Data Koncepts' Professional Web Development Process

Professional Web Development Process

We Know Website Development!

Having taken many clients through the process of developing their web sites, Data Koncepts has established a checklist of the things which must be done in order to help us to create an effective web site. If you are unsure of the terms I'm using, please check the "Glossary" at the bottom of this page for definitions.

Your web site creation will always be a joint effort. You need to establish your intentions and preferences and provide your images and text. Data Koncepts will ensure that you are aware of the many options for your website without burdening you with the details of the site's creation. Together, we will create a site that will be effective and that we can both view with pride.

The Process

Know WHY you want a web site. Your goal will determine the "mood" or "feel" which will be established and maintained throughout your site with the use of a web page template.
Know WHAT you want from your web site. Whether you are informing or selling, the services required from the server will be determined by what you want to accomplish and how it will be accomplished.
If you intend to present a professional image, obtain a virtual domain. Using any domain but your own is clearly unprofessional so a virtual domain is well worth the small cost.
Decide what pages will be required (in addition to the standard Home Page, index.html, Contact Page and a Site Map Page). If you are marketing "widgets," you may want to tell your readers the many uses of "widgets," the benefits obtained by using YOUR "widgets," testimonials from those using YOUR "widgets," and how they can obtain or order YOUR "widgets" (which may require a secure server if you're going to accept payments online) - and each of these will normally require a separate web page for each product. Lastly, start thinking of a list of "keywords" which will define your web pages' content ("data chunking") for the Internet's many search engines (we'll work on that toward the end of the creation process).
Our first step will be to select a common format and build your template. A visitor's mood will be established first by the look of your pages - specifically, the layout, background and colouring while not increasing the web page's size unnecessarily - a fast loading web page is a blessing to visitors who must wait for the page AND all it's images and scripts to load. Data Koncepts will recommend several options for each but will always keep the "KISS" principle in mind: Keep It Simple & Small! Since our template will be used throughout your web site, changes which would otherwise be time consuming will be facilitated with a site maintenance tool like the one I have. Data Koncepts makes every effort to get it right, the way you want, the first time!
Because the Internet is a visual medium, you should have in mind some images to support your WHAT. These images could be anything from line drawings (schematics) to photographs - I can take digital photographs or scan your prints. I then ensure that they are the optimum size and image format for the Internet. I can even combine several images (of similar size and shape) into the image format which displays several images giving either a motion or slide-show effect. Be sure that your images are not copyright property (or obtain permission to utilize them from the copyright owner)!
Know HOW you want your readers to respond to your site. Of course, you should have your "snail mail" (postal) address and telephone / fax numbers and should post your e-mail address on the Contact Page.

WARNING![Encrypt your e-mail address or suffer endless SPAM! I am now offering use of an excellent ENCRYPTION SCRIPT which helped build the copyright link at the bottom of the page -- view the code in action in the page source].

However, you could also post a "form" which would enable your readers to respond to specific questions for your data gathering or to request specific information from you.
KEYWORDS - they are the basis for registration with search engines, the "directory" for the Internet. Good keywords can being visitors to your site while poor keywords can prevent you from being discovered. For each page ("data chunking"), brainstorm to determine the keywords you would use to search for a similar page, incorporate those keywords into an action title and into an "executive summary" description of each page. These, then, become the base upon which each page is built.
Your page's "executive summary" becomes the first text on the page and the DESCRIPTION given to search engines (to bring searchers to your page).
Using the DESCRIPTION and KEYWORDS, write the TEXT you want to include in your web page(s). If this text can be provided in electronic format, it would be both easiest and quickest for me to incorporate into your pages.
Know what VOICE or MUSIC you want to greet your readers with - IF AT ALL! The KISS principle will tell you to avoid this but, if there is a greeting or tune which can help to convey your message, it may be worth the download time to enhance your page(s).
I can UPLOAD your pages straight to your online directory and have you up running or updated as soon as the pages are created or updated. This can also aid your review and approval of the web site before it is "published."
Once approved and online, Data Koncepts utilises a search engine registration tool to register with search engines and can schedule "refreshing" registrations at suitable intervals.

This has been a brief overview of the web site creation process. Obviously, there will be a lot of interaction to ensure that you are happy with the product you are receiving.

