The Music Educator's Personal-Professional Webpage

Page 2: Preparing Materials

copyright 1999 Yvonne R. Dechance all rights reserved

[Introduction] [Preparing Materials] [Elements of Success] [Putting it Online]

Preparing Your Materials

The Plan

There are as many methods of creating a website as there are ways of creating traditional presentations. The following plan for preparing website materials requires little internet or computer experience, and gives you a concept of the finished product before any content is actually placed in public view. Using this basic model you will choose text, add a few meaningful pictures, decide if other kinds of content are needed, and experiment with general page layout guidelines, before putting any materials online.

Text and Tone

For the vast majority of websites, text forms the foundation for the site's contents. Begin by creating "chunks" of text about your life and activities as a music educator. If you find outlining helpful, begin with an outline of major topics you'd like to include. If you detest outlines, write or collect the information you'd like to feature, and determine the order once you see what you have. You don't even have to use a computer to start, although you might want to use your favorite word-processor to create (and keep copies of) your text and other descriptions. Keep paragraphs brief, and give sections logical titles. You may write in first-person or third-person (I find the latter more professional in appearance) but generally stay consistent. The finished text should scan well, meaning readers should be able to locate main topics and sections at a glance.

The tone of your writing should also have a consistent feel and quality. If you have a wonderful sense of humor, passion for a topic, or other quality that sets you apart, by all means allow this to shine through your writing and other materials, but remember that visitors to your completed site will be evaluating your words, pictures and presentation as a measure of your professionalism. If you have something particularly controversial or personal to say, it might best be stated in a separate and obviously Personal website.

If you are new to webpages, consider choosing information that doesn't need to be updated frequently. Instead of creating a project that constantly requires attention and maintenance, think of it more like a Brochure that you plan to use for a while. In fact, if you already have a brochure, it can be adapted for online presentation, or form the inspiration for your site.

If you feel you lack sufficient materials for a website, do the best you can with what you currently have. A small but carefully crafted webpage has more impact than a sloppy, unwieldy site, and unlike traditional print forms, a website can be easily updated and expanded at any time you wish.

Susan's Start: topics and text

In our example website, Susan has chosen to include a short biographical statement, a description of courses she will be teaching, a schedule of performances for herself and her students, a paragraph about her research interests, a list of websites she recommends, and her academic resume. She types her topics and text, adds some contact information and a Table of Contents, and chooses a title for her website.

Susan Says... See Susan's Start

Picture This

Once you have created your text, dig through your photo archives and see if you can find a few relevant pictures to illustrate your primary points. If you have a press photo, that's a good start, and if you've got pictures of yourself in action (lecturing, conducting, working with students), include the best of those as well. Type up short captions for each picture; these descriptions will either be used as visible captions for your photos, or as descriptions for visitors unable or unwilling to view graphics. Later you will have these graphics scanned so they can be displayed electronically; scanned photos can also be resized and even enhanced by a digital artist. Black and white pictures take up less webspace and display faster than color pictures, but a good splash of color can add impact and drama to a page. Have a few "runners-up" available, in case a scanned image lacks the quality or effect you expected. Photos aren't the only form of graphic online; anything that can be scanned or otherwise prepared for web display can be used effectively. There are many fine collections of web-ready and royalty-free images available for use on webpages, but don't go overboard with graphics. At this point in your preparations, concentrate on finding a few fine images that uniquely illustrate your text.

Multimedia and More

One of the finest features of web design is the variety of resources that can be used, including multimedia like audio and video. I generally suggest avoiding audio and video in any beginning experiments with webpages, primarily because audio and video files tend to be large and may take up more webspace than you are allowed. However, if you have a special need for multimedia, carefully select brief sound or video excerpts that you feel are the best and most representative examples of what you wish to demonstrate. These selections will have to be sampled and formatted for use on webpages; format options and quality are rapidly improving, but expect significant loss of clarity online compared to the original. Like pictures, sound and video are best used to illustrate and clarify main points, and to demonstrate specific talents.

Susan's Selections: graphics and media

This is Susan's first website, and she really doesn't have much in the way of her own pictures and illustrations to put online. She does have internet access, and has found websites that offer free graphics and tools. Using these, she has created a bold logo for her homepage, and selected some small illustrations and a subtle background pattern she likes. Along with a scan of her headshot, she feels this will create enough visual impact at her site. Since she teaches a MIDI course, she will also include one MIDI soundfile with her course description to generate interest in the class.

Susan Says... See (and hear!) Susan's Selections

Layout and Design: Play Time!

Now, type up or print out all the text you've created, cut it into sections and really play with it. You may prefer working on the computer for this step, but scissors and paper will work fine. Arrange your materials. Rearrange them. What works best? What might be better on a second (or third or fourth) page? Leave room for the pictures you've planned to include, and underline or highlight each phrase or word in your text that you know you will use as an active ("clickable") link to another section, page, site or special effect. It is now a good time to think about what kind of background color or pattern you might like for your site, and coordinate optional decorative graphics like navigation buttons or logos.

When arranging your materials, commit the following statement to memory: You CANNOT completely control how things will look or display on the web, so prepare to be flexible. Margins, fonts and font sizes, colors and other elements will vary according to things you have absolutely no control over. Relax, and remember you are not laying out a magazine, just organizing things so anyone visiting your site can quickly learn who you are and what you're about, and get around your webpages without feeling lost.

Susan's Site Plan:

After looking at all of her materials, Susan decided on a basic layout and found that most of her topic sections would fit comfortably on a first or "home" page. Since her resume is longer and likely to be printed from the web, she created a separate resume page and plans to link it to the homepage using a simple text-based navigation bar. She chose to use a background pattern instead of a solid color, but made certain to select a pattern that will look and print as well for her resume as it will for her homepage.

Susan Says... See Susan's Site Plan

Next...Elements of Success