Lesson video

Hi, my name is Jordan Bickel and this is the final lesson of Web page creation.

In this lesson, you're going to be learning about, how to link external websites to the website you created.

And we'll also be evaluating websites.

In this lesson you'll need permission from a parent or carer to access external websites that are relevant to the website you created.

You will also need to access your Google site that you created in lesson four.

You'll also need a pencil or pen and a piece of paper.

Now find a comfortable place with limited distractions where you could get your best work done.

Pause the video here until you're ready to continue, then Press Play.

In this lesson, you'll recognise the implications of linking to content owned by other people.

To do this we'll first explain the implications of linking to content owned by others.

You'll then create hyperlinks to link to other people's work.

Finally, we'll evaluate the user experience of a website.

Now pause the video here to have a quick think.

Is it okay to link to content made by others? Consider what we've learned in our previous lessons about copyright.

Press Play when you're ready to continue.

So is it okay to link from your website to someone else's? Yes, absolutely.

It is okay.

But there are a few implications that we're going to discuss before you link to an external website.

Implications when linking to someone else's website.

When you link to someone else's website, this is often called an external link.

There are some things you need to think about before you create external links.

One implication of using an external link that you should consider, is that the website link might change or might not work.

We don't have any control about where information is stored.

The contents might also change.

We have no control over the owner of the site changing the information on the pages.

You should also try to always use an external link that is secure.

Some users will be reluctant to click on links if they're not secure.

This might also reflect badly on your site.

You also need to check if the website is trustworthy.

Your website will be pointing users to this site.

You need to think, is that a reputable source? You should also give credit to the site you are linking to.

You could do this by including the website's name.

When including external links in your website, it could sometimes be hard for the user to get back to your own site.

So you should always try to get external links to open in a new tab.

Task one: Searching for good quality external links.

Now that we've learned a bit more about some of the implications of using external links, let's have a look at how you can apply these, when searching for good quality external links.

Demonstration: Searching for good quality external links.

Now that we've learned a little bit about some of the implications of using external websites, let's have a look for one to include in my Google site, I've made, Animals Unleashed.

So on the right hand side, I can navigate between my pages.

And I might start at my desert page, wanting to include to include an external link to provide the user with a bit more information.

So here, I've already included a couple of interesting facts, but I might want to include an external link that has even more facts.

Here I've searched for kids desert facts.

It's always a good idea to begin your search with the word kids.

This just helps ensure that you're going to find age appropriate materials.

The first result that's been found, is website sciencekids.

co.

nz.

Now that nz there tells me that, it's a New Zealand based website.

So I might not want to use this website because the audience that I had in mind for my website is a UK based audience.

So the information I find on this website might not be as relevant to me.

I'll scroll down to see the next search, results.

And here I can see website, KIDS-WORLD-TRAVEL-GUIDE.

COM.

Now I haven't heard of this company, so I can't be sure if it's trustworthy or not, but let's have a look at the website.

So at the top of the page, I can see that it's a secure web site so that's a good start.

And now looking down, I can see it includes Desert Facts.

It's a good website, it's secure.

The facts that I can read here seem accurate.

But however, I haven't heard of this company before, so I can't quite be sure it's going to be a reliable resource.

So I don't want to point my users into, to the direction of this website.

So I'm going to go back to my search results.

Now looking through the websites that have come up in my search, I haven't really heard of any of these before, so it'd be difficult for me to tell if they're reliable and trustworthy.

So I'm going to change my search slightly.

And I'm going to add in a reliable, trustworthy source that I do already know about.

And that's BBC.

I'll keep kids at the beginning and I'm going to add BBC to my search term.

And they're right at the top, I can see, what is a desert habitat? And that's exactly the information I wanted to give to my user.

So click on this results first.

On this Bite size page, I can see right at the beginning it says its key stage one.

So this is perfect for the audience I had in mind, because I made my website for primary school aged children.

Now scrolling down the web page, I could see first this video, which would be quite interactive and engaging for the user.

And there's also an activity and a quiz.

So again, something very engaging, that I would love my users to experience.

I think this would be a great website to include.

So I'm going to go to the top address bar, and I'm going to highlight the entire address, then I'm going to use a shortcut on my keyboard and press Ctrl + C.

This will copy the website so when I go back to my own website, I can use the shortcut, Ctrl + V to paste it into the link box.

Pause the video here to complete your task.

With permission from a parent or carer, follow the guidelines in the worksheet to find good quality external links to include in your website.

Press Play when you're ready to continue.

Task two: Adding external links.

In this task, you'll link the websites that you found to your website.

Be sure you consider the implications of linking to content of others.

Choose sensible sites and report any concerns that you may have to a trusted adult.

Google Site Demonstration: Adding external links.

Once you've decided which external website you want to include in your website, you can go back to your Google site.

Here you can see that I'm on my homepage.

On the right hand side, you can see that I've added all of my sub pages following my navigation path from our previous lesson.

And I already know that I want to include external links, to answer some of the questions.

So I'm going to go to my questions page.

And here you can see I've added a few, frequently asked questions already.

So the one that I'd like to start adding external links to would be, how can I help save animals? A reliable website that I already know about is the San Diego Zoo kids website we've used in previous lessons.

So I've opened that up in a new tab.

And I spotted one day here that they have a save the animals tab.

So I'm going to click there and that's the web page that I want to link back on my website.

So I'm going to copy this web page, then go back to my Google site.

Now to add the link, I'm going to click Insert.

And I'm going to add it as a button.

So when I click button, this box will pop up.

And I'm going to call this San, oops! San Diego Zoo Kids.

And then here in link I'm going to, paste the link from the web page.

