Web站點(diǎn)設(shè)計的12項(xiàng)決策

1、Web站點(diǎn)設(shè)計的12項(xiàng)決策by Dr. Ralph F. WilsonOverview Objectives:-YOU'RE A BUSINESS OWNER or organization director tiying to design a system of Web pages.Youll also have a set of design decisions to guide your own HTML adventures or to give to your local webpage designer.Overview 12 decisions:一 Pmpose一 In

2、dex Page and Site Organization一 Site and Domain Names一 Main Graphic to Highlight Your Site一 Background Color or Texture一 Basic Page Elements一 Finishing Touches一 Photos and Graphics一 Forms to Get Customer Response一 Uploading and Testing Your Pages一 Registering and Advertising Your Site一 Maintaining Y

3、our Site1 Purpose: Why Do You Want to Do This? Why are you doing this? What do you hope to achieve? What is your purpose?一 "The World Wide Web is hot. Eveiybody is getting a Web presence. Fd better do it, too, or be left behind." This may represent your thinking, but you need more focus.一

4、We want potential customers to leani about our company, and gain a favorable impression of us.一 We want to develop a qualified list of prospects for our goods and services.一 We want to sell products directly from our Web pages.一 Other, specifically.2. Index Page and Site Organization Home page vs. s

5、torefront on the ; an index to the set of pages which describe your business or organization. At least several main sections:一 About Your Organization. This section includes a vision or mission statement, histoiy of your business, a philosophy of how you do business, why customers should do business

6、 with you rather than with your competitor.一 Product Lines. With photos and text describe the benefits to your customers of your goods and seivices. You can also show features, applications, or examples Use a major branch for each major product line. You can also use your Web pages as a catalog, whi

7、ch you can update easily, inexpensively, and often一 Technical Support. Some businesses find it useful to provide teclmical information, specifications, FAQs, parts lists and diagrams, troubleshooting decision trees, etc.2. Index Page and Site Organization Home page vs. storefront on the ; an index t

8、o the set of pages which describe your business or organization. At least several main sections:一 How to order Tliis will include a form which e-maifs your customers information to you一 Service Section. This is free information of interest to your potential customers thafll keep them coming back to

9、your site for updates It might be news of your industry, of a related field, or something unique or interesting. Give some thought to what seivice your Web pages will provide to draw customers to your nstorefront1' again and again一 What's New section is where you put updates or new copies of

10、 a newsletter. Steps:一 Look for a name that is descriptive, unique, short, and memorable.一 Find out which names are still available by tiying your proposed domain name at Network Solutions ()一 Currently, the fee your ISP pays for a new domain name is $70 to cover the first two years, and then $35 pe

11、r year thereafter.一 Another advantage of selecting a unique domain name for your organization is that you aren so dependent upon your ISP. Suppose your ISP raises prices too high, or goes out of business?4. Main Graphic to Highlight Your Site Graphics一 No graphic Just use headline text. This is the

12、easiest way to go, but dull Don*t end here一 Clip art graphic Perhaps you have access to black-and-white or color clip art from a program such as Corel Draw®, or Word for Windows®, or Microsoft Publishei*® Make sure your image is copyright free; you don*t want your company to be sued C

13、heck first! Then conveit it to a GIF image一 Scanned-in graphic. You may already have a company logo or an artist's drawing. You can scan this in and convert to a GIF image.一 Customized Type Fonts can be developed from programs such as Paint Shop Pro®, or Photo Shop® to save as a GIF or

14、 JPEG image.4. Main Graphic to Highlight Your Site Graphics(Conti.) Scanned in photograph with type superimposed. You can find some great sky collections on the Internet, for example. Download one of these and superimpose your company's name over it. You can do this using of Paint Shop Pro®

15、 or Adobe Photo Shop® Or you can let your Web designer do it for you一 Customized computer art by a computer artist. This may cost you a few bucks, but the right graphic sets the tone for your site.Image map combined with customized computer art. The customer clicks on the subject in the graphic

