Wow, it certainly sounds easy enough! Then why am I having trouble pinning down exactly what I want this website to look like and what tool to use? Probably for the same reason I had trouble designing the new bathroom in my house. Fortunately the website can be easily changed; changing the tile color choice I made isn’t so easy.
So, why stress… probably because I don’t do well when I have too many choices to choose from – as is the case in web design. Joanne
3 responses so far ↓
1
Susan
// Jun 10, 2008 at 10:35 pm
Joanne,
I can certainly relate to your indecision! When I first had to create a webpage for school, we had a basic template that had to be followed because it was a grant-funded course. And as a classroom teacher, that was fine. Now I am the Elementary Instructional Technology Specialist for our district. I’ve been in this position just short of 3 years now. I pulled my webpage about 6 months after I switched jobs, because, of course, I no longer had a single classroom. Now here I am, all this time later, still without a page on our district site. I have 2 pages for some grad classes I’m taking, and one for a workshop I presented, but none for my job. I keep changing my mind about what I want! First I think it should look professional and serious. Then my sense of fun asserts itself, and I then decide it shouldn’t be so stuffy. Then I start working on it, only to come across another idea I like better. Now of course, it’s been decided that our use of Front Page is what keeps teachers from creating a web page, or updating it once they’ve made it. That has me on the hunt for alternative ways to create a page. No sooner do I think I have just the right thing, than I find something that makes it not quite right, or I find something that might be even better….One of these days I may actually get around to constructing one!
2
website designing
// Jun 10, 2008 at 11:18 pm
Now designing a website can be easy….
3
Richard G
// Jun 11, 2008 at 6:54 am
Wow, looks like you guys just got spammed up there, which brings up a good point: web design is NOT easy. The entire process has become very complex because of a lack of standards–or, rather, because certain companies decide to ignore standards set by the World Wide Web Consortium and do things their own way. So now we have many various browsers you have to account for, and also various client-side and server-side scripting languages that can be used to manage web sites.
The book you posted a picture of is a very good book. It’s a reference guide, however, and not meant to teach people how to create web sites. The truth of the matter is that sooner or later you’re going to have to confront basic HTML, XML and CSS–the foundations of web design. Some programs like Dreamweaver or Cold-Fusion will try to make it easy for you, but in fact they just postpone the inevitable: you need to know what’s happening at the code level. Even worse, however, are the scams aimed particularly at public education that (for a hefty price) offer to “do all the work for you”.
Several of the “example websites” that have been posted in the Cybercamp link pool may look nice at first, but have real problems. Looking at their source code shows that they were just mashed together from a template that is not being maintained, and is not compliant with current W3C validators.
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