Website Help!

03Stormchaser · Unread post by **03Stormchaser** » Sat 06/08/2005 18:38

Ok I have just bought the domain http://www.03stormchaser.com
Its just going to be a weather page, and over time add things to it. But I am starting from the bottom as I havent really been all that interested in website design etc. What I want to know is what programs do people suggest I use to make it?? as i not all that flash with HTML.

Any help or links would be most welcome!

Gary Roberts · Unread post by **Gary Roberts** » Sat 06/08/2005 18:49

03 Stormchaser wrote:Ok I have just bought the domain http://www.03stormchaser.com
Its just going to be a weather page, and over time add things to it. But I am starting from the bottom as I havent really been all that interested in website design etc. What I want to know is what programs do people suggest I use to make it?? as i not all that flash with HTML.

Any help or links would be most welcome!

In my opinion you should keep it as simple and uncluttered as possible.

Learning the very basics of HTML is not at all difficult, seriously. There are some great online resources for that, such as:

http://www.yourhtmlsource.com/

http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/

http://htmldog.com/

http://werbach.com/barebones/

And tons more (check Google).

From there you can move on to CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) which aren't hard to create and use either, and which make life a lot simpler also (as well as make the site look very cool, with little effort).

You can try some of the WYSIWYG-type webpage builders, but they tend to make things more complex than necessary, and you tend to learn a lot less that way. And users of those programs are tempted to add all sorts of flashy junk to their pages, just because the apps make it easy too.

I say learn the basics of HTML. It really isn't hard. I thought it would totally suck having to learn it but once you see the very basic structure of it HTML is simple.

Anyway, I'm familiar with the basics of raw HTML and CSS, but not much more than that. I'm happy to help in any way I can, and I'm sure there are others here with more skill and experience who'll do likewise.

NZstorm · Unread post by **NZstorm** » Sat 06/08/2005 18:54

I use microsoft Frontpage. Its easy and basic. You certainly don't need to know your html with Frontpage. Just like making a page in Word.
Check the microsoft site for details.

GraemeWi · Unread post by **GraemeWi** » Sat 06/08/2005 19:02

I like the open sourced (free) NVU http://www.nvu.com/ I've been using it for about 6 months - the 1.0 version has recently been released. It is also like using Word, but you can tweak the HTML directly if you want using it's tabbed interface.

NVU is like Dreamweaver v2 /3ish so it's quite good!

My other web editor is Dreamweaver, but prefer NVU as I'm an open source freak.

For file transfer I use FileZilla http://sourceforge.net/projects/filezilla

Cheers,

G

Gary Roberts · Unread post by **Gary Roberts** » Sat 06/08/2005 19:50

NZstorm wrote:I use microsoft Frontpage. Its easy and basic. You certainly don't need to know your html with Frontpage. Just like making a page in Word.
Check the microsoft site for details.

One issue that often arises with Frontpage is that many of the pages created with it only render properly in Internet Explorer.

Or that used to be a problem...have they fixed that yet?

tgsnoopy · Unread post by **tgsnoopy** » Sat 06/08/2005 20:00

Gary Roberts wrote:
NZstorm wrote:I use microsoft Frontpage. Its easy and basic. You certainly don't need to know your html with Frontpage. Just like making a page in Word.
Check the microsoft site for details.
One issue that often arises with Frontpage is that many of the pages created with it only render properly in Internet Explorer.

Or that used to be a problem...have they fixed that yet?

It's grossly inefficent with HTML, filling it with lots of un-necessary umm what's a polite term... Rubbish ;o)

I used to edit HTML produced with Frontpage on the geocaching site, it was often quite a mission working out what people wanted and then delivering just that. Often the edited HTML was less than a quarter the size of the original frontpage produced HTML.

I'll say Gary's advise is right on the money.

Lets not line Bill's pockets any more than they need be too!

