[Lunatique]

My current site was designed back in 2001, using Dreamweaver. I have no interest in coding websites with notepad--I can only use WYSIWYG. I've heard about some of the newer stuff like php, css..etc, but I really don't know anything about them as far as why I should upgrade my site to the newer stuff.

I know there are a lot of webdesign gurus hanging around here, so can you guys give me a rundown of what are the best current choices, and the pros and cons? Oh, and they'd have to be really easy to use--as in Dreamweaver easy--no need for notepad.

And I won't touch flash at all. I like looking at cool flash stuff once a while, but I'll never use it for my own stuff.

[Sumaleth]

CSS

Let's you separate the "style" (eg. colors, titles, links etc) of a website out of the HTML code and into a separate file, which can be shared by lots of pages. The main benefit is that a single change to the CSS file will instantly change the appearance of all the web pages that use it, rather than having to modify each page individually.

I don't know if wysiwyg editors can work with CSS. I wouldn't be surprised if they don't work with CSS.

PHP/APS/CGI/PERL/JAVASCRIPT

These are all scripting languages. They don't have anything to do with the LOOK or DESIGN of a website (that's still done with your wysiwyg editor), but they all allow you to automate processes on your page.

What sort of stuff? Well, where to start. This forum is run by a PHP script (phpBB). There are scripts that automate the running of image galleries, guestbooks and email contact, search engines, news/blogs, etc, etc, etc. No limit to what scripting can do.

There's no way to wysiwyg your own scripting, but installing pre-written scripts usually isn't too difficult (especially if your server has something like Installatron or Fantastico installed for you to use), but you would need to learn some technical stuff to make the most out of them and keep them updated.

--

All this stuff does take some technical learning.
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Art Links Archive -- Artists and Tutorials

[balistic]

Have you checked out Eyewoo's moobad back-end? I'm planning on porting my site to it at some point.
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brian.prince|light.comp.paint

[eyewoo]

Balistic.... cool... let me know when you are ready and I'll get the latest version to you which is an improvement and fixes a few problems. It's not available online.

Luna... I've been out of the professional website designing business for several years now. ( just weened off my last website client about a month ago) So, I'm not really sure what is the latest and greatest wysiwyg'er, but my guess would be Dreamweaver is still probably at the top somewhere, if not on top...

My Moobad sites are designed using PHP, which is a server side scripting language, unlike javascript. The difference being with javascript you can test code locally on your computer, but with PHP, you must upload the code to a server in order to test it... a minor inconvenience, but there are considerable advantages to a server side scripting language.

To use a Moobad site, you do need to know basic HTML coding to use it well. However, HTML is a pretty easy learn.
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[cheney]

Here is a basic run down of some modern options:

Knowing how to code your own HTML is an extremely valuable skill for an artist unless your pockets are lined with gold enough to always pay somebody else. A good looking website will make your art seem much more professional similar to a nicely decorated store is much more professional than a warehouse even if the warehouse is selling higher quality goods.

It will take only a little longer to learn to code HTML than to learn your way around some complex GUI software. The advantage to coding the page yourself is that you will have full control of layout and design.

Text is best displayed with CSS as Sumaleth said. CSS has a few advanced features, but text is its most basic and important feature. CSS will allow the formating of text much like a word processor.

PHP and ASP are created with similar purposes, but each have grown into different monsters. Both of these are server side programming languages that allow for the creation of programming, scripts, and so forth to be executed based upon user input over a webpage. These are most typically used to access and write to databases typically some version of SQL. There is alot that can be done with these though. DeviantArt and GFXArtist are both created entirely out of PHP. A really cool feature is GD, i think, that allows for the programmable creation or recreation of graphics. That is how Devart is able to generate smaller versions of submitted images at high quality on the fly. You can also build all kinds of tools with these languages like tracking where users visit what parts of your website and so on, but there are also trackers out there that will monitor this remotely for money.

I have always just written my HTML in notepad. Since learning how to write it on my own I have never found any reason to spend time learning to use a GUI tool. At the same time I hate programming, so I never learned PHP, ASP, or anything database related.

In my mind a well created website is this:
1) Beautiful art
2) Functional design
3) Small, quick, and clean layout
** most important** 4) Seamless integration of website art into the functional design.
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[cyBeAr]

If you're only interested in doing your own site and don't plan to get into webdesign it's probably not worth the effort to learn building your own site. I recommend looking around for existing free flexible site frameworks to use since it will be a lot less work required on your part and you'll get a well tested platform that's hopefully updated in the future as well.

Eyewoo's solution might be good although I don't know enough about it to be able to recommend it or not.

Wordpress: http://wordpress.org Seems to be a very good solution for text at least, not sure how it would handle a site with heavy focus on images.

Gallery: http://gallery.sourceforge.net/ Good for photo/image albums.

Wordpress and gallery would probably make a good pair if they're not difficult to integrate, I might try when I decide to make a proper stie for myself and not just use the gallery I'm using now. There are probably lots of other good solutions around the net that I don't know about.

