Website Design Process - (4) HTML and Other Technical Issues
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Let's get technical
When you have agreed the design we will build the website in HTML. HTML stands for HyperText Markup Language - a text description language used for electronic publishing on the World Wide Web, or to put it more simply, it's the language of the web. You will again have the opportunity to view your website as it is being built.
Graphic design work is done including the resizing and compression of images. Compressing images is important as it reduces file size - if this is not done pages will take too long to download and people will leave the site before they've even seen it.
We do not charge extra for manipulating images to make them suitable for the web. We consider this process to be an intrinsic part of the design process and so we include it in the design price. This is with the exception of pages consisting of more than 5 photographs (such as photo galleries), for which we charge an additional fee of £20 per page per additional 5 images.
There are some key issues that we always consider carefully, which are screen resolution, browser preference, Internet connection speed and search engine optimisation.
Screen resolution
While most people have their screen resolution set at 1024 x 768 pixels, some still use 800 x 600 pixels and others use higher resolutions. We aim to produce sites that look good at different resolutions.
Browser preference
People use different browsers to view websites, for example Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, Opera and Firefox to name a few, and these browsers all have their own ideas about how they should display web pages. This makes it hard to ensure a website always displays as intended. We try our hardest to produce websites using code that is cross-browser compatible to minimise discrepancies between browsers.
It is worth noting that as well as there being different browsers, there are different versions of these browsers, which complicates things further still! For example, the latest version of Internet Explorer is version 7, but there are people who are still using previous versions.
Of course, it is absolutely your choice which browser you use, but current browsers are better than their predecessors. If you want to get the most out of your Internet experience it is wise to upgrade your browser to the latest available version, and this is free.
The following popular browsers latest versions are freely available for download:
Internet Explorer 7 »
Netscape 9 »
Firefox 2 »
Opera 9 »If you have any other suggestions for browsers which should be included here please let us know.
Internet connection speed
Not everyone has the same Internet connection speed. As a general rule content should appear in no more than 10 seconds. We aim to produce sites that load quickly regardless of whether the connection speed depends on a dial-up modem or broadband.
Developmental issues
If required we will also implement operational aspects of the site that are of a more developmental nature. These are collectively known as the 'back end' of your website - the bit that no one sees but is often essential for the functionality of your website.
For example, features such as feedback/contact/order forms, polls, guest books, forums, shopping carts and search facilities require database technology and/or special scripts in order for them to work properly. If you wish to include any of these items on your website there will be an additional fee (price on request).