Design Notes: A CSS Web Developer’s Blog

10 Tips to Help You Plan an Effective Web Site Redesign

Over the past several years, I have noticed that many Web design clients do not understand how to take ownership of the design process and rarely think about how they will manage their Web site after it launches. Somehow, the new design is supposed to compensate for a Web site owner’s lack of vision. This list is one Web designer’s attempt to help you create a plan that will allow you to achieve some success attracting new visitors to your Web site, and making a positive impression once the new visitors arrive.

1. Plan your content carefully before you think in detail about your Web site structure and aesthetics.
2. Research competing and related niche sites to discover the content, Web site structure, and aesthetics representative of your industry.
3. Determine your business objectives and set measurable goals for your new Web site. In as much detail as you can muster, record the ways in which your new Web site will help you achieve your goals.
4. Your landing pages should reflect the ways in which your prospective customers will search for your service or product. Plan the content of these pages in relation to the complexity and number of your offerings. Use Wordtracker to discover key phrases that are likely to drive visitors to your Web site landing pages from search engines.
5. Since no page is purely informational in a bottom-line business climate, decide carefully what you will ask your Web site visitors to do in response to the content your page offers. Find an appropriate way to ask your potential clients to respond.
6. Articulate the first impression and emotional response your Web site should evoke. Who will your site visitors be, and why will they feel this way when they visit your site?
7. What is the dominant type of content your Web site will feature? Will it be news items, archived documents, multimedia or sales copy. What ideas do you have about how the content can be structured for maximum comprehension and utility?
8. What aesthetic preferences do you have? Why? Link typefaces, colors, and artwork specifications to the first impression and emotional responses you hope to evoke and the business goals they will help you achieve.
9. Set your budget and communicate it clearly. If working with a limited budget, be prepared for trade-offs and be ready to prioritize goals and preferences.
10. Discuss your communication preferences with your designer in advance. Do you want daily reports? Weekly? Will you want real-time access via telephone, instant messaging, and email? Do you need face-to-face meetings to feel comfortable with the process?

If this blog post left you wanting more, Harvey Ramer has also written a short e-Book called A No-Nonsense Guide to Creating Your Web Site Design Plan that you may find helpful.

August 17th, 2006

Fixing the IE Double Margin Bug

Today I decided to start a blog category of CSS Bug Fixes more for myself than for anyone else. I often read about simpler ways of fixing bugs and misplace the facts somewhere in the jumble of thoughts and busyness. Here’s the first installment:

The IE double margin bug shows up in practically every floated layout I create using CSS. Sometimes I use a CSS hack to set margins specifically for IE and others for Firefox and more modern browsers. Now, thanks to CSS Mastery by Andy Budd, and Bulletproof Web Design by Dan Cederholm I am reminded that there is a much more elegant solution than setting alternate margins for IE. If there’s a choice between fixing the problem or managing symptoms, I’ll choose the former every time!

The solution to the IE Double Margin Bug on floated elements is to set the floated element’s display property to inline.

For example:

.column { float:left; margin-right:10px; }
/* For IE */
* html .column { display:inline; }

I hope this helps you. Now this fix is in a place I’ll be able to find when I need it. More coming soon …

2 comments August 17th, 2006