Web Design 4: Production
After prototyping and gathering feedback, review all of your assumptions and decisions to date. Are there changes that need to be made before coding production versions of the pages?
- Define file structure & naming conventions: Determine how you will organize pages into sub-files or directories. Many designers place all gifs in one directory, other image formats in a second directory, and HTML files in a third directory. If you site is large, you may want to break-up the HTML files into separate directories. Decide on a naming convention for your files. For example: hdqrtrs.jpg (for large image of company HQ), hdqrtrs-sm.jpg (for smaller version of the same image). Use relative links rather than absolute links if practical. Use lower case file names.
- Create templates for each page type: Templates will ensure consistency throughout the site, assist others in creating content, and allow you to use management software to update your site.
- Generate and review content: Generate content pages, reviewing them for size, loading speed, and cross-browser access. Spell-check and validate all pages. Assist your users by including short, accurate TITLE contents, appropriate META tags, and ALT, HEIGHT and WIDTH attributes for all images.
- Final Testing: Perform a final test using actual field conditions. Test security measures in place on the server. Will the server performance be acceptable under maximum user load?
- Production & advertising: Place pages into production. Visit search engines and submit requests for their "bots" to visit the site. An alternative to this is to contract with a company that specializes in notifying search engines/web indexes about new sites. Encourage your client to include homepage URL on business cards, print advertisements and radio/TV spots. Announce your site on relevant newsgroups.
Go to Next Page: Web Design 5: Post-Production
Copyright © 2000 E. Bell