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What you can expect from this site
You will learn the mechanics of building Web sites and discover what tools are available to help you do the job. In addition, I hope you will make two big discoveries:
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What makes a really successful Web site
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How artists, writers, and programmers can work together to create a successful Web site.
Keep in mind these words of wisdom from "The Web Writer":
"Web sites are dependent on the ability of the designer and the writer to make an instant impact. The idea that people will linger on your site without a reason is silly at best and delusional at worse. If you don't make your point quickly, it won't be made at all."
Which means that you will...
Keep your audience in mindIs it the one with the most glorious graphics or awesome animations? Not unless it's selling glorious graphics or awesome animations.
A successful Web site is one that...
...serves its purpose as far as the Web site sponsor is concerned and as far as the user is concerned....is well organized so that the user can find the information s/he wants quickly.
...is designed for future maintenance--so that you can add or update information without completely overhauling the site.
Leave the fancy slow-loading, crash-your-computer stuff for your "entertainment," "image," or "ego" sites. They don't belong on a business or educational site.
Keeping your audience in mind is another crucial element of your overall design.
- Who is your intended audience? What do they want from your site?
- What browsers do they use? Will your code work on every browser? *
- What computer platform? Macs and PCs use different fonts and color schemes.
- What size monitor? Many folks still use 13" and 14" monitors **
There are incredible variations in browsers, Internet connections, computer platforms, and other resources that people use to access a Web site-- all of which can drastically affect how they view (or not view) your site. You'll need to test, test, test, and test some more to be sure all your intended users (even those with older browsers and anemic computers) will see your site in an acceptable manner.
* Before you publish, ask your friends and associates to check your sites or ask for a site review by members of your favorite e-mail list. Hopefully, your reviewers will be able to test your site on various computer platforms, both old and new browsers, and various size monitors. ** To be sure your pages will fit on various size monitors - and that your viewers won't have to scroll horizontally to view your site, use flex tables.
What's on this site
We're going to make suggestions for Getting Started in Webcrafting and point you to excellent online Tutorials. Then we'll look at all manner of formatting possibilities and explain how to harness their strengths to create more powerful Web pages. We're going to take a look at Frames and Tables--the most popular (and practical) formatting devices available today--making some comparisons of the two (as to when one or the other would be most appropriate).
Then we'll look into the not-too-distant future when designers will have tools that permit truly structured layout, very much like the desktop publishing programs we know and love--tools such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and Dynamic HTML (DHTML)! But I hasten to advise that you can ignore these latter tools right now if you're primarily interested in producing Web pages that a very broad audience can access and appreciate.My guess is that it will be six months to a year before the majority of Web surfers will have browsers that can handle such coding as CSS and DHTML reliably. So why bother, unless you just want to be ready to use these techniques when that day arrives?
