Create a Website – Estimate Time to Build a Website From Scratch
A question I get asked a lot is: can you please give me an estimate of how long it will take to create a website from scratch? My answer is always the same – it depends. It depends for what type of website you want to create and what is the website for. I kept track of how long it took me to create my website, so I can use myself as an example to try to estimate how long it might take you to create a website like mine.
For this estimate lets have the following conditions:
10 pages of content A simple graphic banner A standard 2 section layout (body and right navigation panel)
The above is a standard website. It is also the same parameters that I used to create my website. So using my website as an example I can give you an estimate time to build your website.
Another important factor is your knowledge of website technologies. Since you are interested in knowing how long it takes to create a website it is safe to assume that you have very little experience – you have never created a website before. When I created my website I also had little experience. This estimate assumes that your experience is as follows:
very basic understanding of HTML no understanding of CSS little or no experience creating graphics (Photoshop) little or no experience using website creation software (Dreamweaver)
If your level of experience matches the above then this estimate will be very accurate.
There are 3 major parts to creating a website. First there is content – the words that will fill the webpages. The second is the website itself – the layout and navigation between pages. And lastly there is the graphics – logos and eye pleasing graphical icons.
The first thing you should do is create the content, because without content all the other stuff does not matter. In a word document write all the pages for the website. Creating content can take as little as 10 hours (1 hour per page) to 100′s of hours. It all depends how well you write and what you have to write about. For this estimate lets assume that it takes you 2 hours per page to create content. So you have a total of (10 pages * 2 hours/page) 20 hours.
The second thing you must do is the website layout. For this you will need to learn how to use a website creation software and learn how CSS works. The website software I used was Dreamweaver. I spent about one full day going through tutorials learning what it can do and how to use it. So that is another 8 hours.
CSS is hard to understand. I spent about 4 hours doing tutorials and trying it out. I must admit even after the 4 hours I still did not grasp it fully, but after a few days of website creation I began to get the hang of it. CSS is best understood by experience. Spend 4 hours reading about it so that you get the general principle of it and then start your website. In time, and in the process of using it you will learn it.
Creating the website layout seems like a simple task. It is. Simply create a template page, choose some colors and fonts. It is simple, but it takes time. Because you need to make little adjustments and tweak things. The general layout takes no more then 8 hours, but the details take days. Making sure that everything is aligned, that the colors contrast each other pleasantly, that logo is centered. It is a lot of little things that add up to taking a long time. For my website all these little things ended up taking about 25 hours.
Using my website as an example, here is an estimate of how much time is takes to create a website:
Creating content: 20 hours Learning to use Website Creation Software and CSS 12 hours Creating website layout and basic graphical logo 28 hours
Total hours : 60 hours
In 50 hours you should be able to have a complete website with around 10 pages of content.
Website Templates for HTML, WordPress, Joomla and Drupal
Website templates are a great way of creating a website without having to spend weeks designing and developing web pages. There are many options of getting a website produced. Some businesses simply use a web designer and pay them to produce custom designed web pages. For those starting a new business on a small budget, paying someone else for this work may not be an affordable option. Free website generators such as WordPress, Joomla and Drupal have been around for years and are very popular. They are Open Source software which is available to download free by anyone. They can be a good option, but to the novice user, they can be difficult to customize. They may be fine for the hobby enthusiast, school or charity, but these websites can look very similar and may not present the professional image required by a business.
For those with knowledge of HTML and CSS, using an HTML editor is another option. But creating a website from scratch is hard work and can take a lot of time to complete. Website templates are certainly an option worth considering. Some are available free, and the author may require a back link to display on any web pages using such a template. Other website templates are available for a small price, and are often well worth the small investment as they will save a lot of time and effort. For a small website of around up to 10 pages, a simple HTML web template would be fine. For more complex websites, a content management system (CMS) such as Joomla, WordPress and Drupal may be more suitable and will make the content easier to organise and update.
Web templates are available for both HTML and CMS. In order to use them, a set of files must be downloaded to the local computer. The relevant files would then need to be customised with content text and images, and the updated files are then uploaded to the website domain. Web design software and template generators are also available to purchase which allow the user to adapt templates with different header designs, layout columns and navigation menus. These can allow the user to be a web designer without technical knowledge of HTML or CSS style sheets. Whether you want to set up a blog, hobby or business website, consider all the options, including time and available budget. Free templates may look attractive at first glance, but may not be the best solution for all websites.
Website Design – 2011 Website Design Trends
The fast technological and technical advancement produces fast changing trends in website design. 2011 is going to be nothing like 2010 and the past decade in general, according to experts. In the new year, functionality is going to take over looks and the design work is going to merge more effectively with development work. This is the main 2011 website design trend that determines all the rest.
What do you have to do the make a functional web site this year? As a start, you should make your pages compatible with portable multimedia devices with browsing capabilities. You should enable visitors to access your site through their mobile phones, portable media players and tablets.
You should reduce the amount of clicking visitors have to do. Similarly, you have to allow them to scan though your pages rather than to spend time trying to look for something that is not there. According to gurus, one of the trendiest ways to achieve all this is to make your web pages compatible with thumbnail browsing.
If you want to keep up with the 2011 website design trends, you should look for functionality in communication as well. It is a must for a functional web site to have a blog. However, just a couple of pages with articles are no longer sufficient. Linking to the social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter is a must. You should definitely use innovative features such as Twitter live feeds on your site as well.
The 2011 website design trends require you to have a deeper design with a number of layers creating a 3D view. Depth is easily accomplished by making some elements larger than others and by placing pictures and background with 3d images.
If you think 3D images may make your pages a bit too crowded, you may want to rely on another hot trend – using photos as background. The so called photographic backgrounds are stylish, elegant and attractive. They can send a powerful message, no matter whether they are used for personal, fashion or cooking sites.
The trendiest website colors in 2011 are the natural ones. Yellow, green and blue are by far the most popular. The idea is to use a combination of two or three colors with different undertones to create a harmonious and relaxing backdrop. Basically, you need to make the visitor feel at home.
Follow the 2011 website design trends to make your web site more functional and attractive in the new decade.