Technical Goals:

• Compliance with “W3C” The World Wide Web Consortium
• Compatibility for multiple platforms: Windows, Macintosh, IBM, UNIX, LINUX
• Compatibility for multiple browsers: Internet Explorer, Safari, Mozilla, Netscape, and AOL
• Portability: Site’s page code is Portable (ie. page code is easily importable into most professionally used HTML editors, such as Adobe GoLive or Macromedia Dreamweaver)
• Search Engine Friendly: Pages are easily accessed by spiders sent by major Search Engines (i.e. Google)
• Reasonable load time for site pages and content

Technical Notes:

• In general, the site should be developed for hosting on a UNIX server (most stable and compatible platform for hosting websites), using W3C HTML code, augmented by some DHTML (dynamic HTML, Flash) as needed.
• Products developed for usage primarily on MS Windows platforms (ie. MS Frontpage (an HTML editor), ASP (data base) work well if the site is hosted on a Windows server and the client is using a Windows computer with MS Internet Explorer. However, most other users will have compatibility problems. Therefore many users will experience access issues with the website. Avoid MicroSoft web development tools such as Frontpage (not W3C compliant). These products are used by some website designers because they are very easy to learn and use, due to FrontPage extensions and templates.
• Frames (dividers in web browser windows) should be avoided because some search engines will not index pages that are built using frames. Some browsers also are unable to displaying frames properly. Content can be organized using tables.
• File naming should be compliant with W3C rules (not Microsoft naming rules).
• Most pages should be HTML code. Dynamic content (“DHTML”, Flash, animation, etc. ) should be used as needed.
• Site navigation using both clickable image maps and page bottom text links is a good compromise for artistic design and technical function.

Content Notes:

Website content should evolve based on the answer to marketing questions:

• Who am I designing this website for (existing customers, general consumers, distributors, vendors, etc.)?
• What do you want your web site to accomplish for your business?
• Do you want it to generate sales leads and inquiries?
• Do you want to book reservations?
• Do you want to sell product online?
• Are you providing service and sales information for existing and potential customers?
• Do you want to establish a certain image?