Design and Testing
- You should produce a rough design of your e-book in the form of a diagram to illustrate the basic navigation and structure. This should be put in your e-portfolio but NOT in the e-book itself.
- You should always ensure that, at standard screen resolutions, all the content on every page can be viewed without the user having to scroll down.
- You should NEVER have links to web pages in your e-book (because these links will not work in 100 years time). Use screen dumps instead.
- Think very carefully about navigation. Use navigation bars AND forward and back buttons on pages. Your user should NEVER reach a dead-end and have to click the Back button on his/her browser.
- Have a consistent theme in the e-book rather than a "hotchpotch" of different colours, fonts and styles.
- Remember your audience and the purpose of the e-book at all times. It would be a good idea to have a "Welcome" page with an introduction to the e-book aimed at this audience.
- Demonstrate an awareness of "accessibility issues" e.g. have a text alternative for pictures/animations, think about colour and text size.
- Spell-check and proof-read.
- Copy the folder containing the e-book to a CD-R or a USB Flash Drive. Then test every hyperlink and component.
- You can use the testing PC in IT1 to check that links and pictures work off of the network.
- Get other people to use your e-book to help you with the testing and evaluation. Design a questionnaire for them to fill in.
