IndiaLine net.INTERACTIVE: Designing Large-Scale Web... -
[Cached Version]
Published on: 10/18/1997
Last Visited: 3/19/2001
Author : Darrell Sano
...
Designing Large- Scale Web Sites by Darrell Sano provides a well-developed methodology for the various stages involved in planning , designing , and creating rich , multimedia , interactive Web sites.
The book is well-written , profusely illustrated , and comprehensive ; topics covered include constraints of Web publishing , task-flow diagramming , visual design elements for layout and navigation , and Netscape extensions to HTML like FRAMESET.Darrell Sano is a user-interface designer with Netscape ; he was formerly with Sun Microsystems and Silicon Graphics.While at Sun , he designed the Web site for the 1994 Soccer World Cup tournament , the world's most popular sporting event.
The book includes eight pages of full-colour illustrations of Web pages and organisational charts.The material is divided into five chapters , and a bibliography.For further reading , Sano recommends books like Multimedia and Hypertext : The Internet and Beyond by Jakob Nielsen , Designing Visual Interfaces : Communication-Oriented Techniques by Kevin Mullet and Darrell Sano , and magazines like New Media and Internet World. Useful online resources include the Web sites of Silicon Graphics and Netscape.For further reading , Sano recommends books like Multimedia and Hypertext : The Internet and Beyond by Jakob Nielsen , Designing Visual Interfaces : Communication-Oriented Techniques by Kevin Mullet and Darrell Sano , and magazines like New Media and Internet World. Useful online resources include the Web sites of Silicon Graphics and Netscape.
...
Web site design , especially for large sites , requires collaboration between programmers , visual designers , editors , and marketers , says Sano.In addition to providing useful information , a large-scale Web site can host user activities like chat , online shopping , database search , games , and internal communication at an organisation.Sano illustrates the use of such practices through Web sites like the San Jose Mercury News , HotWired , CD Now , Bank of America , and the Discovery Channel.
Web publishers must understand the various constraints on the medium : user computer platforms vary , users have some control on the final display , connection speeds can differ widely , Web browsers and servers have differing capabilities , spatial navigation and conceptualisation in the online medium can be difficult for users , and there are possibilities of copyright violations of information posted online.Other challenges include keeping up with the fast pace of technological developments.
One chapter focuses on principles of organisational design.All possible uses , activities , and situations must be anticipated and accommodated by the architect , planned for inclusion in the structure , and specified through the blueprint , says Sano.For sites with large content , Sano advises providing users with browsing and direct search facilities , as well as the ability to customise the interface.
Sano illustrates such principles by developing the storyboard used for the World Cup server , which categorised and prioritised user tasks and needs into geography-specific information ( such as location of game , transportation options ) , dynamic activity ( e.g. game scores ) , and more static information like composition of the teams and rules for soccer.
Main groupings and subgroups of information in a web site are ordered into a hierarchy based on precedence , significance , and frequency of access , explains Sano.Navigational information should be captured via task-flow diagrams which map user actions through the steps required to attain a specific goal.Such diagrams can be refined through paper-prototype sketching which include cross-links and vertical links.Pages can be classified into different types : home pages , login pages , intermediate navigation pages , registration pages , personal pages , help pages , content pages , and pages displaying search queries and results.
Having arrived at such a structural representation of the information space for users , the next step is to determine overall visual design principles within and across individual pages.Navigational aids can be enhanced by providing visually differentiated controls for local as opposed to global functionality.
...
Sano once again illustrates such principles in the World Cup site design which communicated the colour and carnival atmosphere of the sporting event via different kinds of banners , backgrounds , icons , official logos , and use of the stadium metaphor.From a visual design perspective , nodes sharing a common parent also should share some common visual traits , while nodes in separate trees appear visually differentiated , explains Sano.
The final chapter focuses on Netscape extensions to HTML.The most useful set of extensions is associated with images , and includes ALIGN , WIDTH , HEIGHT , BORDER , SIZE , NOSHADE , TABLE , CELLPADDING , SCROLLING , and FRAMESET.Tables are useful for positioning groups of images and their hypertext link equivalent.FRAMESET documents provide the opportunity to design effective navigational structures by revealing multiple views of the Web site hierarchy , says Sano.
This capability can be used in other ways too - for instance , a search query window could be visible in one frame and the search results in another.Frames also eliminate the need to redraw the entire browser window , according to Sano.This feature can be used for stock quotes , news headlines , animations , and interactive advertisements.
In sum , the book provides a useful , practical approach to the design of large-scale Web sites.Some more tips on issues of design for an international audience , or future directions using Java and VRML , would have been a useful addition to the material.Still , the book is a valuable addition to the growing literature on Web page design.
9 online sources [ view sources ]
Profile is not claimed [ this is me ]
