So, You Want To Build A Website
There are a lot of reasons to build a website: personal use, business growth, for profit, or simply for fun. However, whatever the reason you are creating a website, there are some basic considerations and processes that you will need to follow to ensure the success of your final product. This website will detail the basic steps in creating a web site, while also providing some resources to help you along the way. Keep in mind that building websites incorporates theoretical, technical, and artistic elements. The ultimate success of your site is dependent upon how you choose to marry those aspects into a cohesive design. Here is the introduction to the steps that will be detailed later. They are summarized to prevent unnecessary reteaching of certain principles. If you feel you are proficient in any of these areas, skip around as you see fit. The person completely new, however, will benefit most by going through all of the web pages in the order they are listed in the navigation.
Coding For Your Site
Before you can really consider what your website will look like or contain, it is necessary to have a basic understanding of how to write html, xhtml, and css code. Why? Well, with the new technology we have products like Adobe Dreamweaver make web design much simpler, and less technical. However, web sites are notorious for being temperamental. When the website goes down, it doesnt show up on a certain browser, or some elements of the web site are simply broken you will need to have an understanding of this coding to troubleshoot the problem. In addition, the more you understand the code the better you can mold the web site to your vision, and bypass the design limitations of the current programs that help you write them.
Design Strategy
Once you are able to write basic code, you can then consider what the purpose of your web site is, and how you will go about fulfilling its' goals. What is the web site's purpose? Who is the audience? Does the site need to include any functional aspects? How will users be interacting with this web site? These are the most basic questions that you should answer before designing your site, and will be critical in deciding what your site will look like when it is done. If you can't answer some of these question, then some research may be necessary to ensure the web site fulfills all of its' purposes.
Aesthetics
This is one of the last considerations for the web site, and is contingent upon the first two steps. Understanding your coding ability will allow you to set realistic expectations of what you can do with the aesthetics of the web site. The design strategy will decide what kind of aesthetics will improve the web site, and make it more user friendly. This will bring you to questions like: How minimal should the web site be? Should it be flashy or formal? What colors, are going to reinforce the overall purpose of the site? The overall aesthetics of the web site can make or break how people respond to it. Therefore, some research into color theory and psychology can greatly improve the probability that users react the way you intend them to.
