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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