyze, or inform about sports journalism and sports section production in print or on the Web
• Theories or ideas about how journalism and/or Web writing works as genres (e.g. what makes “good” journalism or “good” Web writing, what are the conventions and expectations)
• Statistics or surveys about who reads USA Today in print and on the Web and who reads sports journalism in print and on the Web in general and what people think about it
• Articles about trends or changes in sports journalism, newspaper production, and journalism on the Web
• Articles about the technologies used to produce sports journalism in print and online

See the following collection of links to help you get started with your research.

6) Work on searching for sources and recording possible sources in your blog.

Before you leave, make sure you’ve recorded the citations for at least two sources in your blog and made a brief note as to why they’re useful.

Assignment for Next Class

1. Answer Question of the Week.
2. Blog about possible organizations that you could work with for Collaborative Web Project
3. Read pp. 17-27 in We’ve Got Blog
4. Reading from Information Architecture (Wodtke) given out in class

Please post the answer to this question to your blog by Monday, September 12.

Visit Technorati, a service which tracks events and topics in the blogosphere, and look at some of the most popular topics being discussed. What is popular in the blogosphere right now? Why do you think these topics are popular? How long do you think they will be popular? What do you think will take their place?