Lesson 7
Objective
Develop a storyboard to outline your plans.
Whether you are building a site from the ground up, creating a
site for an existing company, or planning a significant addition, you should use a technique referred to as "storyboarding" before you begin
coding and implementing your site.
Storyboarding is the process of creating an overall plan showing structure, sequence, and connections of each logical step, as well as the details surrounding Web pages or nodes. Such details include how each aspect of your Web site maps to your business goals.
Front-end plans
Storyboarding is the process of creating an overall plan showing structure, sequence, and connections of each logical step, as well as the details surrounding Web pages or nodes. Such details include how each aspect of your Web site maps to your business goals.
As far as the front end is concerned, three common types of storyboards are:
- Linear
- Hierarchical
- Random These are described in the FlipBook below.
In a random storyboard, the main page links to other pages, loosely related, but arranged in no specific order.
When using a random structure, provide links to guide users to various places in your site.
There is a fine line between a well-constructed random area of a Web page and a site area that is merely a hodgepodge of poorly thought-out pages. One of the reasons Yahoo is so popular is not necessarily because it has the most information. Rather, it excels at directing users to information in a relatively easy, quick manner.
Back-end concerns
When using a random structure, provide links to guide users to various places in your site.
There is a fine line between a well-constructed random area of a Web page and a site area that is merely a hodgepodge of poorly thought-out pages. One of the reasons Yahoo is so popular is not necessarily because it has the most information. Rather, it excels at directing users to information in a relatively easy, quick manner.
During the storyboard phase, you may also be planning your architecture and functional needs. To do this you must determine what servers,
programs, and hardware will be required for your site. If you plan on having a login area, you need to provide a database, as well as some
way to connect to it. This demands the use of a common gateway interface (CGI) solution. Server side scripting options include:
Enterprise database solutions are equally numerous:
In the next lesson, we will describe the business concerns that must be addressed by your site.
- Active Server Pages (ASP)
- Perl (Practical extraction Report Language)
- (JSP) - Java Server Pages
- Cold Fusion
- Personal Home Pages (PHP5)
Enterprise database solutions are equally numerous:
- Oracle 9i/10G
- Microsoft SQL Server 2005
- IBM DB2
- MySQL V
If you are planning a gaming site, for example, you will likely require higher bandwidth than other sites. If you wish to provide live video, then you will need streaming audio server software. You will learn more about physical site design and hardware issues in a later module.
