Design 11

Mr. Jean

October 19th, 2012

The plan:

• Video clip of the day

• Introduction of the website

• Website design

Building a Website:

• Step 1 - Hosting:– Hosting is where you put your website and all the

Web pages. While it's possible to build a website on your personal computer and never move it online, it's somewhat pointless.

– No one but you will ever be able to see it. So the first thing you'll want to do is find a Web hosting provider.

– For this class we are NOT hosting the site because you do not network space.

Step 2 - Plan Your Website:

• Type of site - Most websites are either news/information, product, or reference sites. As such they each have a slightly different focus.– Navigation - The navigation affects the

information architecture of your site.– Content - Content is the actual pages you'll be

building.– If you can recognize page types, you'll be able to

recognize what types of pages you need for your site. Play the Web Page Types game.

Step 3 - Build Your Website

• Building a website requires that you work on one page at a time. To build your site you should be familiar with:– Design Basics - The elements of good design and

how to use it on websites.– Learning HTML - HTML is the building block of a Web

page. While it's not absolutely required, you'll do better if you learn HTML than if you don't.

– Learning CSS - CSS is the building block of how pages look. And learning CSS will make it easier for you to change your site's look when you need to.

– Web Page Editors - Finding the perfect editor for your needs will help you learn design, HTML, and CSS.

Building a flow chart:

• Draw a flow chart– For most people, the website starts on the

home page. This is the page that everybody sees when they first go to www.yourSite.com.

• But where do they go from there? If you spend some time, and think about how people might interact with your site, you'll have a lot easier time down the line when you are making navigation buttons and links.

Building the website:

• Option #1) Build it yourself. If you have a website-building application like Adobe Dreamweaver or Frontpage.

– It is not very difficult to create a website from scratch.

• Option #2) Use a hosting site.

– Wordpress is a great option for building websites.

• Wordpress features almost 200 themes that you can start using immediately.

– There are some options for customization, and you can manage your site from anywhere that has an Internet connection

Building the website:

Building the website:

• Option #3) Learn HTML and build a website from scratch. – HTML looks complicated, but it's like listening

to Shakespeare—it's hard at first, but once you get the feel of it, it is not that difficult.

– This is not suggested (however if you already have experience with HTML go for it).

Option #1: Frontpage

• Click New and a list of page templates will come up.

Frames Pages:

• Different templates allow your page to have different looks.

Option #1: Dreamweaver

Option #2:

• http://wordpress.com/

• Select the “FREE” blog• You must provide

• A working email– Your student email should work here.

• Username– Something generic

• Password– Something you will remember!

Click on Themes: Select a FREE Theme!

• Once you select a theme and make it active you can then start to edit it.

The Goal:

• Create a website which promotes the product or service you are offering. – Must include:

• About your product or service• Pricing• Costumer service• Features• A Media section containing images about product• Find a Store feature• Blog & link to Facebook