Part One: Accessibility

The internet is meant to be for everyone, and "accessibility" is the term used to represent design features that help meet that goal. Many people suffer from a vision impairment or other issue which makes non-accessible sites difficult to use. By adding accessibility features to a site, it becomes more useful and allows for a wider range of visitors.

Some common examples of accessibility features include "alternate text" and "long descriptions" for images and a "summary" of table data. These features allow screen-readers to vocalize the contents of images and tables, which in turn makes these elements easier for a vision-impaired visitor to understand.

There are many types of screen readers, and anyone interested in learning more about screen readers should visit either Freedom Scientific at www.freedomscientific.com or GW Micro at www.gwmicro.com. Both of these companies produce excellent screen readers and we at Brukenet Web Design highly recommend them.

 

Part Two: Databases

When most people think of the word, "database", they usually think of programs like Microsoft Access, which is a great application for single computers and small networks. While it is true that many online databases do resemble a traditional Access database, they can also be used for much more. Whenever you want to log in to a website, you are accessing a database; when you visit an online store with hundreds or thousands of items (such as Ebay or Amazon.com) you are accessing a database. Online databases can be used to store product information with links to images, membership data, usernames and passwords, and much more.

An excellent example of a database would be an online store with several hundred products; each product would be one item in the online database and the database could be designed to track inventory, archive customer purchases, and even generate reports based on the transaction data. All transactions could be handled by online forms which, when combined with an email system and an e-commerce gateway, could entirely automate the process.

When a designer talks about a database, they are often talking about two things -- a sort of "back office" which contains a database and a "front office" that includes a graphical interface for visitors to use the database. It is important to understand that this "front office" does NOT have to be open to the public, and can be restricted to authorized users by a password login. It's possible to set up various levels of security, with different users having more or different levels of authority within the system, and the site owners can add and modify the accounts of other users on an administrative level.

Perhaps more than with any other design element, it is crucial when designing a database that the designer understands how the database will be used, so that it can be created in a way which is most efficient and stable. If a database is properly designed, it can expand and operate for years with only minimal maintenence. If it is not properly designed, many days or even weeks can be lost later in the design process as revisions and alterations become necessary. Once the actual database is made, an efficient database design allows for later expansion and additional features.

 

Part Three: Security

The internet is full of people that want to get into things that they are not supposed to get into -- even those that are "just curious" can cause trouble if security is lax. For that reason, security is one of our biggest concerns at Brukenet. We have never had a security breach in the history of our company, and hope to keep that excellent record for many years to come.

Security begins by controlling access. Many hosting services offer automated client interfaces such as CPanel, which have complete power over a client's site. We don't use these because we believe that the best security is in knowing our customers. You will never have a situation where someone hacked your control panel, simply because we do not have client control panels; our clients contact us by phone and by email when they have work request for us. In addition to being more secure, you will never have to learn how to set up cron jobs or configure a SSH connection with our fully managed service.

In addition to restricting access, we also write our code with security in mind. A good example is a login page -- the login page needs to communicate with a secure database to verify the login information that is submitted, but we do not include that information on the login page. Even if a hacker could find a way to "read" the code of the login page, there would be nothing there that he could use to hack farther into the system; all such sensitive access information is isolated on pages called "includes", which are not even located in the same part of the server as the login page.

To continue the example using a login page, our servers are designed to watch for repeated failures in accessing pages; this type of defense protects against a "brute force" attack such as a hacker that tries to automatically enter thousands of password in an attempt to break the code -- such a hacker would be locked out of the system and his IP address blocked and logged after the first few dozen failed attempts.

Lastly, our most sensitive systems are simply not accessible over the internet. The most secure sections of our server can only be accessed by a tech that is physically typing on a keyboard that is attached to the server itself; those parts do not even accept connections from the internet, making them immune to any hacking attempts. We have support technicians that monitor our servers 24 hours per day, every day, to make sure that your site is secure, stable, and without any risk from hackers and other internet riff-raff.

 

Part Four: Forms & Emails

Forms and emails are a common and vital part of many web sites. It's hard to imagine a modern website that does not offer a contact form, a registration form, a survey form, or some other way for visitors to interact with the site. Forms can come in many types, for example "validated" and "mandatory". Sometimes a form is not much more than a simple button, like the "Back To Top" buttons that you see on this page.

