The design of your website refers to the ‘look and feel’ of your site and to its functionality – how easy it is to use and navigate. The development of your website refers to the technical coding of its content or to the computing languages used to write its content. Options 1, 2, and 3 make these stages of planning simple. It is only the content of your website that you will need to consider independently. The planning stage of your website will require you to define the purpose of your on-line presence. Defining this purpose will guide the build of your website; its structure, content, and theme.

Ideally, you will want to optimise the design of your website to encourage its use. A friendly design might have

• a layout that is ‘wide and shallow’ not ‘narrow and deep’ so that users do not have to scroll down layers and layers of content
• tools like hyperlinks to provide easy navigation around the site with limited clicks
• functions like a menu, search facility, and site map to provide fast and user-friendly access
• accessibility functions to improve the availability of your content

Developing  your website requires technical knowledge. If you are not up to speed with computing language then options 1, 2, and 3 take the ‘sting’ out of developing and maintaining your website. These options include content management systems (CMS) that will allow you to manage the content of your website without computing language know-how. A content management system works in collaboration with complementary components to customise the display of your web content. A CMS means that you can create, format, edit, and update content without needing technical knowledge and without a web developer

Content is the information you put on your website. Remember that your website is an extension of your station and ideally it will be as relevant to your listeners and supporters. Aim to keep the content of your website engaging. Friendly content will include

• information that is accurate, relevant, and current
• simple and clear language
• headings and sub-headings
• bullet points
• short, concise sentences
• short pages
• graphics and visual aids

CONSIDER OPTIONS 1,2 or 3 > NEXT PAGE

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