Getting StartED Building Websites (eBook)

Alexander Dawson is a 25-year-old freelance website designer andconsultant based in the U.K. who specializes in web standards, accessibility, usability engineering, and user interface design. With self-taught experience in software development and producing simple but elegant websites through HTML and CSS, he spends his days (when not working on projects either privately or publicly) absorbing the vast amounts of knowledge in books, the Internet, and other media related to the fast-paced industry of web design. His aim in life is to be able to share his knowledge with the world, so that others who follow the same path can be there at the front lines and not feel intimidated by the constant flow of new technology.

Title Page 
1 
Copyright Page 
2 
Contents at a Glance 4
Table of Contents 
5 
About the Author 11
About the Technical Reviewer 12
Acknowledgments 13
Introduction 14
Your Expectations 14
Book Conventions 15
Understanding Some Basics of the Web 16
What Is the Internet? 16
Websites and Browsers 18
The Ten-Step Guide to Zen Creativity 20
Capability 21
Productivity 21
Simplicity 22
Desirability 23
Functionality 24
Compatibility 25
Flexibility 25
Accessibility 26
Usability 27
Expandability 27
Summary 28
Chapter 1: What Kind of Website Should I Make? 29
Who Are You? 29
Your Inner Processes 30
Who Are You? 30
How Do You Think? 33
What Type of Site? 34
Blog 35
Commercial 35
Community 36
Content 37
Corporate 37
Corporate 38
Intranet 38
Microsites 39
Mirror 40
News 41
Niche 42
Personal 42
Portal 43
Portfolio 44
Review 45
Targeted 45
Form Your Identity 49
Avoid Confusion 50
Brand Name 50
Brand Identity 52
Inspiration for the Masses 52
Sources of Inspiration 53
Natural Inspiration 53
The Media 54
Friends and Family 54
Software Design 54
StumbleUpon 55
Design Blogs 56
Web Design Galleries 56
Idea Development Techniques 58
Mission Statement 59
Market Research 61
Brainstorming 71
Mind Maps 74
Information Architecture 77
Layout 78
Concept Artwork 78
Structure 80
Sitemaps 81
Wireframing 83
The Vision Quest 85
Step 1 86
Step 2 86
Step 3 87
Step 4 88
Summary 89
Chapter 2: How Do I Write Good Content? 92
Content Is King! 92
What is Content? 93
Text 93
Images 94
Rich Media 95
Decision Making 97
Information Design 99
Content Comes First 100
Audience 101
Website Writing 102
Common pages 103
Content Examples 106
The Basics of Writing 125
How to Write Effectively 125
Spelling 126
Grammar 126
Readability 127
Structure 127
Layout 127
Chunking 127
Legibility 128
Fluff Posting 128
Wasting Time 128
Reductionism 128
Iteration 128
Complexity 129
Personal Bias 129
Empathy 129
Emotion 129
Context 130
Scanning 130
Language 130
Free Will 130
Plagiarism 131
Conclusion 131
Lorem Ipsum 131
Cover Your Ass(ets)! 133
Copyright 134
Impressum 135
Creative Commons 136
Dealing with Theft 137
Summary 140
Chapter 3: How Should I Start Coding My Site? 142
Back to Basics 143
Under the Hood 143
What Is Code? 143
Elements, Tags, and Attributes 145
Languages in Use 150
Semantics and Standards 152
Your Checklist 157
Editing Software 157
Folders and Files 160
Getting StartED 163
Your First Web Page 164
Document Type Declaration 164
Comments for Code 166
Checkpoint: Part 1 166
From Content to Context 167
Placing Your Content 167
Structure: < h1 >
Structure: < p>
Multimedia: < img>
Lists: < 01>
Tables 176
Advanced Tables 179
Structure: < blockquote>
Multimedia: < object>
Structure: < hr>
Multimedia: < map>
Structure: < address>
Checkpoint: Part 2 187
Enhancing Content 189
Formatting: < span>
Formatting: < a>
Formatting: < abbr>
Formatting: < b>
Formatting: < sub>
Formatting: < ins>
Formatting: < code>
Checkpoint: Part 3 198
Further Learning 200
Separating Sections 201
Structure: < div>
Checkpoint: Part 4 203
Expand Your Mind 205
Inside Your Head 206
< title>
< meta>
< link>
Checkpoint: Part 5 209
