Where to Begin

Things have changed quite a bit since I started designing websites. Now, with new interactive web technology and a multitude of web-authoring tools out there--content management software, wikis, and blogs--you can do a lot more with a lot less time and expertise. For instance, wikis include many tools that you needed to have special skills to know how to do with a regular, static website, such as include a search box, interactive widgets, revision history, comments, collaboration, and of course one of the most powerful tools, a subscription feed. (If you don't know what a feed is or how to subscribe to feed-enabled sites, read about it on my blog, at the following postings:http://itcboisestate.wordpress.com/2007/08/28/first-things-first-rss-feeds/

If you want a more traditional looking website, but don't want to spend any money doing it, then try out Google Page Creator. I have tutorial links for Google Page creator at the following wiki: http://nursing412.pbwiki.com/

Irregardless of what type of software you are using to create a website, design rules still apply. To create a reader-friendly website, go through the following steps:

Step One: PLAN

• Start with a purpose for your website, know your audience, establish your website hierarchy (you might want to use CMap tools), and determine what you want your website to look like.

• Have a clear set of objectives in mind before beginning work on your website. Write down what you want your visitors to do or take away from your site.
• Establish a hierarchy of pages, with the most important pages at the top (most of the time).

Step Two: DESIGN

• Keep your design simple (I like white or light-colored background with black letters. Boring, yes, but easy to read too!)
• Don't have too much on your web-page. Horizontal scrolling is a definite NONO, but try to avoid vertical scrolling. This will most likely be unavoidable with wikis, as they usually include a lot of options at the bottom of each page. This is okay.
• Use the most appropriate typefaces. Wikis usually offer good typefaces, but you will have choices here. Used to be that san-serf font (what you are reading here) was the best for online reading, but you might want to use Times New Roman or another serif font if you want to give your website a more "professional" look.
• Avoid long lines of text. You can insert tables in a wiki, which will keep your content in the right size. I generally try to keep my tables no more than 800 pixels wide. PBwiki also will create a borderless table, but you'll need to insert some code to do this.
• Insert frequent subheads. This is easy to do in a wiki and will help your reader find information more quickly and will help organize your content.

Step Three: BUILD

• Assemble all of the pieces of your website. If you are using a wiki or a WYSIWYG web editor, you can copy and paste a lot of the content from a text editor or word processing program.
• Show restraint when building your site--don't put too much on a page that would be visually distracting or make the site look cheesy.
• Design for speed: Compress images to smaller sizes as needed. As a rule of thumb, each webpage should be no more than 40 KB. Use Adobe Photoshop Elements as a quick and easy way to compress images for the web.
• Use ALT text with graphics. Wikis allow you to do this. (Right click an image on pbwiki and then select Properties. You can then specify the ALT text for each image.)
• Check your spelling. I can't tell you how much this is forgotten.

Step Four: PUBLISH

• With a wiki, this is pretty simple. You click Save.
• Keep your site fresh by uploading new content when required
• Check your site frequently to make sure it looks how you want it to.