03Stormchaser · Unread post by **03Stormchaser** » Sat 06/08/2005 20:45

Thanks for that guys, have got alot to look thru!! I also have been suggested a program That comes with Mozilla- Composer. I would think similar to Frontpage.

My site is being hosted by Powweb, 5000mb upload and with 10gb bandwith a day!! Free domain and 18months hosting all for $93usd
Which I think is a good Plan!!

GraemeWi · Unread post by **GraemeWi** » Sat 06/08/2005 21:07

03 Stormchaser wrote:Thanks for that guys, have got alot to look thru!! I also have been suggested a program That comes with Mozilla- Composer. I would think similar to Frontpage.

NVU is Mozilla Composer with a heap more development.

Cheers,

G

Willoughby · Unread post by **Willoughby** » Sun 07/08/2005 20:48

Macromedia Dreamweaver is awesome... incorporates flash etc very well

03Stormchaser · Unread post by **03Stormchaser** » Sun 07/08/2005 21:51

Thanks for the help guys, be sure to check my site now and again as I will be updating it on a regular basis as im building

03Stormchaser · Unread post by **03Stormchaser** » Sat 13/08/2005 12:14

I have added a brief report from 23-04-05 and also made a .gif file of the gust front going overhead.

http://03stormchaser.com/images/gust-front.gif

http://www.03stormchaser.com/StormChaseReports.html

NZstorm · Unread post by **NZstorm** » Sat 13/08/2005 12:30

Good to see your first report 03stormchaser.

Has Aaron stopped maintaining the other URL. last update was December.

Thunder · Unread post by **Thunder** » Sat 13/08/2005 12:44

Good stuff 03! Things look good.

G'day NZStorm, I do actually have a few reports to go up. The reason I haven't updated is I want to get a new site up and figured I'd do all the updating then...............things are coming to a crunch so I'd like to get it done. So yeah, will be some more stuff to go up definately, just been busy doing other things but want to get it done.

I like the little bit regarding your trip to the US, cool info!

Cheers.

Gary Roberts · Unread post by **Gary Roberts** » Sat 13/08/2005 12:54

03 Stormchaser wrote:I have added a brief report from 23-04-05 and also made a .gif file of the gust front going overhead.

http://03stormchaser.com/images/gust-front.gif

http://www.03stormchaser.com/StormChaseReports.html

Good to read this stuff. One thing, the first website we did for the observatory was a lot like yours, with the black background and mid-blue text. I thought it looked awesome, but heaps of people said it was too hard to read. I see what they mean now! I guess my eyes are a bit older...

03Stormchaser · Unread post by **03Stormchaser** » Sat 13/08/2005 13:19

the blue text is only for the links, it very easy to change, might have a look at what other colors look like on the black background!

Willoughby · Unread post by **Willoughby** » Sat 13/08/2005 15:05

Yes the key to a great website is how aesthetically pleasing it is.
I cringe when I look at some weather sites, great content, FANTASTIC pictures, but bad bad design!

Here are some examples of various sites on the web, and in my opinion how aesthetically pleasing they are.

http://www.metservice.co.nz/ - Excellent! was shocking before
http://www.trademe.co.nz/ - Excellent
http://www.google.com/ - ""
http://www.stuff.co.nz/ - ""
http://weather.northcott.co.nz/ - "" But lower part not used very well
http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/ - Excellent

http://www.nasa.gov/ - Average
http://www.tvnz.co.nz/ - Average, too cluttered but nice colour
http://www.xtramsn.co.nz/ - Average, too much colour variation
http://www.weatherzone.com.au/ - Average
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/ - Average, too much info

http://www.noaa.gov - Poor, looks like it's still stuck in the 90's!
http://www.msn.com - Poor, 'where do I start here??'
http://www.weather.com/ - Poor

Hopefully these sites will hint you, lose the black background lol

Oh and BTW.. this post isn't aesthetically pleasing at all!!

