Wiley Professional SharePoint 2007 Design
Contents
1. sites But you can rest assured that they care about the way they look too And clients are getting better at quantifying this experience Web metrics are becoming increasingly pop ular People can fairly easily tell how many unique visitors access their sites They can tell if they only go to the main page and then leave indicating a bad experience or if they stay for a while and surf the content available If an analysis of the log files for the site shows that 90 percent of visitors access the main page for an average of only 2 3 seconds and then leave something in the design is just not right Whether that means that the content is such that nobody knows what the site is for or that the nav igation is so confusing and poorly planned that nobody even knows how to get to another page is not as clear What is clear though is that people found their sites and found them useless Then they left In this example the site is not performing whatever function it is supposed to unless it is supposed to run people off in which case it is working perfectly If the client is selling something potential buy ers likely aren t even seeing what is available for sale much less buying anything And if the site is a public information Web site preaching the gospel of good Web site design it means nobody is listening to the message This can be frustrating and can affect revenues severely even public awareness sites often sell advertisement space which is2. users throughout the country and determined that Target com violated not only the Americans with Disabilities Act but also two California civil rights statutes This resulted in a lot of time and money being spent by the company to deal with both the legal ramifications and customer satisfaction concerns This is a headache that anyone doing business on the Web just doesn t need You can read the National Federation of the Blind s press release on the decision here http www nfb org nfb NewsBot asp MODE VIEW amp ID 221 It should be noted too that this is just one of the most recent legal battles forged publicly about Web sites and accessibility Similar suits have come up in Europe This is a global issue that needs to be acknowl edged and addressed by designers As the world continues to change designers need to keep abreast of the serious design considerations that change with it Why Should Managers Care Perhaps intuitively managers should care about good design for the same reasons that developers should After all it is important to them as well that they have strong portfolios extremely satisfied customers and no negative legal consequences to the products they deliver They are in the same boat as their developers in this regard In fact it could be argued that these reasons are even more important to the manager than to the developer if any of these things bring about negative consequences to the ongo ing concerns of the bus
3. will attempt to put new emphasis on design Specifically this chapter will try to point out the why of good design Why does it matter Why should developers care Why should managers care And why should clients care The rest of the book will be more aimed at the how of good design How to create a new design How to create master pages and CSS files to support your new design How to incorporate themes How to make more accessible designs How to make MOSS 2007 work for the design you create With that it s time to get started The Million Dollar Question What Makes Good Design This is a tough question to field If you ask 100 different Web designers today what is critical for good design you will not see the same answers brought up by all of them There will be a lot of recurring themes but varying weight or importance will be given to each one if mentioned at all However even with that being true there are definitely some things that any designer should give thought to when coming up with a design Q Usability This should probably be at the top of every designer s list If the site is amazing look ing and could have easily come right out of a top New York designer s art portfolio that is cool But if a user has no idea they have to press the broken toothpick depicted in the bottom corner of the collage to get to the Contact Us area of the Web site designers have missed the point More important if that site is comme
4. Sanford c01 tex V3 08 13 2008 2 49pm Page 1 Why Design When people attempt to take up Microsoft Office SharePoint 2007 MOSS 2007 as a profession or even as a hobby they immediately begin by trying to understand how to make the portal work This is probably an obvious path to make SharePoint work you have to well make it work Beginners toil with custom lists site administration and out of the box Web parts They may start getting into security and document libraries and slightly more advanced topics Some more advanced or brave users may even get into custom development and modification in SharePoint and its integration with other technologies But when is it time to learn about design and branding when it comes to the SharePoint portals these people are designing Should they learn it in the beginning Or perhaps wait until they have a solid understanding of all other principles related to MOSS 2007 And once they learn good design concepts when is it time to worry about the site s look and feel Is there a good time If so should it come at the beginning of the planning process At the end Unfortunately too often MOSS 2007 developers put little to no emphasis on the actual look and feel of the sites they are designing There could be any number of reasons that this happens Maybe it s because from a business sense it s hard to quantify good design Sure any analyst can show that with the addition of this new feature o
5. Searen centric marketing services and program a L A gt ih E Page i Tools 9 gt ma In today s marketing landscape if your campaign isn t designed ye ee son f let designed at al Thats why Z Fae premier Customer Acquisition Ad Agency We are Q Z G experts in multi channel integrated direct marketing ome and offline Search Engine Marketing Direct Response Television and Lead Generation may be our unique specialties INTEGRATED MARKETING CUSTOMER ACQUISITION 5 our result make the unique dif aa SEM SRM TMM WDD BOM Branded Online Media Search Engine Marketing Direct Response Marketing Internet Marketing 8 Media Pay Per Click hi n R Media Buying DR PA Strategy Email Marketing hioninteractive Ne Web Design amp Development c CI CI CD GUENTS everts PARTERS Request Our FREE Microsoft ha jetemet s SEM SWOT Analvsis fis BlackBerry retailer GOLD CERTIFIED NOW MEBEZI cree Para 2007 SendTec Inc All rights reserved Clients Services About Us News 8 Events Resources investors Contact Us Careers Internet Protected Mode On 100 Figure 1 5 Why Should Designers Care The reasons that MOSS 2007 developers make the effort to put design at the forefront of their projects probably vary from developer to developer But one universal truth is pride Pride in the final product and how good it looks Pride in the fact that something they created is s
6. affected by no stays Increasingly more important will be the desire to stay out of court For example say the class action plaintiffs in an accessibility lawsuit get awarded 10 000 000 or more Who has to pay that The designer who designed the site The manager who oversaw the designer s work Probably not After all any independent consultant or firm will require the client to sign off before completing the project So if the client used an outside firm to design their site they likely signed off on its final design before releasing it to the world And if the client didn t even put in any business requirements to handle accessibility or if their requirements were vague they can t even say that they asked for accessible design but rather that the designers failed And if the client used in house resources to design the site there really is not any gray area about who is responsible for the 10 000 000 penalty This example might be hypothetical but it does reflect some of the very real concerns developing in the business world Either sites will get better about accommodating all users or lawsuits will become more frequent And going to court win or lose is not cheap Even if you win the case you are out the legal costs It s better to worry about paying an extra 5 000 in the design budget than to worry about dealing with an exponentially more expensive lawsuit down the road Plus clients care about their image They want th
7. ar i Discussions There ate CATENIN DO UPPED events TS SOT ana events hss hod new DE below B Links a Team Discussion Add new event There are currently no favorite links to display To add a new link dick Add new Sites Ink below People and Groups f Add new link Done Internet Protected Mode On 100 Figure 1 1 i gt le http wrox captare com default aspx ay eal x l Live Search Pe Lede Home wo 1 SEG A B E eager Groce aa Wrox This Site Wrox P Announcements jee oe O CANS E E O ken ee we low B Add new announcement Calendar There are currently no upcoming events To add a new event cick Add new event below Links Bl Add new event There are currently no favorite links to display To add a new link dick Add new ink below a Add new link Done Internet Protected Mode On 100 Figure 1 2 Sanford cO1 tex V3 08 13 2008 2 49pm Page 5 Chapter 1 Why Design But this is the point Do you want people to look at your site and see the business as bland predictable and unimaginative or do you want them to see the business as interesting dynamic and unique Now to contrast against these designs consider Figure 1 3 which is the Web site for The Kroger Company www kroger com go E http www kroger com Pages default aspx X Live Search Pe fsha fh amp v id Page G Tools v 7 w g Kroger Home GP weekivans G