And then I'll press Insert.

So here at the bottom, you can see it's added my button.

I'm going to drag it, out just so it shows all the text for the user.

And now I don't really want it there underneath, a good place to visit.

Well, that could be a good place to visit as well, but I want it to be right underneath, save the animals.

So now I can drag this button and you can see that it will highlight the area that it's going to go in.

And I want it to be just below my answer there.

So now that I have that blue line across the screen, underneath the question that I want it to be underneath, I can drop my button there.

That's not quite where I wanted it.

Press Undo.

I'll have another try.

I don't want it in the text box like there.

I want it just below.

Perfect, and now to test that my link works, I'm going to use the preview feature we learned about in previous lesson.

And now I'll be able to test that my link opens up to that external website.

Looks good.

And, there you go.

Now you've learned how to link to an external website on your Google site.

Pause the video to complete your task.

Choose a trustworthy website to add an external link in your Google site.

Press Play when you're ready to continue.

Task three: Evaluating User Experience.

User Experience.

Having a positive user experience is essential.

This encourages users to come back and visit your website again.

Using the evaluation sheet provided, you're going to evaluate the user experience of your website.

Here are a few things to consider when evaluating your website.

Is there a site name and logo? Are there interesting pictures and text? Are there hyperlinks and external links? Do they work? Have you used copyright free images? Now that we've learned a little bit about how to evaluate a website, let's put it to practise with this website, All About Animals.

Here I'm on the homepage.

And just scrolling down, straight away what catches my eye is that there's a picture here of a dog that's very zoomed in.

I've got two other really nice pictures of a cat and a rabbit.

But I would say this picture of the dog should probably be looked at again.

But they've done a great job to include a logo here in the top left hand corner, and they've also included their Web page's name.

You can also see that they've included hyperlinks to pages within their website, so they've done a great job to include that.

Now let's test that these links are actually working.

All About Rabbits.

So I hope that, when I click here, it takes me to a page called, All About Rabbits.

Perfect, so we've got a working hyperlink.

Okay, now we can also look here rabbits, where do they live? Good, that's taken me to a page called, Where do they live? And let's just check one more, Rabbit babies.

Good, it's taken me to a page called, Rabbit babies.

It has images and text which is also eye catching and, and then we'll also check the link here.

What do they eat? And it's taken me to a page called, What do they eat? So on that sub page, they have three working hyperlinks, which is fantastic.

And what do rabbits eat? Rabbits eat rabbit food, some owners give their rabbits vegetables, like carrots or lettuce.

Oh, cool it's included an external link here.

So let's check that, that goes to the correct website.

Oh, hmm.

Oh dear.

So this has not actually gone to the BBC website that it had said.

So that might be one thing that the maker of this website could do to improve their website is just check that all external links are, are working properly.

But otherwise, they've included many different images and it's very eye catching as a user.

So go back to the homepage, and we'll check just one more subpage.

Let's have a look at, all about dogs.

So when I click on this hyperlink, I want to see that it takes me to a page called, All About Dogs.

Perfect, they've done a great job there.

Now looking down at this page, I noticed the same two red question marks here, that was used on the rabbits page.

That's usually okay, but really, it's a good opportunity to grab your users attention here.

And you would probably take the opportunity to, use a different image of maybe a dog eating food and here you might have a picture of, an example of where a dog lives.

And now I want, I'll check that these hyperlinks are working so click on, what do they eat? and we hope this takes us to a page called, What do they eat? Good, so it's taking me to What do they eat? That's perfect.

Another external link.

Let's check that this takes me to a BBC Bitesize page.

Perfect, and this is a page about what animals eat.

So that link seems to be working.

And we'll just check one more hyperlink.

I'll go back.

And let's see dog babies.

Is that going to take me to a page called, Dog babies? Dog babies, perfect.

So overall, I would say the hyperlinks within this website have been done very well.

Now that we've had a look at the example website, All About Animals, we can use the evaluation form to complete a user experience evaluation.

Question one.

Does the website plan match the website? We can't answer this because we don't have the plan, but when you complete your evaluation, you will look back to your navigation path, and your homepage plan from previous lessons.

Question two: The Visual Appearance.

How does that look on a computer? Circle your answer.

So I tested this website using a computer, so I'm able to answer this one, and I've given it a five, because all the text was visible and all the pictures were visible, and nothing was cut off awkwardly.

For number three, looking at the visual appearance on a tablet, unfortunately, I can't test that as a user of the website.

But when you go to complete your evaluation on your website, remember to use the preview feature, to see what your website looks like on a tablet and mobile device.

So question number four we'll also skip for now, but you'll complete when you look at your own website.

For number five, do all the links work? When we looked at the website, All About Animals, all of the hyperlinks included to link to web pages on the website, did all work.

Number six.

Are there any links to external content? We saw quite a few examples of this, so one or two.

And so Yes, I can say there are external links.

And now number seven.

Do all the external links work? Unfortunately, we saw one example where the external link did not go where it was intended to.

So I've put, No here.

And number eight.

Are there any pages that aren't linked? And from our check of the website, all the pages linked appropriately.

So I'm able to answer No.

And the last question number nine, involves a bit of critical thinking.

What is one thing you would do to further improve your website? And for this one, I've looked back on the evaluation form, and there was a one external link that didn't work.

So I've said that I would check all external links work correctly.

Yay! It's time to celebrate all of your hard work and share your website with others.

Can you try and find somebody in your intended audience to share your website with? You should be so proud of all the work you've done in this unit.

This is the end of the Unit Web page Creation.

You should be really proud of all the work that you've done.

If you'd like to, please ask your parent or carer to share your work, on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak.