How to Create a Website
The website category is the most interactive of all NHD categories. A website should reflect your ability to use website design software and computer technology to communicate your topic’s significance in history. Your historical website should be a collection of web pages, interconnected by hyperlinks, that presents both primary and secondary sources and your historical analysis. To engage and inform viewers, your website should incorporate interactive multimedia, text, non-textual descriptions (e.g., photographs, maps, music, etc.), and interpretations of sources. To construct a website, you must have access to the Internet and be able to operate appropriate software and equipment.
Do I want to Choose a Website?
- Do I enjoy working with computers?
- Do I have access to a laptop computer to present my entry at the contest?
- Do I have a basic knowledge about developing websites?
- Can I effectively present my topic in a website?
How is a Website Different from Other Categories?
Websites can display materials online, your own historical analysis as well as primary and secondary sources. Websites are interactive experiences where viewers can play music, look at a video or click on different links. Viewers can freely navigate and move through the website. Websites use color, images, fonts, documents, objects, graphics and design, as well as words, to tell your story.
Getting Started:
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WEBSITE ELEMENTS:
- Your website must be an original production.
- Your website must reflect your ability to use website design software and technology.
- To construct a website, you must have access to the internet and appropriate software and equipment.
- Your website must conform to all general and category rules.
ENTRY CREATION:
- Your entry must be constructed using the NHD website editor: nhd.org/nhdwebcentral.
- You may use professional photographs, graphics, video, recorded music, etc. within the site. Such items must be integrated into the website, and must be credited within the site and cited in the annotated bibliography.
- You must operate all software and equipment in developing the website.
- All pages must be interconnected with navigational links.
SIZE REQUIREMENTS:
- Website entries may contain no more than 1,200 visible words that you write. See Figure 3 (p. 21) for word count instructions.
- The following words DO count:
- Text that you write, including captions, graphs, timelines, multimedia, etc.
- Text that you write, including captions, graphs, timelines, multimedia, etc.
- Words used in the following DO NOT count:
- Code used to build the site and alternate text tags on images
- Required source credits
- Recurring menus, titles, and navigation instructions
- Primary or secondary materials or quotes
- Required home page inclusions (Rule E4, below)
- The annotated bibliography and process paper, which must be included in the site
- Code used to build the site and alternate text tags on images
HOME PAGE:
- One page of the website must serve as the home page
- Include the following on your home page:
- Your name(s)
- Entry title
- Division and category
- Number of visible, student-composed words in the website
- Total length of multimedia
- Number of words in the process paper
- The main menu that directs viewers to the various sections of the site
- Your name(s)
- The home page must not include the name of your teacher or your school.
DOCUMENTS AND MULTIMEDIA:
- The website may contain multimedia clips (audio, video, or both) that total no more than three minutes (e.g., use only one three-minute clip, three one-minute clips). Included in the three-minute total is any music or songs that play after a page loads.
- You may record quotes and primary source materials for dramatic effect, but you may not narrate your own compositions or other explanatory material.
- If you use any form of multimedia that requires a specific software to view (e.g., Flash, QuickTime, Real Player), you must provide on the same page a link to a website where the software is available as a free, secure, and legal download.
- You may not use content that is hosted on an external website or link to external websites, other than described in the preceding bullet.
- Judges will make every effort to view all multimedia content, but files that cannot be viewed cannot be evaluated as part of the entry.
CREDITING SOURCES:
- All quotes and visual sources (e.g., photographs, paintings, charts, graphs) must be credited on the website and cited in the annotated bibliography.
- You must remove the hyperlink from all URLs listed within a website’s on-screen source credit.
- Source credits do not count toward the word total.
- See nhd.org/annotated-bibliography for more information and examples.
REQUIRED WRITTEN MATERIALS:
- Your annotated bibliography and process paper must be included as an integrated part of the website.
- They must be in PDF format.
- They must be included in the navigational structure.
- They must be in PDF format.
STABLE CONTENT:
- The content and appearance of a page cannot change when the page is refreshed in the browser.
- Random text or image generators are not allowed.
VIEWING FILES:
- The pages that comprise the site must be viewable in a recent version of a standard web browser (e.g., Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Google Chrome).
The Process Paper:
A process paper is a description of how you conducted your research, developed your topic idea, and created your entry. The process paper must also explain the relationship of your topic to the contest theme.
Website Examples:
The Iran Hostage Crisis: When Compromise Fails
Theme: 2018 Conflict & Compromise
1st Place Senior Individual Website
Laura Mills
Kent Place School
New Jersey
Theme: 2018 Conflict & Compromise
1st Place Senior Individual Website
Laura Mills
Kent Place School
New Jersey
Mother Jones: Marching with the Mill Children
Theme: 2017 Taking a Stand
1st Place Senior Group Website
Hannah Doyle, Zachary Matson
Hanford High and Delta High
Washington
Theme: 2017 Taking a Stand
1st Place Senior Group Website
Hannah Doyle, Zachary Matson
Hanford High and Delta High
Washington
China's Surge into Silk: The Exploration, Encounter, and Exchange of the Silk Road
Theme: 2016 Exploration, Encounter & Exchange
2nd Place Senior Group Website
Tigan Donaldson and Brian Ely
Alaska
Theme: 2016 Exploration, Encounter & Exchange
2nd Place Senior Group Website
Tigan Donaldson and Brian Ely
Alaska
To Learn or to Earn? The National Child Labor Committee and the Fight to End Child Exploitation
Theme: 2016 Leadership & Legacy
1st Place Senior Group Website
Niharika Boinpally & Divya Pakianathan
Theme: 2016 Leadership & Legacy
1st Place Senior Group Website
Niharika Boinpally & Divya Pakianathan