HIS 218
Unit 4: Building a Web Culture (Style Design Standards and HTML 5)

The entrance to Hyde Park, London, in the 1970s. Photo credit C. T. Evans.

Short introduction

When you do anything publicly on the web, you should be aware that there are certain basic style guidelines that you should observe. In a way this is not much different than observing specific formatting requirements when writing a paper for publication. By putting something on the web, you are publicizing, and so you should follow generally-accepted standards.

What you must do in this unit

• Read Rosenzweig Getting Started and Designing for the History Web.
• Read this week's note on Building a Web Culture (Style Design Standards).
• Watch the video on Building a Web Culture (Style Design Standards and HTML 5).
• Web Accessibility (ADA guidelines) are an important consideration for any web project. There are many tools available to check on accessibility guidelines.
• Check out some web design information:
  • Web Style Guide, 3rd ed.
  • 4 Key Principles of Website Design
  • As a student at NVCC you have access to all of the software tutorials by Hoonuit. These tutorials will help you use different software packages that are important to web design. Look for the links to the tutorials on the NOVA website.)
  • W3C Web Standards
  • Of course, there is my very old now The New Web Design Center (This is a very old project that I no longer maintain and which was once located on a NOVA web server.)
  • The use of color is an important part of successful web design. Check out: Colors on the Web,The Meaning of Colors,Kuler.

Submit

• Post on your blog (5 points): (a) When you work on your blog, try using some different style examples (subheads for sections, a numbered list, an unnumbered list, bold or italicized words, a link, and an image) and explain your revisions; (2) comment on the importance of style considerations from your reading this week in Rosenzweig and the style websites. Please let me know in Canvas when you have posted so that I can grade.

Extra credit options

• Please suggest any online materials relevant to this unit of the course.

Unit learning objectives

• Upon successful completion of this unit, you will be able to (1) describe key principles of good web design and (2) demonstrate a level of familiarity with the software tools frequently used for the design of digital historical materials.