8. bunden 900 g mur 11 35 statt 14 20 mehr d Europameister tippen und gewinnen Zum Beispiel Original Waadtlander Sanrizann 100 n M 08 l sst mit Euro d Euro Toto gleich doppelt das Fieber Internet Protected Mode On 100 Figure 1 4 This example may be the most unlike any SharePoint design you have seen But it was in fact designed in SharePoint If you don t believe it view the source of the rendered page and you will see the following lt meta name GENERATOR content Microsoft SharePoint gt As with many things it may be hard to define what good design is even though you probably know it when you see it And these examples show what good design can look like In addition the examples establish that designers are not and more important should not be confined to the templates that come with a standard MOSS 2007 installation Note however that these examples are provided to contrast the look and feel of the default templates available in MOSS 2007 Do they necessarily satisfy things such as usability and accessibility Maybe or maybe not but that is not the point The point is that with some thought and planning and maybe access to the right tools and the right book you can take the ordinary and make it extraordinary Sanford c01 tex V3 08 13 2008 2 49pm Page 7 Chapter 1 Why Design GO B http www sendtec com default aspx gt 691 X Live Search Pe died
9. come to your site and think I ve seen this look somewhere before make that lots of places before that is not a good thing Unfortunately many user groups fall into this exact trap If you go to one user group site it will often look like every other user group site with the exception of the content colors and logo They all take the same portal and just choose one of the out of the box templates and slap their logo at the top and call it a day Here is an interesting case study Look at Figures 1 1 and 1 2 Sanford c01 tex V3 08 13 2008 2 49pm Page 4 Chapter 1 Why Design If this book were in color you might more easily distinguish the two screenshots from each other However in the grayscale world of the printed manuscript this will be much harder to see It s almost as if one design is simply the other one with a filter on top of it that affects the hue of colors If you are curious Figure 1 1 is Default Theme and Figure 1 2 is Granite 9 Te http wrox captare com default aspx six l Live Search gt gt We Be Home Wrox Bha m D AR y E Bage G Toob Wrox Welcome Jacob Sanford 8 wrox This Site Wrox lt EJ View All Site Content hacia tu ase E Ti j To add dick Add new announcement M SAE Tie me cmrenty no ecve emmnemete o a new announcement new mi Lists l B Add new announcement Windows Calendar SharePoint Services Tasks Calend
10. e for SendTec www sendtec com Sanford c01 tex V3 08 13 2008 2 49pm Page 6 Chapter 1 Why Design Migros Home Windows Internet Tr l G m me l telee S z GOJ hitp www migros ch DE home Seiten Home aspx gt 7 X Live Search P m aie y z gt ve de Migros Home Sha M B AR E Bage G Toots M INFOLINE x Newsletter x Seite weiterempfehlen x Seite drucken IF li Bitte ausw hlen Q Bitte Ort oder PLZ singeben EB Bitte Suchbegriff eingaben PRM orire Shops Soriment Aktuele Angebote Fachmarkte M CUMULUS Regionen Uberdie Migros Stelen Kundendienst Nicht Verpassen M Budget S lection Actlife Welbewerbe amp Spiele Kuburprozent Klubschule Nachhaligket Gastronomie M 08 Photo Service Migros Home ESD Alles was A Asien so ma G 2 78 Leshop cl 9 fasziniere a o jq exlibris Ex Libris Q L ms KA macht Holelplan ch vworeivlen amp Mayur Tandoori Paste pakis a aani mihe vaea O gleichnamigen Linie 200 9 ofice world ch 3 60 W Online Shopping LeShop ch Aktion Let s play Golf Deftige Kost fir kalte Die Migros ladt 9 bis EZ Tage 13 j hrige In Ihrer Migros finden Sch lerinnen und Sie jetzt allaz vaz Sch ler ein mit ihrer Kraft zum Obermintam ganzen Klasse und me schenkt der Lehrperson einen halben Tag Golfluft zu schnuppern Jetzt anmelden 20 auf Sauce Bratensauce ge
11. e rinosrORES ff rxrerucs GB my krocer Home Great Meals Healthy L Fresh Foods Gift Center Services InStore SeeAll Sign In eqister Pharmacv Doing our Part Minimizing our Impact on the Earth From energy and fuel conservation to waste reduction and recycling see how we re helping to protect our valuable resources The Season for Seafood During Lent immerse yourself in the ocean s bounty with new recipes and interesting information from our Seafood Tool On Sale Doing Our Part Daytona 500 Visit the Seafood Selector gt gt Meet Maggie Artides and Information P amp GeSAVER a Pp nts Our Dietitian RD LD Facts amp Tips to Keep You in the Know Fi Roses Say it Right No matter what sentiment you want SAVE and e a to convey this Valentine s Day Ta D there s a rose color that will do just SIMPLIFV that Learn More FI f Black History Month leg resis Seared Se javors of Black Histo jon oe eon Bie 7 A tae w as Done Internet Protected Mode On 100 Figure 1 3 Does that look like a SharePoint site Even in grayscale would you think that this site is one designed in MOSS 2007 Well it is And take a look at Figure 1 4 the Web site for Migros www migros ch Again even in the context of black and white images in the print of this book this site looks distinctly different from anything out of the box with SharePoint Finally take a look at Figure 1 5 the Web sit