GLOSSARY:

Background: A web page can be created with any (solid) colour OR utilising an image – remember that your selected text colour should provide excellent contrast. A background image should be kept simple as it will be the first image to load and, if time consuming, your readers may not have the patience and leave your site! Small images will be "tiled" if they are not large enough to fill the window.

Data Chunking: The technique of limiting a web page to a single purpose - and everything on that page is dedicated to that purpose. Any more than that and your visitors may miss the point of the page.

Description: This "executive summary" is a great way to introduce each page while it is the text that search engines present to potential visitors. Make this the "hook" to bring visitors to your website.

Embedded voice and music: A sound clip (.WAV or .MP3 file) can be loaded and run to welcome your readers to your site and you can have music (.MID file) play in the background to enhance the "mood." Use caution, again, these are typically LARGE files and eaders are impatient and will leave your site if they have to wait too long!

Form: Many times, you will wish to collect information from visitors to your website. In providing a "form," you can ask the questions and collect the answers for "processing" (transmission to you or analysis by an online programme). This is a great way to build your own mailing lists!

Images: The bedrock of the web world, images are worth a thousand words - wouldn't it be nice if that's all the memory they required! Setting that digression aside, select a number of good quality images, preferably snapshot sized but not larger than A4, that will support your web pages. I can accept images in electronic format (.JPG or .GIF preferred) or scan them for you and I will adjust their size for the web site (75 dpi). Quite often, I will also crop and enhance the colour, brightness, tint, etc. for optimal effect.

Hint: If you have a damaged photo (or one with undesirable content – like phone lines or power lines), it's generally a simple thing to "clone" them out of the picture to increase the photo's effectiveness.

Changing images: If you want "changing images," they will need to be of the same physical size and shape. This is different than animated images which add another dimension to your site. Since they contain additional information (increasing the file size), be sure that any animated images are "optimized."

Keywords: These are the bread and butter of search engines as they enable them to assess the relevancy of your page to a request. They also help us to use "data chunking" to confine a page's contents to a single goal.

Secure Server: If you're accepting credit card information over the Internet, it's YOUR responsibility to safeguard that data. As the Internet is NOT a safe environment in which to transmit personal information without encryption, you'll have to use a "secure server" to obtain the sensitive data. Don't forget, though that the data is decrypted on reaching the server so you'll have to ensure encryption in the remainder of the transmission stream to you!

Spam: Unwanted e-mail selling everything from pharmaceuticals to motor oils to ... er, sexual aids. Once you get on a spammer's list, they will sell the list to other spammers and you'll NEVER get off their lists until you change your e-mail address. If you can "hide" this from the "mailbots" that search the internet for e-mail addresses, you'll be be ahead of the game.

Standard Web Pages: Standard web pages are:

Home Page - THE location for an introduction to your site.
Contact Page - You DO want your visitors to contact you for more information or sales, don't you?
Site Map Page - Yes, you WILL have people who can't type your web page URLs correctly. Don't leave them with the default "404:- File Not Found" message as most people will give up and leave your site.

Other web pages would include one for each "data chunk" that you wish to include on your website -- as determined by WHAT you want to do on the site. Think of them as a single "chapter" of your website's "book."

Virtual Domain: The address of a web page which utilises the name of the company. For instance, this site for Data Koncepts is datakoncepts.com just the same way that Microsoft's web site is www.microsoft.com. Utilizing a virtual domain goes a long way toward leveling the playing field for you with corporate giants.

Web page size: It is the visitor's browser which uses the commands from your web page and display its contents as instructed. However, users do not all have 17 inch monitors nor will they always have their browsers utilize their full screen. I have to use care to ensure that your web page will properly fit into browser windows of all sizes and you have to understand that text will normally line-wrap but images may require those darned scroll bars - especially if not properly sized.

Weg page size also deals with the size of the download for browsers to view your page. This not only includes the size of the HTML file but the supporting Javascript, image, sound, Flash™, sound, etc. files - EVERYTHING that's required to view your web page. If you can't hold your breath while a page downloads (via SLOW modem, that's about 90kb TOTAL), you've got too much "glitz" and your visitors will leave before viewing your "masterpiece."

Web page template: The first thing that I do is to create a template (standard format) from which all pages included in your site are developed. This template will establish your standard look and feel for the entire site so it is essential that you approve the template early in the process.