Structure and Design for History on the Web

historychannel.com, circa 1996

via web.archive.org

About LEADR

  • Collaborative space for students to build digital projects and explore digital techniques
  • Equipment, software, & general support for projects
  • Open & staffed 10am-8pm Mon-Thu, 10-5pm Fri

Focus on Your Audience

  • Who is your audience?
  • What message do you want to convey?
  • How can you make this message clear?
  • How will your audience navigate?
  • How can your structure aid your message?

http://www.telikin.com/cms/index.php/post/why-a-senior-computer

Visual Cues for Reading

Above: http://www.wikihow.com/Start-a-College-Essay 

 

Right: http://www.buzzfeed.com/christianzamora/taylor-swift-emojis-you-never-knew-you-needed

The "F Pattern"

http://www.pixelchefs.com/blog/small-business-web-design-reader-habits/

Long Form Writing for the Web

  • Structure writing
  • Break up text where it's logical
  • Add photos when appropriate
  • Simple, but not boring
  • Watch line length (50-75 characters)

Examples

*Weebly Tip*

Design > Change Themes > Custom Themes > Edit

Change width of content-wrapper

See 

http://www.w3schools.com/css/ for guidance on customization

Images

Photo: Science and Society Picture Library. 

Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, 1840.

http://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/results.asp?image=10312035

  • Use trustworthy repositories for photos
    • Start with lib.msu.edu
    • dp.la and europeana.eu
  • Make sure to cite your resources
    • Image captions work great 
  • Be mindful of licensing and reuse

Copyright & Fair Use

  • Current US Copyright: Author's life + 70 yrs (after 1922)
    • Enter 'Public Domain' after copyright expires
    • Works created & published outside of US have different licenses
  • Fair Use - "the grayest area of copyright law"
    • “fair use of a copyrighted work … for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright"
  • What about a digital photo of a public domain work?

Summarized from Cohen, Daniel J. and Roy Rosenzweig, "Owning the Past," Digital History: A Guide to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web http://chnm.gmu.edu/digitalhistory/copyright/

Citations

Best Practices

  • Brief citations in parentheses OR footnotes using [1], [2]
  • 'Works Cited' page or section at the end of each page
  • Consult recommended Manual of Style

http://digitalhumanities.unl.edu/resources/

students/blocke/newsboys/background.html

Thanks!

Need Help?

  • http://slides.com/brandontlocke/lb336
  • Stop by LEADR (112 Old Horticulture Hall)
  • Email: leadr@msu.edu

Principles of Historical Web Site Design

By brandontlocke

Principles of Historical Web Site Design

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