1.
WHY A WEBSITE? [ There are other venues for
personal expression .... ]
What
is the purpose of your Website? Inform? Display?
Discuss? Persuade?
One of the biggest and most common
mistakes people and corporations make, is not
deciding just exactly what the purpose of their
site is. There are two extremes here. Either your
site tries to consciously do everything,
fulfill every purpose, list every piece of trivia
and answer every question; or it unconsciously
blathers a stream of topics. Information potpourri.
Your
Website should have one or possibly two main functions.
Decide. Decide beforehand and set limitations.
If you can write it down clearly on a piece of
paper, chances are it will be clear to other people
as well.
2.
CREATE AN IDEA POOL
What
topics or different sections would you like to
have in your Website? It's OK to be creative,
"off the wall" or random with topics, i.e.
"about me", "my family", "ski-boarding", "astrophysics",
"my photos", "my pet-peeves", etc. Relax. Create
as many as you like. This is what is called an
idea pool.
3.
CREATE A VISUAL INFORMATION HIERARCHY
It's
easier than it sounds. Write all of your topics
or areas on separate note cards. I particularly
recommend this for people who are skilled writers.
The traditional hierarchical model of writing
for print is not effective for your Website's
basic architecture. It is effective for actual
content, but we haven't gotten that far yet.
Physically
arrange your note cards on a flat surface. Place
topics that are similar, next to each other. You
should quickly find that your topics form small,
related groupings. You will also find that some
topics are completely unrelated to everything
else. That's OK.
4.
REFINE YOUR TOPICS
Scan.
Discard. Add. Change. See if you can place all
topics under 3 to 5 general categories. Your objective
is to create a visual organization model that
vaguely resembles a pyramid or triangle.
Although
it may seem simplistic, do not underestimate the
tremendous results that this method will have
on your final product … your Website.
5.
WRITE YOUR CONTENT
Begin
to write your actual content. Each topic should
be a separate and complete document in and of
itself. We cannot stress how critical it is to
write your content BEFORE you design your site.
We have all heard the age old adage, "form follows
function." It has never been truer than with a
dynamic and non-static medium called the Web.
The layout and design of your Website can either
enhance or detract from your content ... your
personal message.
6.
CHOOSE A STYLE
Everyone
has particular stylistic preferences or colours
they like. Think about yours. Be creative. Remember
however that a Website is not a painting. Effective
Websites are presentations.
Look
at full-page magazine ads or professional Websites.
Look at the lettering, the colours, the images,
etc. that they use. Print or cut them out. Write
notes on top of them. Scribble on them with markers.
Cut or cross things out. This should give you
some great ideas for a "homepage".
7.
LEARN THE BASICS OF HTML [RE: Hypertext
Markup Language].
There
are many HTML editors that function adequately
without you knowing a single tag of HTML code.
This is a great place to start. You will find
however, that these editors fall far short of
your ultimate vision for a Website rather quickly.
Learn the basics of HTML. It's not difficult.
