Papers in PDF format

server change. When we had our own server the deep directories had not seemed a problem and the use of
upper and lower cases seemed to make it easier to read the document name. However when our site was a
moved to a university server, we had document names such as:
http://www.byu.edu/acd1/ed/InSci/People/Faculty/MerrillVita.html. The need for careful naming is obvious the
first time one tries to say that URL aloud specifying the correct cases.
Off-site links need to be routinely checked to see if they are still current. We have created numerous
directories of information for our students. It generally takes about an hour to validate all the links on one of
these documents and to update it with new additions. Scheduling time for this routine maintenance is vital. If
users come to a site and many of its links are useless, they will stop coming. Not only do links need to be
updated, the general site design also needs review as new features become available through extensions to the
HTML code. Keeping current with these expanding capabilities of browsers has become one of the major
challenges for us. The technology is evolving so rapidly that as new features become available, new solutions
to navigation and layout problems become feasible. While creating added difficulties for us designers, (we are
continually revising pages) these features have allowed our site to become increasing more user friendly.
Conclusion
One of the major lessons we learned in developing our site is that the design process is not a linear, purely
sequential process. It was more akin to laying track under a moving train as new features were introduced.
We created a document, tested it, worked on resolving its flaws, revised it just in time for new features to be
introduced opening up possibilities for better solutions. One major challenge we faced was knowing when to
settle for what we had. We are still fine tuning the documents and will be shortly completely revising the site
in response to the lessons we learned and giving the site an updated look.
Another major lesson we learned was the importance for continual formative and summative evaluations using
different browsers and different platforms. We would design a document we felt was very readable and would
put in what we felt was a logical location. When we asked a student to locate it, or even more embarrassingly,
when we would try to locate it later, it would have seemed to disappear. Its location was no longer obvious.
User testing revealed several such weaknesses. Evaluation also alerted us to problems with slow load time and
platform specific difficulties. We developed our documents on Macs using the latest versions of Netscape.
Sometimes when we viewed them on other platforms, or other browsers, the document were incredibly ugly or
unreadable.
Our experiences have motivated us to make changes in how we create Web projects in the College of
Education. We have created policies and guidelines for the College of Education Web use. We have now
established a Web Advisory Team to oversee and to provide direction for our projects. We have formed a Web
Development Team utilizing both undergraduate and graduate students interns. We are now devoting part of
the team’s development time to inservice where we can keep current with the rapidly evolving technology. We
have assigned a student to maintain our resource documents.
The creation of useful Web sites takes a commitment of time and resources. It takes effort and careful
planning. The results of these efforts, however, are sites that satisfy the needs of those accessing them.
Examples and references may be seen at:
http://www.byu.edu/acd1/ed/workshops/design.html