16、 which interests him or her. Image maps are cool, but start to get expensive, since they take more progranuning skill, and require a special interface with your host computer. Your best bet is to leave this one to a professional webpage designer.4. Main Graphic to Highlight Your Site More Pointers:一

17、 images size < 40K, or your customer may lose interest一 Not all your viewers have 256-color capability, but only 16 colors. What does your graphic look like with 16 colors? Test!一 Using interlaced GIF images helps keep your customer interest as the graphic gradually displays over four "passe

18、s. The total time is about the same for interlaced or non-interlaced images一 The best combination is a single sparkling graphic combined with text.一 The overall look of your "home" page needs to be graphically balanced, pleasing, informative.一 Your "index" or "home" pag

19、e fonctions as your storefront. It needs to entice the customer in the door to look at the rest of what you have to offer. This is where a professional writer can help, too.5. Background Color or Texture Set your website off from all the rest. One way is with a well-designed graphic. The other is wi

20、th a background texture and/or color.一 Plain gray. Entiy-level color scheme. All browsers can display it. The novice HTML writer can do this without even tiying. Choose something brighter gray is ugly (IMHO).- Colored background and lettering. If you know the right codes, you can easily change the b

21、ackground color. Make the letters a contrasting color. Textured and colored backgrounds are proliferating on the Web. This is really pretty easy, like the tiled wallpaper used in your Windows® desktop. Don't let the background overwhelm the text, but subtly complement it. Long or short page

22、一 Long pages. These are good if you expect people to print out or download your pages for fiitiire reference. You can index these to internal bookmarks" to help your customers find their way to needed information. The drawback is that long pages of 40K or more may be more than you customers wil

23、l want to wait for.一 Multiple shorter pages. Here your index links jump to many shorter pages that treat just one subject each. It doesn't take as long to view, but if you think people will want to download or print out 10 different pages, think again.Elements一 Page title which displays at the t

24、op line of your Web browser is veiy impoilant because it often shows up in search engines such as WebCrawler®, Infoseek®, and AltaVista®. Make this descriptive, using key words that people might use to find vour page.一 Top-of-page graphic. A small graphic at the top of each of vour pa

25、ges helps unify your Web pages. You can use a smaller version of your main "index page" graphic. Or perhaps a band at the top of the page with your company name and a small logo. Do you want this top graphic: centered, upper left, or upper right?一 Page background. Textured and colored back

26、grounds unify your pages. Alternatively, von can specify an RGB color for the background. Many Web sites today use a simple white background for readability by many Web browser and monitor configurations.一 Headline Type. Decide what size to use on these "subpages” and use it consistently.Elemen

27、ts一 Text. Go veiy sparingly on the headline typefaces. Use the normal typeface instead.一 Last update. If your site features up-todate iiifomiation, an update date is helpful. But if you don't do much updating, leave the date off or the site will look untended.一 URL address. You don't have to

28、 include this, but consider including a line like "The URL of this document is ” or some such. That way they511 know from the printed page how to get back to your website.一 Jump lines. If you have a complex site, you may want to have one or two word designations which will allow your customer t

29、o jump to another section of your website. Most common is a "home" or "top of page" jump, sometimes using "clickable images” or "buttons”.Elements一 Links. The power of the Web is its ability to link to any other page in the world. But be very careful. You*ve just got th

30、e customer in your store. Don't quickly send him away. Resist your impulse to show off your knowledge of cool sites until you*ve got your customer name, address, and hopefiillv his order. This is business.一 Signature. Sign your pages so the author is apparent (e.g. Designed by Ralph F. Wilson).

