The content model is derived from an examination of use cases developed for the web application. This model contains structural elements that provides a view of content requirements for a web application. Structural elements include content objects like text, images, audio, video and photographs.It also contains analysis classes which cover attributes that describe it, operations that effect the behavior and collaborations.
A content object is any item of cohesive information that is to be presented to an end-user. These content objects are extracted from use cases. Content can be developed before the web application implementation, while the web application is being built or long after web application is operational.
The web engineer meets the person who has designed the use case and obtain a more detailed understanding of what descriptive and pricing information means. The descriptive information includes a paragraph of general description of component, photograph of component, a multi-paragraph technical description of component, a schematic diagram of component and a thumbnail video that shows how to install the component.
Content objects with a brief description of each object is more than enough to define the requirements for content that must be designed and implemented. In some cases, a data tree is used to represent a hierarchy of content objects. The content model may contain entity relationship diagrams that describes the relationship among content objects.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Overview of The Content Model for Web Applications
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Introduction to Content Design - Content Objects and Content Design Issues
Content design focuses on two different design issues, each addressed by individuals with different skill sets. In content design :
- a design representation is developed for content objects and
- mechanisms are represented that are required to initiate their relationships to one another.
- representation of information within a specific content object is concerned.
It is design activity that is conducted by copywriters, graphic designers, and others who generate the content to be used within a web application.
A content object is closely aligned with a data object. A content object has attributes that include content specific information and implementation specific attributes that are specified as part of design.
UML association and aggregation may be used to represent relationships between content objects.
Once all the content objects are modeled, the information that each object is to deliver must be authored and then formatted to best meet the customer's needs. Content authoring is the job of specialists who design the content object by providing an outline of information to be delivered and an indication of the types of generic content objects that will be used to deliver the information.
As content objects are designed, they are chunked to form web application pages. The number of content objects incorporated into a single page is a function of user needs, constraints imposed by download speed of internet connections, and restrictions imposed by the amount of scrolling that the user will tolerate.
