Standards for Web Page Design

Math 155 Semester Project

Jo Hardin – Spring 2008

(mostly taken from Malcolm Campbell, Davidson College)

The set of assignments is designed to let you practice what we are learning in class. The projects are open ended so that you can experience what researchers experience when trying to assess real data. Remember that the goal of the semester project is to have a complete evaluation of your dataset.

Below are some guidelines for creating a website:

* At the top of every page add the line, “This web page was produced as an assignment for a course on Statistical Analysis of Microarray Data at Pomona College.”

* Do not have any fancy backgrounds on any page other than your first page. In general, it is better to keep web pages simple.

* Do not have any animations unless it is part of your presentation (e.g., no dancing bears or moving eyeballs).

* The color of text should be black on a light-colored background for easy reading (see how bad this is?)

* All references to print and WWW resources must be written in the proper format. Include hyperlinks to web references. Most science citations are done using APA format. If you don’t have a writer’s manual, you can find APA citation styles at The Owl at Purdue < http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/>

* All figures must have figure legends. You must seek permission to reproduce any figures which are not your own.

* At the bottom of each page, you should put your contact information and a link back to Pomona’s math department.

* Finally, you should know that I grade content and not presentation. If you spend your time making fancy graphics, that’s great as long as it enhances your ability to communicate to the reader. The text is the most important part of your web page, so concentrate on that.

You should take a few minutes to think about your overall web site. You are going to have at least 4 “results pages” as well as the information about the actual data, experiment, and journal article. It might be easiest for you to have a front page with links to the other pieces of information. Please don’t spend hours frustrated with creating a web page. If you have any questions, come talk to me immediately!