Design

Simplicity is the rule. Your web site should inform and provide useful content to the customer.

Your web site should be quick to download

Studies have indicated that visitors will quickly lose interest in your web site if the majority of a page does not download within 15 seconds. (Artists' pages should have a warning at the top of their pages.) Even web sites that are marketed to high-end users need to consider download times.

A good application of this rule is adding animation to your site. Sure, animation looks "cool" and does initially catch your eye, but animation graphics tend to be large files. Test the download time of your pages first. If the download time of your page is relatively short and the addition of animation does not unreasonably increase the download time of your page, then and ONLY then should animation be a consideration.

What does the process involve?

1. Choose a domain name.
2. Start with the main page and set color and layout.
3. Once you are happy with the layout, determine the number of pages you need. In addition to the main page you will probably need a products or service page, a contact page and a privacy and terms of use page if you collect information from your customers via email.
4. Content now needs to added to the pages. Having web-ready images and text will help keep your design costs low. Keep in mind copyrights for images that you obtain from the Internet.
5. Do the first proof and revisions.
6. Do the final proof
7. Publish your Web site on the Internet.

Why are we against Flash web sites?

• Information embedded in Flash is often invisible to search engines.
• Web site reporting on Flash navigation is problematic.
• Flash breaks web usability standards.
• Lack of consistent cross platform support.
• Code embedding Flash objects does not pass w3c validation.
• Some users disable Flash to avoid flash based advertising.