Designing Your Website
I’ve been asked, “How do I design a successful website?” I often respond, “Do you know the fastest way to ruin a new website design?” As you might suspect, the answer is, “Lack of proper planning beforehand.”
Planning out your site before you build it is essential. To borrow a technique from the film industry, I recommend that you create a storyboard, which is a type of a flow chart of your new site design. You don’t have to be an accomplished artist to draw out your idea, but it’s essential to create it on paper first.
Storyboard.gif
On each piece of paper, the goal is to have room for an image at the top, plus space underneath for writing down information. As you might suspect, the first page to start with is your home (or welcome) page, which will typically have the most information, as it will be the page that people visit before they enter your site. As people go through your site, they will encounter more information (in tiers) as they go down.
Tiers.gif
Typically, the home page links to 5 to 15 pages below that, which we could refer to as Tier 2. Each of those pages links to another 5 to 15 pages, which you could call Tier 3.
If you use all of these pages, you’ll wind up with an extensive site, of at least 226 pages (including the home page).
It's during this process that all sorts of problems will crop up. But it's much easier to solve them on paper rather than in the middle of coding. If you don’t, you might run into a major problem along the way that would require a “back to the drawing board” complete site re-design.
Working things out on paper will give you a much better idea of how things will work and how to fix problems. And, if you have knowledgeable friends, get a second opinion.
Once you've completed the on-paper process, and you or your web designer are satisfied with the results, you’re ready to translate it into code. Unless you or your programmer is a pro, I would recommend using a “template.” These are ready-made design formats. You can view several templates to choose from by typing “template source” in most search engines. Many of these are free.
Here are some answers to some commonly asked questions:
Q. For web design, do I have to employ a pro, or can I call the guidance counselor at my local high school and ask for the names of some computer whiz kids that I could call to help me out (for a fee)?
A. It really depends on what you want to do. If all you want is 1-2 pages, you can learn how to build the Web pages yourself. If it were an
Q. Are there shareware programs that a beginner like me could test out (shareware, freeware)?
A. Yes. Here’s a link that will give you more information:
http://www.tucows.com/downloads/Windows/DevelopmentWebAuthoring/HTMLEditors/ and here: http://www.brothersoft.com/Web_Author_HTML_ Editors_Download_List_1.html
For HTML tutorials, look here: http://webdeveloper.com/html/ beginners_html.html And here: http://webdesign.about.com/od/beginningtutorials/p/bl_begin.htm
For reviews of HTML editors, check out this link: http://www.webreference.com/html/
Q. I see a lot of photo-oriented websites that have a black background. Is this the best color to use?
A. Not necessarily. It’s a matter of opinion and personal taste. White can work just as well. I don’t recommend the use of other colors as they can compete with your images.
Q. Is “Flash” or audio acceptable?
A. If you absolutely need Flash to demonstrate an animation, then by all means use it. If it’s for a fancy trick, I recommend leaving it out. It’s similar with sound. Unless it adds to your site, don’t use it. And if you do use sound, give users an option to turn it off. If you don’t, you’re likely to lose visitors.
Nathan Segal is an Artist and Writer who has been writing for computer and photographic magazines for 8+ years. His specialty is taking complex technical subjects and explaining them in clear, easy-to-understand terms. To learn more about his work and background, http://www.photo-shop-tutorials.com
 Tommy Thompson |
 Kerry Kolb |
 Jon Saban |
 Jake Nelson |