Truman's Design Document

Purpose:

This web site will be for the "Blooming Idiots" Garden Club. "Blooming Idiots" is not a formal garden club so much as a group of friends and neighbors who share a common interest in digging in the dirt and growing things that bloom. There are two main purposes of the web site. First, a web presence for the "Blooming Idiots" will allow access to great gardening information to those who are not part of the club. Second, it will provide us with a collection point to share our favorite tips, tricks and plant varieties. Fellow gardeners will be able to use the website to learn from our experience and maybe even provide us with some valuable information.

Audience:

The target audience for this web site will be members of the "Blooming Idiots" gardening group. This group of friends and neighbors share a love of all things growing, and is made up of men and women of different ages. Over the years, they have all had both successes and failures in their gardening ventures. Their discussions center on colors, textures, bloom time, light requirements, pest control, weed control, disease resistance, seed saving, annuals vs. perennials, and so on. They love gardening gadgets, heirloom seeds and new varieties, but nothing beats digging in the dirt. And while they always start out with their gardening gloves on, the gloves always end up lying on the ground, because to these folks, nothing beats the feel of the earth in their hands.

Needs Assessment:

Four members of the club provided me with a list of items that they felt would be most helpful on a web site. Members want to see links to helpful gardening resources, a showcase for pictures and information on favorite varieties, a section on tips, tricks and remedies, and a recipe section. I also surveyed three fellow gardeners who are not part of the Blooming Idiots group.

• An encyclopedia of varieties we have tried that includes pictures, growing information, purchase info, etc.
• Information on remedies for pests, plant disorders and diseases specific to our location
• Recipes that use what we grow
• Links to weather, gardening resources and The Old Farmer's Almanac
• Information about gardening events in our area

• All agreed that we don't need to see information that doesn't pertain to our growing location.

• Container gardening
• Herbs
• Annuals
• Perennials

• All agreed that the location specific information would be most useful to them.

• The things that work best for you.
• Pictures of your successes.

These sites are examples of good and/or bad artifacts that are considering for the final design.

• For a nagivation, this website provides the navagation style that is most match idea of Blooming Idiots Garden Club here an example of good navigation.
• For a simple layout, it will similar to this page that has aligned banner, navigation and content as a good example of layout.
• For an avoid layout, this website align web components vertically and doesn't create intuitive environment to the audiences. This is the example of an avoid example of layout.
• For a content style, this site will not similar to this example because it is difficult to read content an avoid content style.
• For prefered color scheme, the color on this website represent the nature colors for banner, font and background that Blooming Idiots Garden Club would like to use as prefer colors.

Content:

Based on the responses of the members and other gardeners, I have chosen to include the following content areas:

• Grow It  An encyclopedia of what we are growing, or have grown that includes pictures, growing information, and a summation of our experience with that variety.
• Fix It  This section will include our tried and true remedies for pests, diseases and other issues that we experience in our growing location.
• Eat It  This section will contain our favorite recipes that use what we grow.
• Find It   This section will contain links to our favorite gardening resources.
• Focus It  This section will allow members to share information on their specialty areas, including annuals, containers, herbs and perennials.

Presentation of Information/Rationale of Organization:

The web site will be hierarchical in nature because I have a central subject with supporting pages.

• To provide a consistent look and feel across all pages and to give my audience a sense of connected fluidity in my site, all pages will contain / use
  • The same banner logo at the top of each page.
  • A heading just below the top horizontal navigation that will provide the Page Name
  • Same navigation conventions Same heading formats and colors all
  • Contact information at the bottom of each page
  • Link back to the home page
• The home page
  • It will be laid out in a table format.
  • It will provide links to the main sections.
  • It will also contain a welcome statement, the mission statement and contact information.
• All subsequent pages will provide horizontal navigation (as text with graphics) across both the top and bottom of the page.
  • I know I'll have enough information on each page to cause my audience to scroll down so I want them to have access to the navigation menu at the bottom of the page too.
  • I plan to keep the pages under three screen lengths.

