Web Design: An Overview
(Most things are listed in order of importance)
Resources
Talent
Creative
Technical
Nearly essential skills
HTML
CSS
Textual Communication/Presentation Skills
Graphic Design and Formatting Skills
JavaScript
FTP/Telnet
Not essential, but helpful skills
Unix command-prompt navigation/file management/permissions
Server-Side Scripting
PHP (www.php.net)
ASP
Perl
Database
MySQL (www.mysql.org)
Java
VBScript
DHTML
XML
Flash
Shockwave
Audio/Video
Hardware
Computer with 64MB+ of RAM, 256+ color display, modem. Bigger and faster is always better. Scanner and digital camera helpful.
Finances
Little money necessary beyond that needed for acquiring/maintaining the above
Internet resources
Server access
Client’s server for hosting their site
Your own server for advertising/testing/gaining client approval
Recommended Literature
O'Reilly & Associates' Web Design in A Nutshell. Excellent summary of HTML, all essential components of a site. Comprehensive introduction to web design. (Though is becoming out of date; it doesn't have much on HTML 4 or anything on XML. Look to O'Reilly for good books on those technologies, though.)
Websites
Webmonkey. (www.webmonkey.com) Excellent introductory and intermediate tutorials, good starting-point for further resources. Covers all aspects of web design.
ZDNet. (www.zdnet.com) Comprehensive information industry site. News, tutorials, advice, reviews, downloads, free magazines and newsletters.
Pure JavaScript: A Code-Intensive Premium Reference, by Sams. Covers every command in detail, good amount of sample code, very useful.
O'Reilly & Associates' Javascript: The Definitive Guide. Covers subtleties of the language, a more difficult read.
Professional PHP Programming by Wrox. Demonstrates many of the typical ways to use PHP, gives example code.
PHP Manual available at www.php.net. Excellent reference for the basic elements of the language, covers every command in detail, has some example code.
MySQL manual, available at www.mysql.org. Standard reference.
Periodicals
Element K Journals. Excellent advice, of the highest quality. (Paid subscription)
ZD Net
EWeek. General information on information industry, focus on internet technology. (Free)
WebTechniques. (www.webtechniques.com) Good advice, especially for programmers. (Free)
Standard Software for your desktop computer
HTML/programming code editor
Windows Notepad
AceHTML (Free or Pro versions)
Good quality
Not free anymore
Arachnophilia (www.arachnoid.com)
A very configurable program (make your own menus & shortcuts!! Easily share your configuration with friends/coworkers.)
Somewhat clumsy Java interface
Auto-indents HTML and programming code
Free!
Very good for the beginner
Helpful outline of web design to introduce the beginner
Integrated FTP engine
HomeSite
WYSIWYG editor
StarOffice/OpenOffice.org (Free, basic to medium functionality, www.openoffice.org)
Netscape Composer (Free, basic to medium functionality)
DreamWeaver (Standard, full-featured)
FrontPage (Standard, full-featured)
MS Word (Basic functionality)
Trellix Web (Free, good for beginners, medium functionality, www.trellix.com)
Graphics
Two dimensional graphic creation/editing with layers, plugins, etc. Some animation and video support.
Adobe PhotoShop (Excellent, standard)
The Gimp (Open-source, free, excellent, www.gimp.org)
Three-dimensional graphics
Bryce by MetaCreations (Great for landscape scenes, ray-tracing, motion sequences, rendering, expensive)
TrueSpace (Lattice-structure editing, motion, rendering, cheap)
Web Animation, video editing
Ulead Software (Specialty multimedia software products, high-quality)
FTP client
CuteFTP (Basic or Pro versions are excellent)
AceFTP
Arachnophilia
StarOffice (www.stardivision.com)
Internet Explorer
Browsers (essential for testing your site)
The most common (not just most recent) versions of Internet Explorer and Netscape are essential. Older versions especially of Netscape are important to have as well; W3C compatible sites crash in them. AOL's browser is important. Opera and Lynx are of lesser importance.
Sound editing
CoolEdit (Standard, medium- to full-featured)
Backend (This is what the web server has; you want it on your computer to develop and test your site before uploading it to the web server, but only if your site uses special server configurations, server-side programming, or a database. Install the versions which are on your web server to avoid programming headaches later.)
Server
Apache (Open-source, free, Unix Standard)
Personal Web Server (Comes with Windows)
IIE (Comes with Windows)
Server-side scripting
PHP (Open-source, free, standard on Unix servers, works on most operating systems and standard web servers www.php.net)
ASP (Active Server Pages, Microsoft, on all Microsoft servers)
JSP (Javascript Server Pages)
Perl (Standard CGI language, on nearly every server)
Database
MySQL (Open-source, standard on Unix servers, free, all platforms and servers, low-end but FAST, www.mysql.com)
PostgreSQL (Open-source, free, all platforms and servers, part of RedHat's package now, higher-end than MySQL)
Comprehensive packages
There are a couple packages that will install Apache, PHP, MySQL, and Perl (etc.) all in one step, configuring everything for you so that it works immediately, on Windows as well as on other systems. Links to them can be found at www.php.net. The best at present is called PHPTriad. This is an excellent way to start. Learning to configure the backend software is important, but frustrating and difficult if things don't work correctly at first. If you choose to "do it yourself," read as much of the configuration documentation as you can handle, but still consider asking a friend to help with configuration when you start.
Solicit Projects from Clients
Request for Proposal (RFP)
Contract
Schedule Production, Maintenance, Review Process, Billing.
Design Process
Post Site using FTP
Promote site
Banner ads
Email ads
Partnerships with other sites
Get them to post a link, announcement, or banner
Radio ads
Print ads
Direct Mail
Publications
TV ads
Maintain Site (as necessary; minimize the need by doing a good job at the outset)
Use Site Statistics to evaluate needs
Update with new information
Consider using server side scripting and database for the data
Revise Structure
Add/Remove functionality
Check for dead links
Optimize download time