hotdog Posted November 17, 2005 Report Share Posted November 17, 2005 I've ben given the enviable job of sorting out our company website as I can use email and surf the internet. Apparently this qualifies me as a computer expert!! Any how, the only info I have is that the web address along with a couple of others that we would use are registered with our email provider, so at least I haven't got that to worry about! So, whats the next step? I was going to post this in the IT forum, but hopefully it'll get a bit more exposure here!! Any help or suggestions gratefully received ta Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
syeldham Posted November 17, 2005 Report Share Posted November 17, 2005 Use dreamweaver or another package, that'll get you on your way, and a good trick is to put everything in tables - then you can control where it goes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NeilB Posted November 17, 2005 Report Share Posted November 17, 2005 Download a copy of NVU, it's an open source version of Dreamweaver and does most of the tasks. Look into cascading style sheets too, this means you can change the look of the whole webpage within mins rather then having to change lots of coding within HTML. If the webpage has to store lots of data of products etc then use a MySQL database and load it with PHP. Again just got to add or remove the products from the database, rather then changing HTML files. And don't use frames, there a pain in the @rse Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simonb Posted November 17, 2005 Report Share Posted November 17, 2005 Speak to my mate - SHAMELESS PLUG REMOVED BY AUTHOR OF POST ON GROUNDS OF BEING TOOO SHAMEFUL!! - very very cheap website design!! If you want his email address, drop me a PM!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calm Chris Posted November 18, 2005 Report Share Posted November 18, 2005 Contract the build out, for a Company site, you want it to look smart and not too DIY. A £1000 will buy something pretty good and since you will be specifying design and content, you get the creative bit and a goood understanding of how to adjust and add to the site once they have built the main pages and various templates. I have some friends who specialise in marketing and web design, if you want, I'll introduce you to them. See current site here Latitude web site If the Company plan is to exploit the site and run campaigns that will get people viewing it, It needs to reflect the quality of the business the site represents. ( cheap site, cheap Company. Impressive site, impressive Company) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hotdog Posted November 18, 2005 Author Report Share Posted November 18, 2005 Cheers to everyone thats replied!!! Feel free to pass on any details!! Things are beginning to look clearer now, so I'm getting a list of ideas together and look at the optiona available to the company. Thanks for posting the replies Hotdog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mixit Posted November 18, 2005 Report Share Posted November 18, 2005 Call it irony if you will, but check this out. Hot Dog web design Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danksy Posted November 19, 2005 Report Share Posted November 19, 2005 [ QUOTE ] Call it irony if you will, but check this out. Hot Dog web design [/ QUOTE ] hahahaha genius Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mollox Posted November 20, 2005 Report Share Posted November 20, 2005 Hotdog, Definitely get someone else in to do it. Its a great skill to learn and you'll never stop learning new skills/techniques/workarounds (because html is so flexible) but your company's website is NOT the place to learn and 'right now' isn't the time either! Most people don't really understand that there are 4 key areas to 'web design' 1. Actual Design! Before you go about making and putting a page on the web you need to work out a theme, design headers, menus, nav buttons, extras etc. This is a lot of work (typically in Photoshop) before you make a single page. And then its not just straight design either, you have to design in such a way that your work is geared towards web use. E.g. graphics that 'stack' together, images that blend seamlessly into generic backgrounds, slicing images etc etc. Its a different skill but not impossible to tweak your design head once you understand how web pages work 2. Web Authoring Once you've got your key design elements in place and drawn with the web in mind, this is actually the easy bit. The key challenge here is making the website work across all browsers (much easier these days) and across all screen resolutions (the real challenge). This is where tables come in and probably the hardest bit to understand about making professional quality web pages. The way tables are used in web design is quite different to tables you'd use in word an excel. They're used as placeholders and are normally invisible - e.g. any borders etc typically come from images you've designed and not the tables themselves. You use tables to order your images and text and set them to grow to certain % of the total screen area. By cleverly using "dead" areas, your page can grow as big as it needs to fill a page but equally shrink to the smallest likely screen size (resolution). Have a play with resizing the TSN window to see what I mean. The main image at the top of the page lives in a table that's 1 row (h) by 3 columns (w). In the left cell is the main TSN logo, in the right cell is the image of the cars that changes (pre-designed of course). The middle cell only contains a set background which matches the gridlines in the logo perfectly. When you make the page smaller this middle cell (which has no fixed width) shrinks whilst the 2 images stay the same size. That's the dead area. So its stuff like that - clever placing and sizing of elements thats the real challenge in 'making web pages'. Also you'll be wanting them to make the site 'dynamic' - i.e. using something like Php includes. This means that key content like the header, menu etc are actually always the same file that get 'included' in each additional page. What does this mean for you? Well, everytime you want to make a change to a core site component, you only ever need change one file and that updates each and every page that uses it automatically. Sounds simple but there are lots of people out there making unique pages so a simple change to your header could cost you tens of hours as they try to convince you that they need to change x hundred pages... 