Planning and designing a website

People, companies, organizations and individuals introduce themselves on the World Wide Web through websites. A website is simply a collection of linked web pages. All web pages in a website usually have same design and user interface. The controls that allow a user to move from one page to another page are called the user interface.

When making a website, it is important to carefully plan the contents and the layout of the website. The following should be considered when designing a website.

1. What you wish to put on the website
2. Who you think will visit the website and what information would they need?
3. How many pages should be there on the website?
4. What should be the structure of the website?

The most important page in any website is the Home page. This is the default page. The default page of a website is displayed when a user browses the site's domain name.

The home page must give the user a clear indication of what the site is about. It should also provide links to other sections and pages of the website.

Folder structure:

The folder structure of a website determines where and how all the information that is to be provided on a website is to be arranged.

The following points should be considered while developing the structure of the website

1. Each website is stored as one HTML file. In addition to the HTML file, a website requires a number of other files, such as images, sound, animation and templates etc.
2. All files can either be stored in the root folder or in separate folders for each type of files.
3. The home or default page has to be stored in the root or main folder.
4. Each subfolder in the root folder should have only one type of information. For example, images should only contain images.
5. The names for web pages, images and folders etc, should be simple and consistent. Very long names, spaces, uppercase letters and punctuations characters create confusion and should not be used.

Pages designs:

All pages on the website should follow the same template. This means that all pages should similar font types, styles, colors and navigational buttons etc.

When creating a user interface, the purpose should be to give the users the information they want with 0 to 3 clicks of the home page.

In addition to links to the main sections, topics and features of the website, a good site also includes useful tools such as search box and site index.

Similarly, a site should also provide an email link so that users can give feedback on the site and report any problems.