This is Part II in a four-part series of articles designed to answer the question we get asked most often: How Do I Get Started on the Web?
Getting Started on the Web, Part II: DESIGNING A WEBSITE
If you've done your homework and made a plan, you're now ready to build the ship.
Designing a website is the process of putting together formatted content and images that can be displayed in a web browser, generally using HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), and laid out in ways that allow your visitors to quickly find what they want and easily navigate from one page to another.
There you have the basics.
You can also include functionality with programming and databases, and you can add frills and eye-candy, such as animations, java, javascript, sound, video, and so on.... but the basics - HTML and graphics - can be learned by anyone. However, you'll notice as you surf the web, a lot of folks learn just enough HTML to put up a badly designed page. I have my own pet peeves in the design arena - I hate lime green and pink - but that's a personal color preference thing. A well-designed site means the HTML is clean (toss out Front Page and Word there...), the graphics load fairly quickly, and the site is easy to navigate through. I also always take the time to make sure graphics and page layout will look good on a variety of monitors and browsers, including Netscape, Mosaic, Lynx, and Internet Explorer.
It's deciding what images to use that will enhance your content, and not over-tax your visitor's bandwidth.
But first you must decide if you want to design it yourself, or hire somebody to design your website for you.
Why Hire a Designer? -- Knowledge & Experience.
If you decide to design your website yourself, we highly recommend you first get an understanding of what constitues "good" design. Of course, "good" is a subjective thing, but bad design can send visitors fleeing from your website.
Better use of your valuable time would be to hire a good web designer. But please, hire a professional. Many of our clients came to us, frustrated and angry, after 6 months of hard labor trying to get a decent looking (and functioning) website out of the neighbor's nephew, who, it turns out, knew nothing about graphics and had only been using FrontPage for a week. An experienced web designer can produce a website that is unique and quick-loading, and expresses all the goals you laid out in your plan.
If you really care about your web presence, include good design in your budget. The money will be well spent.
Ok, having said that, if you decide to design your pages yourself, please check out these URL's for some very helpful advice:
You'll find more tips and tricks for the do-it-yourself-ers in Christine's Library.
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