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What advice would you give to somebody about to build their first website?
I think I would advise them to look at sites that they like, as well as some of the top sites in the field of interest that the site is addressing, and try to understand why they like them... IE, easy navigation, nice design, good content. Then, try and apply what they have just learnt to their own web site.
Oh, and don't use frames... or the
I think I would advise them to look at sites that they like, as well as some of the top sites in the field of interest that the site is addressing, and try to understand why they like them... IE, easy navigation, nice design, good content. Then, try and apply what they have just learnt to their own web site.
Oh, and don't use frames... or the
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:)
Turbo, wouldn't bother me in the slightest. But you have a lot to prove everyone now... we'll see.
funkygamer wrote:
> What advice would you give to somebody about to build their first website?
I would advise them to do what they like...
try things out...
Do whatever you want to do...
If you want to try and create a simple site with continuity...
Or a site with lots of animated GIFs, marquees, lots of bangs, wizz and noise... then thats cool too...
When you create your first site you really dont know whats easy to do and whats hard, you'll have a lot of things you want to do and not realise that its hard to make anything useful from mixing radically different styles... You'll create a site that is all animated GIFs and no content...
For your first site, have fun... after its done if you like it, stick it up on the wall... otherwise, delete it and start again using what youve learnt, and learn a little more?
Its their first site, let them have as much fin as possible?
> What advice would you give to somebody about to build their first website?
I would advise them to do what they like...
try things out...
Do whatever you want to do...
If you want to try and create a simple site with continuity...
Or a site with lots of animated GIFs, marquees, lots of bangs, wizz and noise... then thats cool too...
When you create your first site you really dont know whats easy to do and whats hard, you'll have a lot of things you want to do and not realise that its hard to make anything useful from mixing radically different styles... You'll create a site that is all animated GIFs and no content...
For your first site, have fun... after its done if you like it, stick it up on the wall... otherwise, delete it and start again using what youve learnt, and learn a little more?
Its their first site, let them have as much fin as possible?
Whoa, quite a wide range of opinions there.
My first web site was awfull, my second was a little bit better, and so on and so on, you do get better with time, but people who only want a family web site or whatever, probably don't have the time to go through many iterations, but certainly, professionals should try different things out all the time (apart from Frames of course).
There is no set design standard, yes, we have HTML, CSS, Javascript standards, but they don't make a web site, and anyway, even if you write to the standard, MSIE and NS have different "interpretations" of those standards, which means you have to code long-winded work-arounds.
There are many web sites out there that look awfull, but work really well, and there are those that look great, but are useless (dare I mention Boo.com?)
Remember when the "webmaster" would do everything? Design, and function? Probably looked after the webserver aswell. Now we have designers, developers, marketers etc, and they should all have a say because they all are experts in their field, the best web sites are built from many different people communicating and working together to produce a well-rounded site, that looks good and works well.
How many of you have built a web site, only for the client to make "suggestions" or demand changes that totally messes up what you were trying to do?
My first web site was awfull, my second was a little bit better, and so on and so on, you do get better with time, but people who only want a family web site or whatever, probably don't have the time to go through many iterations, but certainly, professionals should try different things out all the time (apart from Frames of course).
There is no set design standard, yes, we have HTML, CSS, Javascript standards, but they don't make a web site, and anyway, even if you write to the standard, MSIE and NS have different "interpretations" of those standards, which means you have to code long-winded work-arounds.
There are many web sites out there that look awfull, but work really well, and there are those that look great, but are useless (dare I mention Boo.com?)
Remember when the "webmaster" would do everything? Design, and function? Probably looked after the webserver aswell. Now we have designers, developers, marketers etc, and they should all have a say because they all are experts in their field, the best web sites are built from many different people communicating and working together to produce a well-rounded site, that looks good and works well.
How many of you have built a web site, only for the client to make "suggestions" or demand changes that totally messes up what you were trying to do?
As long as it looks and functions the same in IE and Netscape then you've got just about everyone in the UK covered. As for personal things, I'll do them to suit me - I'll be the only one using them so I don't care.
KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid
I could go on for days about this subject, after all, it's my job...
An ideal start would be asking yourself Why? and, What's the reason behind it? As well as, What will I do with it afterwards?
A lot of people build a website for themselves along the lines of... "Hi I'm Blah blah and this is my home page" wich tends to translate into "Somone once showed me how to code badly and this is my results". Ni thte best way to go about it and another crap site to join the other 80million plus of crap sites out there who the only visitors tend to be of friends and familiy!!
A website should serve a function as well as justify it's existence, in a way.
Hint wise in how to build etc... depends on the answers to the questions above really... If your going for a full audience, then work from version 4 browsers upwards using scripts to detect whats possible on each (you'll find some interesting CSS bugs on some of these)
Read the W3C paper on accessability as this is now a legal requirement for websites used in the USA and if you intend to go "Global" with your site, you will have to adhere to some of it.
Are you going to be collecting data through your homepage/Website? If so, I strongly reccommend that you read the Data Protection Act 2001 regarding the transfer and handling of data on the internet and databases... Scarry stuff!!
Usability is another strong area... if you intend to use your site to show off your skills, understands and demonstrate the are of a useable website... this is the current buzz word in the industry and one people are now looking for. Have a look at http://www.useit.com/
Graphically, stick to 256 where possible.
File size... aim for under 60k, though slave may correct me on this.
Keep tables as clean as possible.
Use CSS1 to improve download times and presentation especially as they are phasing out the soon. Unless your competent and know your CSS well, avoid CSS2 and CSS3.
Anyother questions, just yell!!
