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

358 Pages·2010·52.32 MB·English

by  George Plumley

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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
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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