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All about Web design.Caveat Scriptor: Use the Advice of Those Who Know Before You Build a Site
~A man [woman] is a success if he [she] gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night, and in between he [she] does what he [she] wants to do. Bob Dylan~ I'm smart. Wicked smart. Too smart for my own good. At the same time (as they said when I was as kid and as it still applies), I'm too big for my own britches. So I put those prissy pantalones to some good effort and I teach others how to write. I win a few awards, send a few hopefuls off to higher learning institutions where they in turn win their own awards and accolades. I do this till my seat gets burned one too many times by the politics of academia, and I go into freelance writing. I research for 1000s of hours, submit to literary contests and magazines, start working writing gigs, and keep researching. I build a web site. With what it costs to maintain an ISP and web hosting account and little else, I create this ambitious masterpiece, believing I am now a self-taught web host, writer, teacher, and confidant for academic writers, mental disability writers, and elder memoir writers. But as your confidant, I have to confess: as much as I'd like to think those 300 hours of study and application for usability, keyword-rich, to-the-letter-of-the-law of interstate/inter-country/internet navigation design and creation make me a self-taught smartass, I did little but the legwork by myself. Actually, five virtuosos of the web world made making a website possible: Jakob Nielsen After creating a really bad mess of a site overloaded with spinning, flashing, color blobs of coolness, I discovered www.useit.com/alertbox and Dr. Jakob Nielsen. His stellar advice, delivered in a no-nonsense tone, is backed by his many years of theoretical and practical work. After reading and studying articles such as the following, I completely reconstructed my site: Current Issues in Web Usability Misconceptions about Usability Ten Most Violated Homepage design Guidelines Top Ten Web Design Mistakes of 2003 Usability for Senior Citizens Writing for the Web Ed Zivkovic As I was catching on to using the experts to build a user-friendly, usable site, I was catching on to the language that indicates the writer knows what he's talking about. This is the redeeming value of Ed Zivkovic's site, Tips for Work at Home Webmasters, at www.ezau.com. He uses candor and directness. He provides technical content in understandable terms. And defying the popular and trendy, he tells you directly and honestly what is crap, what is not crap, what is effective website technique and what is a waste of dough. Try some of these instrumental articles for starters: Domain Name and Web Hosting Hell R.I.G.H.T.S., www.rightsforartists.com As any artist/writer will attest, the work that goes into creation is an interminable challenge. But we do it because we like it, because we are good at it, and because we have to do it. We are compelled to create. But we do our own work, not the work (or art) of others. This site contains all of the legal and ethical guidelines for copyright; R.I.G.H.T.S., a coalition of contributing artists (rather than a corporation or organization, that is) thoroughly, relentlessly provides information, definitions, answers, and directions for copyrighting and protecting creative work. Firelily Designs Just as much about the science of such vital concerns as color design for web users with color vision deficiency as about aesthetics of web design, this site practices what it preaches-as it preaches, well, teaches, graphic design. I don't create my own web graphics. That would take me a year or two to master, when I have enough to do with getting words crafted into readable forms. But I found the advice on color at www.firelily.com fascinating and functionally useful. Angela Hoy, Writers Weekly There are writers newsletters aplenty. And then there's Writers Weekly. What does the site and the owner have to do with web design, specifically? They are proactive protectors of writers and creative people, in general. Hoy stands up for the rights of freelancers by refusing the requests of tightwads who solicit her to recommend writers to work for 3 bucks an hour on copy for them so they can make millions while the writers starve. Hoy encourages the ethics of hard work by way of informative how-tos. And Angela Hoy, with husband and co-owner, Richard Hoy, pours an acid tongue on the plague that is the scamming POD publisher or the conniving money-charging agent-in a section of her [their] site called "Whispers and Warnings." For the newbie, novice, wannabe freelancer, or even for the work at home woman or man creating a website she or he wants safe from scummy scammers, www.writersweekly.com is an advisory imperative. Robert Woodhead of Self Promotion.com Finding www.selfpromotion.com shaved centuries off of not only my design and development but my publishing and promoting the site. With uncluttered pages and cutting-edge (constantly updated) information, Woodhead (who even makes self-effacing jokes about his name) walks a web wannabe through every stage of the process, and then provides [shareware] support by helping you submit your site to hundreds of search engines and indexes that you need to have crawl your site for rankings-the latest (2004) must-have for any online business. Of course, if you were to look at my Favorite Files, at the 900+ categories, subcategories, and links, you would find that many others pulled my smart ass up by the seat of the pants. I name a few of these helpful gurus here, too: Andrew Starling's Top Ten Sites Compared, in the Web Developer's Virtual Library at www.wdvl.internet.com Jill Whalen's www.highrankings.com Jim Heath at www.viacorp.com Keith Instone's www.usableweb.com, 970 Links about Web Usability Kevin Lee's Free Keyword research Tools and Keywords revisited at Click Z Network, www.clickz.com The PSP Interactive Zone, www.pspiz.net www.smallbusiness.sbc.yahoo.com Assistant Professor Stan Ketterer's Design Fundamentals News Writing/ Newsletter coursework at www.cas.okstate.edu Stephanie Hetu at www.stephaniehetu.com Sumantra Roy's SEO course, Choosing the Correct Keywords for a Site, at www.thejunglemarketer.com Karen Zoldan of www.bridgemarketing.com As you might have figured out, I write this not to share any of my own personal technological truths-which are wanting. I write this not to embellish the careers of any affiliates. I don't have an affiliation with nor do I know the people in the Top Five-who do not need my small time embellishment or exposure. I write this not to create an entity I had no previous knowledge of creating-though how I do like to brag. I compose this guide to humble myself to the fact that I was flying by the seat of my pants in most cases-except where I was lucky enough to intuit some strategies (which are still in the making, so don't get an attitude when you visit my site and find it still needs work: I know it does). I compose this guide to honor those who put in way more than 300 piddly hours of research, study, and practice to find out what works to make it work even better. And I compose this guide to help you avoid even 300 (not so piddling when you are doing it yourself) hours of stitching and tearing out the stitches of the britches of a tailoring project. Smarty pants just had to do it the hard way. May your way be easier. N.H.-born prize-winning poet, creative nonfiction writer, memoirist, and award-winning Assoc. Prof. of English, Roxanne is also web content and freelance writer/founder of http://www.roxannewrites.com, a support site for academic, memoir, mental disability, and creative writers who need a nudge, a nod, or just ideas?of which Roxanne has 1,000s, so do stop in for a visit, as this sentence can't possibly get any longer??.
MORE RESOURCES: table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/0-0fd=Rurl=http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/new-era-cap-partners-efashionsolutions/story.aspx%3Fguid%3D%257B311DD4C6-C186-4715-9242-0FE7CFA70A31%257D%26dist%3Dhpprcid=1254824560ei=bF7qSI2SF6bgyQSBnJVQusg=AFQjCNEQTGSJhopmCX-UxL58vBrR2imTnANew Era Cap Partners With eFashionSolutions To Manage and Expand b.../b/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fMarketWatchnbsp;-/font nobr3 hours ago/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1eFashionSolutions will be responsible for the operations and management of www.neweracap.com including bweb design/b, planning, merchandising, photography, b.../b/font/div/font/td/tr/table table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/1-0fd=Rurl=http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/10/prweb1419494.htmcid=1254084781ei=bF7qSI2SF6bgyQSBnJVQusg=AFQjCNGWB9RLbA4emrhVL6bQQeFIpfq7CgLong Island bWeb Design/b Company Benjamin Marc.com Launches New Website/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fPR Web (press release),nbsp;WAnbsp;-/font nobrOct 4, 2008/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1Benjamin Marc.com started as a bweb design/b company and now have grown into a full service business development company. Nesconset, NY (PRWEB) October 4, b.../b/font/div/font/td/tr/table table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/2-0fd=Rurl=http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/36903cid=0ei=bF7qSI2SF6bgyQSBnJVQusg=AFQjCNHa_tLW2VZnxBW3lTJStZO3ubYIwAPros and cons of bWeb design/b/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fScripps News,nbsp;DCnbsp;-/font nobrOct 3, 2008/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1They loved bWeb design/b, but not corporate life, so they decided to venture on their own. Owen, 29, and Oliver, 27, recruited Oliver#39;s brother, Paul Oliver, b.../b/font/div/font/td/tr/table table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/3-0fd=Rurl=http://www.dentistry.co.uk/news/news_detail.php/1512/Is-your-website-pushing-all-the-right-buttonsqxcid=0ei=bF7qSI2SF6bgyQSBnJVQusg=AFQjCNF48cJ2qbbWHPmmgMUzOh1e6S3G7QIs your website pushing all the right buttons?