Ch 7. Site Seeing

-The home page is an entrance to your site. It is the doorway to the content. It has some sort of navigation and includes some important features. It meets the specific needs of the user coming to the site for the first time.

-The introduction; this lets the audience know what your web site is going to be about. It helps establish an identity and is the most powerful for first time visitors.

-The announcements or news section is usually on the home page, to let people know of exciting information to let them know that you are an active site. For example, when I redo the Amistad Atlantic Freedom tour web site, there will be announcements showing where the ship is currently located as well as a main news entry as to what is happening in the ship's travels.

-The hierarchy of the page is very important. Users need to be able to quickly differentiate between things so they can get around the web site with ease.

-Avoid using too many boxes as a visual separator. It will result in a very cluttered and congested look. Visual boxes can be created without actually drawing a box on the screen with graphics. Text placement and other visual elements will help to create these invisible lines which are used to separate things visually.