Ed Johnston is a multimedia artist, designer, and educator working in a variety of contexts involving interactive design and three-dimensional digital technologies. He is an Assistant Professor in the Robert Busch School of Design within the Michael Graves College at Kean University. Johnston has received numerous awards and grants including an Editor’s Choice Award at World Maker Faire New York, selection to the Lumen Prize 50, and multiple YAP grants from the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities, partly funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. He has recently received funding for his research team to document the current spaces of Liberty Hall Museum in New Jersey using spherical photography and AR technologies. PROFESSOR ED JOHNSTON’S WEBSITE CHEAT SHEET CHOOSING BETWEEN A WEBSITE BUILDER AND DEVELOPING YOUR OWN WEBSITE There are lots of different ways to build a website. Some require technical expertise to set up hosting and manage files on servers, as well as web development experience in coding languages such as HTML, CSS, and Javascript. However, you can also put together a website without any of those skills: website builders—tools that allow website construction without manual code editing—are easy to use and suitable for anyone with a basic understanding of technology. If you can post photos or videos to Facebook, then you meet the minimum requirements to use them. So which sort should you select? The following lists can help clarify what you need to consider. Benefits of using website builders: • You do not need web development experience or programming knowledge. • They are easy to learn, and you can build websites with them quickly. • Everything works, so you do not have to worry about compatibility issues, bugs, or broken functionality. • The website hosting provider takes care of the technical maintenance; you can focus on content. • With website builders, you can build everything from small brochure-type websites to full e-commerce stores. Benefits of developing your own website and managing a web hosting solution: • You have more freedom over the visual design. © 2016 Ed Johnston. All rights reserved. No part of this worksheet may be reproduced, stored, transmitted, or disseminated in any form or by any means without prior written permission from Ed Johnston. Permission granted for Denise Anderson’s use in Stand Out. • You have customizable code, so your website looks and performs exactly how you want it to. • The types of functions that you can add are almost limitless. • It is easier to scale when built correctly to allow for higher levels of traffic. • With your own web-hosting package, you have greater control over the files and folders that get uploaded. • You have more control over the file size of images, so pages on the website can load faster. • You have more opportunities to stand out because you have more website design and content options. WEBSITE BUILDERS Squarespace squarespace.com An all-in-one content management system (CMS), Squarespace offers a website builder, blogging platform, and hosting service, so you can create and maintain your website and blog. Note: Squarespace is Professor Johnston’s top website builder choice for an individual’s portfolio website as of 11/3/15. Cost • $12/month or $96/year (standard) Pros • Aesthetic, minimalist, and elegant website design templates • Responsive to optimize viewing experiences from desktop to mobile device • Ability to run a blog and automatically posts content to your social media outlets • Yearly and bi-yearly subscriptions include a domain name (.com, .net, .org, .biz, and .info are available). Existing domains can be pointed to Squarespace. • Partnership with Google Apps to make email accounts with your domain name o http://help.squarespace.com/guides/google-apps-and-squarespace © 2016 Ed Johnston. All rights reserved. No part of this worksheet may be reproduced, stored, transmitted, or disseminated in any form or by any means without prior written permission from Ed Johnston. Permission granted for Denise Anderson’s use in Stand Out. • Includes free Typekit and Google font libraries, giving you a wider range of web- safe fonts to use Cons • Less room for creativity. Beyond editing the content, you will need to stay fairly close to your chosen layout template. • Users need to be conscious of the image size guidelines or pages will load slowly. o http://help.squarespace.com/guides/how-should-i-format-my-images- for-display-on-the-web Best for • Less tech-savvy users who want a relatively simple but professional, easy-to-use, and easy-to-build website. Visually focused layouts and easy-to-use ecommerce options make it perfect for designers, photographers, restaurants, and online shops. How to set up your website: http://help.squarespace.com/video-index/ Get a domain name with Squarespace: https://support.squarespace.com/hc/en-us/articles/205812198 Getting a custom email address from Google through