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Website Design
Suggestions are Always Welcome
First and foremost suggestions for improvements to the website are always welcome. Comments, positive or negative, are always welcome. I’m a big boy and can take it. My bottom line intent is to continually improve the website and I can’t do that without input from the users out there.
How is it Designed?
The website is designed using a software package called NetObjects Fusion. This is one of various similar programs that can be used to design a website without having to write code (HTML). The software allows the designer to concentrate on the layout and content and not writing code. As with anything like this there are built in limitations and thus the software isn’t perfect or allow me to do everything you might see on other websites.
Best Viewing Settings
The website is best viewed at a resolution of 1280x800, but 800x600 will work also. The text size setting for viewing is best if set to Medium. The total width of the any page on the website is 910 pixels wide. At 800x600 you will not see the picture bar on the right. Each page will never have any item on the right that is important to using the website. The only width exception is viewing some of the maps. They can be much wider. All Forms that are displayed are 640 or less in pixel width and should print in portrait mode without any problems. Generally speaking a setting of 640x480 will not make viewing the website pleasant at all and is not recommended.
Page Design
As much as possible each page has the same layout. At the top is the Banner which is the same for each page. The title of the page that you are on is in the yellow area of the banner. To the right of the banner are five links (Home, About Middlesex, Town Governance, Committee Minutes, and Contact Information) that were added as the five most important sections of the website. These will be on every page in the website. Below the banner will also appear the current day, date, and time. This is taken from the clock on your computer so it is only as accurate as your computer settings. You can go to www.time.gov to get the Official U.S. Time. If you don’t see the day, date, and time this could be browser setting on your system preventing this from working.
On the right is what I call a Picture Tower and is just a collection of pictures of Middlesex.
At the left are the Navigation Menus The menu is divided into four areas.
- Section Navigation is the navigation menu for the particular section of the website that you’re in at the time. It just includes the Child pages to the Parent page you’re on and will change as you move from page to page.
- Web Site Navigation is the navigation menu for the entire website at the first level of navigation. This will always be the same no matter what page you’re on.
- Special Links is what it says. It is special links to other parts of the website. The intent is to keep this a very limited set.
- E-Mail Links. These are mail-to links to the Webmaster and Town Clerk. Right now it is limited to these individuals only and is never expected to grow.
One some pages there will be a table added to the page with additional links to subsections. I’ve done this where I think it will aid in the navigation of the section.
Pages such as Forms or Maps will not have the banner or navigation menus. This is done so that the page can be printed without this extra baggage.
The page layout and navigation menus on the Home Page are slightly different than the rest of the website because of the unique purpose of that page. It does contain some links to pages that you won’t find anywhere in the website - this page is one for example.
Website Organization
The website is generally organized as such:
Home
Major Section
Major SubSection
Minor SubSection
Minor SubSection
There are 12 Major Sections. Each Major Section has typically 3-4 Major SubSections. Below that the structure can vary greatly depending on the material being presented. As best as possible I’m trying to make it as easy as possible to find information on the website. In a future update I plan to add search capability to the website.
Tables and Colors
The tables used in the website as much as possible are designed to look very much alike. A typical table layout is shown below. The colors are Light Green: CCFFCC, Dark Green: 669933, Gray: CCCCCC. All these colors are web safe colors and should view and print without problems on any computer.
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Table Title
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Column Title
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Column Title
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Column Title
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Data
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Data
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Date
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-Table SubTitle-
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Data
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Data
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Data
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Document Library
Many different documents are available on the website. Where possible they can be viewed on the website. Sometimes they will open up a new window or tab on your internet browser. This is actually a Section 508 problem that will probably have to get changed in the future - see next section. Again where available I have also provided a PDF and Word version of the document for downloading onto your computer. To do this just right click on your mouse and then select Save Target As... If you left click the link the document may open up in your browser which isn’t always desirable given the size of some of these files.
Section 508
As of 1/6/2007 I haven’t tested this sight for Section 508 compliance www.section508.gov. At this time Section 508 does not apply to local governments. Of course this is apt to change in the future. This is something I plan to work on over the next several months to make this website accessible to all people regardless of their disabilities. What I have done is where possible all documents published by the town are viewable on the website in addition to being available as a PDF.
For reference the law states: In 1998, Congress amended the Rehabilitation Act to require Federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. Inaccessible technology interferes with an individual's ability to obtain and use information quickly and easily. Section 508 was enacted to eliminate barriers in information technology, to make available new opportunities for people with disabilities, and to encourage development of technologies that will help achieve these goals. The law applies to all Federal agencies when they develop, procure, maintain, or use electronic and information technology. Under Section 508 (29 U.S.C. ‘ 794d), agencies must give disabled employees and members of the public access to information that is comparable to the access available to others.
Browser Testing
After publishing the website I view it using Internet Explorer 7 (IE-7), Firefox 2, and Opera 9. Generally speaking I only do detailed viewing in the IE-7 browser. Of the other two, Opera 9 appears to display the web pages very much like IE-7 and how I designed them. This does not mean there is a problem with Firefox, far from that. All three browsers should present no problems to you. If you encounter a problem please bring it to my attention and I’ll see if it is something I can fix. If you’re using another browser and you encounter problems there is not much I can do for you. This is a volunteer effort on my part and my time to dedicate to solving problems is limited.
Anti-Virus Protection
The computer I develop the website on is protected with the latest anti-virus software available and I also keep my operation system update with all the latest updates from Microsoft. Since I do put various files on the server that can be downloaded by you this protection is necessary and I’m confident that you will not get a virus from downloading files from the website or viewing the website.
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