Appendix A The Ten Commandments for Websites Welcome to the appendixes! At this stage in your learning, you should have all the basic skills you require to build a high-quality website with insightful consideration given to aspects such as accessibility, search engine optimization, usability, and all the other concepts that web designers and developers think about on a daily basis. Hopefully with all the different elements covered in this book, you now have a solid understanding as to what goes into building a website (much more than code!). The main thing you should take from this book is that you don’t need to be an expert at everything but ensuring that you take the time to notice what’s out there and deciding what will best help your site are among the most important elements of the process. As you leave this book and go on to updating your website over time and perhaps learning new skills, always remember to be brave, take risks (through trial and error), and never feel that things are getting too hard. If you choose to learn skills that were only briefly mentioned in this book, like scripting, or to get involved in using content management systems and web software, go at a pace that you feel comfortable with. With that in mind, let’s go over the 10 most important messages I would personally recommend. After that, I’ll give you some useful resources like important websites for people learning to create for the Internet and handy software. Advice is something many professional designers and developers give out in spades after learning some harsh lessons from what their own bitter experiences. I know from experience that all the rules, specifications, laws, conventions, guides, and other methods of trying to get you to do something can be overwhelming and, at times, rather depressing, so next is a simple list of rules which help define the most important elements of the website building process. However, even though many of you are now probably thinking “rules 591 Getting StartED Building Websites are made to be broken” (and in all fairness they often are), let me impart ten simple rules that are easy to remember and if you follow them through, you may have a less stressful experience which can only be a good thing! Follow the Specifications Over the years, a series of specifications and standards have been produced for people creating websites. Though these are often quite detailed and hard to understand at first, they can be extremely useful, when you are more comfortable with building websites, in helping to expand your knowledge and assisting you in implementing certain language functions within your source code. Think of a specification as similar to a lengthy instruction manual. Luckily for you, this book covers the basics you will need to get started without requiring to do any heavy reading (beyond what you are already undertaking, of course). However, when it comes to creating a website, the specifications are the ultimate reference (and the first port of call) to any language or best practice scenario. Think of Your End Users’ Needs No matter what you are doing when you start making your website, the main things you should always keep at the top of your mind are you visitors’ needs and wants. When you make a site to be published to the Web, you have the intention of having an audience of people who are willing and ready to read what you have to say or be involved in your creation. While trying to get into the mindset of the people you want to visit your website might seem like a scary thing to do, one of the main things that makes a website successful is that the customer is always perceived to be right, just like when you go shopping. Generally speaking, websites are not made for personal consumption; they are almost always functional or informative places that the author wishes to share with others. Because of this, you should always take into consideration what other people may want to get out of the experience so that the final product will entice them into being a part of your creation. Have Realistic Goals and Intentions If you are trying to make a get-rich-quick Internet venture, you may want to think again. Unfortunately, some people choose to approach website building with unrealistic intentions or expectations of what the finished site will be able to achieve. Now, I am certainly not saying that you should have a negative view 592 Appendix A: The Ten Commandments for Websites of your website or that you should just give up; you should just make sure you do not come into the process with the intention of becoming a multimillionaire the same night that the project goes live (unless of course you have an amazing idea planned that is guaranteed success—in which case, share it with the rest of us!). The fact of the matter is that the majority of fly-by-night schemes on the Web fizzle out at the first stage of the process, and success is something you have to work hard to achieve. Many of the most successful websites on the web exist purely out of the author’s wish to be creative rather than to make money from it. Even if you are not trying to make money from the website, the rule is still relevant to you: the last thing you want to do is start making a website that explodes into an enormous project and grows out of control. While all of this information may sound a bit gloomy, the pitfalls can easily be overcome by making sure you do not reach too far and keeping your goals clear, simple, and concise to reduce the chances of going off track. Have a Pragmatic Approach Pragmatism is the art of common sense, which in some respects does not always reach the realms of making websites. Sometimes, even the best of us make mistakes and do something that, in retrospect, we realize we should have been given a firm kick over. Luckily, the art of common sense allows you to take the most obvious things into consideration when you make a website. It is obvious that having a site that does not work properly will be bad for business, and therefore we fix it. It is also obvious that if you write all your content in Russian with no translation available, the English-speaking world will have problems trying to decipher it. Trusting your instincts and common sense and, most importantly, being practical when you decide to put something into action will help you to no end to making solid choices that will see instant or fruitful long-term results. Think Outside the Box There are two kinds of people in the world, those who choose to be adventurous and those who prefer to play it safe and stick with what they know. Making websites is, in many respects, a creative process that requires the ability to use your imagination. In many situations, you may wish to stick with techniques, layout styles, and existing conventions, which is perfectly fine. However, one of the main elements that make a website exceptional is when something truly unique and creative comes along. But be warned, while 593 Getting StartED Building Websites you want to be creative and try to make things as interesting as possible, you should always make choices with care as occasionally our choices in design can actually make things less usable or, even worse, inaccessible. Know Your Subject Well Nothing is worse, when browsing the Web for an article on a subject, than realizing after you have finished reading that the information within the article was irrelevant or incorrect. While the Web does have a fairly high margin for error (as can be noted from the question over the reliability of websites with user contributed content such as Wikipedia), you should consider that when you pass wrong or potentially harmful information, your website will lose trust and respect, which will cause visitors to turn away. Always try to be as accurate as possible with information you give out. Freedom of speech allows people to say pretty much what they want, but when you have a site that relies on people visiting your pages, you should always refrain from saying or doing bad things for which you can be held accountable (legally or personally). You don’t want to damage your brand and image. Crawl Before You Walk Innovation is one of the fun elements of producing websites from scratch. You get to show off as you learn, experiment through trial and error, and share your experiences with other people. Trial and error is a lot like playing detective, as you get to see things from a broader perspective and investigate what caused a problem and use your knowledge to try and resolve issues as they occurs. Maintaining your own website is a fantastic way to learn and can give you essential experience at debugging. The piece of advice which can be gained from this rule is to take things one step at a time—try not to dive right into a project that you are not ready for, but always push your boundaries as you code. After all, many developers will tell you that half of the battle of making a website is pretty much making it up as you go along and finding a compromise whenever you fall short of the goalpost! Interact with Your Customers A great number of the websites in the world, whether personal in nature or business orientated, are trying to give a personal feel to the folks who decide to give that page a visit.