Squarespace with your domain name: http://blog.squarespace.com/blog/squarespace-google-apps-for-work Weebly weebly.com Weebly offers an easy and affordable way to plan, build, publish, and grow a unique site. You can use it to start a site, a blog, or an online store that works across platforms from computers to phones and tablets. The site builder offers a range of pricing options, including a free plan and premium plans. Cost © 2016 Ed Johnston. All rights reserved. No part of this worksheet may be reproduced, stored, transmitted, or disseminated in any form or by any means without prior written permission from Ed Johnston. Permission granted for Denise Anderson’s use in Stand Out. • Price: Free (basic) or $96/year (pro) Pros • One of the easiest and user-friendly drag-and-drop website builders on the market • Aesthetic and minimalist website design templates • If you know coding, you can modify your design extensively, creating more unique layouts and functionality. Cons • Template designs are not as aesthetically pleasing as other website builders. • Limited styling options compared to other similar products, unless you modify the codes to the templates. • Tutorials and user guides are not detailed or comprehensive. • More difficult to set-up a professional email address account. Best for • Weebly is for less tech-savvy users who want a relatively simple but professional, easy-to-use and easy-to-build website. How to set up your website: http://hc.weebly.com/hc/en-us/articles/201696307-Beginner-s-Guide-First-Steps http://hc.weebly.com/hc/en-us/articles/201704087-Beginner-s-Guide-to-Weebly Wix wix.com Wix is a cloud-based web development platform that makes it simple to create a professional web presence without coding skills. Cost • Price: Free (basic) or $150/year (unlimited) Pros © 2016 Ed Johnston. All rights reserved. No part of this worksheet may be reproduced, stored, transmitted, or disseminated in any form or by any means without prior written permission from Ed Johnston. Permission granted for Denise Anderson’s use in Stand Out. • Website templates with 500-plus templates from multiple industries to choose from. • Very easy to use with a “pure” drag-and-drop user interface. • Comprehensive tutorials, and phone and email support. Cons • Must subscribe to a paid plan to remove the very visible advertisement. • Once selected, a template cannot be changed without having to rebuild your content. • URL structure is not attractive, but web pages are fully crawlable and indexable by search engines. • Challenging to set up a professional email address account. Best for • Wix is for less tech-savvy users who want a relatively simple but professional, easy-to-use and easy-to-build website. How to set up your website: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0y_aclKYoYiiQOcmCPscYx1LynyDl0TV WordPress wordpress.com WordPress allows you to write content for your website without knowing code. It is open source (the original code is freely available and may be redistributed and modified) and the most popular online publishing platform. Cost • Price: Free (basic blogging) or $99/year (premium) Pros • WordPress has an open-source platform, so anyone can create plugins and themes. As a result, there are numerous templates available for use on your site. • Conducive to creating and running a blog. © 2016 Ed Johnston. All rights reserved. No part of this worksheet may be reproduced, stored, transmitted, or disseminated in any form or by any means without prior written permission from Ed Johnston. Permission granted for Denise Anderson’s use in Stand Out. Cons • Hidden costs—the domain, hosting, better themes, and many plugins are all paid for separately. • Many blog themes are available, but they are basic. If you want to elevate your theme, you will need to pay, which generally costs between $50 to $100. Best for • Those who like WordPress and need a hosting solution. Users who are comfortable with web development and are able/willing to put in the time and effort required to get the most power that WordPress offers. Many developers use WordPress as a content management system (CMS), which provides the ability to update a site after it’s created. How to set up your website: https://en.support.wordpress.com/start/ https://ithemes.com/tutorial/category/wordpress-101/ Additional resources for website builders: http://www.websitebuilderexpert.com/reviews/ WEBSITE HOSTING SOLUTIONS Adobe Creative Cloud – Business Catalyst businesscatalyst.com Business Catalyst is an all-in-one hosted business website and online marketing solution that offers web designers a unified platform for their contact database, orders and web form submissions, product catalogs, web pages, and email marketing campaigns. Similar to web hosting, Business Catalyst has built-in modules and features, including an FTP account for uploading web pages, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), small web format (SWF) files, JavaScript, and images.