Gary Roberts · Unread post by **Gary Roberts** » Sat 13/08/2005 15:41

Foggy Hamilton wrote:Yes the key to a great website is how aesthetically pleasing it is.
I cringe when I look at some weather sites, great content, FANTASTIC pictures, but bad bad design!...

Yep, Jeff's site gets my vote for nicest in your list! But poor NOAA!

I hate those websites where you spend 10 minutes just trying to find the info you're looking for, and/or which take 30 minutes to open even on a DSL connection!

I use Opera (and sometimes Firefox), and when I find an Internet Explorer-only site I never visit it again. Be damned if I'll switch to the worst browser around just because some hack is too lazy or incompetent to adhere to W3C standards.

NZstorm · Unread post by **NZstorm** » Sat 13/08/2005 16:21

There is a lot of factors that come into play with website design. Resources is one such factor. Great web building programs cost quite a bit of money and take some time to master. Also the amount of traffic you anticipate will govern how much time/money you would want to spend. A company like 'trade-me' should have an excellent site as it will have a million plus visits a year and it will have a full time webmaster.

Fonts and colours are important choices as they can determine how easy a website is to read. I am currently looking at the fonts I use on http://www.thunderstorm.co.nz. I think the black background is ideal if the main aim of the website is to show photos.

Willoughby · Unread post by **Willoughby** » Sat 13/08/2005 16:38

NZstorm wrote: Fonts and colours are important choices as they can determine how easy a website is to read. I am currently looking at the fonts I use on http://www.thunderstorm.co.nz. I think the black background is ideal if the main aim of the website is to show photos.

I think NZstorm you could make a much better home page.. the content is too good to miss! I bet there are users who look at the home page and leave, and they shouldn't at all!

Willoughby · Unread post by **Willoughby** » Sat 13/08/2005 16:39

What am I saying? I havn't even got one!

03Stormchaser · Unread post by **03Stormchaser** » Sat 13/08/2005 17:01

Foggy you cant really compare a stormchase related webpage to those!!! look at other chase pages and you will find the majority with black backgrounds. Why? as NZstorm said when showing photos off it gives abit of a more professional look too it.
Also NZstorm i think there is a couple of things you could do to your site:

-You have used about 4 different fronts through out your website and it looks messy. You mentioned that your trying to find a good front, I would stick to Arial

-Also in the Motonui page you have just got areas of black space serving no purpose.

-And in the Greymouth Tornado page the photos are either aligned in the center and left of the page, abit disorganised.

Other than that your page is probably the best online Photo libary of New Zealand Weather it just needs a spring clean.
Other than the index page I would suggest making a templete up for reports etc. Look around American stormchase sites for ideas.

(I didnt mean to sound to critical in my critcism of your page

)

NZstorm · Unread post by **NZstorm** » Sat 13/08/2005 17:56

No problem with the criticism. I am aware of those issues though and it is my intention to improve the website.

Thunder · Unread post by **Thunder** » Sat 13/08/2005 18:09

Mine is a bad site, right ................now we've got that taken care of! lol.

I also like the black webpage look, does give a better look regarding photo's (or thumb's if you like).

I'm no expert on Web design but I figured NZstorm's site is fine, it's better than mine! I can see that. I guess I don't look too much at the design, as long as it's ok to get around, mainly I'm looking at the photo's / info. And I can see everything aok!

Cheers

03Stormchaser · Unread post by **03Stormchaser** » Sat 13/08/2005 19:19

I might also add that its a little deceiving when there is photos from America under the title Hail in New Zealand.

Fujita Phil · Unread post by **Fujita Phil** » Sat 13/08/2005 20:26

I went crazy with DHTML the week I made my at work (the boss was away and I was bored, someone taught me how to write in code and I was off).

Have tried to redesign it a couple of times but I need the boss to leave again

. I still get email enquiries for all around the world though. Usually I am the most frequent visitor anyhoo

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