cools
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Dec 19, 2005, 5:43 AM
Post #15 of 20
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Re: [Blackbird Video] How to design a website?
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Does anyone have any suggestions for a good book or video that can help get me started?
Hi Blackbird! It really depends on how far you want to go with this and how much time you have. There are a lot of aspects that go into creating a good site, even more to create an EFFECTIVE site. At the same time, web development is a very enjoyable to learn; there are many different (fun) technologies to learn and master and an almost infinite number of ways to combine them to create something unique.
So if you are short on time and want something as soon as possible, your best bet is to hire a designer. I recommend in either case that you do as much of your own research as possible and determine what exactly it is you want before either you or your designer start working on anything. As far as prices goes, a simple site ain't that expensive, contact some technical school/college students. They'll be looking for experience, often for free (and often have that drive to create something really unique to impress you).
Of course, if you have the time, you could keep a few hours free each day (or weekend) and learn the basics by yourself. It's NOT that hard, but it can take some time. If you are more of a visual user or come from a graphic design background, some application like Dreamweaver can be a good investment. It won't create you the best of sites right from the start, but it'll give you the option to quickly create a site without the need to dive into the little details of the code.
If you want to take the code first approach, you can find some good starting tutorials at http://www.w3schools.com (it's by the same people that maintain the HTML standard used to code websites) and move on from there. Do a search on Google for HTML tutorials, etc. Play around, you don't need much to start (infact all you need is Notepad hehe). If you like it, get a book, etc.
Finally, my best advice in actually designing a site is something I tell all of my clients: always remember who your target audience is and what you are trying to achieve with the site. A full Flash site might look amazing, but is it actually effective? Can a user easily find what they want? Can they quickly find your contact info? How is your content organized (menu)? Etc. Those are far more important questions than the graphical aspects of a site. Keep it simple!
Hope this helps. I'd probably be more helpfull with some more specific questions though.
(This post was edited by cools on Dec 19, 2005, 5:45 AM)
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