12. eir sites to look better than the competition They want to send links to their friends and colleagues and say Look at our new site Clients maybe more than any other group care about design And if for no other reason so should you Sanford c01 tex V3 08 13 2008 2 49pm Page 10 E Chapter 1 Why Design So Why Use SharePoint for Design A fair question to ask especially after reading this chapter is Why should I design with SharePoint This is a remarkably simple question with a less than simple answer First SharePoint is designed to provide every functionality a portal may need out of the box wikis blogs message boards document libraries version control security announcements integration with Active Directory and a laundry list of other features This all comes with the initial installation and is fairly easily set up and controlled by administrators This is a huge selling point Add to that the flexibility and ease of customizing the default installation and you have a much more compelling reason to consider SharePoint as your portal platform You can integrate custom NET code into your applications in code blocks or in code behind files You can import data connections through the Business Data Catalog BDC that allow your SharePoint lists and controls to integrate with outside data sources You also can completely overhaul the way the site looks and feels using familiar NET 2 0 controls f
13. f the Web site subscription revenue went up by x number of dollars It s harder to evaluate though if a site becomes more or less popular because of the way it looks and feels This is especially true for a completely new site because there are no historical numbers to use to determine how much difference the site s aesthetics make Conversely if a site has been online for three years and one day a total redesign is introduced and within three months sales double it might be easier to give the credit to the design although it might be just as easy not to And what of the sites that generate no real revenue Perhaps new and or repeat visits would be able to quantify good design but even this would be hard to measure So maybe this is part of the reason Sanford c01 tex V3 08 13 2008 2 49pm Page 2 E Chapter 1 Why Design Or maybe the problem is with the mindset of the developers making the MOSS 2007 sites Maybe they don t have the training and exposure to make the sites visually impressive Or maybe there is general apathy about design Perhaps they just care a lot more about functionality than design After all most clients sign off on projects based on what they do not how they look Or maybe it s just that these developers don t feel they have the time to make the design look distinct and besides there are plenty of out of the box solutions that would work just fine Slap on the client s logo and be done with design This book
14. in this powerful site but the design looks like you didn t even try to deviate from the out of the box templates Would the client recommend you Perhaps But would you rather they say Well these guys were pretty good They did everything we asked them to do and were great people to work with Wouldn t it be better if they started off by say ing You have to get these guys They blew us away Sure they did everything we required from a business requirements perspective But have you seen our site These guys are great Both scenarios might get you the call but one would get you a much better starting point with these potential clients And to look at the other side of the coin there are potentially going to be more and more consequences to bad design Sure there are costs of users not buying what you are selling that is the obvious consequence if your site is horrible and ineffective What designers might not think of though is that there are other real costs In February 2006 Target Corporation was probably shocked to find out that they were being sued because their Web site was not accessible In an effort to dismiss the charges they claimed that they met the requirements of law by making their brick and mortar retail stores accessible to all However in October 2007 the Federal court thought differently The U S District Court for the Northern District of California certified the case as class action on behalf of blind Internet
15. iness the manager would be much closer to the shouting line than the developer for better or worse But more important than these reasons is the consideration of the impact on the organization s employees and their professional growth and happiness Plenty of developers have no interest in design and see it at best as a necessary evil However a growing number of developers really want to create good design Sanford c01 tex V3 08 13 2008 2 49pm Page 9 E Chapter 1 Why Design While it is important to focus on deliverables it is also important for managers to understand how good design reaches clients and to make sure that developers have the resources they need to make the site look good function ethically and provide value While it is true that some or maybe even many developers don t want to get involved in design work it is equally true that many do By pursuing the discipline of design they will become better employees who add tremendous value to the overall business Why Should Clients Care It is a safe bet to assume that clients have a primary reason to care about the design of their sites the user experience For many sites this translates into actual dollars For others it might mean that they are getting their message out to the largest audience possible However they quantify it they should and almost always do care about the design of their sites Sure they care about the nuts and bolts that run the
