Monday, February 4, 2008

Websites Are Good For Your Career: Follow Up

I got a comment from Brandon H at www.newlycorporate.com , who suggests that html is quickly fading. That would be a very important note to take. In this case, what do you think is best to learn as far as creating the most effective website?

5 comments:

----t h rive---- said...

I have no input as to what tools would help build the best website for your business, but I'm curious to see some answers and/or comments.

Often I wonder if it is something I should take a course in, as I have ideas to share for improving our company website and it's status online. When we refer people to it in proposals etc the first thing I think is "why?!" - it's got nothing new and informative on it, and doesn't incite curiosity. But that's not my line of work, and the firm seems to pay little attention to it, sadly.

And, Wordpress, eh? to me it's just another blog form, but I'm probably wrong.

Anna said...

CSS is definitely the new HTML! It's a MUST presentation-wise. Some graphics too. You can't just set font colors and sizes, a gradient background behind the links in the manu makes an enormous difference (and it's done in css).

Functionality-wise, it depends. If you just want a menu to appear on every page, Smarty (in php) will do. If the visitors are supposed to reload pages often, Ajax is the new php.

BUT! Making a website from scratch is like re-inventing the wheel today. Like you are using a blog engine for your blog, not making your own, you might wanna consider using a CMS for your website, especially if you want many people (did you say "company"?) to be able to edit the content. However, the CMS must look great and unique, so we're back to CSS and Photoshop.

I'd recommend browsing the Smashing Magazine archive.

Now how do employers feel about that, I have no idea. When I wrote my own CMS in php last year, I felt proud. Now I feel the need to learn Ajax to stay up-to-date. Employers might not be as aware of what's in right now.

An T. said...

Even though HTML is fading, a basic knowledge in HTML is fundamental to learning other languages. I am a student programmer at my world and even though I did not know other web languages before, I often incorporated HTML into coding in ASP.NET (which is getting VERY popular in the corporate world).

Anonymous said...

css, php, mysql. they are the foundation of wordpress.

or css and .net, as another reader suggested.

but why not just outsource? there's no need to spend 3-6 months trying to learn how to do something that you could hire someone to do in 8 hours.

Anonymous said...

I'd agree with what Anna said. CSS is more or less the new king at this point. It can be a tricky beast to master, though. I've spent a good chunk of time with it and it still gives me grief here and there (granted it's not my profession).

Overall, though, it depends on your job. I'm a startup guy, so I do a combination of biz dev and marketing. As such, I have a strong tech understanding so I can communicate the severity of feature requests and designs to those who don't understand as well.

That said, if you're aware of it, it will definitely round you out as we move further toward intellectual capital and tech.