The following details the content of the proposed pages:

• The Grow It page
  • It will initially be divided into two linear sections, Annuals and Perennials, as everything we focus on falls into one of those two categories.
  • Each section will contain information about different plants in that category, listed alphabetically.
  • As these two sections become longer over time, they can be split into two separate pages.
• The Fix It page
  • It will contain an alphabetical list of garden problems and their solutions.
  • Across the top, below the heading, there will be a horizontal listing of problem names that links into the list of solutions created using definition lists.
  • There will be a link back to the top of the page included as needed.
  • As this list becomes too long to browse easily, a search feature can be added to the page.
• The Eat It page
  • It will contain a list of recipe names and the featured ingredient.
  • Each recipe name will link to a printer-friendly recipe on a separate web page.
• The Find It page
  • There will be a list of hot links to gardening resources.
  • As this list becomes longer, it can be divided into sections and a horizontal navigation can take the user down into the sections using section anchors.
• The Focus It page
  • There will be a list of links that introduces the focus areas, with each focus area linking to its own page.

Media:

The banner logo will be a graphic that I create using Photoshop. All other images used will be photos taken by the members to represent the items being discussed. These will include a featured photo on the home page, photos of the varieties discussed in the Grow It section, the items featured in the Eat It section and the areas represented in the Focus It section. All images will be optimized for web use and credit will be given to the member photographer. I intend to include this statement below each image, "Photo courtesy of name." I'll include a footer statement such as "All images used in this site are original. Any further use of these images is prohibited without permission from the photographer."

Color scheme and rationale:

Since this page is for gardeners, green will be used as the main color. Green is associated with nature. Although I have not yet completed the banner yet, I will use a web-friendly green with complementary blue and dark brown accenting colors. Text will be black with green links; visited links will be brown. The green used will match the green in the banner logo, as will any other colors used for headings and rules. My intention is to only use two additional colors besides green so the page doesn't look too busy. (I don't plan to use blue as a background color.) Examples of my colors (or if you can't view this file, you can try this one (.doc)) that I plan to use for my website include:

Outline of web site organization:

The following shows the outline of the proposed pages and content.

• Home Page (Main page)
  • Banner Logo
  • Welcome message
  • Featured garden photo
  • Mission Statement
  • Table with links to five main sections
  • Contact information including name and email address link page creator
  • Last revised date
• Grow It Page
  • Banner Logo
  • Links to other main sections, including Home page
  • Growing information about Annuals and Perennials that members are currently growing or have grown in the past. Includes images.
  • Contact information including name and email address link page creator
  • Last revised date
• Fix It Page
  • Banner Logo
  • Links to other main sections, including Home page
  • Alphabetical list of our tried and true remedies for pests, diseases and other issues that we experience in our growing location.
  • Contact information including name and email address link page creator
  • Last revised date
• Eat It Page
  • Banner Logo
  • Links to other main sections, including Home page
  • List of links to our favorite recipes that use what we grow.
  • Contact information including name and email address link page creator
  • Last revised date
• Find It Page
  • Banner Logo
  • Links to other main sections, including Home page
  • Links to our favorite gardening resources for weather, heirloom seeds, native plants, new varieties, etc., including:
    • http://www.almanac.com/
    • http://www.heirloomseeds.com/
    • http://www.grownative.org/
    • http://www.reneesgarden.com/seasonal/new08-hm.html
    • http://www.thegardenhelper.com/map/ushzmap.html
    • http://agebb.missouri.edu/weather/frost.htm
  • Contact information including name and email address link page creator
  • Last revised date
• Focus It Page
  • Banner Logo
  • Links to other main sections, including Home page
  • Links to and descriptions of specialty areas of our members, including annuals, containers, herbs and perennials. Each specialty area will have its own page:
    • Annuals
    • Container Gardens
    • Herbs
    • Perennials
  • Contact information including name and email address link page creator
  • Last revised date