The ease of designing and developing web sites
has steadily increased throughout the years. With innumerable
resources on the Internet, anyone can publish their very
own web site in no time at all. Here are a few must-know
basics to developing web sites.
 Form
Follows Function
As with every major project, planning
is crucial to developing a web site."Form Follows Function" is
the basis for development. The "Function" must
first be determined. Ask yourself these questions. Why are
you doing it? What do you plan to achieve through it? The "Form" factor
then follows. What do you want it to look like? Too many
times have web sites been created based on Form but lacks
heavily in Functionality. This results in a pretty web site
with no functionality and thus, no return visitors.
- Function
Determine what the function or purpose of your
web site is, e.g. informative, e-commerce, portal.
- Why is the web site needed?
- What is its purpose?
- Content - This is
what makes up the lion's share of your web site.
Decide what type of information will be available
and gather them prior to building the site.
This helps to keep development time at a minimum.
- What are you trying to communicate?
- What do you want your visitors to take
away with them?
- Target Audience -
These are the people that you are trying to
reach.
- Who are the potential viewers of the
pages?
- Who are you targeting?
- Form
Determine what impression you would like to leave with your viewers. Design
is just as crucial as the web site's function.
- Are there corporate colors to consider?
- What is the theme of the web site?
- Are there any constants you would like to keep throughout the web
site?
- Organization - An outline of the
site is also needed. This gives you an idea of the scope of your
site, as well as a starting point for your file structure.
- Layout - Determine the best way to
present your information to the viewer. Keep in mind that people
read from left to right. It's best to do some research and decide
which layout works best for your site and what others with similar
sites have done.
- Frames or no frames?
- Navigation at the top or left side?
- How many columns?
Built
To Last
Build it right the first time. This
helps to save you time from going back and correcting it.
Also decide how often you will be updating the site. Will
you be updating just certain pages or the entire site? Are
you going to update the graphics or layout?
When building each page, keep all your
filenames simple and in lowercase. Use the underscore(_)
or dash(-) instead of spaces.
Rule of thumb: Test it, test it, and
test it again. This helps to avoid problems in the future.
- Resources for Web Development
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