Designing A Website

          As the last month of the semester is coming to an end, final projects are being assigned. The final project for this course, Exploring Your Digital Portfolio, is to create a website that is professional in nature. This website will be my own digital portfolio for the semester that will showcase accomplishments both inside and outside of the classroom. But, where do you begin with building a website? Brady Krien discusses the basic ways of getting started creating a website. Before you get started, you must pick a host where you can create your domain name for your website. In class, we talked about many of the hosts, such as Weebly, Wordpress, and Wixsite. We were shown the basics of each of the hosts, and how to get started. Although, the article discusses more hosts that can be used, such as Squarespace and Jekyll. After choosing a host, you must have pages and content to fill you site with. Most websites will vary person to person, but it is important that you first post professional documents and photos such as your resume. Remember, when you are posting content, you are leaving a digital footprint behind! Chapter ten of lol...OMG! discusses how we are in control of the Internet's future, with the potential to leave a positive impact that will last for years to come. No one can tell you how to be a good digital citizen, but there are several tests that might help decide whether the behavior that you engage in online is consistent with your own values. This is important to remember when creating your website; you should post content that matches up with your own values. Chapter eleven of lol..OMG! goes hand in hand with chapter ten. Basically, chapter eleven discusses embracing the change that is coming. Your online reputation will increasingly effect your life! Start by building a good reputation. When posting content online, you are almost advertising yourself. Why post negative or hurtful content that can ruin your reputation? Why advertise poorly for yourself? It is only going to hold you back and can even prevent you from getting a job in the future.
          Krien also discusses and points out some helpful ways to layout your site, such as creating tabs to organize your information. The last but possibly most important step of creating a website is maintenance. You must maintain and update your information as things change, if you would like to keep up with your successful website. For more elaborate websites, especially those involving blogs, you may update your website more often; you might update it monthly, weekly, or even daily. It is important to consider this when building your website, because a poorly maintained website is just as bad as no website at all.

         There are plenty of hosts to use for creating a website, but which website builder is best for your needs?  Business Matters discusses four hosts that are available to use when creating a website: Weebly, Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify. 
          Weebly, like most websites, have free options and premium option you can pay for to customize your website. Although it is not as popular of a website, it is the most user friendly host to use if you have never created a website.

Unlike Weebly, Wix is one of the most popular website builders at the moment. A notable feature of Wix is the drag and drop function, which lets website creators build customized sites without specialized design or coding skills. 

Squarespace is most regarded for its ease-of-use, as users require no coding skills to build sites with it. It is, however, relatively light on customization options. The platform offers building tools for both personal and business websites, with plans for personal sites starting at $12 per month. 

Finally, there is Shopify, which was constructed specifically for use on eCommerce websites and for businesses. Shopify focuses on the elements of website design and function that are most important to business. If you are aiming to create a business type of website, this one is definitely the right host for you. 

Regardless, all of these hosts are user friendly and will get the job done. If your site is more focused on content, on the other hand, Weebly may be better for you. Wix is a good all-around tool, offering as it does multiple different packages for both personal and business websites. Whichever option you choose, be sure to focus your efforts on content and design! Those two things will make all the difference in whether or not your site is found by your target audience.

          With astounding and unremarkable advances in technology over the past decade, it is easier than ever to create a website. According to TG Daily, web designing was once very complicated as it involved HTML and other such coding. Tonnes of experience and education to be able to create a website and get it online was required, and it could be days before the website could go live. But now, it is easier than ever to create a site, as there are over 644 million active websites out there. What has changed? For starters, internet speed has increased over the years drastically. About 40% of users will abandon the website if it does not load in three seconds. Websites could take a few minutes to load just a few years ago, which is a huge improvement compared to today's internet speed. Parallax design and scrolling, is another feature that enhanced a user's experience on the internet today. Parallax design is extremely popular because of the benefits. A parallax site is basically a one page site that removes the need for users to navigate to different pages and open multiple tabs. Parallax scrolling feature which gives off a slight 2D look to the website. It involves moving the background content (images) and foreground content at different speeds, giving it a 2D look. 

Bringing mobile-friendly design into play has had the most drastic effect on our generation, in my opinion. There are more than 1.2 billion mobile users around the globe today. A quarter of the US population are mobile-only users. More than 10.9 billion apps are downloaded from mobile phones. Around 60% of all Google searches are performed on mobile devices. Let that sink in. Mobile devices have taken over it seems, especially smartphones that allow us to have such advancements in technology. You can't beat the convenience of having a mobile device that is exactly like a desktop, and convenience is what the people are always hungry for.
          The advances in technology have allowed us to do things in a quicker and more convenient way than ever. For example, coding was required to create a website years ago. But now, technology has allowed us to choose our host and design a website in the blink of an eye. Remember, when creating a website, choose your content carefully! In class we also discussed the importance of content on our website. It is important to keep your target audience in mind while designing your website, otherwise you may not be enticing the viewers you need. As a communications major, I may post content on my website that could be enticing to certain companies or people that I may get hired by in the future. For example, I would like to do some sort of media work with a professional sports league, such as the National Hockey League (NHL). On my website, I may post some of my work as a photographer, specifically sports photography, so I can show off my skills and assets and target the appropriate audience. For example, I may include photos like this in order to target the audience intended (which would be sports photographers or any professional sports association).

You never know who may be looking at your website! It could change your life, hence the importance of the content you post.