Step 2: Create the Layout
Wow! Now it is time to create the layout for your website. The layout of the website refers to the organization of the information on different pages of the website. There are four different kinds of layout to choose from.
One kind of layout is linear. A linear layout is one where you move directly from one page to the next page, like a slide show. You move in a straight line from page 1 to page 2 to page 3 and so on. This is a good organization for step-by-step instructions.
Hierarchical is another type of layout for a web site. A hierarchical layout has a main page that branches into many other pages that in turn may each branch into many more pages. This layout is appropriate if you have general information on your topic and then have more specific information about different aspects of your topic. For example, if your subject was frogs you might have the main page branch into new pages on different aspects of frogs such as habitat and food and physical appearance.
A third kind of layout is a web layout. The web layout has pages going in all different directions like a spider web or like the webs you make at school when you are writing information pieces. A web layout is good for pages with no specific order.
The last kind of layout is one that uses a combination of two or more layouts. If you use a combination layout, you have a lot of flexibility in the design of the web page. A combination layout is appropriate if you like two or more of the layouts or if you think that people may want to use your site in different ways. I used a combination of a linear layout and a hierarchical layout in my website. I set up the description of web pages, reasons for using them and the history in a hierarchical layout. I used a linear layout to present the steps for making a web page since these directions need to be followed in sequence. However, I also set it up so that people can jump from one step to another without going in sequence in case some people only wanted to find out about a specific topic like how to convert the text to HTML.
Have you chosen your layout? Great! Then follow me to the next step.
