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IT 130 -- Web Site Plan

Read this document before completing your website plan: Final Website Project Description.

Web Site Plan Components

Before you upload your web site, you must submit a Website plan, submitted as an MS-Word document. Here are the essential components of your plan.

  1. General Concept.   With one or two sentences, briefly indicate the topic and general goal of your Web site.
     
  2. Information Architecture (also called Navigation Architecture)    Sketch out how the content of the site will be organized across several Web pages. At this point, you will list what will appear on each page but not how it will appear visually. Usually this information is specified as a graph indicating the title of each page and how the pages are linked by hyperlinks. Display each page as a rectangle containing the page title. Display the hyperlinks as arrows linking the rectangles.   The information architecture sketch must either be drawn using MS Word or drawn by hand, scanned in, and included in your document. 
     
  3. Low-fidelity designs.   For this stage, you start specifying how each page appears. Many choose to create paper and pencil drawings because they are quick and easy to create and allow for many fast changes. For your project, create some page designs with paper and pencil and use them as a starting point for creating your Web site. Include these low-fidelity designs as part of your project. Either scan them in and include them in your MS Word document, or use MS Word itself to make your drawings as we discussed in class. As you design your pages, consider the following principles:
     
    1. Maintain a consistent layout and style across your pages.
       
    2. For each page, consider what you want your user to first see. Use visual variables such as size and font style to draw the user’s attention to the most important elements first. You will also want to consider color and alignment.
       
    3. Decide what elements should be grouped on a page. Use placement and similar heading styles to show the user which elements are thematically grouped.
       
    Submit your low fidelity designs as drawings in your MS-Word document.
    Grading criteria for the website plan: 20% for the general concept, 30% for the information architecture, 50% for the low fidelity designs.  

Requirements for Website Plan

  1. The website plan must be finished before creating your website.
     
  2. Submit your website plan as an MS Word document. You can include hand drawn sketches that are scanned in and inserted into your document .
     
  3. Do not submit pages from the actual website.
     
  4. Your website plan must contain the four sections described in the section Web Site Plan Components.
     
  5. Sketches (Information Architecture and Low Fidelity Designs) must either be drawn using software like MS Word or drawn by hand. Hand drawings must be scanned in and embedded in your document. No hardcopies of the Website Plan will be accepted.