31、Alternatively, you may want to include an一 Email address, which when clicked takes your customer to a "mail to" form which allows him or her to send you e-mail, such as tcE-mail feedback to "7. Finishing Touches Horizontal Rules. These don*t take any extra time to download They can be

32、 varied in length and width if you know the codes Colored Lines take a few seconds, but can spice up your page, especially if they are coordinated with the color scheme you have designed. Don*t overdo it. Bullets are available as an HTML option to set off lists. Colored balls, arrows, and pointers a

33、re also available But be carefill. A little color goes a long way. Don*t just add these to show off. Colorful "New" or uUpdated?, markers draw your customers1 attention to items you may have added recently. How about "Sale" or "Special"? Again, don't overdo it: only

34、 one or two per page. More than that defeats the purpose. Black- andWhite. These may be a bit less expensive, and are within the range of most hand scaimers using gray-scale Black-and-white images can easily be tinted slightly blue or brown to give an antique flavor. Color Images. Color grabs people

35、 Tell your stoiy through a few pictures Obtain professional-quality photos of your products locally. Then send your Web designer the photos. You can also obtain stock photography from inexpensive CDROMs from Expert and Softkey, or professional stock photograph line from PhotoDisc () Clickable thumbn

36、ail images are one compromise. You show the picture in a thumbnail size image. If the customer is interested he or she can click on it to display the larger photo. You can also give the image size, such as 57K, so the customer has an idea of whether or not he ought to choose this option.9. Forms to

37、Get Orders or CustomerResponse Guestbooks. You can entice potential customers to sign your guestbook and perhaps receive a free gift. Their answers to key questions help you qualify them as a prospect to pursue by telephone or direct mail (or e-mail, for that matter). Requests for Information. Have

38、a place for name, address, phone number, etc., as well as check boxes to request information on ceitain products or sei-vices Order Forms I deally, you take the order right on-line. Since people are still concerned with security of their credit card information on the Internet, consider using a comb

39、ination of an order form and an 800 number. Former customers could order on the basis of credit information they have previously given you. Or you might have a page which contains an order form your customer can print out, fill out manually, and mail in with a check.9. Forms to Get Orders or Custome

40、rResponse Shopping Cart Program. If you are selling a number products directly over the Internet, you probably ought to invest ill ''shopping cart” software, so people can put multiple items in their "cart" from any number of product pages. Upon "checkout”，they have a total of

41、 their items, as well as tax (if any) and shipping charges included. Take a look at my article "How Does a Shopping Cart Progiam Work” (). Secure Server. If you're serious about selling directly on the Internet, invest in the extra cost of putting your pages on a SSL-secure seiver, which en

42、ciypts the information quite well. Perception is the real issue, not stealing of information. The padlock icon is worth the extra money you'll pay.1 0. Uploadi ng and Testi ng Your Pages Upload the pages yourself. You'll need to do this repeatedly as you test and adjust your pages. Ail helpf

43、ul tool is WS_FTP, available in both Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 versions. You can use this shareware to upload files to your website. Send the pages to your ISP on a diskette to upload for you. He may do this for you once or twice. But when you find the need for repeated changes to conect eiTors, he

44、 won't be happy. Have your Web designer upload and test the pages for you. If he is woitli is salt (or her salt, as the case may be), lie will ask for your approval at key stages so you are fully satisfied with the filial product. You know: "Delight the customer.11 Register!ng and Advertisi

45、ng Your Site Signature.一 Subscribe to mailing lists and news groups likely to include potential customers. Actively involve yourself in the discussions, but don*t overtly "push" your product. Let the n signature'* at the end of your e-mail message do that for you. Use something like:SU

46、CCESS UNLIMITED, INC. Joe Schamole, OwnerYour choice for Adveilising Specialties Pens Mugs - Flyswatters Refiigerator Magnets SUCCESS UNLIMITED for free samples一 Participation takes some time and work, but ifs worth it, since you are targeting your marketing effoits on those most likely to purchase

47、your produc仁 This is your job, though your Web designer can help you find the right mailing lists and news groups11 Register!ng and Advertising Your Site Signature.一 Web search engines. There are half a dozen iinpoilant Web search engines for the Internet: Yahoo!, Lycos, WebCrawler, AltaVista, HotBo

48、t, Excite, and Infbseek. Register your "index" page with each of these. Or have your Web designer do it for you.一 Links from Related Pages. You may find some people ill a complementaiy business who will agree to reciprocal links with your page. Or one-way links for a modest fee. You know your industiy better than your Web designer. You need to explore the Internet for yourself.11 Register!ng and Advertising Your Site Signature.一 Links from Industry Index pages. There