You can run a server on your own computer to test your site on while building it, there are easy to install server packages with things like mysql bundled with it. The important thing is to know what kind of server and packages your host support so you don't end up making something that isn't supported on the server you'll be uploading your page to.
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[AndyT]

There is a site that illustrates the power of CSS.
http://www.csszengarden.com/
Pretty funny text IMO.

All the designs use the same html file.
Just the CSS file is different. Redesigns are a lot faster that way.
You don't need tables for positioning any more.

Unfortunately, like in all areas of webdesign there are differences between browsers.
I always have to do a lot or researching until everything works the way I want it.
You can definitely use the CSS files in WYSIWYG editors ...
but probably you'll have to write the CSS files in a texteditor.

IMO ... once you get used to it you work a lot faster with CSS design.
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[Impaler]

It's my understanding that most web pages are designed with old world alchemy and shamanistic dances before the Harvest Moon.

cuz i can't sure as hell get it to work.
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QED, sort of.

[gLitterbug]

Only people with a small penis have Flash homepages.

[Lunatique]

It seems like all the modern choices require you to know how to code? Does that mean I'm better off NOT updating my website? I really have zero interest in learning how to code--I have enough trouble with everything else I do--learning how to code is the last thing I want to tackle.

My current site--is it bad? Is it so bad that it needs to be put out of its misery and then redesigned and rise like the phoenix reborn?

[glody]

Lunatique, as a designer myself i do feel perhaps your site is starting to show its age... *ducks*

i recently took a class on css, within a couple weeks of brisk reading and trial and error i started to catch on. Definitely no pro at coding however i do see the benefit for artists to use css for their sites, as generally it doesnt take very long to redesign if you decide to later on... you can make global changes through the html tags already being used. It has been posted above however check out:

http://www.csszengarden.com/
for some examples and click through the various links as it is all based on the same code, the only thing that changes generally are global variables along with the different graphics/images being used.

I also found this book to be a huge help in breaking everything down DHTML and CSS for the World Wide Web: Visual QuickStart Guide, Third Edition

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0321199588/qid=1121145555/sr=8-15/ref=pd_bbs_ur_15/103-7325672-6282206?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

If you want check it out and good luck with everything.

[B0b]

[eyewoo]

I see Lunatique's point of view. He doesn't want to spend a lot of time learning the finer points of a technology he is only going to use for one project.

What to do? Again, I say stick with Dreamweaver... keep it simple, keep the site design behind the artwork and photography.
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tumblr blog
digtal art

[cheney]

You asked for a critique of your current website so here it goes:

Out of 10 I would give your website a 7, and it has a long way to go to get a higher grade. This means your website is good but not excellent. Let me explain why.

1) Content: This is most important to any website. You have a broad array of art, a great eye for photography, and an interesting background as noted in your resume section. There is not much to be improved in this regard.

2) Functionality: This is perhaps more important than content, but less noticable until things break. Everything on your website seemed to work well, and seemed to be coded in a minimal fashion. Most artists and design people love minimal designs that are light in coded, but never break or fail to do their jobs. You have excelled in this regard.

3) Design: This can be improved, but your layout and color tones are very soothing to the eye. You various pages can be cleaned up a bit so that text and images are presented in a more uniform fashion. Presenting all your content in unified pages would go a long way to enhancing the ease of reading from one page to the next.

4) Imagry: This is better divided into two subcategories:
4a) Content Imagry: This is the imagry you intend to publish such as your actual art and photography. This stuff is brilliant as I already noted above.
4b) Design and Layout Imagry: This is where your website is seriously hurting. The text buttons are nice and random splash images are fantastic. There is nothing else in this regard on the rest of your website except flat HTML defined backgrounds. I honestly believe you could add a bit of imagry, color borders defined in HTML, or anything to make your layout more visually pleasing. Your website becomes extremely boring to the eye after the splash screen and entirely relies on the content to take up the slack. You should have something that makes the website visually interesting so that your audience is interested before even looking at your content. The tricky part is to add this effect, but keep it limited so that it reenforces your art instead of over powering it.

Over all your website is good, so don't scrap it unless you have an entirely different design concept in mind. You really do need to work on presenting your content in a unified manner and making your layout more visually interesting to get closer to perfection. I really loved your splash image with the grass and bamboo.
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[gLitterbug]

[cyBeAr]

The point of the using a premade solution as one of thse I mentioned is to not have to code it yourself. What can somtimes be a bit difficult is the installation and setup process but once that it's done you shouldn't have to worry anymore except about modifying css files or similar to customize the look of your site and keeping it updated through the fancy webinterfaces.

You can learn to do some simple php stuff easily but to build a good, flexible and secure site will take time and hardly worth the trouble for just one site.
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[Lunatique]

Thanks for the comments! They are very helpful, and I see if I can implement some changes.

I only do webdesign for my own site, so there's no incentive for me to learn coding. I just need to be able to keep my site running smooth, implement changes, and add new content, that's it.