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Hosting  and Domain name servers

To create a website its takes three main steps to get started. The two first steps are register a domain name and choose a level of domain. There are top-level domains such as: com; ca; edu; and info. Once your domain level has been chosen you must then rent some server space. Once the domain name is set you will have your official URL. A web hosting site is a business that has the technologies to for a webpage to be stored for people to search and view. While searching web hosting sites I came across a great list stating the top 10 web hosting sites and there prices. I have added a link button to the website below. 

Overview of CSS

CSS stands for cascading STYLE SHEET. cSS IS A MARKUP LANGUAGE THAT TELLS THE html LANGUAGE HOW TO DISPLAY THE LAYOUT OF WEB PAGES. cSS is important because it gives you precise control of the layout of more than one document. Using css to control the layout of web pages is a easy as one line of code to link the style sheet to a number of html coding pages. CSS tells html how to display each component of an html page by customizing, colors of fonts and backgrounds, Font types and sizes, and alignments.

 

My thoughts on emerging technologies

 

My experiences with virtual environments is very not a lot. I have experienced only a few virtual environments and I was interested in exploration in them but they were not very smooth and I lost interest in them when I was unable to move freely in them. I think that virtual environments are a great concept for people who need to be in the same space sharing ideas and thoughts but are not geographically able to. I have not come across one with out the issue of lag interruption but if one has been developed I would be interested in exploring it. I have also not be able to try augmented or virtual realities myself. I am very interested to try both; however, have concerns about both on our society. I think that augmented reality is a cool idea for fun but worry about people taking it to far and losing site of reality. There are conditions that leave a person unable to move or speak but are fully aware of their surroundings and I think augmented realities would be a great escape for these people. Virtual realities including the new technologies in glasses that has been released to consumers in recent years I think could be a usefully tool. I would like to experiment with the glasses and see the tools that are available on them. The things I would find useful would be, measurement tools via your vision, ability to look at businesses and have ratings and reviews pop up, and navigation maps to guide you to destinations. I do have concerns about people using them inappropriately as well as the augmented reality. I worry that people will use them while driving or performing activities that need strict attention.

Design Considerations

 

When designing a webpages there are two different categories of design to consider. The first is the design process and the second is the principles of design. Both of these considerations will help to create a well thought out and professional looking webpage. There are six steps to the design process and they include, information gathering, planning, design, development, testing and delivery, and maintenance.

The six principles of design are:

  • Contrast- elements should be unique and stand apart from one another (color, tone/value, size/shape, direction)

  • Alignment- All elements should be visually connected to one another to create cohesiveness throughout a page

  • Repetition- Using the same elements or themes throughout will make the page uniform

  • Proximity- Elements should be placed close together to minimize visual clutter

In the first step a developer will collect important information about the business, as well as, develop a better understanding of the business.  The developer will gather such information as:

  • The purpose of the website

  • The goal that the business owner hopes to achieve when building the site

  • Who are the targeted audience for the business to reach through the website

  • What kind of content will be included in website to draw the target audience

The second step is the planning. In this step creating a site map helps to plan out the layout of topics and sub-topics that will be on the site. The developer will be planning how the customer will navigate the site by planning out a good user interface. In this step the developer will also decide on the technologies that will be used such as WordPress, Wix, or HTML.

The third step is the design phase which is the point that the developer chooses the look of the site based on the information that has been gathered. The font and colors will be chosen now and aimed towards the targeted audience. The developer will need to check with the business throughout this step to have them express the likes and dislikes and gain approval.

The fourth step is the development stage. This is the stage that the site is created. All the design elements will be added to the information that is to be presented on the site. Usually the site is developed by first adding the home page and then using a shell for the interior pages.

The fifth step is testing and delivery. At this stage the developer will finish the final details of the site. The functionality of all the elements will be tested to ensure everything is running optimally. Something that can also be done in this step is SEO can be plugged in the help the site produce more users. Once everything has been tested the developer will then need to gain the final approval from the business.  

Finally the sixth step is maintenance. This is the step that either the owner or the appointed developer will continue to update content on the site to keep everything current.

Website Development tools

 

I found Wix to be a useful website development tool. The easy to navigate customization tools make it extremely user friendly. Because Wix is so user friendly, I would say that it is the most useful development site for a beginner. The free or pay templates that are helpful to incorporate different elements that you may not otherwise know of or think of, also to build a foundation to build on. The amount of customization that it allows you to do surpasses the options that were available on WordPress. The positives of Wix are the user friendly formatting options, the available themes to use as a foundation, and wide variety of customization options. Although the templates are a useful tool to build a foundation they can be difficult to customize once they have been applied, which to me is the only negative aspect of Wix. I thought that WordPress was a useful tool for anyone who is looking to set up a blog based website. I also think that the ability to share the site responsibilities through various roles to be useful. The ability to have another person contribute content to the site either whether they be another administrator, an editor, an author, or a contributor is a great way to build variety, as well as, the size of your site. Like Wix, WordPress also has templates for building a foundation to the site which makes it easy for beginners to customize a site. The positives to me were the blog based style, shared responsibilities options, and easy templates for foundation building. The negatives of WordPress to me would also be the blog based style as this is not the type of site that I find interest in, the limitation of customization in comparison to Wix, and the difficulty when trying to customize elements in a template. I have yet to explore any other website building options besides using code languages such as HTML and CSS, which I found to be extremely difficult for a beginner. Although HTML was difficult to grasp I think that is an important tool to have, even if it is just for understanding of what his happening in the background of websites that I may be building or maintaining through online tools.

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