- You’ve found a designer you can work with.
- You have visited their site a hundred times.
- You have colors and images and even page topics all picked out. But what to put them in?
Well, the designer should be guiding you, but it’s good to be informed. Here are two choices to consider:
- A traditional web site, with Home, About, Services pages nested with lots of bells & whistles, like newsreaders and Flash galleries.
- Or you could opt for a more streamlined site with fewer extras, but a big plus the other type doesn’t offer: You can update it yourself, the text that is.
Think about it. You wake up one morning with a brainstorm — an idea for new store special! It’s based on an event happening downtown this weekend. So you want your idea announced on the web right away!
What to do?
Call your designer? Possibly. Possibly there will be a wait. Possibly they won’t have the time to do the update ’til next week. Probably there will be an update charge.
How about this instead. You wrap on your robe, walk on over to your own computer, and type in the announcement yourself?
Hmm..
That’s the beauty of a CMS, or content management system. The freedom to update is yours…
{D..}
In an earlier post, I gave you general reasons why validating your site’s code is important. Here is the background:
Accessibility
The internet is a useful communication tool for the home-bound, and the handicapped. Special devices help people overcome sight and hearing problems to view web sites, but only if those sites are built accessibly-compliant as dictated by Federal law Section 508. Sometimes compliant sites post a “508 Compliant” link near their copyright notice.
Standardized Coding
Professional web development procedure is to build sites using valid, non-deprecated XHTML and CSS code based on the rigorous standards set by the World Wide Web Consortium. Look for validation links in a site’s footnote.
Overall
A site with validated code is like a building with sound structure. It is more likely to load faster, truer, and at all! And it is widely believed that the famed web “traffic jams” are borne of sites heavily laden with non-validated code clogging the works. Of course browser (IE, FireFox) inconsistencies are also contributing factors, but validated code is a necessary starting point.
When you contract a web designer, be sure to include the requirement that the site passes validation for coding and accessibility. Now, if you intend to include Flash, however, those particular pages might not validate. It takes special coding that sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t.
Why, you say? Why validate?
So your site can be read now and later.
Now, by all those elderly shut-ins who so enjoy the escapism your web site offers, either because of your product or service, or merely your friendly words and colorful images.
If you don’t validate, his or her outdated computer might not be able to pull up your site.
Now, by the handicapped person who needs a voice reader to understand what your business is all about.
If you don’t validate, her machine probably won’t be able to tell her of your products, services, name and contact information.
Now, by everyone who uses our finicky, quirky browsers which aren’t keeping up with the advancing technology behind our web sites..
If you don’t validate, and our browsers might not display your site in the way you intended it to be..
And we validate for later to preserve our writings for the future. Want to know more about that? Read The Noodle Incident
