Design Principles
As noted in Editorial Policies, this edition has two primary goals: (1) to provide an edition as free from editorial interference as possible, and (2) to provide a text that remains accessible to the reader. In order to fulfill the second goal, the format of the edition must be carefully considered and catered to. “An’ Nature All Is Cheery: The Integration of Nature Imagery in Tannahill’s Poems and Songs” is a born-digital edition “that has never had any life in printed pages” (Kline and Perdue 245), excepting the copy-text. Thus, the digital medium of the web must be exploited to its fullest potential, just as print editors carefully lay out a book.
To make the website user-friendly, I chose to use a clean drop-down navigation hierarchy. This navigation system is common and easy for users to use because it visually presents a connection between web pages. I also chose to implement a universal search tool that can be accessed from any page. This tool is in the standard location of the top right corner of the webpage. Searching in this tool will return links to any instance of the searched term, including in the clear text of poems and songs. Taking advantage of the digital medium in this way provides information to readers more quickly, effortlessly, and completely than the comparable index feature of a print edition.
Transforming Robert Tannahill is built on the Weebly platform, which is a drag-and-drop HTML interface that also allows for the addition of widgets and custom code. As a designer, I can manipulate the CSS and HTML files to create the precise look I want. For example, I edited the CSS templates to create a custom slideshow for the home page that stretches the full width of the page, rather than just the width of the text. HTML5 is accessible from the widest range of devices (all modern browsers, with significant backwards compatibility). It is the best standard currently available for the majority of websites. Some website builders are Flash based, which is useful in specific instances; for example, Flash allows for user interactivity in games and animations. Flash cannot be easily redesigned or modified, however, and rarely can be downloaded and ported to another site host. Weebly supports a download for the entire site as HTML and CSS files. Weebly also automatically creates mobile-specific versions of desktop websites because HTML can be viewed from mobile browsers, while Flash cannot be because of lack of plugin support. HTML can also be used by visually impaired users and is easily searchable, while Flash lacks robust support for such uses. Finally, Flash generally consumes a larger amount of local system resources when compared to HTML, and usually takes longer to use because the entire .swf file must be downloaded before proceeding.
To make the website user-friendly, I chose to use a clean drop-down navigation hierarchy. This navigation system is common and easy for users to use because it visually presents a connection between web pages. I also chose to implement a universal search tool that can be accessed from any page. This tool is in the standard location of the top right corner of the webpage. Searching in this tool will return links to any instance of the searched term, including in the clear text of poems and songs. Taking advantage of the digital medium in this way provides information to readers more quickly, effortlessly, and completely than the comparable index feature of a print edition.
Transforming Robert Tannahill is built on the Weebly platform, which is a drag-and-drop HTML interface that also allows for the addition of widgets and custom code. As a designer, I can manipulate the CSS and HTML files to create the precise look I want. For example, I edited the CSS templates to create a custom slideshow for the home page that stretches the full width of the page, rather than just the width of the text. HTML5 is accessible from the widest range of devices (all modern browsers, with significant backwards compatibility). It is the best standard currently available for the majority of websites. Some website builders are Flash based, which is useful in specific instances; for example, Flash allows for user interactivity in games and animations. Flash cannot be easily redesigned or modified, however, and rarely can be downloaded and ported to another site host. Weebly supports a download for the entire site as HTML and CSS files. Weebly also automatically creates mobile-specific versions of desktop websites because HTML can be viewed from mobile browsers, while Flash cannot be because of lack of plugin support. HTML can also be used by visually impaired users and is easily searchable, while Flash lacks robust support for such uses. Finally, Flash generally consumes a larger amount of local system resources when compared to HTML, and usually takes longer to use because the entire .swf file must be downloaded before proceeding.