How to Get Organized
Here is our outline on how we develop web sites, with this insight we hope to provide an understanding for our customer and reduce the cost of development of their site. The basic three questions will be the main focal point, along with the collection of content, and the graphic look of the site.

Requirements
First we need to ask the following questions.

  1. Who will view my site and why will people come and visit it?
  2. What is the purpose of this site, and what objectives do I have?
  3. What domain name do I want to use and is it available?

With the answer to these questions we can start to define the elements, functionality, and content that will go into the site. The next bullets will help to gather this content.

  • Identify content and sources of information, and picture resources.
  • Gather all information to be used for content
  • Prepare project plan (define tasks, estimate cost, budget, and schedule)
  • Define and agree on maintenance & support process.

Design
To help organize the content of the site it helps to make a site outline (or index) of the home page and the interior pages. This will define the navigational structure and layout of the site. Here is a sample outline, feel free to use it.

The next part of the process is defining the graphical look and feel of the site. Now there are two important steps in this process, as we know time is money and nailing down the design and not changing it after this stage will save on the budget.

Provide a few sample sites that you like or elements you wish to use in your site. If you need specific colors (we always use web safe) include this. Remember if you need a non-standard web font it will need to be rendered as a graphic (not all computers have you fonts installed). Or this is the easiest way to go, trust in the design of your web developer. Next we choose the level of HTML compliance, prepare link/content diagrams, and design mock-ups (treatments).  The next steps come after the customers review and approval.

Getting started

  • Design file directory structure
  • Create templates and web components for pages
  • Generate HTML pages
  • Convert existing documents to HTML or any other web format
  • Design HTML forms if any
  • Develop application code - (programming of CGI programs, scripts)
  • Upload files to web server
  • Configure web site statistics

Testing

  • Verify presentation (look and feel)
  • Verify navigational structure
  • Verify links (web link)
  • Check spelling
  • Test for proper level of HTML compliance (test on different browsers)
  • Collect feedback

Launching

  • Move files (text and images) to production server Install cgi programs
  • Final testing on production server
  • Set site live

Maintenance

  • Change and upgrade web pages regularly as the needs change
  • Evaluate results of web activity
  • Respond promptly to site feedback and queries