Basic Website Design Thoughts

1. I want to organize my website into categories.  My catagories will be constant tabs at the top of the website that users can access at any time (so if ever they are lost they can always hit the "Home" button).  I think this is the most clear way to lay out my website for easy use.

2. When thinking about what site paradigm best fits for a class/help webpage I think a service paradigm is best.  The service offered is teaching, the content is what is being taught in the classroom, and the "products" are the tools that I will include on the site for parents to use when helping their kiddos with homework and review.

3. I want to use a hierarchical structure in my website rather than sequential.  In my head I see my major topics at the top in my wire frame and then some of those major topics will have sub-topics within them.  For example, one of my main topics is "units of study"; under this main topic I envision links to pages for each unit of study we will cover throughout the year.

4. To envision my site organization I know that literally drawing the site on paper will work best for me.  Envisioning the organization of the site will be a large task, I know that trying to do that AND using a computer program to map it out will hinder my ability to put 100% into my organization.  I think of it like I do my students.  At the beginning of the year in my kindergarten class I don't ask students to write their answers for their science tests.  If I'm only testing their knowledge of science, I don't want them worried about answering science questions correctly AND writing them correctly. 

5. To do my wireframe I used the sketchpad app on my iPad and saved the picture to upload into this journal.  Because it's tricky to write words in any sort of paint program (and this app doesn't allow typing) it looks like a first grader got a hold of this project.  My apologies for the messiness.

The tabs at the top are my major topics.  After clicking a tab a page will come either with content or with links to click to go to sub-topics (like in the units page).  I chose to put my connect buttons on the left because of the way people follow the "F" eye-line when perusing text-heavy sites (particularly home pages).

My next step in my website creation process will be to choose a host site that will encompass most of what I want to include in my website.