When speaking about forms, it's important to understand several important ideas. A "mandatory" item is something for which a visitor MUST provide a value; entering a password is a common example of a mandatory value because if it is not filled in, the form can not be processed by the server. The bits of code that check to see if a value is entered in a mandatory field are called "validation" scripts, and they make sure that the values put in by users are in the correct format. Validation can be as simple as making sure that there is a value, in the case of a mandatory item, or they can be as complex as making sure that the alleged credit card that a user enters is in fact a valid Visa or Mastercard number. Validation is often used to prevent hackers, pranksters, and "bots" from entering false or damaging values into forms.

Forms normally collect information for one of three purposes -- to use that information immediately, to store the information in a database, or to email the information. When a form collects information for immediate use, it normally passes that information to a script, which will output a value or make a change in the way that the website appears to the user. To use the example of a "Back To Top" button, it changes your view of the page so that you are once again looking at the top of the web page. A registration page might ask for your name and email, and then store it in a database for later use.

Perhaps the most common type of form is the email contact form, which allows a visitor to send comments or messages to the site's administrators directly. These forms normally ask for a visitor's name, email address, the subject of their message, and a short message for the body of the email. Upon submission, the data from these forms is passed to a special script that emails the information to a pre-determined mailbox. In some cases a confirmation email is also sent to the visitor, and information can also be stored in a database for later review.

 

Part Five: E-Commerce

Some websites are purely a labor of love, but most are intended to earn money. This can be done by selling advertising space for banners, by setting up "pay-per-click" banners for affiliates, or by direct sales of products to visitors. Of these, direct sales usually involves processing credit cards, which can be tricky for many smaller business sites. A business that wants to sell directly online has two basic options available to them -- they can either process credit cards themselves or use a third-party "E-Commerce Payment Gateway".

Direct processing is a great idea in theory, because it eliminates a middle-man. It is, however, a very complex and expensive path due to the number of laws that govern online credit card transactions. The first step in direct processing is to set up a "secure socket layer", often called "SSL" on the server. This process is fairly simple and prepares the server for the second step, which is the purchase of a security certificate from an accredited company such as Verisign (such certificates vary in price but are generally several hundred dollars). The third step is to receive independent authorization from EACH of the credit card companies that you wish to accept. Lastly, the database and scripts that are necessary to set all this in place on a website are among the most costly and time-consuming of projects within the realm of web design.

Fortunately, third-parties exist that handle much of this, thus preventing the cost from becoming too excessive for most small businesses. Third party payment solutions generally come in two types - those with a monthly fee but a low per transaction fee (such as Authorize.net) and those with no monthly fees but a high per transaction fee (such as Paypal). For smaller businesses that are just beginning, it is often advantageous to use a service with no monthy fee while the site builds traffic, and to then switch to a site with a lower per transaction fee after traffic and sales reach a good level.

 

Part Six: Graphics & Videos

If websites could be said to have a soul, it would be in their graphics. In the broadest sense, everything that is not simple text is a type of graphics. While clear and well-written text is vital to a good site, it is often the graphics that catch a visitor's attention and keep them on the site long enough to read that well-written text. The importance of good graphics can NOT be stressed enough. Many companies will spend as much as half of their web design budget on custom graphics and enhanced images.

Graphics can generally be divided into four general categories:

• Static Images - These can look nice but, as the name implies, they do not move.
• Swap Images - These are actually TWO static images and a bit of code that swaps one image for the other under certain circumstances. A good example of this is a button that can change color when the mouse pointer is on top of it.
• Animated Images - These are a cross between an image and a video; they contain a number of images that cycle in time to create a primative animation effect. Most animated banners fall into this category. Characteristics of these graphics include a relatively short cycle (usually less than 15 seconds) and a tendancy to loop or repeat. Smooth animation may require large files that load slowly for visitors with poor internet connections.
• Videos - A true video will normally be smoother than an animated image, will be longer, and normally will not loop. Videos often feature volume or other controls that a visitor can access to control the video's playback.

