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Web Design in ESL/EFL
[ Table of contents ]
[ Index to questions ][ Index to topics ]
Website design
Getting started
TIME AND RESOURCES
1. Is it even possible to make decent webpages with limited time and resources?
linked quotes:
"All the judges of the one-person Web entries complained about major faults, including
cheesy graphics, indecipherable text, illogical layouts, and other easily avoidable mistakes. The judges were also unanimous in their concern that most of the sites made visitors work too hard....lone entrepreneurs can easily avoid or fix most of the gaffes that bothered our judges, without putting in a lot of extra hours, hiring a full-time Web wizard, or going deep into debt."
-Anne Stuart, Home Groan, INC Magazine's design awards, 11/1/2001
other linked quotes:
Making your page ('01)
Putting it up ('01)
web resources:
HTML Quick-start Page (Charles Kelly)
Do it yourself page- how I started making webpages (TL).
Vance Stevens' Learning and Using HTML page, an excellent resource
Resources for Web Designers (TL)
Top 10 ways to irritate your visitors, Search Engine Forums, an introduction to what NOT to do
articles
Effective Webpage Design. Leverett, T., and Kelly, C. (2000). CALL-IS Newsletter 18, 1. This article resulted from the Discussion session at TESOL 2000, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
How to Make a Successful ESL/EFL Teacher's Web Page, Charles Kelly, in The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. III, No. 6, June 1997
other sources:
Bibliography
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN WEB DESIGN AND OTHER DESIGN
2. What is the appropriate balance of HOW IT LOOKS and WHAT IT DOES?
linked quotes:
"Anything that is a great print design is likely to be a lousy web design.
There are so many differences between the two media that it is necessary to
take different design approaches to utilize the strengths of each medium
and minimize its weaknesses. Print design is based on letting the eyes walk
over the information, selectively looking at information objects and using
spatial juxtaposition to make page elements enhance and explain each other.
Web design functions by letting the hands move the information (by
scrolling or clicking); information relationships are expressed temporally
as part of an interaction and user movement."
-Jakob Nielsen Alertbox 1/24/99
other linked quotes:
Webpage Design ('00)
Linkrot ('00)
articles:
Home Groan, INC magazine design awards, by Anne Stuart
other sources:
Bibliography
WHAT NOT TO DO
linked quotes
(from Top 10 Ways to irritate your visitors, Search Engine Forums:
Install a script to disable everyone's right mouse click button. -Jim, administrator
It is absolutely a great way to drive them off when they have to scroll from side to side... -Jim, administrator
Make your background dark and your text just a shade or two brighter... -Jim, administrator
Make sure your site is colorful! Use vast expanses of super-bright colors that cause them to strain and squint. Give them that staring-into-the-sun effect, and use text colors that force their eyes to constantly readjust as they try to read your text. Remember, you are not giving them a real "Web experience" unless looking away from the screen causes their color perception to shift dramatically."DianeV, 2/6/2001
Use enough JavaScript code to make even the most accomplished pro at Microsoft "ooh" and "ahh in appreciation of your incredible programming skills. Be sure to combine sufficient popup alert boxes (with requisite nonsensical messages), scrolling DHTML news panels, slide out menus, rollover, image swapsand script errors to create a veritable hodgepodge of aneurysm inducing effects which will have them running for cover- if not killing them outright.
Burt, 2/6/01
COPYRIGHT & COPYRIGHT LAW
3. What is ok to copy onto a webpage and what is not (for example: songs? clozes from song lyrics? exercises based on songs?) In what ways is copyright on the web different from copyright in the print world? And, how will the international nature of our audience and of the web itself affect the traditional western concept of copyright in the future?
articles:
Legal rulings on Image search and Metatags, Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Watch 2/19/2002, with links to similar articles.
Meta Tag Lawsuits, Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Watch, 2/19/02, updated cases on using copyrighted names in metatags
web resources:
Internet Society's Copyright page
World Intellectual Property Organization
Link Law, (1999) by Mark Sableman
World Cyberspace Law, (available to buy through Juris Publishing)
Bibliography
Innovation and Usability
4. What is the appropriate balance of innovation and usability?
linked quotes:
"Opponents of the usability movement claim that it focuses on stupid users and that most users can easily overcome complexity. In reality, even smart users prefer pursuing their own goals to navigating idiosyncratic designs. As Web use grows, the price of ignoring usability will only increase. "
-Jakob Neilson, Are Users Stupid? Alertbox 2/4/01
"Nowadays, it seems as though every web page designer likes the use of Flash, JavaScript, or in some cases - dynamic page generation tools like ASP, PHP, of Coldfusion's CFM. While these tools make database integration and visual appearance both simplified and amazing - it can also hinder the optimization value of a page - and do so in the eye of every search engine."
