Gettng Started with a Pagan Website

Building a web page isn't for sissies... It takes a certain gutsy personality to make a web site spring to life, and there are right and wrong ways to go about it...

In many cases, the authors are filled with the spirit of joy at having discovered their Craft and have a collection of books and music that have marked your new direction... They are bursting at the seams to share this, and they decide to build a web site on the spur of a moment's thought...

Only then, does the discerning (and budding) designer ask the obvious question: "How?"

This is the eternal question when it comes to any endeavor. But with web design, it can come down to any collection of techniques and means.

In this article, I plan to illustrate the first step, which is to look deep within yourself and to ask yourself what you intend to do with the site.

Being a webmaster or webmistress is akin to being a parent. A lot of love and thought go into your site and you want people to share your visions, ideas, loves, and more when they visit your creation.

So, the first step in building a web site is to search yourself and to know yourself and your goals before one line of code is shredded on your computer.

How do you do this?

It is quite simple. I'll give you a short list of items to consider as the first steps:

1. Take an evening to search yourself. Ask your being WHAT you plan to use the site for and HOW you intend to communicate your PASSIONS to the web visitors who will view your creation.

2. Write these feeling down in your Book of Shadows or on a tablet, Word document, whatever - Keep it handy - you'll be needing these feelings to refer to again and again. You may even amend or edit these as your needs change.

3. Sit down with the feelings one day or one week later. The initial set of writings are your mission and purpose statement. You can use these to make the next decisions of HOW to go about your next step of structuring the site. In step 3, you are deciding what pages, services, and text you plan to place into the web. Don't worry about HOW you will do that... the how of it all comes later.

4. Set the plan aside for a day, or a week.

5. Now, one week or one day after you complete step 3, re-assess what you put into step 3. Change, edit, and rework the content design until you are satisfied.

6. Now... Take a blank 8x11 sheet of paper and draw out how you want you main web page to look. Keep it simple - don't try to be elaborate. Just scratch in how you want the text and where you intend to place articles, images, and menus. Keep it simple and don't worry about specifics. These come later.

7. Now... The hard part. Content. On your PC, collect images, text, and artwork into a single folder with subfolders for each type of file. You want all of this in one place so your web design goes well and you can find everything you want in one place.

8. Time to build. Now is the time to assess your skills. Are you schooled in the art of Web Design or are you brand new? If new, then consider a free website with instant templates to ease the building of your site. Geocities is a good place to start, but be careful, because advertising does make it's appearance in your site, even if you don't want it.

If you are experienced in site design, using tools like Dreamweaver and even database driven sites like Geeklog (What drives this site) allows for massive power to publish with very little work, save for knowing how databases and languages work.

This article is not an end-all be-all, only the merest smattering of the first baby step into building a web site. With each step comes new power and knowledge, and also a new humility as you discover how truly little you know. I've got 30 years of computer experience under my belt and I'm still amazed at how much there is for me to learn...

I plan to offer a series of how-to articles as this site matures, and this is only the start of this series. We will build an actual Pagan website with pictures of the process as we go through the basics, and this should help you to help yourself as you progress in your WebCrafting!

See the end of this article for another perspective from an online course on the subject:

Blessed Be! AJ

Unlike with other mediums, the website designer can not think about appearance first. Infact, it's last on the list of design concerns for a website! The main reason for this is simple - the internet is the first truely interactive and dynamic medium. This is because of the control the end-user (the person browsing the internet) has.

The end-user controls text size, font, the ability to turn on and off graphics. And, of course, the direction or order the pages of a website will be viewed. Since designers are unable to control these elements, they need to approach website design in a very different manner. This doesn't mean that appearance doesn't matter, it just means that it isn't the only important concern.

Speed - the first design concern for website designers. Why? If a site takes too long to download, no one will wait for it to finish. This means all of the time spent designing and creating will be wasted since no one will ever see your creation.

How a designer should address this concern;

*
Limit the number of graphics. The fewer the graphics the faster the download will be since each graphic will add time.
*
Keep file sizes small. (File size is how many bytes or how much space the file takes up on a computer.)

A good website designer always remembers that not everyone has a new system. Some end-users will be viewing the site with older, slower modems as well as older, more limited computer systems.

Usability - the second concern for website designers. Why? If a site is hard to navigate, users can't find the info they came for, or worse yet, find themselves going in circles they won't stay and won't come back.

How a designer should address this concern;

* Arrange information in a logical manner and check with others - what may be logical for you may not be logical for others.
* Remember to use "Alt" tags ("Alt" tags or "alternative text" are text attached to an image to give a description and/or purpose to browsers with graphics turned off or handicapped browsers that 'read' sites) on all graphics - especially if you have mapped an image for navigation.
* Make buttons look like buttons. Don't make the end-user guess what is and isn't a button.
* Keep the navigation immediately visable. Don't make the user scroll to find your navigation. (Since the upper left hand corner is the only point that is locked in place, use it for the starting point of your navigation - whether you choose a horizontal or vertical navigation.)
* Keep in mind site/information maintenance when designing. Make it easy to update transient information - old information is a good way to lose end-users.
* Users will have different sized monitors, different browsers and different platforms. Check your designs on different set-ups to see what it will look like and how it will be displayed.

Appearance - the final concern. Appearance, though the last concern, is extremely important on the internet. Since the end-user will form an opinion of you from your website, it is important for you to achieve a "look" that will project the image you want.

A designer should address this concern by remembering:

* Too much clutter will give the impression that you are cluttered or messy and/or that you are disorganized.
* Too much empty space will give the impression that you have nothing to say.
* Site/information maintenance must be current and easy to update - old information will give the impression that you don't care.
* Organization has to be more than just an impression. It has to be logical to the end-user.

As a website designer you have a responsibility to the end-users. They aren't just hits, they are user experiences. Everytime end-users come to your site they are experiencing the internet through your design.

Also remember that it's not just a site, it's a service - if you treat your customers (end-users) badly, they won't be back!

Source: http://ict.cas.psu.edu/training/instrmats/BasicDesign/Design.html