Week 12

Website Hosts

• Blue Host
• Chrystal Tech
• GoDaddy
• Network Solutions

Things to consider when chosing a host

• Tech Support – via email, phone or both?
• Limits on Tech Support – are there any?
• Analytics – will they offer information on traffic, visitors, pages hit, etc?
• Servers – Linux or PC? 
• Programming – what types of programming are allowed?
• Email Accounts – how many? webmail or outlook compatible?

Link for BrowserShots

http://browsershots.org/

Killer Web Content key characteristics

• customer centric is good
• organization-centric is not good

CSS Cheat Sheets

http://webdesign.about.com/od/css/l/css_cheat_sheet.pdf

http://webdesign.about.com/od/css/l/css_layout_cheat_sheet.pdf

Notes about how we REALLY use the web

from Don’t Make Me Think! A  Common Sense Approach to Web Usability

by Steve Krug

• we don’t read we scan
• we don’t make optimal choices
• we don’t figure things out, we muddle through

How to Estimate Time for a Project

http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/04/14/how-to-estimate-time-for-a-project/

 

Week 11

Here are my final home page and product page for my class project.  Thanks to all of the input from the class.  The home page now has a place with text.  I know it was supposed to be the real thing but I am still working with the owner of the company on it.  The text should help with SEO when it is completed.  After seeing many in the class have their work critiqued, I felt I needed to to more work on lining up things to fit in a grid better.  I think the process helped me produce a better product.  Amanda gave me some great input on the footer text drawing too much attention and I am very happy with the adjustments I made from those comments.

Back to notes from the week 

Understanding CSS

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/articles/understanding_css.html

tutorial on creating CSS page layouts

http://www.adobe.com/go/vid0155

three places for CSS styles

• external style sheet
• internal (embedded) style sheet (header)
• inline styles (not recommended) 

O’REILLY CSS Reference in DW – Help – Reference – Book: O’REILLY CSS Reference

3 Sources Responsible for styles you see on a web page

• the style sheet created by the page author
• the user’s customized style selections
• the default styles of the browser itself

remember inheritance

More info on rules governing the cascade, inheritance and specificity

http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/cascade.html

CSS Page Layout Basics

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/articles/css_page_layout_basics.html

absolutely-positioned elements (AP elements)

Using and customizing CSS-based layouts

http://www.adobe.com/go/vid0155

CSS Zen Garden

http://www.csszengarden.com/

CSS Resource Guide

http://www.mezzoblue.com/zengarden/resources/

Zen Garden, the book

Estimating Your Time

http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/04/14/how-to-estimate-time-for-a-project/

• Identify Deliverables
• Break It Down
• Add It Up
• Things to Keep In Mind

Creating Templates

http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/video_workshop/index.html?id=vid0157

There are editable regions AND

there are optional regions

that are shown by default or dumped

Using Templates

http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/video_workshop/index.html?id=vid0158

optional regions and attributes can be modified by choosing template properties

Week 10

Exporting CSS and Images in Fireworks CS4

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/fireworks/articles/export_css_images.html

• http://www.adobe.com/devnet/fireworks/articles/standards_compliant_design.html
• http://www.adobe.com/devnet/fireworks/articles/css_templates.html
• http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/articles/css_page_layout_basics.html
• http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/articles/dw_fw_css_pt1.html
• http://www.adobe.com/devnet/dreamweaver/css.html
• http://www.adobe.com/devnet/fireworks/articles/smart_css_03.html

Creating Standards Compliant Designs

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/fireworks/articles/standards_compliant_design.html

http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/fireworks/articles/frwcs3_richsymbol.html

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/fireworks/articles/enhancing_rich_symbols.html

http://www.codestyle.org/css/font-family/sampler-CombinedResults.shtml

CSS Advantages

• Separation of content and presentation
• Portability to other media
• Lower page weight
• Quicker redesigns
• More possibilities

4 Simple Rules

• Only text, rectangles and images are exported
• Text rectangles and images are all treated as rectangle blocks
• The Exporter must be able to interpret where the columns and rows of objects exist
• The document layer is treated as two dimensional

Benefits of using web standards

• Simplified and lower cost of developmental and maintenance
• Continued compatibility with current and future web browser
• Improved accessibilty to more people and more Internet devices
• Opportunity for increased search engine ranking