List and briefly explain at least five of the issues to consider when planning Web pages.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

When planning Web pages, several important issues must be considered:
• Purpose — Decide on the site’s intended use; for example, advertising, direct sales, business-to-business tasks, prospect generation, employee communications, customer support, information, or education.

• Audience — Take into account the target population and the characteristics, preferences, Web experience, and computer systems of the audience, and adapt the site design accordingly.

• Viewer expectations — Examine the Web page to see if links and other elements are located in common places, test the ease of navigation and form fields, check for usability issues, and so on. Navigation elements, such as buttons and tabs, typically are placed on the top or left side of a Web page.

• Nature of planned elements or content — Make sure that text, images, color, and animation are used judiciously and with purpose.

• Viewer’s visual impact — Research shows that Web users form first impressions of Web pages in as little as 50 milliseconds, making nearly instantaneous judgments of a Web site’s visual appeal, including the loading speed, perceived credibility, usability, and attraction.

• Page’s placement within the Web site structure — Careful planning of the home page, secondary page(s), links, and accompanying folders involves standard naming conventions, file hierarchy, and structure.