[thelist] SITE BUILDING: plan of attack OR how do you experienced people tackle a from-the-ground-up website?

[Samir M. Nassar]

Chris,

I don't know about 'experienced' developers. Personally my best friend
is pen, paper, a can of Cherry Coke, and a few minutes of quiet time.

I sit down and think what I want for a site. Or if I already have the
information, then I think how I want the layout to be.

For example, for a longer menu I usually go with a vertically stacked
menu down the side, for a shorter menu I usually go for a horizontal
menu.

Then I try to manage my rough idea, still on paper, into what it should
look like on the screen. Logo, menu width, content area, footer, is
there a 'links' box on the right?

If I have the luxury of time I put it aside, and probably pick it up
later when I get a flash of brilliance/utter stupidity.

The cherry coke is just there because I get thirsty.

After I am satisfied that I have an idea of what I want and where I want
to go I start to translate my 'thoughts' into HTML with dummy text and
images. With CSS it is very easy to finesse the User Interface and
shifting things around in DIV's is just plain cool. I keep doing this
untiul I find a satisfying template and off we go.

Samir M. Nassar
RedConcept.NET - http://redconcepts.net