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Websites

The document discusses key terms and concepts related to website development including web pages, websites, home pages, URLs, and hyperlinks. It also outlines benefits of websites such as providing information at low cost, improving customer service and transactions, and serving as cost-effective advertising. Finally, the document covers best practices for planning effective websites and common pitfalls to avoid in web design.

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Gloria Priscilla
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53 views19 pages

Websites

The document discusses key terms and concepts related to website development including web pages, websites, home pages, URLs, and hyperlinks. It also outlines benefits of websites such as providing information at low cost, improving customer service and transactions, and serving as cost-effective advertising. Finally, the document covers best practices for planning effective websites and common pitfalls to avoid in web design.

Uploaded by

Gloria Priscilla
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Dynamic Web Development – BCS3

Mugumya Norman
Email: [email protected]
+256 705 453087 | +256 775 545455
Introduction to Websites
Terms and Terminologies used
Web Page: Is a document that is created with HTML that is part of a group
of hypertext documents or resources available on the World Wide Web

– Web pages are used to display multimedia (information in form of


images, audio, video and text)

Website: A collection of web pages or files linked together and available


on the World Wide Web.
Terms and Terminologies used
Home Page: Cover page (index) of the web site. It also refers to the main
page on a website that serves as the primary point of entry to related
pages with in the site and may have links to other pages of the website or
to other sites as well.

URL (Uniform Resource Locator): Also known as web address. Is an


address that uniquely identifies a certain website. For example for
http://www.bsu.ac.ug for BSU, http://www.google.com for Google etc.
Terms and Terminologies used
Hyperlink: An image or portion of text on the web page that is linked to
another page, either on the same website or an external website. Clicking
on the hyperlink will take the user to another web page or place them on
the same page.
Benefits of Websites
• Provides information about products and services that are routinely
requested at minimal cost and with no further effort required by the
seller/client.
• Good customer service. Products/ services are readily accessible and
can be purchased 24/7.
• Websites increase referrals because information gets forwarded
without even asking.
• A good website will create the right first impression since people will
know you before they know you.
Benefits of Websites
• A website turns contacts into prospects and vice versa, because some
people are more comfortable contacting you online rather than calling
you. Inviting contacts to your website will get them to know you better.

• Fewer overheads: Overheads (expenses) are reduced due to less staff


being required.

• Instant feedback: You can gather feedback globally seamlessly, which


could assist in improving services/products of a company.
Benefits of Websites
• Improved transactions: Online customers can pay by credit card or any
other online payment gate way. So there is no waiting for cheques to
clear.
• Easier searching: Customers can search products by keyword or price,
books by author, or retail outlet by geographical area seamlessly.
• Cost effective advertising: A website can enable you put small adverts
in prestigious places which would have been too expensive like special
journal, newspaper inserts. Thus the business grows at less cost.
Categories of Websites
Standalone websites: Have static content.
Database-driven Websites. Store information into a database and are able
to provide viewers with dynamic detailed information on the products and
services offered e.g. Facebook
E-commerce Websites: Allow people to transact business online 24/7
from their homes or offices e.g. Jumia.
Multilingual Websites. Contain content that can be translated into many
languages for world wide use. e.g. Apple website, NIKE, KFC.
Planning your Website
There are lots and lots of websites these days some of which are good and
some of which are not. So you would like your website to be such that it
has an attraction such that customers come back to it more than once

For this, your website should have the following:-


• Professional looking.
• Does not take too long to load.
• Has good quality design and layout.
• Appealing graphics.
• Easy to read texts.
Planning your Website
• Simple to navigate
• Loaded with information needed by the customer
• Use a site map or directory page
Pitfalls/drawbacks in Web design
It is not true that every thing is perfect. This implies to websites/website
designing as well. You are likely to make mistakes too.

Be warned of the pitfalls or weaknesses or downsides which most of the


designers who are not successful make.

Poor spellings: If possible take the help of some professional proof reader
example grammarly. Proofread all of the text in your site. There should be
absolutely no editing mistakes. Don’t just rely on the spell checker built
into you word processor or web creation software.
Pitfalls/drawbacks in Web design
Being pushy: Never force visitors to your site to register or provide
personal information about themselves until they are ready to place an
order.

Big file sizes: As already discussed, heavy graphics take longer to load and
show on in a web browser or on your computer screen. So when choosing
files for your site make sure that the file size of the electronic image isn’t
too large. Otherwise, it will take too long to load and many web surfers
have no patience
Pitfalls/drawbacks in Web design
Choice of fonts: Some fonts simply don’t look good when viewed using a
web browser software. Therefore using them would disturb the display of
your site.

Excessive scroll: As you plan each page on your site, don’t make visitors
scroll too much. Keep the information on each page short and to the
point. You can also offer buttons that will link to other areas of your site.
Pitfalls/drawbacks in Web design
Incompatibility: If you are poor in selecting which colour goes with which
colour, take the help of some professional in this regard, specially those
associated with printing presses. They have very sharp eyes for colours.

When choosing colours of backgrounds, text and even graphic images,


maintain continuity throughout your website while paying careful
attention to make your site compatible with all of the popular web
browser programs.
Pitfalls/drawbacks in Web design
Responsiveness: Responsive web design is typically an approach that
suggests that designing and development of websites should respond to
user’s behavior and environment based on screen size, platform, and
orientation. So you must make sure that your website is responsive
especially when it comes to mobile devices, don’t design or develop for
large screens only.
Poor quality photos: If you be using photo graphs on your site, make sure
they appear crystal clear and are in focus. They should not be blurred. The
viewer should be able to make out visual details of the product.
Pitfalls/drawbacks in Web design
Poor directions: While the main goal is to get visitors visit your home page
first and then navigate through your site from there, this does not always
happen. Some web search engines will send surfers directly to the page of
a site that contains the key word or search phrase they were looking for.

As a result, they may find themselves visiting a sub-page of your site and
not know where they are. To compensate for this, every page of your site
should contain your company name and logo, a navigation bar or buttons,
and an easy way for the visitors to return to your home page
Pitfalls/drawbacks in Web design
Poor targeting: Make sure that all of the contents of your site is directed
to your target audience. If you don’t understand who your target
customers are, what their needs are and what they’re looking for, you
have little hope of providing a product that addresses their needs.

Shifting styles: Once you choose a colour scheme, background and font
group for your website, stick to that to maintain visual continuity.
Pitfalls/drawbacks in Web design
Overload: Many websites add tons of bells and whistles, such as flasy
graphics, audio, animations, video, many fonts and typestyles and busy
backgrounds just to get a visitor’s attention. This would kill the main
purpose

Hidden navigation icons: Place your navigation icons for your site near the
top of every page , so people don’t have to scroll to the bottom of a page
to determine where they should go next.

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