BNB 2000 Website, Education: Student

National Women's History Project
Janet Zagoria
PO Box 462
Forestville, CA 95436
Tel: 707-887-9187

http://zagdesign.com/sites/nwhp.html

Watch a video about this project. Broadband (DSL or Cable Modem) recommended.
QuickTime (.mov) recommended for Mac & PC
Windows Media (.wmv) recommended for PC

The National Women's History Project is a nonprofit educational organization and a clearinghouse of information for the historic accomplishments of women in history. Recognized for their pioneering work by the White House and national educational associations, NWHP is now in its 20th year.

This site is a total redesign of an existing site and was done for a Business of Web class at the Santa Rosa Junior College. I first designed the home page and two inside pages in Photoshop. I put up the jpgs created from those files on the Web for the client to see.

I based the color scheme from a design NWHP recently used for their printed catalog and poster. I revised it into a logo which is repeated on every page and, when clicked, will take you back to the home page.

Once the design was approved by the client, I built the graphics in Photoshop, Illustrator and BBEdit, wrote the code for the html, JavaScript for the rollover buttons, images and pop-up windows and the side navigation image maps for the 24 pages. From doing it this way, I got a better understanding of how to translate from Photoshop to html.

I was given many photos by the History Project of varying quality to use on the site. I donated two of my own photos taken when I was a professional photographer in the 80s. I made all the photos a duotone and gave them a screened-back look to mitigate their intensity on the pages. Each image of the women rolls over on the home page and each inside page to give a short bio. There is a quote on each inside page by the woman appearing on the page. There is navigation for each section located on the left side. They are image maps.

On the site map, I made the top part a graphical map of the site structure. These graphics are the same that appear on all the pages. I included a text only map at the bottom for those more comfortable with that type of navigation. I also included text only navigation on the bottom of every page along with some core information for the NWHP.

The History Quiz located in The Learning Place section has pop-up windows for the answers. This page also links to a printable page designed for use by teachers.

This site was tested in various venues. My team wrote a different set of questions for each type of tester. About 15-20 of the classmates in my class tested it, letting us know the type of computer, size of monitor, browser, type of Internet connection they were using and download times. They also commented on design, navigation and what worked and didn't. Since one target market for this site was students and teachers, I also set up a testing at a local high school class that consisted of Freshmen to Seniors. We had teachers, the client and generally interested people test it, again asking for specific feedback. The last part of testing was by the team on a variety of computer set ups and in a lab built for the disabled.