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Websites 101
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If you cannot access your data, it's worthless
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The standard reply to "what can you do with a database?" is:
- Create records
- Edit and update existing data
- Delete data
Clear Encounters of the Fourth Kind
But there's a fourth aspect which is even more important. You must be able to present it, access it or display the data it holds. On a website, this means presenting the data that you want to present to your users -- or to yourself in the Admin section.
This display of information is crucial to an effective website. I strongly feel users want to "get in and get out", ie, they want their information to be presented directly, clearly and in a straightforward manner.
This means forsaking lots of graphics and peripheral action -- and presenting the data directly without unnecessary graphics. Remember, graphics have no inherent, universal meaning (except, eg, a shopping cart) and, therefore, must be mentally interpreted by the user. Text, on the other hand, has a defined and specific meaning, ie, it's quickly interpreted for its "action". Users appreciate text links more than pretty graphics.
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Types of Websites
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Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
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There are three types of websites that are generally produced:
- Proof of Concept
- Functionality+
- Beauty Contest Winner
Proof of Concept
A Proof of Concept design provides a fully-functioning website with the backend database 100% operational. This website is of this genre. I liken this style to a "Google-type" website, ie, short on non-essential graphics, text-driven and extremely fast.
Functionality+
This design allows for more advanced form of functionality, eg, rollover and/or pulldown menus, AJAX implementation, more usage of JavaScript. The Functionality+ design is the Proof of Concept model on steroids.
Beauty Contest Winner
If well executed (as in real life), the Beauty Contest Winner design is much nicer to look at. It has "sizzle", as they say. But this comes at a performance cost: all of the additional graphics, realtime feeds and video supporting the Beauty Contest Winner exact a performance penalty, ie, that screen is going to take more time to load.
I will be the first to admit I am NOT a website designer. But if YOUR website designer provides me a complete HTML layout of where your want your data to go on the screen and how it's supposed to look, including font sizes, text styles, colors, screen widths, background colors and images, etc., I can easily integrate YOUR HTML design into the overall website presentation.
All my websites are developed via templates with the HTML code completely segregated from the data. So it's very easy to accommodate your HTML wishes.
I work with creative, talented website designers and can bring visually effective results to the discussion should you wish a higher level of aesthetics built into your website during the development phase.
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