How Do You Build A Web Page?

[CFLarsen]

The goal of usability is for many people to be able to use it. What's the goal of design? What do you mean by "design" anyway?

Design on a webpage describes the graphical "language": Color schemes, shapes of buttons, bars, looks of menus, etc.

Usability is e.g. where to put what controls when. When in the process of selling a product do you ask for personal data?

There's a lot more to it, of course, but I hope you get an idea what it is.

You can learn a lot about usability by visiting www.useit.com, Jacob Nielsen's website (a fellow Dane).

 

[Interesting Ian]

Design is not imprtant for visitor rates, content is, and how many places link to your site.

Hans

That's what I'm concerned about, that no one will link to my site. Perhaps I could persaude Claus to provide a link from his site; and maybe other Skeptics on here with websites might link to my site.

Mind you this University student (female) has read what I've written so far and thinks it's brilliant and said she would pin the website address up on the Universities noticeboard (or somewhere)

And how could I get a reasonable place in the search engines?

 

[CFLarsen]

That's what I'm concerned about, that no one will link to my site. Perhaps I could persaude Claus to provide a link from his site; and maybe other Skeptics on here with websites might link to my site.

No.

And how could I get a reasonable place in the search engines?

There is only one, Google. And people have to link to your site for anyone to find you. Or, of course, you can pay your way.

 

[T'ai Chi]

That's what I'm concerned about, that no one will link to my site. Perhaps I could persaude Claus to provide a link from his site; and maybe other Skeptics on here with websites might link to my site.

I've linked to SkepticReport from my page.

 

[Interesting Ian]

No.

Why will you not link to my site? I'm going to attempt to be as fair as possible, and put my arguments in a readily understandable manner.

 

[T'ai Chi]

Ian,

From your webpage (yes, I know you haven't used it yet, but it's there alright):

The person peeping through the sky...would that be the "God" that "allows it"?

Why can't it be the same eyes of the person who is doing the raking? Maybe it is Ian's ink blot test for self proclaimed skeptics, and you just passed with flying colors.

Still waiting for that audio to come through to my email. Perhaps you could just give me a web address to download it from?

 

[CFLarsen]

I've linked to SkepticReport from my page.

Thank you.

 

[CFLarsen]

Why will you not link to my site? I'm going to attempt to be as fair as possible, and put my arguments in a readily understandable manner.

"God allows it", Ian.

Your site has nothing to do with skepticism or critical thinking.

 

[CFLarsen]

Why can't it be the same eyes of the person who is doing the raking? Maybe it is Ian's ink blot test for self proclaimed skeptics, and you just passed with flying colors.

I ask a question, and suddenly, I have passed some test? Don't you think that's a little bit presumptuous?

Still waiting for that audio to come through to my email. Perhaps you could just give me a web address to download it from?

I didn't get an error message back, so it should be sent to you. If it isn't in a day or two, let me know.

 

[Interesting Ian]

"God allows it", Ian.

Your site has nothing to do with skepticism or critical thinking.

I'll be putting links to sites advocating materialism and skepticism on my site. Only the good ones though (if there are any).

 

[Luke T.]

Wow! Who would have guessed a topic on DIY web sites would be so controversial!

At least it has resulted in a number of options, and that is great. I'll show this to my coworker and let him make his own choice. It will probably take a week or so for him to fiddle around with all of them, what with the holidays and everything.

If at the end of trying out the various DIY methods he is not satisfied, then I will suggest he contact Claus.

 

[CFLarsen]

I'll be putting links to sites advocating materialism and skepticism on my site. Only the good ones though (if there are any).

That doesn't help one bit.

 

[T'ai Chi]

I ask a question, and suddenly, I have passed some test? Don't you think that's a little bit presumptuous?

Please read what I wrote. I said, underline added, "Maybe it is Ian's ink blot test for self proclaimed skeptics, and you just passed with flying colors."

 

[rightbrain]

Design is not imprtant for visitor rates, content is, and how many places link to your site.

True, but design will play a big role in how visitors perceive your site once they get there.

Claus mentioned Jakob Nielsen's site (usability.com), and it is indeed a site that anyone interested in Web usability should visit--and bookmark.

One area where I sometimes diverge from Nielsen's views is in graphic design. There's a disconnect between what Web visitors say is important on Websites and what actually *is* important, per studies by Consumer Reports and Stanford:
Quote: " In the case of the Internet, the number one factor by which people actually judge Web site credibility was by their first impression of the visual design."

Consumers don't like to admit even to themselves that they're swayed by packaging, but there's a good reason companies spend millions on it. Boeing and Kraft and MTV don't have plain-text sites and they don't have sites that look like Ian's.

I have been having a steady 100-150 daily hits for years, now.
Hits or unique visitors? Big difference.

Hans [/B]

 

[rightbrain]

Don't just say "no comment". I honestly think it's very good. So do a couple of people who have commented upon it. However, if anyone who has more experience than I think the site is defective in any way, then let me know and I'll make the appropriate modifications should the recommendations have any merit.

Fair enough. I agree with everything Claus said, plus:
* Lose the frames.

 

[MRC_Hans]

Hits or unique visitors? Big difference.

Unique visitors.

... And that can't come from nothing, according to Iacchus .


Hans

 

[MRC_Hans]

Have you checked who is hitting on you (yes, you know what I don't mean)?

It could be bots or it could be real people.

They're mostly people.

- That is, to be honest, they're mostly Americans, still......

Hans

 

[CFLarsen]

Wow! Who would have guessed a topic on DIY web sites would be so controversial!

At least it has resulted in a number of options, and that is great. I'll show this to my coworker and let him make his own choice. It will probably take a week or so for him to fiddle around with all of them, what with the holidays and everything.

If at the end of trying out the various DIY methods he is not satisfied, then I will suggest he contact Claus.

He's more than welcome.

 

[geni]

Going by this page I'd say design is very much secondary to content (or depnding on your tastes you may come to the oposite conclusion).

 

[Wudang]

There are very few web-pages that have sufficiently good and rare enough content to overcome bad design. I say this as a techie programmer who produces dull web-pages.
Ian, re the colour scheme - try the colour selector tools on www.snapfiles.com - they'll show you pallettes that work well together - i.e colour wheels etc.
Your web page does load quickly which is nice and creates a good impression. Then it gets too busy with the frames down the left which visually dominate by their size and strong colours against the less garish text. Then you have the menu down at the bottom of the iframe - so people start off by puzzling out which they should be using instead of having a clear choice or a nice path. Then they're thinking about how to use your site instead of concentrating on what your web site says.
I'm not sure about Neilsen but I do like Zeldman's Designing with Web Standards.