Bill Larnach's Web Design page

Home Home page Open UniversityStudying for a degree with the Open University InternetFavourite places and uses of the Internet About Me A page about me, my past and the future WorkMy work as a technician BikesMy Ducati 900SL My hobbiesAn insight into my various hobbies and spare time interests Site MapA complete site map, showing when links were last checked, picosearch indexed, etc. ContactIf you have any comments on my site please email me.

My Interest in Web Design

I created my first web page in 1996 using Front Page Express, but I had little idea about design or html coding until I did T171 'you, your computer and the net' an introductory I.T course with the Open University. I learnt the basics of html coding, but it wasn't until TT280 - Web Basics: Design, Development and Management where I started to appreciate the importance of web standards, accessibility, browser compatibility, and useability, etc. There are many excellent tutorials on the Internet, such as W3Schools, so on this page I intend to describe the process I go through in creating pages, and the tools that I use.

My web pages are mainly about my various hobbies, or my Open University courses. Once I have an idea for some content I start with a basic xhtml + CSS template and adjust it to suit the new content. I use 1st page 2000 as my html editor - I found it the best for me after trying several during TT280. I then spell check and grammar check each page, before validating the code and css with the W3C validator. I also try to make my pages accessible by running them through the A-Prompt web accessibility verifier. Finally I check links with a freeware program called Xenu link sleuth.

It's important that images are optimised for the web, so I either use Pixia, a freeware image editor, or online tools such as gifbot or Jpeg Wizard. Screen Hunter is a useful tool for capturing images and screen prints.