Members' Information Pamphlet for the Alberta Medical Association. March 1998 WEB PAGE DEVELOPMENT GUIDE What to consider when planning for a web site Message What is the message you are trying to convey with your web site? It is better to have a single purpose for your site or the focus is lost. Do you want the site to inform visitors about your organization? Or do you have products or services to market? Do you have a current campaign to promote? Audience Who is your intended audience? Budget You will need to consider development, maintenance and site costs. Security Who gets access to the source codes? Do you want to keep the site open to all visitors? Who gets access to sensitive pages? Size What size web site do you want? Large sites increase site costs. Down-load time Lots of graphics slow down-load time; people won't wait for slow pages. Hit-rate statistics Do you want a visitor counter? There are many different monitoring and counting devices available, from free to expensive. Price depends on the level of sophistication of the information you collect. Links What other sites do you want to link to? The more links you have, the higher the maintenance involved as links need updating and deleting, etc. Feedback Do you want a feedback form included on the site? Staff could compile and distribute any messages, and organize responses to them. Graphics What graphics do you want? What style of graphics fit with your site's focus? Do you want animated graphics, or buttons and bars only? What about background graphics, borders, etc? If you don't already own the rights to graphics that you want to use you will need to acquire them. Maintenance How often do you want to update the site? Daily, monthly, yearly? Structure Do you want a site that uses frames (an advanced HTML coding)? If you use frames, will you provide a no-frames alternative, and a text-only alternative for visitors whose browser can't handle frames? Promotion Do you want to include your web site on your stationary and business cards? What to consider when hiring designers Will the designer list you with all the on-line search engines? Once your site is developed, will the designer maintain the site for you? Will the designer help you devise content as well as design? Geographical location is not a factor if you don't mind working by phone, fax and e-mail. Does the designer prefer coding with Java (which slows page down-load rates considerably) or HTML? How fast can the designer complete the work? Price: Flat rate or per hour? Does it include maintenance? Does it include the initial installation? Troubleshooting? Who owns copyright of the page design and is this a function of the price? Would it be cheaper and/or easier to develop and maintain the site using your own in-house resources? Web Designers These designers are provided for your information. Their inclusion on this page should not be construed as a recommendation of their services. You should investigate all designers and their work carefully before selecting the designer that best suits your needs. Resources with more extensive lists of designers are given for this reason. ID Associates Leo Liersch (403) 428-4343 (403) 489-3262   Dream Ribbon Productions Marc Cukier (416) 421-6875 info@dreamribbon.com http://www.dreamribbon.com   Mark D. Posey (780) 466-9441 mdposey@home.com   Hotspur Studios Inc. Ravi Backshi (403) 420-9000 ravi@hotspur.com   Other listings: Web Quote Central http://www.centeroftheweb.com/webquote/ The Yellow Pages: Online Services (Pg 1211) Yahoo Search directory -- A listing of Web Services   Copyright Alberta Medical Association © 1998 (Reproduced with permission). Ebooks & Romance Novels * Sherlock Holmes Pastiches * Articles on Writing * Home