16. just have fun doing it and you might even make a few friends along the way 10 Sanford c01 tex V3 08 13 2008 2 49pm Page 11 E Chapter 1 Why Design Summary At this point you have gained an appreciation of some of the reasons why good design should be a serious part of the planning of any Web project SharePoint or otherwise Maybe you have been exposed to some things you haven t considered before Or maybe you have just received confirmation on some of the things you already believe Either way you should have a new or renewed appreciation of the reason to follow good design principles Now that the why is out of the way the rest of this book will focus more on the how You will get a better understanding of what good Web design means how to use tools such as Photoshop and SharePoint Designer for your design needs and how to use all of the out of the box functionality of SharePoint to make it look anything but With that it s time to begin Good luck and good coding 11 Sanford c01 tex V3 08 13 2008 2 49pm Page 12
17. o well received Pride that they did a good job But is pride enough Fortunately there are other real rewards to doing good design Maybe the biggest reason is that it often makes financial sense to do good design work After all when you are a consultant you often get leads and maybe even sales based largely on your portfolio If a potential client is looking through the sites you have developed and can see nothing inspiring or even worse different from the other 20 sites you have already shown them they will not be knocking down the door to try to hire you You may still get the sale but the first impression may not be what you are hoping for After all if businesses are scouring the Web to find consultants and looking at their online Sanford c01 tex V3 08 13 2008 2 49pm Page 8 E Chapter 1 Why Design portfolios are they really going to know that for client ABC you created innovative event handlers to customize workflow procedures on the document library That won t come through in a screenshot or even in a visit to the finished site They would have to decide that they are still interested and then come talk to you to learn about the cool technology you were capable of using But if you lose them in the first 10 seconds of looking through your portfolio you won t get that chance Beyond that though what about referrals Many deals today are made based on referrals or recom mendations from clients So what happens when you turn
18. or instance master pages Add to this that you can create custom Web parts to do pretty much anything else you need to do So while the default installation is remarkable on its own the power of what you can do with it when you want to step outside of the boundaries of the default can be awe inspiring And don t forget the level of user interaction and control of the site once it is running Users with no Web programming experience can with a little training and guidance create grids that report data from the system generate and modify custom lists and even control who has access to what on the site Developers no longer need to do a lot of the day to day maintenance of the site The users and site administrators can do the majority of it on their own even if they have no idea what a code block in C looks like and have no interest in finding out One thing that might give developers pause though especially in light of some of the examples in earlier sections of this chapter is accessibility concerns It is worth noting that out of the box SharePoint has some accessibility problems This is a known issue However Microsoft and the community of developers are working together to try to solve this One example is the efforts made by the development community to integrate the CSS Friendly Control Adapters into SharePoint sites to make many of the controls such as the menu navigation system more accessible You can read more about these adap
19. r be undervalued Q Accessibility This is one of those terms that people have trouble defining Some people might refer to it as 508 design after Section 508 of the Disabilities Act Some might associate it with text readers and other tools to assist the visually impaired But that isn t really what accessibil ity means although this is certainly part of it Accessibility means in its simplest form making sites that everyone gets equal value from This takes a lot of different forms Take for example a site that broadcasts its daily specials using Flash software A text reader will read the rendered code of a Web site to the user accessing the site When it gets to the site s daily advertised spe cials in Flash the reader will likely announce something like embedded object found and then move on if they acknowledge it at all So these patrons will have no idea that ear muffs are buy one get one free today and may decide to brave the frozen tundra without them And you just lost a sale In a similar situation imagine an e training site that offers online training on various business topics But what if those classes were all done in streaming media where some narrator or even instructor is recorded going over subjects like sexual harassment or civil rights issues How effective would that be to a person who cannot hear If there is no consideration for such people and there are plenty of them the site will suffer for it These ideas
