Planning a web page

The final stage is to plan each web page. If you want to score highly for Assessment Objective 1, you must create quite detailed plans. A detailed plan is one which makes it very clear what the finished product will look like. When you are planning a web page, ask yourself whether or not someone else could use your plan to create exactly the web page you can see in your mind.

There are a few things to remember when planning a web page:

·     You do not have to be a great artist!  If you cannot draw a tree, put a box where the picture of a tree would go on the finished web page and insert the text ‘picture of tree to go here’.

·     If you want to include text, you do not have to type it all in, but you would need to give some indication about what the text will be and also the style of writing you will use.

Tip

When you plan text, you do not have to include all of it, but you do need to give a bit more detail than ‘text to go here’. You should describe what the text will be about and the style. You should also give some indication of how long the piece of writing will be (maybe by saying how many words you will use), as well as describing all the details about font style, size and colour you would usually include.

·     Remember that just because your software sets things up with certain defaults, you cannot assume this is the same for everyone. The easiest one to forget is when you use white as a background colour. If you are used to white being set as a background colour, you may forget to include it in your design. However, someone else looking at your design may have different default settings and may choose to use a different setting for background colours. A simple rule of thumb here is to explain everything and do not leave anything to chance.

·     Show hyperlinks!  This may seem obvious but is often forgotten. Your design should show the type of hyperlink you will use, as well as the target of the hyperlink. If you are going to use a graphic hyperlink, you will need to include details about the graphic you will use, as well as all other details.

·     Show multimedia components. These would include any animations, video or sound you have chosen to include in your web page. Give some indication about what each multimedia component is.

Tip

Assessment Objective 5 requires you to include a user form in your completed website. We will look at how to create this later on but you will need to show a user form in the design you create at this stage. You should spend some time researching user forms on the Internet (and find a design you wish to copy) or jump ahead to Chapter 5 for some hints.