Web Page Design

[jko]

Lots of helpful advice offered here, yet we still don't know what kind of site Bago desires?

Unless the OP wants a highly creative, sophisticated, visually stunning web site, and only wants something simple – such as to sell a product, offer information, publish his poems/short stories, paintings or photography, etc., there is really little point in paying for it, and the free options have already been mentioned here.

With due respect to professional web designers, I often see examples of ‘Creative Overkill’ where the product or service is eclipsed - sometimes swamped - by distracting animations and impressive special effects, making the site becoming more of a showcase for the webmaster than the client.

Obviously a site must be visually attractive, but at the end of the day the average surfer is looking for fast-loading, clean, uncluttered, concise, well-presented information.

That's what promotes and sells best.

-Not state-of-the art web design, loaded with the latest advances in bells and whistles.

[draftvader]

At this point I would suggest that the OP would not be a client that I would wish to manage. Despite numerous relevant posts we have heard nothing more from them. I would imagine that project managing this client effectively would be counter-productive to a busy web builder.

[draftvader]

ok mate u use any of the cs adobe suite? I was planning on learning web design but started comptia A+ instead, my impression was that dreamweaver in the hands of an accomplished web designer would be a great package , especially with the integration into onther adobe products

There is nothing "wrong" with Dreamweaver and it certainly helped grow my understanding of html and css when I started out. It does, however, produce less than efficient code and is not as up to date on the standards as it could be (even with regular updates). My biggest complaint would be that it is buggy and unwieldy compared to using Notepad++ (or one of the tools mentioned above) and your browser(s) to check the visual representation (making sure you provide compatibility back to at LEAST iE8). Anything designed through the visual editor in Dreamweaver will end up being fairly over-coded by comparison and possibly won't render in the same way in the real world.

As I have mentioned before it DOES offer excellent error checking for php and css. There are other packages for doing this, but it is quite intuitive. In short, don't depend on the visual editor as it is NOT representative of any browser in particular, therefore will just add a layer of doubt to your coding. For starting out and being intuitive I have to hand it to Adobe (but not the chunk of my profits that they want).

From the suite perspective it does have some nice, easy to use, features. However remember that GIMP is free and if you are just starting out it is just as easy to learn as Photoshop and better supported.....unless you have the $X,XXX for CS. As a final point I must add that I still have Dreamweaver on my desktop but rarely use it nowadays and will never be renewing my licence.

[draftvader]

For the OP, Joomla! and Wordpress are both fine. If you are a COMPLETE novice then Wordpress is the one for you. I provide support on the Joomla! forums and find plenty of people wasting their time early on in their build due to Joomla!'s less than "total beginner" friendly concept. Wordpress will look prettier more easily and will get you up and running quicker. As for future proofing if your online business needs to grow then Joomla! is the better of the 2. For a decent template choose one of the businesses providing an extensive list of well ranked extensions for your chosen solution as these tend to be more up to date and better supported (check their forums for plenty of Q&A with quick response time from forum administrators/high ranking contributors). Please understand that NEITHER of these is a start now finish in 4 hours kind of thing.

However, if you want your website NOW, then you are back to engaging a web designer and need to be more communicative and have a clearer concept or this will all go NOWHERE.

[draftvader]

Oh...and if ANYBODY mentions Flash then RUN FOR THE HILLS (I'm pretty sure this is the only statement that can be made on here that will get complete support).

[WilliaminBKK]

At this point I would suggest that the OP would not be a client that I would wish to manage. Despite numerous relevant posts we have heard nothing more from them. I would imagine that project managing this client effectively would be counter-productive to a busy web builder.

Your comment made my day, I may even frame it.

My only issue is that now when I burn and churn web developers I am going to have to ask them what their TV moniker is to make sure they wont manage me.

[josephbloggs]

At this point I would suggest that the OP would not be a client that I would wish to manage. Despite numerous relevant posts we have heard nothing more from them. I would imagine that project managing this client effectively would be counter-productive to a busy web builder.

Or maybe he just couldn't be arsed anymore after his thread was hijacked by a bunch of condescending know-it-all smart-<deleted> trying to show off to each other. I certainly would have run a mile if it was me.

"I would imagine that project managing this client effectively would be counter-productive to a busy web builder." I mean.....sheesh.

[elshaheen]

Try using Joomla CMS. It's flexible and easy to configure and many modules to use to help you set up the board you want.

[klikster]

Without this you might only attract the "Dreamweaver" boys and you will be back at square one within 12 months having gained no use from your site.

draftvader, are you claiming that you do not use Dreamweaver at all?

edit: okay, in reading further through the thread I see that you actually have/do use DW.

So does that make you a ' "Dreamweaver" boy'? Then will your clients that you "manage" be back at square one in 12 months?

To the OP. Do some searches and look at sites related to Thailand, find some with the look and feel that you like. Then ask about who designed them. There are lots of good web designers in Thailand.

I just have my doubts about a few roosters whose crowing makes them sound more like chicks..

Edited May 16, 2012 by klikster

[JSixpack]

Try using Joomla CMS. It's flexible and easy to configure and many modules to use to help you set up the board you want.

Seems OP just wants something simple. Joomla would definitely be overkill. It's fantastic, though.

For somethng nice, fast, and simple, no database, I really like gpEasy. Review here:

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/gpeasy-simple-cms-no-database/