Web Development Tips
Read these 20 Web Development Tips tips to make your life smarter, better, faster and wiser. Each tip is approved by our Editors and created by expert writers so great we call them Gurus. LifeTips is the place to go when you need to know about Web Design tips and hundreds of other topics.
Information Architecture
Information architecture is the science of modeling, structuring and arranging descriptions of information. It involves creating models which information can be conformed to fit so that it can be easily indexed and searched.
Information architecture is also concerned with the arrangement of information, and finding new and more efficient ways of arranging data so that it is as easily accessible as possible. Information architecture is used extensively online, especially for websites whose purpose is to develop communities, such as MySpace or Facebook, and is also a leading field of research for computer scientists.
eCommerce
eCommerce is a generic term used to describe any transactions that take place over the Internet. The roots of the word are similar to that of the word "email;" it is a conglomeration of the term "electronic" and "commerce."
eCommerce development has become an extremely large industry, and most major retailers have both an offline and online option for purchasing their goods. In some cases, individuals have more options to purchase goods from an online store than in the offline store, because an online store can display the inventory from all of the offline stores combined, not just what is in stock at a local store.
eCommerce Development
An eCommerce site consists of a server to host the website, along with various software packages that run the website and the associated eCommerce applications.
To set up an eCommerce site, a website must first be uploaded to a server. Once completed, the site will then be modified to hold the eCommerce web applications, such as a shopping cart and a checkout system. These applications are tied back into the server and communicate with suppliers and companies that process payment for goods bought from the website.
Once the connections to these companies have been tested, the site is ready for deployment.
Content Management Systems
Blogs have become very popular in the last few years and the content management system (CMS) called Wordpress, has become widely used to create and manage these blogs.
It is a very quick and extensible program, allowing users to set up a blog in just a few moments, and it gives them multiple options for how they want their content to be archived and stored with the software.
Another CMS system called MediaWiki is used to power sites such as the Wikipedia foundation, and is used to store and organize data of multiple types. This type of CMS is editable by multiple users, and provides a logging system to show which users made what changes so that a chain of responsibility is maintained.
Content Management
A Content Management System (CMS) is a computerized system that is set up to intelligently manage digital content, such as text, images, audio or video files.
Such systems are usually designed so that users can access the content from multiple locations, regardless of where they are geographically. It is also designed to provide an intelligent structure to the organization of the content, enabling users to quickly search through and find what items they are looking for.
Content management systems are also used off of the Internet as a way for users on private networks to collaborate on projects.
Sources for Web Site Development Information
Today, the amount of resources available to gather information for the management of your Web site and ecommerce site are numerous. You can do a great deal of research on the Internet and by subscribing to publications. Search online for various how-to sites that will give you tips on how to incorporate, develop, or maintain your Web site on the Internet. Magazine publications covering Web site development information include Inside Web Development and Practical Web Design.
Creating Your Web Development Plan
There may come a time when it is necessary for you to incorporate Web applications into your company. Before you do so, create a Web development plan to streamline the process. The first step involves making an assessment of your resources and company goals. Determine what infrastructure you already have in place and who you need to hire to accomplish your goal. The next step is to make a budget assessment. Determine how much are you willing to spend to implement the Web applications. The last phase of your Web development plan involves implementing the work and proceeding to test your system. Develop a timeline for the Web programmer or Web Development firm to code, test, and publish the necessary data. Remember to have the new Web application system thoroughly checked to avoid any bugs.
Incorporating Web Applications
A business to business Web site needs Web applications to interact with vendors, clients, customers, and other businesses. You have the choice of using a variety of Web applications, depending on your organizational needs. Some ideas for incorporating Web applications include an educational Web application, a product catalog application, or a directory application.
Educational Web application – Do you need to provide classes and seminars to online students or perhaps members of your own organization? Incorporating an educational Web application may be your solution. You can handle all of the administrative tasks of registering online, attendance, and posting course descriptions.
Product Catalog application – Do you have products or services that can be offered online? With a product catalog application, you can keep track of inventory, make real-time transactions, and make online transaction verifications.
Directory Application – Use a directory application to create a searchable online database. Perhaps you are a professional organization and need to create a member directory or need to list vendors for outsourcing work.
Learning About Web Application Development
In today's world of business-to-business interactions, Web application development has become the necessity for dealing with other organizations online. Businesses need and want secure interactions over a private network. Web application development is what will facilitate a secure infrastructure by providing the framework for business strategies and policies through three levels of services: user services, business services, and data services. User services, the bottom level, are the programs that allow client and consumer interaction with your Web site like HTML and Java.
The next level, business services, allow users to perform complex interactions through programs like Web scripting and server programming. The top level of data services allows high level operations like retrieving and uploading databases and file systems.
