Designing

Designing an Internet page

  A somewhat tongue-in-cheek look at getting from concept to somewhere else, preferably a page on the Internet.

1. Brainstorm. Also called creative lunacy. Best done over several beers with people who are truly deranged. Write down far-fetched ideas and things you think have to be included. Ask yourself repeatedly, “Why not?”

2. Meet. It is essential you attend lots and lots of meetings with people who think doing a home page is the greatest thing since wing nuts. Be sure to include those who are skeptics. They serve a useful purpose of making you think through the process. (In some cases they are actually correct, but don’t let on they are.)

3. Flow the chart. Good battle plans involve flow charts showing who does what to whom, where and when. The charts look great on the wall, especially if there are lots of arrows and lines looking like a diagram of a bowl of noodles. In the end, things go together somehow and the genetic equivalent of mutation takes place.

4. Create graphics. Almost every page should have some sort of a graphic. The drawback is that graphics take longer to appear in the computer than text, so there’s a trade off: speed versus looks. It’s important that everyone on the committee agree sooner or later on the name and color of the title graphics. Sooner is preferable to the day before the page goes on-line, but the latter is more likely than not.

5. Write the code. Once the information is gathered, it must be tagged with simple codes so the computer will show it on the screen. Coding and debugging a page of type generally will take twice as long as you allow.

6. Do a run-through. A preliminary showing is necessary to check out the links and graphics. At this point, committees will meet and try to come up with a new name, a new home page, a new concept and figure out who is to do what.

7. Revise. Come up with a new battle plan and try again.

8. Prepare for the grand unveiling. Each new home page requires an appropriate ceremony complete with a distinguished poobah to push the magical button. This is guaranteed to cause lots of anxious moments, many of which are justified.

9. Prepare for a life span. Internet pages are not and should not, in most instances, be thought of as permanent. They may have a short life, as for an announcement of an auction, or they may have a longer life, as for a research article. Some sites have a depth of information that indicate they will be of interest to surfers for years. Others have a life span that can (and has been) measured in hours. Some sites offend sensibility or tackle a one-note issue. These will last less time that a supermarket tabloid.

10. Track the hits. Certain software will allow site operators to track accurately how many visitors come to a site, from where the visitors come, what articles or pieces of information are retrieved and the hours of peak use. Combining tracking with the life span of a site will allow a site operator either to feed an active site with new or updated information or to mercifully kill a site with little activity.