Website Design

[Simcfc73]

Hi,

 

How do you guys run your school website. I am the onyl It person at this school which is okay but it does mean I need to do everything... including the website. The current one looks crap but I know DW and Flash pretty well but I have no artistic ability whatsoever so I can spend all day updating the site but end up with something that looks crap.

 

Anyone recommend a website design company that does whizz bang websites for a couple fo quid?

 

I found a nice website that I may * copy * the structure from and put my stuff in but I've done this a few times and its always ended up looking awful.

[beeswax]

show us what you've got

[webman]

Grab a layout from here or here.

 

And/Or:

 

Grab a Content Management System to allow people to update their own content - test drive them here. Limbo/Joomla/Website Baker/Drupal highly recommended.

[alan-d]

sent you a pm which may be of help

[NetworkGeezer]

Share the secret

[Guest]

Agree with webman regarding the CMS route. I run my school sites on Joomla. Once you have your core info inputed changing the look of the site is as simple as downloading your chosen Joomla template and applying it.

 

http://www.joomla.org

[webman]

Top-notch, SYSMAN_MK!

[Guest]

Why thank you Sir :oops:

[tarquel]

nice theme SYSMAN_MK

 

Can i ask if you made it yourself or not?

 

btw you are required to have the joomla copyright shown i believe - unless you paid for it from them.... or something along those lines.

 

Cheers

Nath.

[MkII]

Looks like a Mamboteam template too

 

It's the flash banner that makes it tho' - very slick!

 

Nice, clean, simple design. Credit to you sir!

 

+ like the calendar - must use that

[beeswax]

@SYSMAN_MK: such a simple design and yet so effective. the quality of the images goes a long way to improving the look of the site as well.

 

I think joomla and mambo are still pretty interchangeable aren't they?

 

beeswax

[tarquel]

In most things they are, but not everything.

 

Nath.

[Guest]

Cheers for the input guys

 

The template is a modified pay for template from http://www.joomlashack.com I modified it to add the flash header, which can be modified very easily from the backend, plus I am setting up different headers for the different sections.

 

When the site goes live staff will add weblinks / documents / calendar dates / photos all from the front end.

 

Joomla is justa great piece of CMS.

[NetworkGeezer]

If using a fully fledged CMS as above is too much like hardwork why not create a guest account for your VLE. This appears to be what some schools in xGfL are doing.

[MartinDixon]

i used a template from here http://www.projectseven.com/

for our school site http://www.chelseachildrenshospitalschool.org/

tho it badly needs a redesign

want to make it WC3 compliant and incoporate some form of CMS...

[Simcfc73]

Stupid question but how does the copyrighting of a website work?

 

Do you just put the symbol on or do you have to register it?

[russdev]

by law any work you do is copyrighted to you unless you sign a contract thats say work done is owned by person that employed you.

 

you donthave to put copyrightnotice

 

Russell

[tarquel]

...but you should put something like:

 

© Copyright . All rights reserved.

 

just so the viewer is aware of it - as not everyone knows that any website is copyrighted by default.

 

Nath.

[ConTheITGuy]

by law any work you do is copyrighted to you unless you sign a contract thats say work done is owned by person that employed you.

 

I think you might find it's a bit fiddly when you do work on a company's time and/or using their equipment.

 

IIRC

 

Andy

[alan-d]

Share the secret

 

12Bay.com work in progress but I may scrap it and start again - gone off the design :?

[russdev]

by law any work you do is copyrighted to you unless you sign a contract thats say work done is owned by person that employed you.

 

I think you might find it's a bit fiddly when you do work on a company's time and/or using their equipment.

 

IIRC

 

Andy

 

still in law anything wrote belongs to you is basis of copyright law...

 

if you write/create something you own it unless you sign rights away which is why most contracts now have you sing the right away

 

russ

[webman]

Few URLs on the topic:

 

http://www.intellectual-property.gov.uk/faq/copyright/protect_rights.htm

 

http://www.intellectual-property.gov.uk/faq/copyright/who_owns.htm

 

Bit of a grey area:

 

However, where such a work is made in the course of employment, the employer is the first owner of these rights, unless an agreement to the contrary has been made with the author. In some situations two or more people may be joint authors and/or joint owners of copyright.

 

The term "made in the course of employment" could be open to interpretation depending on circumstances :?

 

http://www.intellectual-property.gov.uk/faq/copyright/more_faqs.htm

[beeswax]

for me, if it's a school website then it's copyright such and such a school full stop. for private/business websites I still say copyright that company or individual and then add a ....website design by..with a link

beeswax

[pshuttle]

Its going to sound terrible this... It isn't meant to cause offence....BUT

 

Having had a look at several of the websites showcased on this site it is fairly clear that as a whole us techies are generaly CRAP at design!

 

I wonder if its just that it is rare to be very visually creative and very techy at the same time?

 

Pete

[NetworkGeezer]

Its going to sound terrible this... It isn't meant to cause offence....BUT

 

Having had a look at several of the websites showcased on this site it is fairly clear that as a whole us techies are generaly CRAP at design!

 

I wonder if its just that it is rare to be very visually creative and very techy at the same time?

 

Pete

 

How many car designers or other industrial designers do you know who have engineering degrees.

 

Anyway it all depends what you mean by good design. If you just after eye candy with lots of showy Flash animations and convoluted navigation then yes perhaps eduGeeks are lacking.