The Business to Business Ecommerce Web Site
Most people are familiar with the idea of an ecommerce Web site that tailors to the retail market. You have an online storefront that allows you to make purchases. However, the business to business ecommerce Web site is less widely known, but follows the same concept. A business to business ecommerce Web site allows a business to offer its products to another business rather than to the consumer market. In other words, this ecommerce Web site conducts transactions to other businesses rather than a single consumer.
Ecommerce Web Site Development Basics
Any business that needs a means to facilitate transactions of its services or products through the Internet needs ecommerce Web site development. By incorporating ecommerce Web site development onto your business Web site, you will be able to allow the purchase of products of services directly off of your Web site. You will be able to market your products and services through your online presence. You will be able to process secure transaction payments. You can introduce interactivity by incorporating the distribution of newsletters, downloads, and research that can be accessed with or without transaction payments.
Professional Web Design From a Web Development Firm
Getting professional Web design from a Web development firm can be advantageous to you in a number of ways, if you select the right place. When exploring your options through a Web development firm, make sure you browse through their portfolio, get a list of client referrals, and decide if their work matches the needs of your particular organization. If you select a firm well suited to your business needs, then you have the benefit of receiving professional Web design in one location from start to finish. A Web development firm can provide you with the services of creating a tailor-made, custom Web site and provide the services of Web development, e-commerce, and content management systems. In short, you will be able to select the services you need on both a creative and technical level.
Top Web Development Terminology #1: Web Development
Web development extends the functionality of your website. Let us compare design and development. Web design is what you see, like the design of a kitchen. Web development is what you do, like the kitchen's appliances.
As web design and web development are not the same, web designers are not always web developers and vice versa. Make sure you know which you need and get what you pay for. It begins with a plan. Things like payment systems, calendar schedulers, and automatically changing date/time blocks on your website are just a few of the things that a good web developer can do for you.
Content Management System
A content management system (CMS), allows users to store data in a way that makes the data easily searchable at a later point in time. A CMS stores data meaningfully, and usually indexes it somehow so that it can be sorted and searched without difficulty.
The advantage to this method of storing data over a standard method is that a (CMS) method allows users to easily retrieve their data, while a normal data storage system does not have any built-in method for storing and retrieving data. With a CMS, this method is built-in and operates without the user's intervention.
eCommerce Development Company
An eCommerce development company differs from a traditional web design and development company in that it offers services that are specially geared toward eCommerce.
These services can include things like online shopping carts, online checkout systems, or databases that are built to hold customer or product information.
An eCommerce development company must not only know how to build these applications, but they must also know how to integrate the applications with services like credit card companies (for payment of bills) and how to secure the websites and databases so that customer data and other sensitive information is not compromised.
Systems Information Architecture
Systems information architecture, according to the Information Architecture Institute, is:
- The structural design of shared information environments.
- The art and science of organizing and labeling web sites, online communities and software to support usability and findability.
- An emerging community of practice focused on bringing principles of design and architecture to the digital landscape.
Systems information architecture is carried out by computer scientists and engineers, and can be applied to systems that exist in both the digital world and in the real world.
Website Information Architecture
Normal websites can have their information architecture (IA) arranged very primitively or in very advanced ways.
For small sites, the IA model may be to simply have a few pages arranged in the same folder, all of which are linked to each other in some manner or another.
For a larger website, the pages might be in folders and sub-folders, and the links between the sites will multiply and become more complicated. Other systems for managing IA are possible. For example, a CMS (content management system) may be used to allow users to structure their data without intervention, allowing for easy archiving and organization at a later point in time.
Information Architecture Design
Information architecture design can take many forms. Some of these forms may be content management systems (CMS), which allow users to easily structure and archive data in meaningful ways.
Other forms may be for indexing data, which as how Google Desktop operates, so that users will have instant access to any file that contains a specified search parameter.
Information architecture designs are a topic of constant research in the computer science field, and many new social networking websites contain the latest and greatest information architecture designs.
Award Winning Web Design in Web Development
The Web Marketing Association recognizes award winning Web design in over 96 different industries from advertising to telecommunication. Web Marketing Association began in 1997 and produces an annual WebAward to recognize excellence in the area of Web development. Recently added categories of award winning Web design include architecture, blogs, electronics, and photography. Entering Web sites can compete in areas of design, innovation, content, technology, interactivity, and copywriting.
The Web Development Company
A Web development company can encompass a broad range of Web based services. The Web based services that a company offers can include the entire scope of Web Site creation from Web design to Web programming to Web server configuration. In the strictest sense, Web development among Web professionals typically only refers to the technical aspects of creating a Web site and not the creative aspects. You can find a small Web development company consisting of a few employees with a broad range of experience to a large-scale Web firm with several dozen employees, each a specialist in a specific aspect of Web site creation.
| Guru Spotlight |
| Jennifer Mathes, Ph.D. |
