Unit in brief

Learners will create a simple website using graphical tools for a specific purpose.

Unit introduction

How often do you use a website? Have you ever wondered how they are made? Websites have many purposes such as to promote an event, advertise products or services and provide information. In this unit, you will explore different types of websites for a specific audience and purpose. You will learn how to design a website for an audience and purpose and will develop skills to create an appropriate layout. You will use tools and techniques to add functionality, like navigation buttons and linking pages, so that the website is appealing and easy to use. Once complete you will review the finished website and make recommendations for improvement.

This unit will help you develop skills in planning and designing a website that will support your progression to a number of different sectors, as well as to other qualifications in computing or website development. The transferable and sector skills you develop in this unit can enable you to progress to further learning. They will also support you in completing the core skills units in Group A of the qualification.

Learning aims

In this unit you will:

A Create a simple website for a specific purpose

B Review the finished simple website for a specific purpose.

Factors to consider when designing a website

• Purpose of a website includes the objective of the website and audience type, e.g. to promote an event for children, to advertise or to provide information for a business or charity.

The most common category's found are News and Social Media these will attract a number of different audiences. Websites such as, BBC, Sky News, CNN, Al Jazeera.

There are a number of different category's that websites can fall in, identify what these could be based on your own experiences.

Create a simple word document that takes the category's and gives examples of some of these websites underneath. You should show a screenshot of them, identify what the website is and what it is about, and why you feel that it is under the chosen category

• Types of information, e.g. text, numbers, graphics, images, video, audio.

Information can be presented in a number of ways and methods.

We are able to make our information look pretty so that it stands out and catches other peoples eyes, for example we can use graphs to show numbers and data.

we can use videos to support text content and make the site ineresting 

Information can be presented as, text, numbers, graphics, images, video, audio.

You can show images to represent words and colours, be careful though as you might be caught out.

In some cases, it may be better to use one method over another, for example, a fire escape sign!

 or 

Just a Minute - At the end of the lesson teachers ask learners to summarise their learning. The comparison of these summaries against learning objectives informs planning.

Factors to consider when designing a website

• Copyright, including constraints, using assets made by others, acknowledgement of sources.

When we use things that others have created and developed it is important that we identify the owner if we were to use their work in our own. There are some categories, however, where we are able to use this without identifying the owner or that we have to pay for the right to use it.

 Research the area of Copyright, and Creative Commons. Using your research create a simple but informative poster that explains the differences between them. Remember if you use any images make sure that you have referenced the sources.

• Usability in terms of how efficient it is to use, e.g. to complete a task.

Let's have some FUN!!
Open up an internet browser, and follow the link below
https://www.wix.com/
We are going to create a free account to use and play around in. This website will allow you to quickly create a website. Play/Explore with all of the features/tools of the website creator.
If you are unsure how to login/signup you can follow the below video that we have produced.
 

Question and Answer - Verbal discussion with learners to quantify understanding

Design a website using graphical tools

Design includes:

• site structure for the simple website containing at least four webpages, e.g. sitemap and including navigation for each webpage, e.g. links and buttons.

• screen layout diagram for each web page, using wireframe and including, e.g. image(s), text, font, colour and navigation.

Anonymous Assessment - Learners assess an anonymous piece of work containing deliberate mistakes against given success criteria.

Design a website using graphical tools

• annotations and/or a description about how the design meets a specific audience and purpose.

Anonymous Assessment - Learners assess an anonymous piece of work containing deliberate mistakes against given success criteria.

Using tools and techniques

• Structure of web page, e.g. header, main content and footer.

• Software tools available, e.g. WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get), text editors.

• Page navigation, e.g. jump-to-top link or text links at the top and bottom of the page or to move to the previous page and a location-based breadcrumb trail.

• Linking web pages with hyperlinks.

• Common HTML tags, e.g. , ,

. • Embedding and editing ready-made assets like images and videos in a web page.

• Formatting information, including text (e.g. font style, size, emboldened, bullets and colour), numbers, columns, images, and graphics.

Anonymous Assessment - Learners assess an anonymous piece of work containing deliberate mistakes against given success criteria.

Using tools and techniques

• Interactive components, including hotspots, buttons, rollover images.

• Editing techniques appropriate to the type of asset, e.g. copy, cut, paste, crop, and position.

• File format, e.g. MP3, MP4.

• Manage files and assets, e.g. resizing graphics and images, file size reduction.

• Check documents, e.g. spellcheck, grammar check, print preview.

• Store and retrieve files, e.g. create, name, open, save, save as.

Anonymous Assessment - Learners assess an anonymous piece of work containing deliberate mistakes against given success criteria.

Testing a website

• Test different parts of a website, e.g. linking pages, navigation.

• Identify that each part functions as intended and repair any faults.

Anonymous Assessment - Learners assess an anonymous piece of work containing deliberate mistakes against given success criteria.