Within these four general categories there are many different types of "file formats" that offer subtle variations in quality, file size, and function. Some of the most common types of file formats for graphics are:

• GIF - This is a very old format, and is universally supported. It has the advantages of supporting either static or animated graphics and it can have a transparent background. The primary disadvantages are large file sizes and a limited number of colors.
• JPG - Sometimes called JPEG, this format creates smaller file sizes than a GIF and has a virtually unlimited number of colors. The disadvantage of this format is that it can NOT have a transparent background and it does not support animated images.
• PNG - This is a newer format that combines the best of GIF and JPG formats. It has an enormous range of colors, small file sizes, and the possiblity of a transparent background. However, it does not support animated images.
• TIFF, PSD, BMP - These formats are not normally used in web design, for various reasons. Files in these formats are normally converted to a GIF, JPG, or PNG format for use in web design.
• FLV - This is a type of video file format that requires another file to actually play - to understand it you should think of Windows Media player and an MP3 file - using that analogy this would be equal to an MP3 file because both are media that require a player to function. Despite this requirement, FLV files are common in web design because they have relatively small file sizes and high quality compared to most other options. FLV files are often called "Flash Video".
• SWF - The SWF format uses a technology that is very similar to FLV but which is self-contained and does not need another file to play. In fact, many FLV files actually use a SWF file as their player! When used in combination with an FLV file, SWF files are an excellent format for long videos. Shorter videos, or simple animated images, can be made in independent SWF files without an FLV file. Stand-alone SWF files are often called "Flash".
• MOV, MPG, AVI - These formats are used for lengthy videos and each has some benefit for desktop applications but none of them is ideal for web design and these formats are normally converted to FLV or SWF files for use in web design.

For a complete listing of file types, take a look at http://www.fileinfo.net/filetypes/video for video or http://www.fileinfo.net/filetypes/image for image files.

 

Part Seven: Marketing & SEO

Search engine optimization, or "SEO" as it's often called, is more of an art than a science. Everyone wants to rank highly on Google, Yahoo, and MSN search engines, but competiton is often rough. This is made even more difficult because each search engine uses slightly different means to rank sites, and the search engines keep their methods secret and don't share how they rank sites. Even worse, they often change the way that they make their rankings, so what works one month might fail the next month.

SEO is divided right now, into two different styles. One side offers quick returns -- and they can often make a site jump up in rankings very quickly -- but the price is that their techniques are often considered "unfair" by the search engine designers. Search engine designers often change their methods just to level the playing field and stop these "black hat" SEO providers. The other methods are slower, but safer and produces more stable and better long-term results.

At Brukenet Web Design, we advocate for a more stable and patient style of SEO. We design our sites to be friendly to search engines, and we work with our clients to develop comprehensive marketing strategies such as web-rings, banner exchanges, and other proven methods of generating traffic to a web site. To our way of thinking, it's better to get 100 visitors that actually want your product, rather than 10,000 visitors that arrive with false expectations or even against their will. At the end of the day, it is the numer of sales and the "conversion ratio" that matter, not the actual number of "hits". We want our clients to see continued growth for many years to come, not just a fast spike followed by an swift fall.

 

Part Eight: Forums

A forum is a means of communication that has become very common online. The essence of a forum is that it is very much like a public bulletin board; in fact many forums are actually referred to as bulletin boards or message boards. Forums allow visitors to post questions and opinions, and to read the posted messages of other forum visitors. Messages are often organized into wide categories, which are sub-divided into "boards", which contain a "thread" for each specific topic. Individual posts can be made to these threads, or users can start new threads.

When they work, forums are extremely powerful tools which can generate ad revenue from banners, educate visitors, solicit opinions from polls, and even provide technical support. When they fail, they are empty of users and accomplish nothing. The key is to have an audience that can and will use the forum. Attempting to start a forum "from scratch" is generally a bad idea -- it's often necessary to gain a significant amount of traffic to a site to support a forum; however, once a site has that traffic a forum is a powerful tool to keep that traffic returning for many years to come.

Forums normally provide a very rich interactive experience for users, with only a minimum of maintenance and administration; none-the-less forums do normally require at least one part-time "moderator" to monitor posts and to remove any offensive or illegal posts from the forum. For that reason, anyone considering a forum should be prepared to make an investment of time in the moderation of that forum. For a nominal fee, members of the Brukenet staff can and will admin a forum for you if desired.