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Planning Your Site

Overview

The first step in successfully creating an accessible and usable web site, is to plan accordingly. Gathering as much information about the site as possible is usually a good place to start. If you know exactly what information the site will contain, you should be better able to decide exactly what kind of menu systems, styles and general page layout will be required. If you are re-working an existing site, then this step is already out of the way! There are several major components to take into consideration when planning your site. In this section, we will go into some of those steps in greater detail.

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Common Look and Feel

One of the primary benefits of using The Template System is that your site maintains a common look and feel between pages. This is important both as a rule of design, and as an addition to the 'Ease of Use' category of web accessibility. Users may find that navigating a site that uses several variations of a design can be confusing. If the site maintains a common look and feel, then the menu systems remain in the same place, the content is always placed in the proper area, and any site tools (such as search forms or useful links) are readily available. The user does not have to seek these features out, because they are always in the same place.

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Site Navigation Standards

Perhaps one of the most important aspects of any web site lies in its menu system. If users cannot effectively navigate the site, the chances that they will be able to locate the information that they are seeking become less likely. An example of this would be to break down the entire site into simple categories. Each category covers logically connected areas of information. This categorized menu system would allow users essentially 'drill down' into the site, narrowing the available options based on what they are seeking. An example from this site, for someone who was interested in learning more about the Template System would be choosing 'Design Tutorials' from the main left-hand menu, and then selecting the sub-category 'Overview of the Template System' to reach this page. Further navigation could then be added. For example, within this page, there are several sections of information, separated by subject headings. You will notice that at the top of this page, there is an 'In-Page' menu system, that allows users to more easily navigate the information within this document only.

Another example of a standard navigational tool is the Bread Crumb navigation. This is located between the Site Header and Main Menu on each page. This menu system allows users to backtrack through the path that they followed to reach the current page. It is a simple, yet effective way of minimizing the menu structure, while maximizing site usability.

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Naming Conventions

The format in which you choose to name your files may seem trivial on the surface, but can have far reaching benefits for both developer and user alike. A good rule of thumb to follow is that files should be named in a manner that makes sense for the files contents. For example, if a page contains a link that downloads a Word Document, and the contents of that Word Document relate to the Year 2004 Budget Plan, a good name for that file might be something like: 2004budgetplan.doc. Some important things to note about this method:

• The filename should not contain spaces or special characters. The reasoning for this is that different browsers, and in some cases, different versions of the same browser, may interpret the filename differently.
• The filename should use only lowercase letters and numbers. Filenames that use a different case in the title may create issues with some older browsers. And example of this would be: 2004BudgetPlan.DOC.

Likewise, all HTML files, images and scripts should follow suit. Naming conventions fall more under best practices than required formatting. Each developer is an individual, and thusly, each developer will probably have unique method for naming their files. The important thing to remember is that not all browsers work alike, and not all users can discern a file's title they same way that you can.

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Directory Structure

The Template System uses a predefined Directory Structure. Here we will examine that structure, and explain each directory's contents. The directory at the top most level of any site is commonly called the Root Directory. This directory holds all of the sub-directories, as well as all of the Shell Files. Within the Root Directory, we will place several sub-directories. These sub-directories will hold all of the different files that we will use to build the site. The actual structure like so:

• Root Directory - Holds all of the Shell Files, as well as the sub-directories listed below.
  • Downloads - Contains downloadable documents such as Word and Adobe PDF files.
  • Images - Holds all of the images that are used throughout the site.
  • Includes - Stores the Navigational Include Files.
  • Scripts - Contains any scripts that the site may call to. Also holds the ever-important Cascading Style Sheets.

Within this Directory Structure, all of our files have a predefined place to reside. This helps keep the site organized, and also allows for easier maintenance.

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