STAA Conference: Building the Site (2)

STAA Conference, Washington DC, January 2002

Building the Site (Contracting Out)

Find a Web Site Developer you can work with

• Ask to see their portfolio and client list.
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  • Often they have a web site you can peruse.
• Get several quotes from different firms
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  • (Note: ISP often double as web design firms)
• Provide examples of web sites to the contractor to show the type of site that might best reflect your company.
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• Define content at the outset
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  • Provide approved, edited copy on disk for the contractor to work with.
• Maintenance and compatibility
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  • Check that the Web Designers will make arrangements whereby you can update the content of the site yourself without having to come back to them.
  • Make certain that your developer tests your site on multiple browsers to ensure that your site is as compatible as possible.
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    • Note: the wide variety of systems and monitors means that things like the simple display of the size of text will vary widely
  • Ask the designers to provide a simple "text only" alternative if they plan to use advanced features (frames or cascading style sheets).

Red check marks highlight points that will be of interest to established sites as well as new ones.