Design - continued .....

Navigation: The items were grouped. Ths was implemented by having a navigation bar along the top of the screen.

Although a search engine was considered on the site, and is recommended by various sources. It was concluded that a search engine would not be necessary for such a website due to its small size. Moreover, there are no articles on the website that would require a user to search for a specific topic. When I asked Mr. X whether he would like a search engine on the website, he replied saying make the navigation good so that the users would not need a search engine. The navigation bar would therefore have to be very clear to the user to give clear direction as to what is on the website and how to get there.

The buttons on the navigation bar should be relatively large. This is established from Fitts' Law, which states MT = a + b log2(2A/W), where MT is the movement time, a and b are constants, A is the distance from the start to the target centre and W is the width of the target. The greater the width of the target is the less the movement time is. As the navigation menu is the tool that the users use to traverse through the site, it is important that the user can click on the link rapidly.

Graphics should be used to show real content, not just to decorate your homepage. As the website has to attract students and academics, it would be beneficial to have pictures that would relate to each group of users such as a picture of a student on holiday to attract students. When deciding upon graphics and animation it is also imperative to take into account the download time. A common rule is that users become impatient if the page does not load within a relatively short time on a dial up modem. This was also established in the focus groups and interviews that were conducted. The pages should therefore contain minimal graphics to avoid long download times and distractions.

Animation is a very powerful tool that can attract users to a specific part of the page and convey information. It however has been found to distract, mislead and aggravate users if used improperly. This produced a problem, for if one part of the page contains animation, it will distract the user from the rest of the page. Furthermore, as the website is aimed at three distinct categories of users, animating information for one group would distract the attention of the other two groups. It was therefore decided not to have animation on the site.

Colours: A common mistake with web design is to use colours inappropriately. If the foreground and background colours have too little contrast between them, the text becomes unreadable. The best contrast is black text on white background. Black on white was implemented originally, but the staff at ABC requested for a shade of blue as the text colours to resemble the company colours. Blue is generally used for a background colour however due to the eye being most sensitive to it. The darker blue was therefore chosen as the text colour. This colour has proved to be acceptable when tested on a colour-blind user. As the page is a fixed width, a light blue colour was chosen as the background to generate a comfortable and relaxed feeling.

Site Layout