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Website Design and Development: 100 Questions to Ask Before Building a Website PDF

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Disclaimer: This eBook does not include ancillary media that was packaged with the printed version of the book. Website Design & Development: 100 Questions to Ask before Building a Website Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 10475 Crosspoint Boulevard Indianapolis, IN 46256 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2011 by George Plumley Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada ISBN: 978-0-470-88952-7 ISBN: 978-1-118-01319-9 (ebk) ISBN: 978-1-118-01391-5 (ebk) ISBN: 978-1-118-01392-2 (ebk) Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permis- sions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions. limit of liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: The publisher and the author make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation warranties of fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales or promotional materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every situation. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If professional assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. The fact that an organization or Web site is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or Web site may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that Internet Web sites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read. For general information on our other products and services please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at (877) 762-2974, outside the United States at (317) 572-3993 or fax (317) 572-4002. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Library of Congress Control Number: 2010933472 trademarks: Wiley and the Wiley logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affili- ates, in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. Credits exeCutive eDitor viCe PresiDent anD Carol Long exeCutive grouP PuBlisher Richard Swadley ProjeCt eDitors Ed Connor viCe PresiDent anD exeCutive PuBlisher Deadline Driven Publishing Barry Pruett teChniCal eDitor assoCiate PuBlisher Warren E. Wyrostek Jim Minatel senior ProDuCtion eDitor ProjeCt CoorDinator, Cover Debra Banninger Lynsey Stanford CoPy eDitor CoMPositor Nancy Sixsmith Chris Gillespie, Happenstance-Type-O-Rama eDitorial DireCtor Robyn B. Siesky ProofreaDer Nancy Carrasco eDitorial Manager Mary Beth Wakefield inDexer Robert Swanson freelanCer eDitorial Manager Rosemarie Graham Cover iMage Aaltazar / iStockPhoto Marketing Manager Ashley Zurcher Cover Designer Ryan Sneed ProDuCtion Manager Tim Tate iv about the author George Plumley is a web developer living on Vancouver Island, Canada. After a career in broadcasting and completing graduate work in Philosophy at York University, Washington University in St. Louis, and Rutgers, he went on to web development in 1993. He specializes in building small business websites and conducting workshops on website makeovers and WordPress. He is the author of WordPress 24-Hour Trainer (Wiley, 2009) and runs the free WordPress video training site www.seehowtwo.com. about the technical editor Warren E. Wyrostek is the owner of Warren E. Wyrostek, M.Ed. and 3WsCertification.com (a portal dedicated to Technical Training and Support). He holds a Master’s degree in Vocational-Technical Education from Valdosta State College, a Master’s in Divinity from New York’s Union Theo- logical Seminary, and is currently a Doctoral student in Curriculum and Instruction at Valdosta State University. Warren is devoted to technical education as reflected by his list of over 50 certifications. Warren has been teaching for over 25 years and has taught on the University and Secondary School levels. He is the creator of the Master of Integrated Networking credential. He has been the Technical Editor for over 30 certification titles in the last few years. He is also the author of the Novell NetWare 6.5 CNA Exam Cram2 (Que Publishing, 2005), and “A Career Changer’s Checklist.” He currently is employed by McKesson Corp, as the Lead Certification Specialist and Operations Manager for Assessments for a corporate-wide cer- tification and assessment program. Vocationally, Warren’s main interest is the care and counseling of Geriatrics and Terminally Ill adults. You can reach Warren at [email protected] or through 3WsCertification.com. v acknowledgments The entire team at Wiley has been so supportive of the idea for this book. I can never thank them enough. Carol Long got the ball rolling and was very patient while it gathered momentum. Ed Connor kept things rolling along very smoothly, every once and a while reminding me which direction the ball was headed. Ginny Munroe stepped in very capably for Ed when vacation time came around. Nancy Sixsmith was there to catch the lack of clarity in sentences and to be my “which-that” coach. Warren Wyrostek helped keep the technical issues clear and correct and was responsible for there being as many illustrations as there are. The staff in the media department made the whole process of creating the DVD seem so easy (I just record videos and they show up in the book…). For the content of the book, I need to thank all of my clients over the years and the people who have asked me questions in various capacities. You helped me better understand how to communicate concepts (often on the second or third try). It’s extremely satisfying to see the light go on in another person’s mind after you’ve explained something to them—even more satisfying to see them make use of it and do well. Thanks too, to the Internet. It’s like having that friend who knows every- thing about a subject, except this friend knows everything about everything. There are so many countless articles, blogs, comments, and websites that have been useful in the research for this book that I can’t begin to acknowledge all of the people behind them. Some are acknowledged in the Resource section of this book, and still more with links on the book’s website. And to all the friends and family who helped look after the kids when work or writing called during the summer of 2010, Kim and I are eternally grateful. In the future, I’ll try to write during another season. vi Contents Introduction xiii Chapter 1 † Domain names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 1. Have You Thought of a Good Domain Name for Your Website? 