Designing and Maintaining Web Pages

Research
Know your audience (demographics). Think about who will be visiting/viewing your pages and anticipate what information will best fit their needs. Look at other web sites for ideas.

Create an Identity for Your Pages
Decide what you want your web pages to "say" visually, technologically and verbally about your department to its viewers as your web pages will reflect the identity of your department.

Gather your Building Materials
Collect all the information, text and graphics that you will need to create your pages.

Consider Page Layout
Design a visual layout which is easy to use, is clear and consistent and provides a balance between visual and text information. Templates are available for ease in creating/updating your web pages and to ensure your pages adhere to the college guidelines.

Be User-Friendly
Design a well-balanced menu and navigational structure that helps users understand how your material is organized and how to navigate your pages. Make sure users know where they are by clearly identifying pages. Also, provide links to Lane's Home Page, the first page of your department and any other pages that may contain key menus for your audience.

Create Your Pages
Create your pages using HTML (hypertext markup language). You can do this with an HTML editor or a basic text editor. Lane recommends and supports Macromedia's Dreamweaver. Contact Lori Brenden in Information Technology, (Ext. 3354) for more information.

Test Your Pages
View and test your pages on a variety of operating systems, browsers, and modem speeds so that problems such as misalignment, broken graphics and incorrect spacing can be avoided. Test links, e-mail, user-friendliness, downloading speeds, and graphics. This is important because different browsers, operating systems and modem speeds will display your pages differently. What might appear to look and work well on one might not look or work so well on another. The college's Instructional Technology Center has a variety of different browsers you can use, as well as advanced technological software and equipment.

Keep your Pages Current and Enticing
Update your pages frequently. It is the responsibility of the department head to ensure that information is kept current, that links (e-mail and others) work and that pages are consistent with the college's Computing and Networking Appropriate Use Policy and formatting guidelines. The internet and its technologies are constantly evolving.