Eagle Online Services

WEB SITE Creation, Maintenance and Modification

Creating a web site:

There are many factors that go into designing a web site, and the range of options is almost limitless. There more complicated a web page is and the more original all the graphic work is, the more time it takes, and the more costly it is.

The Elements of Design

The elements of design are the basic building blocks of all design projects. The elements of design include lines, shapes, texture, color, and direction. They create the general mood and tone of the web site and can range from simple to complex, from modern to classic.

Two Types of Web Sites:

Stable and somewhat static: These web sites contain information that for the most part remains unchanged over time. They do not require frequent updating.

Changing: These web sites contain information that is often changed and/or updated, usually because it is time sensitive. As a result, someone has to be responsible and able to carry out updates. How the web site is built will determine who can update and how.

Two general ways to build web sites:

Original design: These web sites are often built using special web site design software, such as Dreamweaver. This way of creating a web site provides the most flexibility. At Eagle Online Services, we utilize all coding systems as needed, including htm, html, css, asp, phb, java script, etc.

When it comes to original design, this is the usual sequence of tasks:

1. Layout: This includes the header (banner), body and possible footer. This also includes where things go in each section (i.e., a diagram of the spacing and placement of things, including navigation, graphics and text). A drawing, or sketch of the page layout can be my guide.

2. Pages: How many and whether they all have the same look (e.g., header).

3. Color scheme: Color samples help. An online search (using Google, or some other search engine) "color palette," will provide a wide variety of colors online that can be sampled and used. Also, the graphic software we use has the full range of colors. It is important to know that whatever colors are chosen, they won't falways look exactly the same on each users monitor, because of the set-up for that monitor.

4. Content: Text and graphics.

We do things in this sequence, because what's at the top of the list is most difficult to modify over time, while toward the bottom can more easily be changed over time.

Templates: These are previously constructed by various sources. They can be free, or purchased and are often built online. Templates are less flexible, though they do posses means for modification. While the overall design of the website is governed by the the template, text and additional graphic content is added by the website developer.

At Eagle Online Services we can do original design and use various templates that are available to us.

Common characteristics of web page layouts:

Header: Usually this runs across the top of each page in the web site. It contains identifying information, including logos and other sorts of graphics.

Navigation: Web sites with multiple web pages need to have links on each page that allow the web site visitor to view all pages. These are usually navigation buttons that can appear vertically, or horizontally (navigation on the website is horizontal).

Body: This is the information, including graphics, that changes for each page visited. The body can derive from the content of the page, or it can be inserted from a source on the web site (e.g., a data base).

Footer: Many web sites have a footer on each page, often used for copyright information as well as additional links and basic information about the web site. Like Headers, Footers do not change from page to page. Below is a sample layout with four possible positions of the navigation.

The various elements of the layout can have spaces between them, or adjacent (as they are in the diagram above.

Web page contents: The contents go into the various sections of the layout.

Text: The text provides all the verbal information on the website.

Graphics: These provide visual information. They can be static, or animated. Static images can be used as background (the Eagle Online Services website employs a blue image in the background for each page) or they can be placed in strategic location in the various sections of the layout. Below are examples of simple, animated graphics we've used

Sample layouts/templates:

for a sample template (will open in a new window, or tab)

for another sample template (will open in a new window, or tab)

Maintaining a web site:

As noted above, stable web sites are primarily there to provide a source of basic information about something. As long as that information does not change, they require little maintenance.

On the other hand, those web sites that contain time-sensitive information (e.g., a calendar of events) require ongoing maintenance.

Modifying a web site:

This occurs when there is a need to add or eliminate elements, or pages, and so on. It involves a form of redesign.

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