Web Design Guidelines and Principles

This page will contain general guidelines and principles for the web sites, along with discussion.

JavaScript must be optional

JavaScript is useful for making web pages easier to use, but it can also present some potential security problems. As a result, some schools disable JavaScipt, and some users will choose to turn off JavaScript in their browsers. Our web sites may make use of JavaScript, but the user must be able to do useful work even if JavaScript is turned off.

Treat clicks like a golf score

Important tasks or functions or pages should be reachable from the top "entrance" page in only a few clicks. This is more important for returning users who know what they are doing. So a useful exercise is to consider various use cases (new -vs- returning user, teacher -vs- student) and count the number of clicks required to get to various places or accomplish certain tasks. The primary tasks and important pages need to have the lowest number of clicks, so treat it as a golf score. Depending on how important a task or page is, it may have a high or low par. The question to ask is if the "par" for that task is acceptable.

Designing web sites for use by minors

• http://ikeepsafe.org/iksc_educators/ - Internet Keep Safe Coalition

-- Main.EricMyers - 29 Apr 2008