The Inner Asylum was last updated:

Nov. 27, 2000

The Inner Asylum's Web Design Tips

"Ah, I see you've found one of our other divisions of the Outreach Program," said a man wearing a jumpsuit covered with paint and dark brown skin. He puts down his paint brush to shake your hand.

He motions for you to sit as he tells you a story. You sigh and relucently sit down. How many stories can this asylum have anyway, you think to yourself.

"In 1996, a North Carolina State University student, known then on the Internet as Spoon, began the Inner Asylum. Four years and a name change later, the Inner Asylum is still going... Although in a slightly different form. Along the way, we've learned a little bit about good and bad web-design and thought we'd pass along what we know to the general public.

"Sporky is knowledgable in newspaper design and have done quite a bit of webwork and graphic design. The Inner Asylum doesn't show all that this page says, but it incorporates a lot of basic design principles I'll discuss with you.

"We'll soon have a HTML tip, part 2 page to learn more about the finer points of web design.

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  1. Begin with a sketch of your site.

    Get out some paper and think about the following questions:

    • What do you want your site to be about?

      This question helps you get a feel for what your site will be about. That way, you can plan out what kind of graphics and materials go well with your theme.

      For example, the Inner Asylum is a mix of topics, but the center theme is centered around an imaginery asylum situated on 51 acres of land. Each page brings you to a different location in the Inner Asylum.

      It's also helpful if you outline a couple pages so you know what you want on each page. It make it easier when you are designing your pages later on.

    • What kind of audience do you want to attract?

      If you want just your friends to see your site, you may want something a little zany or reflective of your personality for a website design. If you want to pull in other people, you want your content to be readable to as many visitors as possible while keeping them coming back time and time again.

    • How much you know about HTML coding and/or web design codes?

      If you don't know much or anything about web design, it's best to start simple and over time learn all the scripts and codings you need to do the more advance web design. REMEMBER: Even if you have a web page editor, like FrontPage, you need to know HTML. That way if you page looks messed up, you know how to fix it.

    • What do you want your site to look like?

      Begin the search for site you like and want your site to look like. Take a note of any places they get their graphics or how their page is coded. While the Inner Asylum doesn't recommend copying people's code, it is helpful to look and see how things are done so you can use a variation of the techniques on your site.

  2. Get yourself some web-space
    Okay now, that you've done a mock-up of you site, it's time to find a place to put it. Some Internet Service Providers, known as ISP, provide space for their users. Of course if you move around alot, it may be easier to use a free-Internet host such as     Tripod, Yahoo!Geocities, Terrashare, Spaceports or Xoom. There are a lot of providers out there, so make sure to check to see which one offers you what you need and want.

    One thing you'll want to think about is web space. If you have a lot graphics you want to put on your site, consider a place that gives you the most amount of space at the least cost. If you have a site like the Inner Asylum (which at this time only takes up about 1.5 megabytes of space), consider going with a host with less space.

    Don't forget to check out the Terms of Service before signing up to avoid loosing your site unexpectedly.

  3. Begin designing
    Now that you've selected a space for your site, let's begin working on it. The three keys to site design if you know HTML are to:
    • Save frequently on a disk and hard-drive. Servers can loose sites, so you need to save your site on the hard drive your own computer and/or disks. Hard drives crash too, so you need disks just in case. I have my site saved on a ZIP disk that is scanned for viruses all of the time and on my hard-drive. Saving in all these places is time consuming but worth it.
    • Consistency in coding and design. This means to check all the coding, spelling and graphics to make sure they work. If you have Internet Explorer and Netscape, make sure you can see your site in both. If not, put a disclaimer on your site saying which browser works best. No one likes to go to a site and have it not work for them or not look right.
    • Have fun. Designing a page should be fun and challenging -- an excerise of the mind. Don't get bogged down. Make sure you take breaks every once in a while to reenergize. But if you're in a groove, use it to your advantage and go all out. Once designing becomes a chore, it's time to stop and take a break.

    If you don't know HTML design and are beginning at ground zero, start by:
    • Taking a HTML course. There are a lot of online and real world course out there in basic HTML. Take one to learn the basics so you can begin constructing your page.
    • Don't get discouraged. Mistakes happen. If you have trouble, contact someone like a Community Leader or a friend. Heck you can even contact me at spenser-spork@iname.com. Most web designers are pretty nice and love to help people out. So, don't be shy, and ask someone for help.
    • Use all the web resources you can. If you can't make graphics or need to find a special font for your site. Go out and look for it. If you find it on a website, ask before taking. Some people are really concerned about having their hard work used on other site, so make sure you ask before using anything. There are also, free graphics websites that will let you use their stuff as long as your put a link to their site on your page. These are very valuable and even the most experience web designer sometiems use these free resource. The resources are out there to help you, so don't be afriad to use them.

  4. Graphics and text

    Here we'll eventually have a link for some graphic and text tips. But for now, remember that your graphics should overwhelm or obsecure your text and vice versa. You're going for something readable.

  5. Advertise your site to your audience

    Now that you have your site, you'll want to show it to people for feedback and to get those hits and awards. You can use search engines, webrings, signing guestbooks, etc. to raise the amount of hits you have. Just remember to do what you think your site needs. Everysite site is different and hence need different advertising campaigns to keep people coming in. You need to find what works best for you and run with it.
    The Inner Asylum is registered on search engines and webrings. However, we've found the most hits we get are from other sites that have us linked to them, such as a friend's site or a place that lists sites related to our site. We're also in a few banner exchanges, but the results have been mixed.

  6. Update frequently

    Update your site frequently to keep your page fresh. Whenever, you learn something new, don't be afraid to try it out on your site. A good Web site is always under construction.

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© 2000-2001, N.B. Layton. All rights reserved. All Inner Asylum images (except the backgrounds and bars) were created by using Paint Shop Pro. Batgirl, Batman and the entire Batman universe is property of DC Comics, a division of Time Warner Communications. This is a non-profit site for just fun and to pay ode to Gotham's dark lady. If you would like to use any of our materials for use on your sign, please contact the web-master, Spenser-spork, at spenser-spork@iname.com. I just want to see what you'll do with it. It helps me to know that other people are looking at my site. :)