20. rcial the owners may miss a sale or a lot of sales Usability has to be taken into consideration when planning the design of a site This will include navigation spatial layout information provided and general user experience for example if the user is pre sented with a shocking strobe light effect when they visit the site they may never come back A Web site is built for its user base and failing to cater to the people that use the site can have tragic consequences for the longevity of the site Q Aesthetics Thought should be given to the colors that will be used how they play into the general scheme of the site and its principles and how they will shape the experience of the user This is different from usability in that usability means that the site visitor can use the site effectively whereas aesthetics is a question of how much the user enjoys the feeling of the site To extend the preceding example if the users are easily able to find the Contact Us button because it is logically placed and easily identified they might just use it to tell you that they hate your site if the colors images and font choices are giving them headaches Of course Sanford c01 tex V3 08 13 2008 2 49pm Page 3 E Chapter 1 Why Design more likely you will simply lose them as future visitors and never have a clue how much your organization is suffering from these aesthetic choices While not as important as usability aesthetics should neve
21. should be fundamental to any designer in today s Internet Before you dismiss vision and hearing based accessibility issues consider this According to the U S Bureau of the Census statistics for 1999 there are more than 1 5 million visu ally impaired computer users Also according to a 2005 report by Ross E Mitchell in the Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education from Oxford University nearly 10 million people in the U S are hard of hearing and nearly 1 million are functionally deaf And those numbers only reflect potential U S visitors to your site they don t account for all of the other visitors from Canada Britain Germany and the rest of the world Q Branding This can mean different things to different people especially on the Web Many cor porations today have specific branding requirements This often means that Web media can only use a designated logo at specific dimensions and must be separated from all other elements by a specific number of pixels It could mean that the entire color scheme is mandated by the branding requirements of the company or public entity It could even mean font sizes and colors When getting into site design it is imperative that designers understand the branding require ments of the people paying you to make the design and then adhere to them With MOSS 2007 and portals in general there is at least one other consideration Don t look like every other instance of this portal If visitors
22. ters in Chapter 13 Maybe even more impressive is the October 2007 release of the Accessibility Kit for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 by HiSoftware http aks hisoftware com This too will be covered in greater depth in Chapter 13 This kit was commissioned by Microsoft in an effort to better meet the accessibility needs of the Internet community regarding MOSS 2007 This is a huge step forward in the mindset of major software developers and is worth noting when getting into accessibility issues especially when considering using MOSS 2007 as your platform Is MOSS 2007 the perfect platform for portal development on the Web No not really There are a few limitations such as the accessibility problem that if not handled will be an issue with out of the box installations And this is no small matter However there is a concerted effort to remedy this major limitation and as the community of developers grows more and more solutions will present themselves The developers already out there in the field working in MOSS 2007 are probably some of the more passionate you will run into in the Web application development arena and most of them are happy to share their experience and suggestions So whatever limitations there might be could probably just as easily be called opportunities or challenges With the power under the hood of SharePoint figuring out how to get around these challenges is not only achievable you might
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