What Else Can You Do? 211
Forms 211
Frames: < frameset>
The PVNK Approach 218
Summary 219
Chapter 4: What About Web Hosting? 222
There's No Place Like Home 222
The Web Site Addresses 223
Domains and Subdomains 223
Domain Extensions 224
The Future of TLDs 225
Choosing a Domain Name 226
Brand Emphasis 226
International (IDN) 229
Domain Hacks 229
The Problem with Domains 231
WHOIS Records 232
Purchasing Methods 234
Choose Your Landscape 236
What Is a Web Server? 236
Hosting Types 237
Beware the Villains! 239
The Unlimited Lie 239
Oversellers 240
Too Good to Be True 240
Trusting Reviews 241
Functionality Guide 242
Price 243
Guarantee 243
Load Balancing 243
Uptime 243
Backups 244
Support 244
Bandwidth 244
Disk Space 245
Operating System 245
Language 245
Databases 246
Email 246
Statistics 246
Applications 247
File Management 247
SSL Certificates 248
Multiple Domains and Subdomains 248
Conclusion 248
Uploading Your Files via FTP 249
Summary 251
Chapter 5: How Can I Style My Website? 253
Back to Basics 253
Under the Hood 254
What is Code (Again)? 254
The Semantics of Style 258
Using Class and ID for Targeted Styling 261
Cascading Code 264
Inheritance 265
Exceptions to the Rule 267
Specificity 268
Colors and Units 270
Color Values 271
Measurement Values 274
Your Checklist. 276
Getting StartED! 277
Basics, Rules, and Selectors 277
Declaring the Style Sheet 278
Comments for Code 280
Follow the @rules 281
Super Selectors! 285
Targeting with Combinators 289
Pseudo Classes 291
Properties and Values 292
Fonts and Text 293
Colors, Backgrounds, and Borders 302
Choosing the Right Color 308
Wheels and Charts 309
Harmony and Mea 310
Tables and Lists 312
Using CSS for Design 316
The CSS Box Model 322
Dimensions, Margins, and Padding 327
Position, Visibility, and Behavior 330
Checkpoint! 335
Summary 335
Chapter 6: How Can I Use Images and Media? 338
Pushing Pixels 338
Online Formats 339
Image formats 339
GIF 340
JPEG 341
PNG 342
Working with Images 343
Creating and Editing Photos 344
Building Logos 345
Stock Collections 347
Favicons and Apple icons 351
Graphics Languages in Use 352
Mass Multimedia 354
Languages in Use 355
Audio and Video Formats 356
On-Demand Streaming 359
Podcasting Basics 361
Web SFX 366
Getting More for Your Money 369
Speed Tweaks 369
Quality vs. Size 369
Caching 370
Other Tweaks 371
Summary 372
Chapter 7: What If Something Goes Wrong? 375
Where Did It All Go Wrong? 375
The Browser Wars 376
Web War 1.0 376
Web War 2.0 377
The Future of the Wars 379
Acid Tests 380
Mobile Madness 381
Web Renderers 384
Playing the Blame Game 386
Market Shares 387
Dropping Support 389
hasLayout 389
Conditions, Quirks, and Filters 391
Discovering Problems 391
The Human Touch 391
W3C Validators 392
Browser Emulators 393
Playing Detective 400
Debugging Gracefully 403
Hacks and Filters 403
Overcoming the Double-Margin Float Bug 404
Conditional Comments 407
Proprietary Code 410
Implementing Cross-Browser Opacity 412
Prevention Is Better Than Cure 414
Ensuring Backward Compatibility 414
Degrading Gracefully 415
Using Progressive Enhancement 415
Future Proofing 415
Staying on the Bleeding Edge 416
Understanding 404 (Section Not Found) Errors 416
.htaccess 417
Building Your .htaccess File 417
Creating Friendly Errors 418
Redirecting Users 419
Using Friendly URLs 420
Protecting Yourself 421
Checkpoint: An Example .htaccess File 422
Dealing with Issues 422
Error Reporting 423
Scheduling Downtime and Maintenance 423
Providing Alerts and Notices 424
Maintaining Support 425
Reporting Methods 425
Assistance Methods 426
Customer Relations 427
Summary 428
Chapter 8: How Can I Add Interactivity? 431
Back to Basics 431
Under the Hood 432
Understanding Interactivity 432
License to Thrill 434
Client vs. Server 435
Data Storage 438
Applications and Packages 439
Fantastic Frameworks 441
Code Snippets 443
Summary 444
