So you are creating a new web site! That’s fantastic! But what do you need to make sure you consider when you embark on the project? Below is a list of 10 things that you must consider before you build your site.
- Browser Resizing
Does the web site resize nicely in different browser window sizes. What is the target size you are designing your site for? A site can look great on 1024 by 768, but what happens when you put your site on a high resolution 21inch LCD Panel. Your site should look good on any resolution! - Background Color
If you use white background colors, do you actually specify white, or just leave it as default? A lot of people have their default background colors set to grey instead of white. When you load a site up that does not explicitly set the background color to white, it shows up as whatever the user has set up as his default. - Site Alignment
Will the site be aligned on the left, right, centered? Very important decision to make! Ensure you have this question answered before you begin, although it can be changed later, it can be a pain. - Will the header and footer of the site resize?
Does your header need to resize every time the browser window is resized? what about the web page footer? Make sure you speak with the designers if you have any working on the project and get this detail hammered out! - Browser Compatibility
Will the site need to be 100% compatible with all browsers? Opera? Safari? Internet Explorer? Firefox? - Dynamic Rollovers
Does the site require dynamic rollovers for navigation buttons and hyperlinks? - No Tables
Do not use any tables, use DIV tags or SPAN tags for everything. - Standards
What standard will you follow? W3C Valid HTML 4.01, W3C Valid XHTML 1.0 Transitional, or W3C Valid XHTML 1.0 Strict. - Make sure to use SEO Semantic Coding with complete presentation separation.
You are probably really familiar with normal HTML coding. SEO Semantic Coding, or Semantic Markup focuses on writing code that is descriptive. It enables search engines and other web site indexers to categorize your site properly, and give it more weight in search results. - Web Site Loading time.
Make sure you know all the basics about saving images. Doing this piece wrong can cause your page load times to increase exponentially! PNG/JPG/GIF… make sure you know which file type to use in the right situation.
Think about these things the next time you work on a site. You will be miles ahead of the competition! Stay tuned over the next few weeks as we focus more on each individual section above. Are there any I missed? let me know through the comments!
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#7 – WRONG. Tables can be used for layouts, but don’t over engineer the page. There is nothing wrong with tables being used for basic structure. It is also a way to avoid the float and clear:float issues with IE.