Web Development Basics
There are hundreds of web-development companies offering their services to you, and all of them will claim to be the best. What company in their right mind would claim otherwise? With that in mind, we have taken some time to provide you with a list of things to know about web-development, what to expect from any development process, and how to choose a quality developer. While we do hope that you choose AeonVox as your developer, the information below should be useful to you no matter your decision.
Finding a Developer
Development Basics
Basic Terms
Domain: The name of your site. aeonvox.com is a domain.
SubDomain: A 'sub-category' of your site. development.aeonvox.com is a subdomain. Note the replacement of www with the subdomain name development.
URL: Often used synonymously with domain. The address of your site. http://www.aeonvox.com is the URL for the domain aeonvox.com
Host: The location where your website is hosted. AeonVox recommends (and uses) BlueHost as a domain-hosting service.
Server: A computer that acts as hub for information shared by at least one other computer. A hosting server (or host) contains one or more websites on its hard drive.
Linux: A popular web-server operating system. Most web-servers are either Linux or Windows servers.
Database: An organization of tables that holds collected data for retrieval and manipulation. Most dynamic (changeable) information on a website is stored on a database.
MySQL: A database program used by many web-developers.
Object-Oriented Programming: (OOP) A method of programming that creates each portion of a program as an independent module or ‘object’. This method of programming allows for the greatest possible site flexibility, scalability, and usability and is therefore used by most professional web-developers
Scripting: A method of programming that is linear or ‘top-to-bottom’. This programming method is older and mostly outdated, but a few development outfits--especially quick & dirty outfits overseas--still use this method. Difficult to alter or upgrade down the road.
PHP: A popular server-side language that supports both an Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) format and a Scripting (or linear programming) format.
JavaScript: A client-side language that provides visual and usability enhancements for users who have JavaScript enabled on their browser (most users).
XML: A simple language used primarily for the passing of information between web-pages, especially when used in an AJAX environment.
AJAX: A technique used in web-programming where customer requests are captured by JavaScript and sent to a hidden server-side page and the result returned to the customer without the appearance of a 'page-refresh' or new page being loaded.
Flash: A client-side application developed by Macromedia Software (now owned by Adobe) that allows for rich visual presentation in the form of slideshows, movieclips, and other dynamic media.
HTML: The most basic web-programming language. Used to layout the presentation of a webpage.
CSS: A design-oriented web-programming language. CSS is used to provide style and design rules to a website.
SEO: Search-Engine Optimization. SEO is a fancy word for the little things professional site-developers do to make your site friendly toward search-engines (and therefore toward gathering traffic from them).
Words are better than images, and fonts are limited. Search-engines and screen-readers look for text on a page. Conversely, they do a poor job of deciphering images. While it is possible to build an entire site from image files, it is not recommended. With that in mind, note also that a browser can only recognize text-font formats that are loaded locally on its own computer, which can limit safe font-choices. While we are more than happy to provide your project with whatever default text-font you wish, we do highly recommend one of the following fonts (click on any font to change the text on this page to that font):
Large files take a long time to load In order to view a page, a browser must load everything on that page. If a browser is stuck loading large image files, large video files, or large music files (or any other large file for that matter), your visitor may get tired of waiting and leave before they have even had a chance to view your page! For that reason, websites will often place any necessarily large files on their own pages and allow users to volunteer to load those files by clicking on a link or button. The most recognizable example of this type of file-management is with large image files. Often, a page will initially load a small version of a large image file and then provide a link to a separate page labeled ‘Click to view Larger Image’. In doing so, the site-owner maintains visitors with a quick-loading page, and visitors who really want to see the large picture are able to do so with a simple mouse-click. Note also that large image files are almost never used as background-images for webpages. Instead, backgrounds are either tiled with easily-repeated small images or left as a solid color.
The Customer is not a captive audience. Entire books can (and have) been written about basic web-development principles. As much as we’d like to share the entirety of our development knowledge with you, it is not feasible to write an entire book on a single webpage, nor do we believe most visitors would read such a verbose presentation in one sitting. In the end, a great many basic web-development principles hinge around the single fact that your visitors are different from someone watching TV or flipping through a magazine. On the web, the user is in complete control. They do not have to sit through a video-ad if they don’t want to, they don’t have to listen to music or sound files you provide for them, and they don’t have to flip to the next page if they don’t feel like it. As such, everything on a website must be tailored to the user experience. Think about the things you enjoy when you surf the web, and then think about the things you do not enjoy when you surf the web. Chances are, the visitors who come to your site will have the same likes and dislikes that you have.
If you would like to speak in detail about web-development basics, we would be happy to schedule a consultation with you and provide you with all the knowledge we have gained throughout our years of experience.
Don’t just talk to the salesman. Every web-development company is different. Some will put you in touch immediately with a project manager or software architect who knows programming, understands what the company can and cannot accomplish for you, and can give you an accurate price-quote and timeline. Others will send you directly to a sales person who is very good at promising the world for rock-bottom prices and not very good at delivering the product at the end of the day.
While a programmer is often less exciting to speak with than a sales-person, in the world of web-development you need to speak with someone who has a detailed and expert knowledge of the project at hand. If the company you speak with will not let you speak with someone who has had more than 3 years of experience as a programmer when you have your initial consultation, chances are very high that you will have a difficult time with the development process and will likely regret your decision to work with the company.
Ask to see a portfolio of work. Most web-companies will be happy to show you a list of websites that they have programmed for clients. Even companies that are just starting will be happy to direct you to personal sites they have done or sites their programmers built while working for other companies. Even if a portfolio is small, it is the best gauge of programmer-quality that you can reference. If a company is hesitant to show you a portfolio of sites, does not have a portfolio linked on their own website, or simply does not have a portfolio at all, you are taking a significant risk in hiring them.
Ask who and where the programmers are. A web-development company is its programmers. The entire company revolves around the product its programmers build. A company that does not maintain programmers in-house is not a company interested in providing you with a quality product, they are a company interested in profit. Additionally, even when outsourcing, a company should use proven, high-end programmers that can return a quality product rather than low-cost, overseas labor that will return a poor product.
Browse and read the company website. While a web-development company might not put their absolute best work into their own website, it will always be a good representation of what they can and cannot do. If you find the website to be well-designed for its purpose, easy-to-use, and friendly, chances are good that the company can do the same for you.
Ask about a Quality Guarantee. A good web-development company will guarantee any work they provide for you. These guarantees are, by necessity, conditioned, but should always boil down to promising that if any sort of bug or anomaly should pop up in the coding (within a reasonable amount of time), it will be fixed immediately and without further expense.
