Part of the contest is adding a Web 2.0 component to your website. Here are three suggestions.
- Create a Twitter Account for your client. Add a Twitter feed to the client’s website and teach them how to update it. It’s a quick way to post updates without knowing any programming.
- Create a Facebook Page for your client. Incorporate the client’s logo and messaging. Add a “Facebook Connect” button to the main website to encourage visitors to connect.
- Do a video tour of the business. Create a youtube account and embed the video tour on the website. Do this for your client’s existing TV commercials.
One note about video and load times:
Stay away from embedding Windows Media. With services like YouTube, there is no reason for you to host or stream media from your server. Upload the video to YouTube and use the embed code to make load times fast and efficient.
Design, General, Programming, Web 2.0
At w3schools.com you’ll find all the web-building tutorials you need, from basic HTML and XHTML, to advanced XML, CSS, and more. You also have access to a “lab” where you can try out different code and see how it will interface online. http://www.w3schools.com
Another great reference for CSS is CSSZenGarden.com.
Now, part of the contest is ensuring your site is programmed using CSS and that CSS is “external.” What does that mean and why does it matter? Read more…
Design, Presentation, Programming
YouTube, Vimeo, and Hulu. Are they just buzz words that have become part of our daily vocabulary or are they related to a better marketing opportunity? We’ve all hopped on the web video train in the past few years, but there are doubts about whether or not e-commerce sites been making the most of it. New studies and recent reports indicate that adding video to your site can boost conversions, increase customer trust levels, and differentiate your e-commerce site from the competition. Read more…
Marketing, Programming, Tools and Resources
One of the contest criteria is a common navigation element, but what exactly does that mean?
From a design standpoint, it means that your site’s visitors will see the same navigational element on every single page. This is most often done via a top or side nav. For example, this website uses a right-side common navigational element that is the exact same thing no matter what page you’re on. There is also a less prominent TOP navigational element that exists for the homepage and About pages.
From a programming standpoint, it means that if possible, the same file should be used on every page Read more…
General, Load Time, Marketing, Programming, Tools and Resources
One of the criteria for the technology portion of the contest is ensuring your website is compatible in multiple browsers.
Here is a neat program that will allow you to see how your site will render in different versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer. Beginning with IE 5.5 Microsoft browsers began rendering what I would consider “modern” web standards including CSS. When developing a website in 2009, you really don’t need to worry about programming for browsers before 6.0 in the IE platform.
IE Tester: http://www.my-debugbar.com/wiki/IETester/HomePage
You should also be testing all your sites in:
Mozilla Firefox: http://www.getfirefox.com
Apple Safari: http://www.apple.com/safari
You might also want to… test your sites in Google Chrome (http://www.google.com/chrome) and even in mobile browsers since more and more people are surfing the web using their Windows Mobile browsers, iPhones, and Blackberry.
Solid Cactus Senior Project Manager Matt Kresge provides this article on Browser Compatibility Issues: http://www.ebizinsider.com/2008/07/17/testing-1234567-testing-1234567/
Programming, Tools and Resources
Points will be awarded for appropriately declaring a doctype. More information on how this is done is available at: http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_DOCTYPE.asp
Programming
Recent Comments