{Graphic of EFE Resources page}
Obviously there is a wealth of great information available online that we want to share with our site visitors. However, in an environment that results in people quickly scanning copy instead of slowly reading, it helps to use some short de
Create a Table
Sometimes using Schoolwires I find that my text can shift when I save my page, and paragraph spacing can mysteriously disappear, hence I work in tables quite often.
For this link page I created a one-column table set at 90% width, with 20px cell spacing to add a fixed white space below each cell of content.
Using Images
Graphics don't just make things "look pretty". They help draw the eye in and focus on the words. I like to create images at 100% size to guarantee a crisp image. The graphic icons in this example are left-aligned. I used Image Properties to set 8px of spacing on the right-hand side so text wouldn't bump up too closely to my graphic.
Why Rounded Corners?
Rounded corners and curved lines are softer and break up the straight lines of text and paragraphs. As a designer, I've seen the trend to use softer lines and curves in other industries as well - even in the grocery store you'll see evidence of this from coffee creamer containers to shampoo and fabric softener bottles.
Link Images
For this link resource page, I visited each site, made a screen shot of their main page and cropped it in Photoshop. I wanted our site visitors to have something that would instantly identify and individualize each resource.
The Final Touch
Besides adding the "Web Site" text link at the bottom of each text block, I made sure to link the graphics as well, knowing that most people are used to clickable images.
Visit the Schoolwires blog to find out about some exciting table enhancements coming in Centricity 2!
Posted by Anne Goodrich at 11:25 AM
