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Web Design Information |
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Fast Web Design For The Skint Webmaster
About two years ago, I had a go at commercial web site design. I put a medium-sized ad in a London classified ad paper. Nothing fancy: "Web designer seeks work ..." etc. This was expensive, about £500 for a month's run. Got a few replies. Lesson number one: advertise where clients of the calibre you want will see it. The clients I got thought £300 was a lot for a web site. They didn't want to pay web hosting. They wanted a lot of bang for their buck. 'Mission creep' was a term I grew to know and loathe. This set me thinking: how could I give these people all they could ever want, but not spend a lot of time and money? Lately, I realised how. So how can you get a full featured site up in a day? Easy (ish!). 1. Mambo Content Management System http://mamboserver.com I wish I'd found this software a couple of years ago. It's freeware. The default set-up allows people without web design skills to update the site. It has a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) option. This adds HTMLArea code to text input form fields. Each HTML code input box becomes a mini HTML editor. If you can use Microsoft Word, you can add formatted HTML code to the site. To get it running you need to know how to install MySQL databases, or have PHPMyAdmin as part of your web-hosting package. You can add articles, edit them, send emails to members, and be contacted by users. The only criticisms I have of this software are: 1. The admin interface is confusing. It's all there, just finding and using it is the problem! 2. You need to search around template sites to find ones suited to your site purpose. I wanted simple, clean, business ones. Most of those available seem to have a fat graphic which covers half the screen. There are more restrained ones out there. These are minor gripes, compared to the relief of finding what is essentially a web site in a box. It can be installed in an hour, once you get familiar with it. To add ecommerce to your site: Oscommerce Shopping Cart http://www.oscommerce.com Again, this is a full-featured, freeware software. You can add lots of freeware 'plug-ins' to it, to get a professional shopping cart. Therein lies the danger. Some of these plug-ins require altering or overwriting the default cart files. When you try to upgrade the cart version later, you may 'break' it, by overwriting a plug-in, thus creating errors. The trick here is to only install plug-ins that add files (rather than overwrite them) or that require minor alterations to existing files. What I do is download all the versions of the plug-in type I need e.g. a WYSIWYG editor. I then choose the one which has the least files, or which creates a new directory for its files. If it requires that important files be overwritten, or is complex, I chuck it. Mambo and Oscommerce. Don't try to integrate them! Hyperlink from one to the other. I've tried integrations of other softwares, like PhpBB and PhpNuke. Fine, when it works, but when you upgrade one or the other, arrgh! *Keep databases separate*. If one goes skew-whiff, then at least the other will still work. Same goes for adding chat rooms and the like. If they're all running off the one database, and that database becomes corrupted ... It may offend your sense of tidiness for your visitors to have to sign up twice at your site, but you'll thank me for this sage advice later. Remember KISS is the basic rule of computing (Keep It Simple, Stupid!). T. O' Donnell ( http://www.tigertom.com ) is an ecommerce consultant and curmudgeon living in London, UK. His latest project is an ebook on conservatories, available at http://www.ttconservatories.co.uk T. O' Donnell freeware may be downloaded at http://www.ttfreeware.co.uk
MORE RESOURCES: Cybersecurity & Consumer Trust: Why Website Security Matters More Than Ever; A Study by Digital Silk Markets Insider Web 3.0 And The Evolution Of Website Design: What You Need To Know Harlem World Magazine 2/6/25 – EXPLORE OUTDOOR HAWAI‘I SITE WINS WEB DESIGN GOLD Department of Land and Natural Resources Unveiling the invisible hand: how AI is reshaping web design UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media Websites worth waking up to: Base Design on forging more compelling digital environments It's Nice That Web Design and Development Muskegon Community College Securing WebAssembly in Web Development NASSCOM Community Massachusetts Prison Program Teaches Coding, Web Design Government Technology Top Web Design Trends for 2025 Designmodo Why I'm Learning Web Design As A Copywriter 🎨 substack.com Digital Silk Shapes NYC Web Design Trends for 2025 Yahoo Finance Oliver Gehrmann and nexTab Celebrate 10,000 YouTube Subscribers: Community through Web Design and Marketing Insights The Manila Times 11 Best Interactive Website Designs in 2025 DesignRush Faculty Profile: Libby Perry (Editing for the Web, Web Design - Media Communications) Full Sail News Best Website Design Inspiration: Amazon DesignRush Best Web Design Companies Toronto Search Engine People 16 Best Modern Website Designs of the Moment DesignRush Minuteman Press Elevates Fayetteville Businesses with Expert Web Design Greater Fayetteville Business Journal Best web design software of 2024 TechRadar 18 Best Tech Website Designs in 2025 DesignRush The Opportunity Agenda Web Design Analysis DesignRush Iconic Website Design Inspiration: Nike DesignRush Top Web Design Trends in 2024 Netguru Interview with Jack Watson, Branding and Web Design Expert CreativePro Network 5 Upcoming Web Design Trends for 2022 SitePoint New Web Design Tools, January 2025 Practical Ecommerce Afundi Web Design Analysis DesignRush The Quake's Website Design Analysis DesignRush Best website design service of 2024 TechRadar Web Design Statistics By UI/UX, Market Size, Web Development, Industry and Demographics Coolest Gadgets The Importance of Responsive Web Design in 2024 The Gila Herald How to easily use AI-powered web design to build your own site CyberGuy Report Lululemon Athletica Website Design Review DesignRush (PDF) Identifying A User Interface Web Design Standard for Higher Learning Institutions Using Kansei Engineering ResearchGate The US Digital Service ten years later: how the agency cuts through web design bureaucracy Fast Company Jeremy Empie Web Design open for business at new location Oskaloosa Herald Lorie Smith Alliance Defending Freedom Ogilvy Website Design: The Full Analysis DesignRush Little’s Coffee Web Design Analysis DesignRush Okaloosa County students learn the basics of computer programing in Camp Code Craft The Northwest Florida Daily News New Web Development Tool Pulls Design Tokens From Figma The New Stack |
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