On Wednesday 10 March 2021, the class had a seminar focusing on websites that represent photographic and other visual practitioners.
The following is an adaptation of the presentation by Eva Benssasson, who is a photographic website specialist. This is so I can processs then follow the guidance and advice given during this seminar in regards to my own website.
The aim of this module is to make or review my own website, and to consider how it:
- Suits my photographic practice (look and feel mood)
- Easy to use (usability, even if my idea is to create an off-piste user journey)
- Functions – what interactive elements are needed (functionality – slide shows, embedded videos, social media widgets, etc)
And to ensure that I am aware of the following:
- My website’s audience
- My website’s aims/KPI (Key Performance Indicators)
- My industry’s terminology, standards, and best practice
- Making a website is an ongoing process:
- Iterative
- ‘Unfinished’
- Subject to review
Planning My Website (or reviewing my existing site)
Scoping the Field
- Consider how the websites are structured and presented
- What choices have been made for the visual layouts, terminology, and navigation?
- What do I think works well?
- What could be improved?
- Does the artist have a social media presence and if so how is this incorporated, or not?
- Consider who I think this website is aimed at:
- This may not be obvious, consider what might mark a successful interaction e.g. reaching a certain page, downloading a pdf, dwell time, a commercial transaction.
Further advice on how I can do this has been outlined in this additional post:
Planning – Sitemap
For planning, a sitemap is often made as a spider diagram or a tree diagram.
Planning – Wireframe
The purpose of wireframes is to determine the structure and functionality of the web pages they depict, for example how many elements on the page, where will the navigation be. For this reason, wireframes are usually skeletal and lack colour or style, which is added later after the structure has been determined.
- Make by hand
- Or Coggle, Mockingbird, or others.
- Adaptive/responsive? (how will it show for smartphones and mobile devices)
Actions
- Sketch out website.
- Be selective
- What do I want my site to ‘be’?
- What specific functionality do I want?
- What is most important?
- What is my ‘trade-off’?
- What is the best fit for me ideas?
- Create ‘wireframe’.
- Check costs
- £218pa on Squarespace for Business subscription
Building
- Website Builders / Content Management Systems
- pros, cons, who would benefit
- what to look out for All-in-One solutions
There are many ‘automatic’ ways of generating a website from templates, which I can then customise with your own content, look, and feel. These ‘website builders’ are effectively Content Management Systems (CMSs).
They are web pages effectively generated by a database, but in most cases, this is simplified so I don’t need to know much about the backend after I’ve set it up.
Factors I need to balance include:
- My existing technical skills or ability to learn, and the time you are willing and able to invest.
- Cost: looking both at one-off costs and recurring costs. It can be difficult to compare CMS costs as some are monthly, others yearly. It’s worth reading the small print and getting the calculator out.
- What’s most important?
- Each ‘ready-made’ template performs differently on elements of the look and functionality.
- Which are the elements most important for me?
- How best can I deliver these?
- I am NOT a professional website developer – decide in advance what my priorities are.
These are just some of the many website builders available on the market. Each has its own set of pros and cons.
WordPress
Home
One of the most widespread website content management systems (CMS) being used today. Open source with many templates (themes) available. Can either be hosted on the cloud (wordpress.com) or downloaded as a zip file (from wordpress.org) and uploaded onto your own server. Either version works, with different pros and cons.
Understanding the difference between wordpress.org and wordpress.com
Started with, and still often used for, blogs, but also used behind the scenes for many other kinds of websites.
Squarespace
Adobe Portfolio
Examples
Format
Wix
Cargo (formerly Cargo Collective)
clickpic
zenfolio
PhotoShelter
Weebly
Carbonmade
Indexhibit
useful info: How to install and use Indexhibit [from http://digitalmediaassistant.files.wordpress.com%5D
Indexhibit’s own backend demo
A website with useful info
MODX
One.com
https://www.one.com/en/websitebuilder
And there are MANY, many more.
- Buying server space and installing my own CMS
- pros, cons, who would benefit
- Which host and which domain name registrar?
- How to compare services?
- Look at reviews websites. Google it ‘website hosting reviews’ or similar keywords for reviews, there are a lot. For example:
- Work out a common measure by which to compare them, e.g. monthly or yearly price, including VAT.
- Compare what I get for my money – including support (is the support number a free rate or local rate number?).
- If I’ve decided on how I want to make my site, I could also see who would provide the best support. For example, many hosts provide 1-click installs of WordPress / indexhibit, but you need to decide whether this is essential or a nice extra, as I can also install these without this service.
- Web Hosts: What to consider
- There are very many registrars and web hosts out there.
- Consider cost and ease of use, relative to your technical skills and time available.
- Factor in the cost of technical support.
- To help compare, work out what my monthly cost is for each, averaged over the year, after VAT.
- What kind of support do they offer: wiki, tutorials, email, ticketed, phone, live chat? How quickly do they respond to questions.
- What kind of control panel do they have? cPanel, which is very common, is useful but very ugly. Look for a host who might offer something clear and customized for the user.
- Ask friends and colleagues about their own experiences, as well.
- Databases should not cost extra – I should get more than one as part of the package. Nearly all webhosts offer more bandwidth and space than you will need so it’s not much of an issue.
- Some platforms require a particular server type (e.g. Indexhibit requires a Linux/Apache server). If you know what you’ll be using in advance, make sure I don’t go with a Microsoft server
- If I’ve first done your planning and decided how I’d like my website to look (overall visual look and feel, and the number and wording of navigation items) I can then look for the template which best fits my vision, rather than shaping your vision around the templates available – or being ‘wow’ed’ by a template which doesn’t work with my content.
- What email provision is there (custom email addresses, how many email addresses, what’s the online webmail like)
- Is there a limit on traffic, on size, on downloads?
- Can I have subdomains? e.g. blog.myaddress.com
- What’s the control panel like? cPanel, Plesk, custom made?
- Cost should not be my primary concern if I am looking for a hosted solution. Free can be unstable or contain advertising. Very cheap, is often over sold and can make my website very slow. Rather than starting by deciding I want the cheapest possible, decide what I am prepared to spend and see who out there offers the best deal for my money.
- Can I start with a cheaper package and easily upgrade to a more expensive one that offers more services later?
- What is a control panel?
- The means by which I can administer my website. This is supplied by the web host and the level of service can vary. At a bare minimum, I should be able to access your FTP (make usernames and passwords), my databases (if I’ve chosen a package that has one) and billing information. But some hosts offer some extra, very useful features.
- Some hosts offer 1 click installs for WordPress, Indexhibit or other CMSs. This might suit you if you want the flexibility of going for a hosted solution, but are feeling nervous about the logistics of setting up your CMS.
Testing, Promoting, Revising
Usability
- Test it!
- https://www.hotjar.com/usability-testing/
- https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/usability-testing
- Heatmaps and recordings, eg Hotjar (see free personal account)
- Ask five friends to check the site before shouting to the world
- Writing for the web – eg https://www.usability.gov/how-to-and-tools/methods/writing-for-the-web.html
SEO
- Making sure my website can be found – search engine optimisation (SEO)
Analytics
- Google analytics
- google.com/webmasters
- Google’s keyword planner tool
- Social media (hootsuite , etc)
Accessibility
Although government legislation only covers public bodies (including schools and universities), it is not only the ‘right thing to do’ to make your website accessible, it will also help both with SEO and draw users to your site.
Accessibility is for everyone. Some dos and don’ts:
Jennie Meadows MA Photography 