Client-Side Scripting 444
Languages in Use 445
The Trinity of Interactivity 447
JavaScript 447
The DOM 448
AJAX 449
Scripting Semantics 451
JavaScript Frameworks 459
Bookmarklets 460
Additional Resources 462
Server-Side Scripting 462
There and Back Again 463
Server-side Languages in Use 463
Laws of the Playground 466
The Importance of Storage 467
Databases in Use 468
Powerful Packages 470
Content Management Systems 471
Blogging Platforms 472
Wiki Packages 473
Forum Software 474
Online Services 476
Server-Side Frameworks 478
Head in the Clouds 479
Plug and Play 481
RIA Frameworks 482
Additional Resources 483
Security Issues 483
Summary 486
Chapter 9: How Can My Website Be Improved? 489
Accessibility with Agility 489
What Is Accessibility? 490
The Common Myths 490
Accessibility Benefits 492
Assistive Devices 493
Screen Readers 493
Tactile Devices 494
Magnifiers 494
Text Browsers 495
Mouse and Keyboard 495
Speech Recognition 496
Web Browser Tools 496
Accessibility Issues 497
Varying Degrees 498
Physical 498
Intellectual 500
Emotional 501
Social 502
Accessibility Practices 504
Logical Structure 505
Text Alternatives 507
Skip Links 509
Headings 509
Contrasting Style Sheets 510
Access Keys 511
What Can Go Wrong? 512
CAPTCHA 513
Writing an Accessibility Statement 515
Accessibility Standards 516
Section 508 517
Pas 78 517
WCAG 518
Samurai 518
WAI-ARIA 519
Accessibility Law 519
Accessibility Validation 521
Experience Is Everything 522
Design Theory 523
Conventions 523
Patterns 525
Usability Considerations 526
Screen Real Estate 527
Three-Click Rule 527
Progressive Disclosure 527
Confirmation 528
Connection Speed 528
User-Centered Design 529
Studies and Testing 529
Ask Your Visitors 529
Research Models 530
Existing Studies 531
Analytics Software 532
Mastering Microformats 533
Metadata Markup 534
Metatags 534
The DCMI 535
Microformats 535
Released Microformats 536
Draft Microformats 537
Syndicating and Integrating 538
Generating Feeds 538
Languages in Use 540
RSS and Atom 541
Integrating Extensions 546
OpenSearch 546
Accelerators 548
Summary 550
Chapter 10: How Can I Get More Visitors? 552
Search Engine Optimization 552
Organic SEO 553
Arachnophobia! 554
What Is SERP? 555
Shades of Gray 557
Natural Ingredients 558
Busting Myths 559
White Hat SEO 561
Keyword Research 562
Creating Sitemaps 564
robots.txt 567
Search Engine Submission 569
Rankings 570
Link Building 572
Black Hat SEO 575
SEO Techniques to Avoid 576
Penalties 579
Mastering Marketing 581
Advertising 581
Using Offline Marketing 581
Pay per click 582
Marketing Ideas 583
Campaign to Conversion 584
Content Delivery 585
Social Networking 589
E-mail 589
Networking 591
Measuring Success 594
Selling Your Services 595
The Bizarre Bazaar 596
Knowing What to Offer 596
Rules of Engagement 597
Payment Systems 600
Choosing a Sales Model 600
Working with Merchant Services 601
Adding Shopping Carts 603
Self-Defense 605
Sale Security 605
Online Privacy 608
Summary 610
Appendix A: The Ten Commandments for Websites 613
Follow the Specifications 614
Think of Your End Users' Needs 614
Have Realistic Goals and Intentions 614
Have a Pragmatic Approach 615
Think Outside the Box 615
Know Your Subject WelL 616
Crawl Before You Walk 616
Interact with Your Customers 616
Be an Efficient Manager 617
Always Update Your Website 617
Appendix B: Additional Materials 619
Useful Websites 619
Tools of the Trade 621
Website Editors 622
WYSIWYG Editors 622
Source Code Editors / IDEs 624
Plain Text Editors 625
Useful Software 626
Image Editors 627
FTP Clients 628
Note Takers 628
E-Mail Programs 629
Word Processors 630
Wireframe Modeling 631
File Archivers 633
Backup Utilities 634
Color Pickers 635
Flash Developers 636
Audio Editors 637
Web Browser Extensions 638
Firebug 638
Codeburner 639
Web Developer Options 639
Firefox Accessibility Extension 640
ColorZilla 641
Index 643