Jun 08, 2001 07:26 AM
2885 Views
When I first began to dabble with Hyper Text Markup Language(HTML), I used no editors or any program other than Notepad to code and a browser to test my results. Although HTML editors makes it much easier for novices to produce a web page, I would highly recommend that a person that is seriously interested in building web sites to learn the code before ever using an editor. You will actually know what you are doing rather than allowing a program decide for you. And should that program’s code get “oinked up”, you can go and fix it manually and/or clean up bloated code.
I am not going into detail about the HTML tags since this is only a guide to help build a web site rather than step-by-step instructions on how to learn HTML. As in any type of system analysis, one should first determine what they want the web page to do.
*Things to ask yourself:
Is this site a personal home page?
If so, you probably do not need special coding for transactions or asp, etc. I would stick with the simplest codes and use scriptlets(Javascripts that can be found free on the internet) to enhance one’s site.
I the past I webmastered a game page that to keep out certain people other than true members, I had to come up with a system(and free of course!) to do a check to allow admittance into to members section of the site. I finally found a good, free script that did this trick for me. Security is very important in business sites, but it can be important even in home pages too.
The sites should load quickly so you do not lose your viewer to boredom and have them back out and browse on. Do not use too many animated graphics to slow page loading. Also, Java applets are wonderful to many high speed connections and do not take as long to load as it would on a 56k connection. However, the universe does not hand out free high speed DSL or Cable connections, and I always try to be conscientious of the people with the slower connections.
Too many colors can make a page gaudy looking even on a home page. Limit the color scheme to something pleasing to the eyes. If a page is too hard for me to look at or if it is too “busy”, I won’t stick around for long.
Is this site a business advertisement site?
If so, you need to think professionally. Do not use wild colors and cartoon animated gifs(unless you’re working on the Disney site) that detract from a company’s professionalism. Nice blends of two or three colors work well and makes most companies happy.
Once again, do not make the site too slow to load. If the company logo is a large sized picture, use a photo editor such as Photoshop and make the file size smaller. This really speeds up load time on the pictures that are a must.
Do not have broken links. It is so annoying to go to an information web site which took me time to find on our cluttered search engines only to find that the information link I just clicked won’t work. Always test every link if you do not own a program that can do this for you.
Do not forget to include an email link. Forgetting this important code(listen up companies!) can be devastating when a customer is uncertain about purchasing from you until their questions are answered. I was browsing around my company’s insurance company’s site, and they forgot to include a link for email feedback or questions. Their customer service link ended at a dead end with no place to email questions. This is lame and should be avoided if customers are expected to use your services even if this is an information only site.
Is this site a business transaction site?
If so, not only think professionally, you need professional coding and security. I stress the security part due to the fact that your customers will be using their credit cards, bank drafts, etc for these transactions, and you had better not allow for hackers to steal from you.
There are companies that sell packages to be modified and tailored to your special needs as an internet merchant. If I were a novice starting my own business, I would use either an existing service or buy the programs to allow for the most secure site. Not only must this site be secure, it must work. Do not have broken links or flaws in your coding. To complete a transaction, sometimes it is the user’s machines time/date that is set wrong, and that too will hinder a transaction.
Know your site well. Testing, testing, and more testing must be done before you go “online”. Do not put a site that you do not know how to run out there and when something goes wrong and customers are complaining, you simply shrug your shoulders. This will not make you a hero. Have a Frequently Asked Questions(FAQ) or a Technical Support page(including your email address) to help trouble shoot known system problems or any other information web users might need should they be having problems.
Keeping all these things in mind, the next step would be the design of the site which is based upon what type of site and what things the site is required to do. Some browsers still do not support frames, and some monitors cannot go beyond 640 x 480 resolutions. You can say “Well, it’s their loss!” But if you are running a business information or transaction service, it could be YOUR loss in the long run.
Many businesses use image mapping to add a nice touch and easily loaded images, and this works for me too. Images and the tone of colors used in the site is important and makes a statement to the viewer. Try not to overpower or nauseate the viewer. Busy tie-dyed colored backgrounds on text is difficult to read and loses the viewers attention quickly. The 1960’s American era is dead. And do not forget that many people are color blind. Some colors against other colors make the text practically invisible for those unfortunate people.
Once you have a plan of what you are going to do and have a vision in mind of what you what the site to look like, you may need to get an HTML editor. I discourage it if you have the time to learn the straight HTML, but most people do not. When I ran a web server for a former employer, I maintained the company’s Intranet. The company used Microsoft Frontpage 98, and although it did most of what I needed to do(not everything required), should an change needed to be made, the WYSIWYG portion of the editor would not always allow for the corrections. I was forced to go into the code and visually find the problem myself which is why I stress it is good to know the most common HTML tags. Another thing I noticed was that Microsoft Frontpage added many unnecessary tags that cluttered a page. I could delete these annoyances and see the important code to make updating much more efficient.
I hope this has helped someone collect their thoughts on how to get started on building their web site. I believe that planning and having a road map is the best way to achieve the success you want from your web site whatever the site is geared to do.
