Website and Intranet Design It really is software.
Anyone can learn basic HTML
(HyperText Markup Language) to compose a simple web page,
but a good website requires much more, including:
User interface and visual design skills
Design tip:
Don't be "color happy". Use the guidelines in our
design pattern
Color Is Information.
The most compelling websites
are not merely electronic versions of traditional print media or
advertisements.
Due to its interactive nature, the design
requirements of a website are like those of any software
product. All of the concerns about user interface, including
visual design, navigation, performance, and error recovery
apply just as they do to software systems. Web surfers will
quickly teleport out of a site that is hard to read, poorly
organized, boring, slow to perform or difficult to navigate —
and they'll likely never come back.
Poorly designed Intranet sites will increase
rather than decrease overhead.
Websites should be
designed as complete interactive software systems.
Responding to the unique marketing factors of cyberspace
As a marketing medium a website is unique.
The demographics and culture of the typical web surfer are
atypical with respect to the general population,
although they will normalize as access to the web becomes more
ubiquitous.
Unlike TV or print publications, the web does not provide a
captive audience — it's not as simple as "if you build it they'll
come". Your website must provide a reason for cruisers to
visit, and it must be easy for people to find through links from other
sites, web directories and search engines.
In addition, successful websites are launched and promoted through
mail lists, newsgroups and traditional media, but
"spamming" on the Internet could damage your reputation —
and lose you business.
Understanding the underlying Internet technology
The majority of websites are hosted by a LAMP
(Linux, Apache, mySQL and Perl/PHP/Python) server configuration.
Knowing how the Internet works, including
email, TCP/IP, domains, client-server technology, HTTP daemons
(such as Apache)
and web server operating systems
(primarily UNIX class systems such as Solaris and
Linux)
leads to good systems design decisions.
This is is critical even if you don't install your
own server (and pay for its maintenance), an option not affordable for
a small businesses and organizations.
It doesn't matter how good your site reads and looks if the underlying
technology makes it slow, unreliable, insecure or full of bugs.
Programming and scripting skills
Problems maintaining email addresses? Check out our
JavaScript Email solution.
Need a slide show on your website? Check out our AJAX-like
JavaScript Slide Show solution.
Need an automatically generated table of contents for a document
collection? Check out our
JavaScript Navigation solution.
Need KML for Google Maps or Google Earth? Check out our
mash-up of
cemetery locations for genealogists.
Yes, an advanced website really is software,
not just HTML.
CGI (Common Gateway Interface) and other server-side programs
are typically written
in C, C++, PHP, Perl, Python,
Ruby, Java or even
calls to UNIX/Linux shell commands.
With increasing interactive web technologies, even the client side is
becoming more a software implementation.
Creating websites that are efficient and easy to maintain
requires understanding good
software design and engineering practices.
If your online software tools, forms and scripts don't work
well it reflects poorly on the products and services your website
promotes.
So-called "dynamic HTML" (DHTML) requires understanding
JavaScript and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets).
Unfortunately supporting older browsers is a headache;
even browsers that claim to be W3C compliant implement these
differently. And complex browser detection and browser-specific code
is not the answer!
Advanced so-called Web 2.0 sites require an understanding of
AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) technologies,
as well as understanding the hype and buzz.
AJAX does not require data formatting in XML,
and preventing unnecessary page loads to enhance interactivity and
performance can often
be accomplished without an XMLHttpRequest to the server.
Knowing how different web browsers display pages differently
You may be horrified to see how terrible your
beautiful website looks with browsers you don't use.
Advanced or non-standard HTML features supported only by some browsers
may look terrible with other browsers. In addition,
some browsers do not support the latest versions of the HTML
language, and they all render HTML tags, fonts, forms, tables and
graphics differently.
Futhermore, many browsers frankly have bugs and poor interpretations
of HTML tags that a good website must work around.
One of the biggest challenges in website
development is to best utilize advanced HTML features while ensuring it
works for the lowest common denominator of browser capabilities.
Anticipating the effect of different computer capabilities
The same web page can be rendered quite differently on different
machines, from low-end PCs to high-end workstations.
Even with the same browser program, preformatted text, tables, forms,
and colorful high-resolution graphics will look different on machines
with different display capabilities.
Unfortunately a web page that looks dazzling on a high-end machine
may not display well on low-end machines with limited horsepower,
color depth or resolution.
Here again, the challenge is to guarantee that the website reads
and performs well with the capabilities of all computer systems.
Designing, configuring and maintaining large complex websites.
Do you need help with your web software package
such as
Sirsi Unicorn iBistro
running on UNIX, Solaris or Linux?
Send us an SOS!
Many advanced websites are essentially complex commerical software
packages consisting of web server, database software, a suite
of programs and scripts, a set of web page templates, a WYSIWIG
web page editor, and configuration files.
These packages are typically beyond the technical skills of
the organization's staff, requiring specialized and often
expensive training, or hiring web specialists whose full time
jobs are to maintain the website system.
The web server itself might run on an operating system
(such as UNIX, Solaris, Linux or Mac's OSX) that is
unfamiliar to nontechnical staff whose only experience is
at the user level of MicroSoft Windows.
The challenge here is for the suppliers of these packages
to provide facilities that the "mere mortal" can use to
configure, customize and maintain
the system. Even then, the end-users of these packages
may find that outside training and consulting is the most
cost-effective way to get the biggest bang for their bucks.
Our experience with
software development and engineering,
user interface issues,
visual design,
marketing,
and a whole systems
design methodology,
provides us
with web design capabilities that are unique in the industry.
To get expert help for your internet, intranet or
extranet design needs
Joint projects with other software and web designers are
welcome.
User interface and visual design skills