/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fDentistry.co.uk,nbsp;UKnbsp;-/font nobr5 hours ago/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1Krishan Joshi, project manager of Dental Focus bWeb Design/b who are sponsoring the event, said: ‘Dental Focus bWeb Design/b are thrilled to be sponsoring this b.../b/font/div/font/td/tr/table table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/4-0fd=Rurl=http://hostsearch.com/news/clementineshosting_news_7815.aspcid=0ei=bF7qSI2SF6bgyQSBnJVQusg=AFQjCNHfyK3vm3Ub8s2Cw7cJieaP6iWOuAChristian Web Hosting Company Gives Away Over $1700 of bWeb Design/b b.../b/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fHostSearch.comnbsp;-/font nobrOct 3, 2008/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1COM) – Christian web hosting company Clementineshosting (http://www.clementineshosting.co.uk/) is giving away bweb design/b and hosting services to a value of b.../b/font/div/font/td/tr/table table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd width=80 align=center valign=topfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifa href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/5i-0fd=Rurl=http://www.prweb.com/releases/Dallas/web_design/prweb1417364.htmcid=1253702652ei=bF7qSI2SF6bgyQSBnJVQusg=AFQjCNHFWmtIi3zkh6Vb6vUXmDKdzJLZ4wimg src=http://news.google.com/news?imgefp=7GCsSSGsxEcJimgurl=www.prweb.com/prfiles/2008/10/02/777314/gI_0_PressReleaseScreenShot.jpg width=80 height=47 alt= border=1brfont size=-2PR Web (press release)/font/a/font/tdtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/5-0fd=Rurl=http://www.prweb.com/releases/Dallas/web_design/prweb1417364.htmcid=1253702652ei=bF7qSI2SF6bgyQSBnJVQusg=AFQjCNHFWmtIi3zkh6Vb6vUXmDKdzJLZ4wDallas bWeb Design/b Company Launches New Site, Expands Market Reach/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fPR Web (press release),nbsp;WAnbsp;-/font nobrOct 3, 2008/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1Dallas bweb design/b company, NetSuccess, has launched a new website providing samples of the company#39;s work and details about its bweb design/b, search engine b.../b/font/div/font/td/tr/table table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/6-0fd=Rurl=http://www.fortmorgantimes.com/news/2008/oct/06/enrollment-condensed-fall-term-starts-college/cid=0ei=bF7qSI2SF6bgyQSBnJVQusg=AFQjCNEsGOu7adUxQQJqDBestHkdPfLSUwEnrollment for condensed fall term starts at college/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fFort Morgan Times,nbsp;COnbsp;-/font nobr1 hour ago/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1Graphic Design I, bWeb Design/b II, Pre-algebra and Math for Liberal Arts are other options for the Fall Ii semester. Several special interest classes are also b.../b/font/div/font/td/tr/table table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/7-0fd=Rurl=http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/cyber-gear-wins-major-accounts/story.aspx%3Fguid%3D%257B1AFF3BA4-782E-4E0B-83D0-E5A6B9FD73AE%257D%26dist%3Dhpprcid=1254783212ei=bF7qSI2SF6bgyQSBnJVQusg=AFQjCNGkS9iXPOYWYIjc5VPxinCSHBQofQCyber Gear Wins Major Accounts in 3rd Quarter 2008/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fMarketWatchnbsp;-/font nobr7 hours ago/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1Last year, Cyber Gear also won 7 awards for excellence in bweb design/b adjudged by the Pan Arab Web Awards Program instituted by BSA - Microsoft. b.../b/font/div/font/td/tr/table table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/8-0fd=Rurl=http://pr-canada.net/index.php%3Foption%3Dcom_content%26task%3Dview%26id%3D50404%26Itemid%3D65cid=0ei=bF7qSI2SF6bgyQSBnJVQusg=AFQjCNEHcj8x_L8kr6WCf3sQ44rPYb7zfgLoudoun bWeb Design/b Firm NetQwik Selected as a Finalist for Loudoun b.../b/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fPR-CANADA.net (press release),nbsp;Montenegronbsp;-/font nobrOct 2, 2008/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1NetQwik, a leading Loudoun County bweb design/b and computer solutions firm has been selected as a finalist for the Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce 2008 b.../b/font/div/font/td/tr/table table border=0 width= valign=top cellpadding=2 cellspacing=7trtd valign=top class=jfont style=font-size:85%;font-family:arial,sans-serifbrdiv style=padding-top:0.8em;img alt= height=1 width=1/divdiv class=lha href=http://news.google.com/news/url?sa=Tct=us/9-0fd=Rurl=http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1077760/poor_web_design_provides_no_advantage.htmlcid=0ei=bF7qSI2SF6bgyQSBnJVQusg=AFQjCNHeiJPR_paM1XP21zIREpvDTvO6lwPoor bWeb Design/b Provides No Advantage to UK Travel Agents/abrfont size=-1font color=#6f6f6fAssociated Content,nbsp;COnbsp;-/font nobrOct 2, 2008/nobr/fontbrfont size=-1By John Le Fevre, published Oct 02, 2008 An analysis of 115 websites belonging to members of the UKs largest Travel Industry consortium has shown that only b.../b/font/div/font/td/tr/table Web-Design - Google News |
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