Web site design for dummies 101

[Dragon Phoenix]

No, I don't intend to answer questions, I would like those of us who are involved in unprofessional web site design to share tips and experiences. I have designed two websites, both based on the Geocities Pagebuilder. This system is pretty straightforward, so tips from my side would be the construction of banners and buttons, which can be applied in any system of course.

For Bambi's Art site and my Music site we have mainly used three web sites which provide the right tools:

1) Headings (logo's, banners):
Examples:


These were mainly made with the Logos programme which can be found on the CoolText site. Easy to use, plenty of different options. I found it easier and more flexible than the Logos programme on grsites site.

2) Buttons
Examples:



These were all made with the programme DeKnop downloaded from this site. Very user friendly, and versatile.

The previously mentioned grsites site has a wealth of images, background and textures. Their button programme is nice if you want to make a more special button like:


I hope that these links can help some of you. I also would like to hear some of your best experiences.

[The Ragin' South Asian]

I prefer to have text headers and what not with styles applied. Mainly because it's less work for me and I can change how everything looks very quickly. The downside is that some people see just the text, but that's not really a big deal since it's just a personal website.

[Guest]

I have designed a very basic site, and am working on a more complicated one, It's still all basic HTML... no complicated scripting because I just don't know that.

I don't use web-builders, because they are just annoying. They rearrange my code, add bits and pieces thata are no use and inneficient, adding to the page size, and are just annoying.

I instead do everything with notepad. Simple and effective. And I understand html more than I would if I just used dreamweaver or something like that.

[Beartalon]

I can't say I do professional Web work. I've designed lots of sites, and two are for a company of which I am part owner.

http://www.paradigmsales.ca
http://www.paradigmsales.ca/main.asp
http://www.bearable.biz
http://www.geocities.com/beartalon
http://www.adinfo.com

I DO recommend trying HTML by hand in Notepad as it is a better learning experience than using DreamWeaver or Frontpage which make assumptions, insert useless bits, and auto-fix some mistakes.

However, after a while, when you are fairly proficient at making web pages by handcoding, these assistant programs can really make getting a page out there fairly quick. I don't use most of the advanced features of Frontpage or Dreamweaver until I understand it.

RSA - your idea of using styles is a good idea, especially if you change your colour scheme or style every now and then. It avoids having to recreate graphics in the new site colours. I'll be changing my personal site to this soon. I stick to mostly one main graphic per page, and a plain coloured background or repeating image that doesn't overwhelm the text.
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[Digglu]

i agree. coding by hand is good, and css styles are useful for quick changes. i never use programs that generate code, but i never do any professional design either. if you want to check out some of the stuff i've done, this is my website...the layout on it and the stuff under the skins link are all my own...yeah

[jadesmar]

Coding by hand? There should be a better metaphor than that.

Anyhow, I do everything in Notepad, reserving Wordpad for really large things.

But, hey, there's only so much you can do on a P-100 with 8 megs of RAM, and since my good computer crashed, that's about all I have left. It's got CIV II on it so, I'll survive.

If anyone has any questions about technical webpage stuff feel free to ask; design is by committee.