My god, it's Monday morning....urgggghhhhhhh!!!1
An ideal start would be asking yourself Why? and, What's the reason behind it? As well as, What will I do with it afterwards?
A lot of people build a website for themselves along the lines of... "Hi I'm Blah blah and this is my home page" wich tends to translate into "Somone once showed me how to code badly and this is my results". Ni thte best way to go about it and another crap site to join the other 80million plus of crap sites out there who the only visitors tend to be of friends and familiy!!
A website should serve a function as well as justify it's existence, in a way.
Hint wise in how to build etc... depends on the answers to the questions above really... If your going for a full audience, then work from version 4 browsers upwards using scripts to detect whats possible on each (you'll find some interesting CSS bugs on some of these)
Read the W3C paper on accessability as this is now a legal requirement for websites used in the USA and if you intend to go "Global" with your site, you will have to adhere to some of it.
Are you going to be collecting data through your homepage/Website? If so, I strongly reccommend that you read the Data Protection Act 2001 regarding the transfer and handling of data on the internet and databases... Scarry stuff!!
Usability is another strong area... if you intend to use your site to show off your skills, understands and demonstrate the are of a useable website... this is the current buzz word in the industry and one people are now looking for. Have a look at http://www.useit.com/
Graphically, stick to 256 where possible.
File size... aim for under 60k, though slave may correct me on this.
Keep tables as clean as possible.
Use CSS1 to improve download times and presentation especially as they are phasing out the soon. Unless your competent and know your CSS well, avoid CSS2 and CSS3.
Anyother questions, just yell!!
My god, it's Monday morning....urgggghhhhhhh!!!1
monkey_man wrote:
> As long as it looks and functions the same in IE and Netscape then you've got
> just about everyone in the UK covered. As for personal things, I'll do them to
> suit me - I'll be the only one using them so I don't care.
But why does it have to look and function the same? Go to microsoft.com and you will see that it functions very differently in IE and NS.
As long as users do not *realise* that it is different, lets face it, the average user will use either IE *or* NS, they won't chop and change often. If they have certain special (IE or NS only) browser functions like drop down menus, then that is great, but if not, then give them another way to navigate.
As for K.I.S.S., definatley the word of the day ;)
> As long as it looks and functions the same in IE and Netscape then you've got
> just about everyone in the UK covered. As for personal things, I'll do them to
> suit me - I'll be the only one using them so I don't care.
But why does it have to look and function the same? Go to microsoft.com and you will see that it functions very differently in IE and NS.
As long as users do not *realise* that it is different, lets face it, the average user will use either IE *or* NS, they won't chop and change often. If they have certain special (IE or NS only) browser functions like drop down menus, then that is great, but if not, then give them another way to navigate.
As for K.I.S.S., definatley the word of the day ;)
funkygamer wrote:
>But why does it have to look and function the same?
Example:
I use IE because I think it's a superior browser and more convenient to code in (view source in Notepad), but the place I used to work at used Netscape as a company standard. This puzzled me as web design was a big part of the company's make-up. It was annoying doing something at home that wouldn't work at work. I'm sure this situation is the same for lots of people.
>But why does it have to look and function the same?
Example:
I use IE because I think it's a superior browser and more convenient to code in (view source in Notepad), but the place I used to work at used Netscape as a company standard. This puzzled me as web design was a big part of the company's make-up. It was annoying doing something at home that wouldn't work at work. I'm sure this situation is the same for lots of people.
We support most browsers from IE4 to IE6, NS4.5 to NS 6.6 as well as Opera 4 & 5.
A rule of thumb used to be that if it worked in NS4.5 then it would work in almost anything else until NS6 arrived...
IE lests you get away with sloppy code, somehting that most designers rely on to deliver their sites, NS6 is compiant, and I repeat, strictly compliant to the W3C guidelines for DOM, HTML, CSS etc so now you can't rely on IE to do all of the work as the case now exists that if it works in IE5, it probably won't work in NS6!!
I now use NS6 as a standard testing tool, especially as the market for NS6 has exploded recently (ships with AOL as standard who just happen to be the largets provider out there) NS6 will almost definaite show all of your errors. Once you've got it to work in NS6 100%, it will appear fine in IE and most versions of NS as well as Opera (which is also W3C sompliant).
A true designer may have a favorite browser due to many factors from ease of use to usability, but you SHOULD test on all possible browsers to accomodate for all possible problems.
I spend most of my working life comparing browser problems and have one of the mose comprehensive lists of what does and what doesn't work across all of them... I will publishish it on my own site at somepoint int he near future.
A rule of thumb used to be that if it worked in NS4.5 then it would work in almost anything else until NS6 arrived...
IE lests you get away with sloppy code, somehting that most designers rely on to deliver their sites, NS6 is compiant, and I repeat, strictly compliant to the W3C guidelines for DOM, HTML, CSS etc so now you can't rely on IE to do all of the work as the case now exists that if it works in IE5, it probably won't work in NS6!!
I now use NS6 as a standard testing tool, especially as the market for NS6 has exploded recently (ships with AOL as standard who just happen to be the largets provider out there) NS6 will almost definaite show all of your errors. Once you've got it to work in NS6 100%, it will appear fine in IE and most versions of NS as well as Opera (which is also W3C sompliant).
A true designer may have a favorite browser due to many factors from ease of use to usability, but you SHOULD test on all possible browsers to accomodate for all possible problems.
I spend most of my working life comparing browser problems and have one of the mose comprehensive lists of what does and what doesn't work across all of them... I will publishish it on my own site at somepoint int he near future.
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