Building a web site: Part 3
Summary of the process of creating a web site – continued
3. Write out the text for the web site
Before you start writing any HTML, you should (in your favorite word processor) write out all the text that you need to include in the website. Doing so will help you with the design process.
Another thing you should do is to make sure that the text is finalized before it gets to the web site; it is much easier to correct things in a word processor than in an HTML page.
4. Choose a basic layout that will be used on all pages
Armed with your website diagram and your web site’s text (complete text!) you can now choose a basic layout for your pages. You can go crazy with some funky artsy web site (and sometimes it can work), but most of the time you should use standard layouts that people are used to:
- Left side navigation.
- Top navigation
- Right side navigation.
When in doubt, think of how books are laid out.
5. Choose the basic color scheme and fonts for the site
Your next task is to start considering the basic colors and fonts that you’re going to use. You want to choose a style that fits the subject of the web site. For example: pink doesn’t do well for a hardware store, maybe some steel blues instead! The point to take away is to establish the style of the web site before you start creating pages, otherwise you may find yourself doing pages over again!
Later on in this tutorial I will teach you how to use an easy to use technology that makes web sites a breeze to style: CSS
