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- The dictionary defines content as follows:
- content (kon 'tent; n. 1. Usually, contents. a. something that is contained: the contents of a box. b. the subjects, topics, chapters, etc., covered in a book or document. 2. something that is to be expressed through some medium, as speech, writing, or any of various arts. 3. significance; meaning. 4.Philos., Logic. the sum of the attributes or notions comprised in a given conception; the substance or matter of cognition. 5.power of containing; holding capacity: The bowl's content is three quarts. 6. volume, area, or extent; size. 7. the amount contained.
Let us define content as information, good solid information that can stand on its own and communicate your message to the viewer.
In the terms of a business website, content means everything! This does not mean that all webpages have content, quite the contrary, there are too many examples of sites that just wander around and never seem to get anywhere with regard to presenting the subject they intend to. The worst ones leave the viewer confused at best, and many poorly designed sites can even exclude a large percentage of their viewership due to issues of cross-platform/browser incompatiblities.
The World Wide Web is a constantly evolving medium. The methods of presentation, the language, and even the web browsers themselves are changing almost monthly. Newer and better technologies and techniques for better use of current technology are replacing one another at an ever-increasing rate. Too many businesses are getting caught up in a glitzy technology rush, trying to be the hippest, coolest site out there, using all of the latest bells and whistles. Sadly, many of these sites are seriously lacking in content. They are pushing the envelope to be on the raw, cutting edge. The problem, is that the more cutting edge they become, the more viewers they lock out of their sites. In reality, very few viewers possess the very latest browsers and all of the related plug-ins to make these cutting edge technologies work the way they are supposed to. If a business wants to go this route they must then develop a "dual" site composed of a high tech section, with all the "bells and whistles", and a mirrored image of this site, minus the high tech presentation, for the majority of viewers.
Remember, a webpage can communicate your information without all the latest bells and whistles, but a webpage with only the bells and whistles will not get your information in front of the people you seek to reach.
At World Wide Web Design.com we feel that a well designed website should be heavy on content, organized intelligently and laid out in such a manner that the viewer is able to easily find the information they are seeking. Graphics, and/or photographs should be included that will augment and help to illustrate the information presented in the main body of text.The World Wide Web is truly world wide! When you put a site up on the web you are suddenly opening your business up to a world wide market. Your site is just as visible and as immediately accessible as any other site on the Web! This also means that with a properly designed and executed site, the smallest business is just as visible and on an equal footing with the largest businesses and corporations on the Web! In terms of advertising visibility this is unheard of, usually superior visiblitity comes at a very high price... not so on the Web.
The World Wide Web has rapidly become a very graphically oriented medium. People now expect to see colors and graphics as an integral part of a webpage. The moderate use of graphics and photography can help tremendously in contributing to the overall "look", or "feel" of a website.
The navigation features should provide straight-forward, easy access to any section of the website and back again. The main directory and sub-directories should be easily accessible from any area of your site.
There are many different types of businesses on the web, no one presentation style is effective for all. We will be happy to sit down with you and discuss your needs and goals. We will then help you to design the best possible presentation for the Web, based on those needs. We can also help you in targeting your presentation to specific audiences if that is necessary or desirable.
In many cases existing brochures, catalogs, information sheets, FAQ sheets and other printed materials may be translated or re-designed into a format more suitable for a web presentation. We will be happy to take whatever materials you have and weave them into a clean, sophisticated, easy to navigate Web site which will help your business grow.
We can handle all of your graphic needs with our advanced graphic design and optimization skills. This will assure that you have a very clean, fast-loading WWW Presentation.
We are fluent in most of the advanced techniques in use on the Web, such as CGI programming (to allow you to use custom designed interactive forms), database inclusion, "shopping carts", image mapping, and many others. We can also incorporate Java or Javascript in your site design, however this must be used carefully as many viewers are still not able to view these enhancements on their browsers. We will be happy to advise you on what advanced technologies are safe to use on your website, without locking out a major section of the viewing public.
One issue that is often overlooked or only minimally implemented by many Web designers is one of the most important to your business! The way that most people find a particular website is through the use of a "search engine". There are many, many search engines. We fully index our clients with most of the major search engines, and we imbed an advanced form of "Meta code" internally within the HTML code on your pages. This Meta code is meant to communicate with the robotic spider programs that all of the major search engines send out to continually re-index the massive amount of data on the
Web. This Meta code includes a brief description of your site, and a list of "keywords" or "hitwords", words that would correspond to the search words a person would enter into the search engine to find a particular subject.
Finally, as you go through the rest of this tutorial, and the rest of our website, you will see many examples of good combinations of all of the above elements. Try to be aware of what elements make a webpage pleasing to you, and make note of these for use in your own pages. The World Wide Web is full of both good and bad designs - some of the best homework for you to do, prior to working on the concept of your own design, is to spend some time on the Web seeing what others have done... "The good, the bad and the ugly".
Remember, the World Wide Web is a completely different media than anything that has come before. Techniques that work well on printed materials very often give a poor presentation on the Web! Most traditional advertising and design studios are still using the older techiques they have been trained in. The WWW requires all of the traditional design skills needed in the past, plus an arsenal of completely new techniques and skills as well as a clear cross-platform/browser awareness.