2 2. Do You Need Multiple Domain Names? 4 3. How Much Should You Pay for a Domain? 6 4. Do You Know What Makes a Good Domain Registrar? 9 5. Who Will Register Your Domain and in Whose Name? 11 Chapter 2 † Web hosting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 6. Do You Need to Find a Web Hosting Provider for Your Site? 14 7. What Is the Difference between a Web Hosting Provider and an ISP? 17 8. How Reliable Is the Web Hosting Provider? 19 9. What Kind of Support Does the Web Hosting Provider Offer? 21 10. Does the Web Hosting Provider Have a Good Hosting Control Panel? 23 11. What Type of Server and Which Operating System Do You Require? 26 12. Does Your Website Have Specific Software Requirements? 28 13. How Much Storage Space and Bandwidth Do You Need for Your Site? 30 14. How Much Should You Be Paying for Web Hosting? 33 15. Do You Have a Strong Hosting Username and Password? 35 Chapter 3 † e‑mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37 16. Should Your E‑mail Be on a Separate Server from Your Website? 38 17. Does Your E‑mail Address Use Your Domain Name? 40 18. Can You Easily Manage E‑mail through Your Web Hosting Provider? 42 19. Can You Access Your Domain E‑mail through a Web Browser? 44 20. Do You Need an E‑mail Account or an E‑mail Alias? 47 Chapter 4 † Design and layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49 21. Who Will Design Your Site? 50 22. Will the Design of Your Site Support Your Content or Distract from It? 52 23. Will Your Site Layout Make Your Content Clear? 55 24. What Will Be the Width and Height of Your Website? 58 25. How Will the Design of the Text Make Your Content Clear? 60 26. Will Images Be Used Effectively in Your Design? 63 27. Will Your Design Make Good Use of White Space? 65 28. How Will Your Site Design Use Color? 68 29. Will the Background of Your Site Help Focus the Content or Distract from It? 70 30. How Will Elements within Content Be Set Off from the Body Text? 73 31. Will Your Site Design Display Well in Different Browsers? 76 32. Will Your Site Design Display Well on Mobile Devices? 79 33. Will the Design of Your Site Navigation Complement or Clutter Your Site? 82 34. Will You Be Using Animation in Your Design? 84 viii Contents Chapter 5 † user experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .87 35. Will Your Navigation Menus Be Easy to Use? 88 36. Will Your Site Load Quickly? 93 37. Will Visitors Easily Know How to Stay in Touch with You? 95 38. Will Your Site Use Popups? 98 39. Will Your Forms Be Easy to Use? 101 40. What Happens If a Page on Your Site Does Not Exist? 104 41. How Easily Will Your Pages Print? 106 42. How User‑Friendly Will Your Links Be? 109 43. Will Your Site Have Special Requirements for Certain Features to Work? 111 44. Could You Hide Some Content or Options to Reduce Visual Clutter? 113 45. How Easily Will Visitors Find Important Details Specific to Your Site? 116 46. How Will You Test the User‑Friendliness of Your Site? 118 Chapter 6 † Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .121 47. Will Your Site Be Static or Dynamic? 122 48. Will Your Site Be Built with a Content Management System (CMS)? 124 49. Will You Use Tables or Style Sheets to Lay Out Your Site? 126 50. How Effectively Will Style Sheets Be Used on Your Website? 129 51. What Tools Will Be Needed for Building a Site or Its Content? 131 52. Will Your HTML Be Bloated? 134 53. Will Your Site Files Be Clearly Organized? 137 54. Will Your Nontext Files Use the Proper File Types? 140 55. Which Languages Other Than HTML Will You Use to Build Your Site? 143 Contents ix Chapter 7 † Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 56. Will Your Content Serve Your Site’s Purpose? 146 57. Will Your Content Be Easily Accessible? 148 58. Will the Content of Each Page Have a Single Focus? 151 59. Will Your Written Content Be Correct, Clear, and Well Structured? 153 60. How Effectively Will Your Content Use Links? 158 61. Will You Effectively Use Images in Your Content? 160 62. How Will You Use Video or Audio in Your Content? 164 63. Will Your Site Use a Splash Page? 167 64. What Content Will Be On Your Home Page? 170 65. What Basic Content Pages Will Be On Your Site? 174 66. Will You Be Blogging On Your Site? 183 67. Will You Be Selling Online? 185 Chapter 8 † Marketing and Promotion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 68. Do You Have a Web Marketing Plan? 192 69. How Will You Build Your E‑mail List? 194 70. How Will You Market Yourself Using E‑mail? 198 71. How Will You Manage Your Mailing List? 202 72. Which Social Media Will You Use to Promote Yourself? 205 73. How Will You Use Social Media to Promote Yourself? 207 74. How Will You Integrate Your Site with Social Media? 209 75. How Will Your Site Promote Itself? 211 76. Do You Have a Plan for Getting Important Sites to Link to You? 213 77. Do You Have Content You Can Offer to Other Sites? 216 x Contents

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A helpful book-and-video package for building and maintaining a successful Web site How do you know that you've done everything possible to create a unique, enriching, and successful Web site, particularly when you're hiring others to do it? With Website Design and Development , you'll feel confiden
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