3. Content Potentially a major cost area. Where's the content coming from? Is the site going to be more like an online brochure in that content is added once and then rarely changes or is the content going to be live, say from a database? The former is easy, the latter requires some sort of interface and a lot of disciplined layout protocol - just the sort of thing that can catch out a mickey mouse 'developer' (like me )and cause you no manner of problems from the word 'go'. Also, you really need to think about your role in providing content. I've started so many sites for people and spent a lot of time developing themes and looks and getting them into page structures ready for people to give me content and so many times sites have really stalled at this stage. Bear in mind that a site developer will want to do all sorts in terms of design but won't want to get involved in writing a site for you. Make sure you have a good idea of sections written out, and get cracking on the actual content of the pages asap. There comes a stage once you've done the theme where you can't really progress a site without having a very good idea of excatly what the content that's going to be on it is. Either wait to see if your designers have their own content capture template or get started in writing your 'site' in a basic word document. All they'll need is to know your idea of sections and a draft of the content and it'll really help. They're not going to be able to help you much if you say "I need a site but I'm not sure about content yet - what should it say?". 4. Updates This area can end up costing you as much as the site itself. Again, is the site going to stay static for a long time or is it going to need regular content updates. Any designer will look to lock you into them and try and get you onto some kind of maintenance plan (I would!) The more complex the design of the site and the more advanced the layouts, the trickier its going to be for users to update the site. In reality, if your site is anything other than text-based and is written in tables with bespoke imagery then end users won't be able to add or even update pages without advanced knowlege of dreamweaver (or another web development programme) but most likely you'll need some sort of content management system in place as an interface between users and the site. Cha ching there goes the budget! Also, even if someone is handy with dreamweaver then its still a mare to update somebody else's site a) because its not always obvious what they've done b) you might need to make new images (e.g. new menu item) and will need access to the original photoshop files or whatever etc. If your site is simple and will only need occasional basic changes then I'd agree a per-page rate for minor changes and another for new pages and just bite the bullet and let them do it. If your site needs regular updates or needs to be updated by many users then you're going to need a Content Management interface such as Macromedia Contribute and the site (I imagine) will need to be designed with this in mind (never done this myself). Provision for professional standard content management could well add thousands to the cost of the site... So, those are the 4 key areas you need to bear in mind and understand. Of course its all my opinion, and I don't design sites for a living, just for fun, but its all stuff I've learnt over the years. You could go on a Dreamweaver course, as I did years ago, but believe me they only scratch the surface and you simply won't be in a position to design, write and maintain corporate pages for some time. If you're really unlucky, you'll get an instructor that's obsessed with making everything in 'layers' because its easy to teach but in practice this is a terrible way to design a site. Tables are the other way, 99% of top sites use them but they are a complete nightmare to get your head round at first. It goes against most of the things you already know and it will take a long time to get used to html nuances, most importantly a lot of practice. Its this practice that will get you from walking out of a dreamweaver course to being able to write and maintain a pro quality site for a company. If you're looking at outsourcing it, give us a heads-up on the companies you're looking at and I'm sure there's lots of us who can have a look at their site portfolio and give you an opinion on their abilities. Hope that helps a bit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mollox Posted November 20, 2005 Report Share Posted November 20, 2005 Oh yeah and then there's the matter of whether you want a site in Flash or Html... Personally I prefer html sites with little snippets of Flash if need be. I'd argue html is more flexible, cheaper to develop, open to all (some people STILL don't have flash players on their machines) and easier to update. Chri5, that site is slick and parts of it are beyond my abilities but its also fairly slow (on a 2mb line). Also, it took me about 15 clicks to get their "recent work" link to work so maybe some of their code is a bit iffy and not the best advert for themselves. I like their angle though: total branding solutions for SMEs (of which a site is a big part) - its something I've been tempted to do on the side but I really haven't got the time. They seem to be doing well But tell them from me that there's no apostrophe in 'Logos' please! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ritey Posted November 20, 2005 Report Share Posted November 20, 2005 If you want any more info or help after mollox's excellent guide (no really that is a very honest and true account ) drop me a PM. I can provide a good CMS at a good monthly rate rather than most giving a big sting and then a monthly rate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silentandy Posted November 20, 2005 Report Share Posted November 20, 2005 Is it just me or are there an unusual amount of web developers and/or IT people on these forums? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riz Posted November 20, 2005 Report Share Posted November 20, 2005 [ QUOTE ] Is it just me or are there an unusual amount of web developers and/or IT people on these forums? [/ QUOTE ]Mmmm im not a web developer.... I generally use web templates already out there and just change them alittle.... i use Dreamweaver which makes things nice and simple. Here is my SITE Still working on it, its nothing big but already its looking kind of nice. Riz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silentandy Posted November 20, 2005 Report Share Posted November 20, 2005 Looks good, slightly lacking in content though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riz Posted November 21, 2005 Report Share Posted November 21, 2005 [ QUOTE ] Looks good, slightly lacking in content though! [/ QUOTE ]Mmmm yes im wondering what to put on it... Riz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JUL3S Posted November 22, 2005 Report Share Posted November 22, 2005 Some good advice there - EXCEPT the bit about using tables. You will use them, they're hard to avoid, but if you're starting from scratch, do yourself a favour and learn a bit about CSS (cascading style sheets). Plan you pages before you start. loads of online references out there, like devguru.com, and the source of all knowledge at w3schools.com Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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