Expressing Yourself Through Website Design
The first is Weebly. This is one platform that many students have been using to build up their online presence. This website is easy to use and have add-ons both free and through purchasing. The linking and organization through different sites are easy to arrange, such as the RSS link to your own blog. With Weebly, you can use Google Analytics to monitor your site traffic and change the layout to fit the majority of the traffic server users. Weebly has a function for mobile site, Mac friendly, and many more.
The second site is Wix. Wix has a different type of layout and themes templates. There are different page transitions that can be added. This website has the ability to link your different platforms together to create a home base for your online presence. There are different packages with the different subscriptions, ranging from free to $25 per month.
The third is Google Sites. This had just been changed drastically about 6 months ago, and changed the way the layout, ease, and overall feel. The platform is under the Google Drive embedding. There is the simplicity of the drag and drop layout to build your online website. The one interesting thing about this site is the extra step it takes to publish your work. The permission should be checked to determine who can view and comment on your website.
The fourth is Spark. This is a adobe base system and easy to use. This site has a feel of the similar setup with different layouts. This website is based on more of the visual side of a designer with easy embedding of videos and different graphics. The website has two options when building a site, free or the premium $9 per month plan.
The fifth is WordPress. This has been one of the oldest form of website building still available online. When first clicking on this page you can see the statement claiming that WordPress powers 30% of the internet. This has an interesting twist in the forms of plans. There are four plans, free to $25 per month. Since this website platform has been around the block a few times, there are more variety of plug-ins and detail oriented for your website.
The article, "Where to Begin WIth Building a Website," by Brandy Krien, explores the different points of where you need to go when building your platform for branding. The first is to identify your goal and figure out a domain name on your hosting service. The host is the platform you're using to share yourself with the world. There are different feels and looks to many different host domains. This is important to explore the different sites to ensure you enjoy and like the site for your purpose. Krien suggested to look at different sample sites to see which is right for your personality and skills. When choosing your domain name, this is a branding moment. Most hosting services will allow you to choose your own name, with the host name attached. There is another option by buying a host name. This can always happen later. The next is the different portions of your website. This is the organization and layout of your website. This is essentially the tabs of where to direct your viewers to different areas of your website. With a professional profile, there might have more content about yourself, your accomplishes, and goals. The next portion is the content within your pages. This will include images, professional documents, and projects. The last portion is the maintenance of the website. This is the biggest commitment within building a website. Depending on the complexity of your website, from updating your CV to blog posting weekly, is the amount of time and effort into your website. The website will only give back what it receives.
The article " How Has Web Design Improved Over The Years?," by T Alhat, goes over four things that have been the driving force behind the easier coding websites. The first is the "lazy loading technique." This is the ability to choose the different content we want to see faster than it has been done previously. This allows for fast download speeds to the websites packing video and heavy images. The next is the "parallax Design and scrolling." This is where the website is just one long page that removes the need for users to navigate to different tabs and pages. The third is allowing websites to use mobile- friendly designs. This is especially important due to the huge accessibility of technology within our own smartphones. The fourth is the multimedia. This is the visual aid to your website. This allows users to connect the message with an image association and can view videos about your own information. These are all part of an ever growing part of the internet and the world.
The article about the tools for a website builder, from Business Matters, explores the different types of platforms you can use. These are the top four popular building sites: Squarespace, Wix, Weebly, and Shopify. They explain that it is important to have a great website to reaching your goals. Out of the four, two we haven't explored yet. Squarespace is one of the most attention grabbing in recent years for both business and personal websites. Plans start at $12 per month to $40 per month. The customization options are light, but the users are paying for the security of the site. This enables the user to focus on building content for their website. The other is Shopify. This website is specifically target the use of eCommerce websites. This site has three different tiers of the different plans from $29 per month to $299 per month. The site is a good combination of design and functionality of the different payment and store options. The question remains, which is the best? The best is based off the type of audience and what you want to use it for. This can be seen with people who are looking for eCommerce, Squarespace and Shopify is favored. For featured content, Weebly is better providing. Wix is the best all around platform.
The chapters 10 and 11 of lol...OMG!, by Matt Ivester, is all about what we leave behind. These chapters go into the molding of the future content and what we leave behind. Every person leaves a mark that contributes to the changing and development of the future of the internet. The question is if you want to leave a positive impact or not. The internet is composed of many different things, just like every individual. The duty of every user is to be diligent with your own digital citizenship. The questions to ask yourself are very much the building of your social skills in elementary school. These are just tests to help decide whether the behavior online is consistent with your own true values. These are the values that will be left behind, the digital footprint on the every growing and echoing space within the internet. These ten questions are good stop and think moments when online. The first two are "Golden rules," to treat others the way you want to be treated, and treat others the way they want to be treated. The third is about laws and policies: check to make sure what you are doing isn't against the law and will not harm them. The fourth is the everybody test: ensure that even a small portion will not create a bigger issue. The fifth is the offline test: what would the real-world you be doing the same action as your online presence? The sixth is the Real Name Test: this is only for behaviour done in anonymously, would you have changed your behavior if people knew your name was behind it? The seventh is the emotion test: this is a great check in whether you are making a decision in a highly emotionally charged state and take a breather and think your actions through. The eighth is the whole world test: this is about whether you would feel if the whole world knew about what you are doing. The nith is the "get it" test: this is whether you convey your point across clearly. The tenth is about you. This test is whether the information you are sharing really reflects yourself. This is the most important test out of all of the others. This will be apart of your identity online and these questions will help guide yourself.
The overall take from this book was to help you ask the right questions. When creating content online, there is a piece of yourself which becomes apart of a whole, evergrowing structure of the internet. There are differences between in person words and those behind a screen, but they carry the same impact of building your identity. You must actively try building a good online presence and embrace technologies changes.
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