Creating and Managing Content

As you begin to develop your content and course it is good to keep in mind principles of good Web design. Here are things to consider:

Alignment - Choose an alignment, left, right, or center, and stick with it. This helps the user's eye find important information more quickly.

Proximity - Put content (like graphics and text) that go together, close to each other.

Repetition - Repeat themes within a Web page or Web site. For example, make all your titles bold or place all your images in the same location on a page.

Contrast - Dark text on a light background is easiest to read. Light text on a dark is second easiest. Sans Serif Fonts are also easier to read on the Web. Sans Serif Fonts are those that have crisp, clean, uncluttered lines, such as Helvetica, Arial, and Geneva.

Fonts - Sans Serif Fonts are typically easier to read on the Web. Sans Serif Fonts are those that have crisp, clean, uncluttered lines, such as Helvetica, Arial, and Geneva. If incorporating multiple fonts into your Web design, try to keep the number of choices under three.

Print - Take into consideration what the student will use the content for. Will they be printing it? Then dark text on a light background is best and easier on their printer.

If developing online course materials on a Macintosh computer for download a printing, be sure to test them by printing them to a PC first. Some documents created on the Mac will produce post script errors when students attempt to print from PCs.