Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Concept
By now, you probably have some ideas swirling in your head. Let's begin to
solidify them by explicitly defining the concept. A concept is a thought, notion,
or idea. When you begin to develop your Web portfolio, concept is used to help
drive design and ultimately determine appropriate content. Defining the con-
cept of the site is the first step in a series of goal-driven decisions.
Conceptualization will culminate with the creation of an outline-listing content.
Your first exercise in conceptualization is already complete. By completing the
conceptualization exercise, you have defined an audience, you know what the
portfolio is promoting, and you have a notion about your message and know
who you want to persuade. Conceptualizing a Web portfolio starts out like
thinking about writing something. When we write, the first steps are to define
an audience and then define a purpose. We do this so that the writing has
direction. The same steps must be taken with Web portfolios. Defining the
audience is something we have addressed. Now we must explicitly define a
purpose. The purpose lies in the concept.
Let's polish a loose concept to get it the next level. We will write out, in simple,
general terms, the important components of our concept. To do this, let's put
together a
concept statement
. The concept statement simply explains the
concept
, the proposed
navigation
, and the
expected assets
needed to
pursue the project. It acts as a springboard for the brainstorming process and
content development. Concepts are supported by content. To be utilized
effectively, content must be categorized. That's where headers and sub-
headers for navigation come into play. You should think about the main headers
and the sub-headers as the signposts that guide your users through the Web
portfolio. It is important to drill down to get the proper sequence of information
into the right hierarchical order. Otherwise, you risk losing the user somewhere
along the way.
Content consists of
graphic
and
multimedia assets
and
text assets
. Graphic
and multimedia assets include: static images (photos and clip art), audio,
animation, and motion graphics. Text assets include text/word processing items
that populate the site, including text-based navigation elements, body copy, and
other text-based content pages. Your resume is an example of a text-based
asset if it is in the form of Web based html text on a page. If it is in Adobe PDF
format, it would be considered a graphic asset because it is formatted into a
single file without HTML editing capabilities. A text-based item is also