-Andrew Gerhart, in Importance of Clean HTML Code to Optimizaton, Search Engine Guide, 2/26/02
"The designers I know who have remained consistently busy through the dot com crash and then the general slowdown in the economy have all adopted a very practical attitude to Web design. The majority of paying clients, both large and small companies, require a highly useable site that looks good, but that does not confuse or frustrate visitors...It is not easy to create something very simple, and I believe it takes more artistic talent to create a beautiful page when the designer must work within usability restrictions."
-Wendy Peck, KISS: Keep it simple...Why? Webreference.com, 2/6/02
other linked quotes:
Website design ('01)
General Design & Usability ('00)
Flash & Shockwave ('01
)
articles:
Web design: Balancing usability and innovation, (-TL)(2001). CALL-IS Newsletter (newsletter of the Computer-Assisted Language Learning Interest Section of TESOL), 19, 1, July 2001. This article resulted from the Discussion session at TESOL 2001, St. Louis MO, USA.
other sources:
Bibliography
5. How can we find out what filesize inconveniences too many of
my users? What is your comfort level for "too many"? Is it OK to design a
site that won't allow 1,000 visitors to use the site? 2000? 3000?
Or put it in percents: 1% (1,000 visitors per 100,000)?.
resources:
Charles Kelly's Quick 'n' Easy HTML Filesize Reducer (2000): http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~ckelly/pc/htmlreducer.html
6. How obligated should I feel to make my pages printable for those who need to print? And how do I do that most effectively?
USABILITY FOR THE BLIND AND DISABLED
7. How obligated should I feel to provide access to the blind or handicapped? And how do I do that?
linked quotes:
"(One way to irritate visitors is to) Instead of boring old text, use 1.2 MB graphic files containing text. Not only does this discourage visitors with low-bandwidth connections, it keeps away those pesky sight-impaired visitors who depend on text."
-Watsonn, in Top 10 Ways to irritate your visitors, Search Engine Forums 8/28/2001
articles:
Beyond Accessibility: Treating Users with Disabilities as People. Neilson, Jakob (2001). Alertbox 11/11/2001
OTHER LANGUAGES/INTERNATIONALIZATION
8. How important is it to make my site available in other languages, and how do
I make that possible?
web resources:
How to Write Bilingual Pages, Charles Kelly
linked quotes:
Other languages, .asp, localization, etc. ('01)
01)
other sources:
Integration of innovation
9. What innovations are appropriate for what situations? How can we learn which ones are appropriate and when?
JAVA:
JAVASCRIPT:
background:
Vance Stevens' Javascript page, an excellent resource
linked quotes:
Javascript, bells & whistles ('00)
International Considerations-what machines are we being viewed from? ('00)
other sources:
FLASH AND SHOCKWAVE
linked quotes:
Flash and Shockwave ('01)
other sources:
Bibliography
SPLASH
linked quotes:
"(One way to irritate your visitors is) Splash page. You gotta have a Splash page. Lots of slow loading animation. If you can combine this with the requirement to download another obscure plug-in, you'll have hit a home run. I'm especially impressed by the many sites that have upped the ante to include two splash pages before you ever get to even the first word of content. Stunning! Brilliant!
Jim, administrator, in Top 10 ways to irritate your visitors, Search Engine Forums 2/5/2001
DHTML
10. How do cross-platform issues affect our design strategy? For example, what kinds of things should we avoid in order to NOT cause javascript errors, etc. for users? And how can we find these out?
sources:
The Ultimate JavaScript Client Sniffer, Version 3.03: Determining Browser Vendor, Version, and Operating System With JavaScript, (Netscape).
Netscape Developers' Articles on Javascript
Bibliography
11. What role can we as designers take to put pressure on companies like Microsoft so that Netscape/Internet Explorer don't have endless communication problems?
sources:
Bibliography
Future of the web
12. To what degree will the increasingly diverse nature and use of the web (including video, music, etc.) affect the way we understand and use design? Specifically, what changes will broadband, wireless, iTV and other innovations bring?
background:
BROADBAND:
WIRELESS
linked quotes:
Wireless ('01)
iTV
sources:
Bibliography
[ Effective Webpage Design ] [ Program Marketing ] [ Resources for Web Designers ] [ Bibliography ]
photo (Spider Web) by Jim Leverett
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Page made and maintained by
Thomas Leverett, CESL, SIUC
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