When creating your website, it is a good idea to view other websites to get a general idea of how you would like yours to look. Then you need to decide who your audience will be. Will students be looking at your site to get research information, assignments, etc.? Will teachers be getting ideas for future lesson plans? Will parents be looking to see if their students' projects are available to be viewed online? Or, will your audience consist of all of the above and possibly more?
     When you have decided on your audience, you need to decide how your information can be presented most effectively. Decide what you want to achieve with each audience that you are addressing.
     Decide how large you want your site to get. How large of an audience are you going to address? How much information are you going to make available to these audiences? How are you going to present this information so your audience can navigate through your site with ease?
     It is a good idea to create your site on paper first. This saves you the time of restructuring at a later date. Keep in mind everything that you want your site to include in the near future.
     Obtain permission from anyone that you would like to have acknowledged on your page to receive email correspondence.
     Make sure you get permission for any copyrighted material.
     These are basic tips to think about when you design your web page. There will always be updating that will be necessary for existing pages. There will also always be some restructuring that will be necessary as your site continues to grow. Have fun!!

It is necessary to have a consistent look to a web site due to the fact that it is more essential in electronic publications than in print publications so readers do not get lost during the navigation of the site. Please follow the format guidelines that follow to achieve this consistency and continuity.

• Contact Information — district address, department address, telephone number, fax number, contact person's name (can just be "webmaster") and email address should be included on every page.
• Colors — avoid harsh or fluorescent colors. Backgrounds should not be so "busy" that you are unable to view the content easily. Good contrast is also important since many people have problems distinguishing colors.
• Limit Page Length — Ideally each page should be no longer than two screens in length so the reader does not have to keep scrolling to read all of the information. There are two ways to handle lengthier pages.
  • Break the pages up into shorter sections and put each logical section on a separate page with links to all pages on every page.
  • Put anchor links to sections with links "Back to Top" at least every two screens if it makes more sense to keep all the information on one page.
• Use Headings, Subheadings, Bold and Italics Effectively — this will help viewers scan the page and sort out the information they are researching.
• Avoid Animated Graphics — too many of these can be very distracting.