1. What is the fundamental organizing principle that you will use for your site?

• Meeting the needs of the users is the fundamental organizing principle in website design, and it will therefore be the organizing principle that I will use for my own website.

2. What are the five basic steps your will use to organize the information in your site?

• The five steps that will be necessary to organize the information in my website are:
  1. Divide the content into logical units – I will logically divide my content according to who it pertains to (i.e. students, field instructors).
  2. Establish a hierarchy of importance among the units – each unit or topic area will contain information that is divided and organized according to importance.
  3. Use the hierarchy to structure relations among units – the hierarchy will be structured according to relationships within the unit, i.e. how the student is placed, special considerations in the placement process, specific placement issues.
  4. Build a site that closely follows my information structure – the website that I create will closely follow the structure of my information.
  5. Analyze the functional and aesthetic success of my system – the site will be analyzed to ensure that the order of information makes sense and that it enables smooth navigation and effective use of the website.

3. How will you use “chunking of information” in your design?

• Because my website will contain a lot of essential information, I will need to chunk my information. In this way, rather than having pages and pages of long text, it will be broken down and specific information can then be quickly located and scanned by the reader. I will accomplish this by breaking down the information into sections and related subsections and presenting the information in an organized, uniform format.

4. What is the hierarchy of importance in your upcoming site? List the sections that you will create in their hierarchy of importance.

• My hierarchy of importance will begin with a general overview of field practice, provided on the home page, and move through specific topics/content areas and subtopics of those areas. Information will be arranged in order of importance and organized by relationships between topics.
  1. Home Page
  2. Overview of Field Practice
  3. Information for Field Instructors
  4. Information for Students
  5. Evaluation and Grading
  6. Forms and Resources
  7. Contacts Page
  8. Site Map

5. Lynch and Horton present three site structural themes. Which of these will you use and why?

• The three structural themes presented by Lynch and Horton are sequences, hierarchies, and webs. My website will be structured as a hierarchy in which the topic areas will progress from general content (menu) to specific information within each content area (sub menus). It will be organized around the homepage and in logical sequence, and each page will have links to other related information within the website.

6. Which homepage design strategy will you use and why?

• The homepage serves as point of entry into the website, and as such it is the first page the readers will see and scan for information. Because my website will include a lot of information, I will use a path-based home page. By using this homepage design strategy, readers can immediately navigate to the area that most interests them or to the topic that they need specific information about. My audience will consist of people who are looking for different information, be it students or field instructors, and a path-based homepage will allow them to immediately find the specific information that they are looking for. In this way my home page will serve as a front door that welcomes the readers and as an anchor for site navigation.

7. Discuss the pros and cons of using graphics on the homepage. Describe the graphics that you will use on your homepage.

• A graphics-based homepage can be very attractive and attention-grabbing, but graphics may be slow to load for those with slow network connections and, if overused or not used properly, can even be distracting. It is important to keep the goals of the website and the audience in mind when deciding whether or not to use graphics. Because my website will be educational and its main purpose will be to transmit information, I will most likely keep graphics to a minimum. I am planning to use a graphic banner at the top of my homepage that will consist of a UTCSW logo and will be consistent on all of the web pages within my website. I will possibly use image maps, but I'll need to give this more thought as I'd like to use graphics as enhancements rather than focal points of the website

8. What will the contents of your menu be?

• My menu will include:
  1. Home Page
  2. Overview of Field Practice
  3. Information for Field Instructors
  4. Information for Students
  5. Evaluation and Grading
  6. Forms and Resources
  7. Contacts Page
  8. Site Map

• Menu with submenu for each content area :
  1. Home Page (main menu)
  2. Sub menu 1 - Overview of Field Practice
     • Program mission and goals
     • Programs offered
     • Professional curriculum, curriculum content, goals, and objectives
       • Foundation practicum
       • Concentration practicum (foundation and concentration)
  3. Sub menu 2 - Information for Field Instructors
     • Educational philosophy and approach
     • Criteria for selection of field agencies and instructors
     • Field instructor certification training and recognition
     • Agency agreements
     • Forms for field instructors
  4. Sub menu 3 - Information for students
     • Placement process
     • Special considerations in placement
     • Planning for field practice
     • Regulations regarding students in field practice
     • Placement reassignment or removal
     • Misc. student information (liability insurance, transportation, safety training, orientation, etc)
     • Forms for students
  5. Sub menu 4 - Evaluation and Grading
     • Learning goals and objectives
     • Evaluation of student performance in field practice
     • Grading policy
     • Learning plans and evaluation forms
  6. Sub menu 5 - Resources and Forms
     • Code of Ethics
     • National Association of Social Workers
     • Field site (agency) listings, short descriptions
     • All field forms (PDF documents)
  7. Sub menu 6 - Contact Information
     • Contact information for MSSW field coordinators
     • College of Social Work contact information
     • Webpage designer contact information
     • Feedback/information request form
  8. Sub menu 7 - Site map

9. What will the site map consist of?

• My site map will consist of links to each of the pages within my website, organized by topic area so that the reader can quickly find exactly what he/she is looking for. It will function as an expanded table of contents that gives an overview of the contents of the website.