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Web Site Content Guide
The following information will help you to understand the creation
process and enable you to gather the correct content for your web site.
Textual Content
Please supply the textual content for your web site on a Floppy, Zip or CD
ROM Disc. We can translate from Microsoft Word formats.
There are businesses that will transfer printed material into electronic format,
InterWeb Design do not offer this service.
Image Content
Please supply the images/graphics on a Floppy, Zip or CD ROM Disc, in any popular PC image format, such as GIF, JPEG, BMP, TIFF,
etc (ask your printer for a
disc).
InterWeb Design can scan and transform brochures, letterheads, cards, booklets, graphics and photographs into electronic
format.
If you are short of photographic content visit the following sites,
where you can purchase photographs:
Music Content
Music files should be provided in any of the following formats: AU,
WAV, MIDI or MP3.
Design Issues
Place the important information at the top of the page, as some people will not scroll down to see what is further down the page. If a page is particularly long, it may be worth organising it into more than one page.
Good graphics do not make up for lack of text. The best sites are usually relatively simple with interesting content. Some people
use text-based browsers or browse with the graphics turned off for quicker download times.
Most people will view your web site with a home PC and will have a 56 kbps modem. If your site's
pages contain lots of graphics, animation and multimedia they will take longer to download, this will not encourage
visitor to return to your site.
What looks good on paper does not necessarily work on screen. If a page contains a lot of text, break it up into sections with headings. Reading a lot of unbroken text on screen can be tiring and is not visually attractive.
Site Navigation
Make your site navigation simple, but effective. It is important that your visitors can find the information they need quickly and easily. No information should be more than 3-4 clicks away. To develop a well defined navigation
structure, make a list of all the topics you want to provide i.e. major topics and their
minor topics.
Then refine your list, look for relationships between major and minor topics, identify the topics you can combine, decide how to best allow visitors to get from one topic to another. Draw a navigation tree to help you identify how visitors will browse through your
site.
The navigation system used on most of our customer's web sites includes a Link to the Home page and all other
pages, to aid visitors when they are looking for information. This system also enables
and encourages search engines to spider and index all of your pages.
Define Your Page Layout
Using the information above, sketch the visual layout of 1 or all of your pages. Most professional web sites are based on a theme, all pages have a similar appearance. A continued theme running throughout
your site is advisable as it provides a familiar interface for site visitors, looks professional and is
easier to navigate.
In most circumstances we recommend that each page contain between 260 and 450 words and no more than three photographic
images.
If you find this stage difficult browse other web sites for ideas and familiarise yourself with how they layout their pages. InterWeb Design
will help you with this process though we recommend you design your own theme/layout that reflects your business image and profession.
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