What makes a website a good website?

Content is king...

but

The computer industry has been able to ship difficult-to-use products because you buy first, and then you try to use it. With the Web, usability comes first, then you click to buy or become a return visitor.

Jakob Nielsen

With good design, there are no accidents.

Find a pretty site and lets look at it.

(My) Web Design Process

  • Organize, study content
  • Draw wireframes
  • Generate a cohesive aesthetic
    • colors, fonts, logos
    • Style Guide
  • Build graphic mock-up (optional)
  • Content Management System
  • Conversion of design into HTML, CSS, JS
  • Iterative process from here on out

A really well executed wireframe

A really well executed  style guide

Content Management Systems

  • Flat file - no database (i.e. - no CMS)
  • Tumbler, Blogger, Square Space, Shopify (SaaS)
  • WordPress, Joomla, Drupal (Open Source, Self-hosted)
  • Cascade, LightCMS, etc. (Proprietary, Self-hosted)

HTML

HTML Elements

  • Composed of open and closing tags
  • Can be nested, with added IDs and classes to create complex structures
  • About two dozen different standard types of elements 

HTML Elements

  • <h1>Heading</h1>
  • <p>Paragraph</p>
  • <div>Div Container (block)</div>
  • <span>Span Container (inline)</span>
  • <a href="https://google.com">Link</a>
  • <li>List item</li>
  • <img src="Image.jpg" />
  • <table><tr><td></td></tr></table>
  • <script></script>
  • etc etc

Please finish the two units in CodeAcademy

Unit 1: Introduction to HTML

Unit 2: HTML Structure

10 Principles of Effective Web Design

Usability, Design Process intro

By joshjenkinsar

Usability, Design Process intro

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