Design

I will create a basic Web site for you comprising up to 10 pages for $149 (see the hosting page for more information). The site will consist of the main or home page, which will contain an introduction to your site, and secondary pages containing such information as your practice location, your hours, the services you provide, information about you and your staff, and your fees (if you choose to have that information on the Web). This will leave you room for several additional pages for articles you may want to provide on specific diseases or treatments.

If you wish more than the basic site, we can discuss additional charges for additional services (more information on the Hosting page or see the Fee Schedule). The fee for setting up a basic site will also include creation of a logo or title bar for your site and the creation of navigation buttons. As an example of this, the title bar at the top of this page appears on every page of this site. It consists of a single image file. The row of navigational buttons below the title bar is just that—buttons—they are not just text. The individual names (eg, Home, About, etc) are actually three separate buttons of three different colors. This allows me to create the color change effects when your cursor moves over the button and when you click on it. These are not absolutely necessary, and simple text can be used instead.

You will see that when you click on one of the buttons and go to another page on this site that the title bar and the navigation bar remain the same—only the content of the bottom portion of the page changes. On this site the title bar and navigation bar are repeated on each page. A similar effect can be achieved using frames. With frames, the title and navigation bars are in separate frames, which remain constant. The information from page to page is the only thing that changes and it appears in a third frame.

The title bar, navigation bar, and content field are the three principal components of any Web page. Having a navigation bar is convenient for those viewing the page because they don't have to keep going back to the main page to get to other content. The navigation bar can appear at the top (as it does on this page) or at the left, or even the right.

When I design a Web site for you, I will ask you about some of your preferences, eg, what colors you like, what fonts you like, and what kind of general layout you prefer (top or side navigation buttons, frames or no frames, etc). I will try to give you what you want, but I will also use my experience to guide you. For example, many new Web site developers and owners will use backgrounds, which I tend to stay away from. Backgrounds containing images make text hard to read, and better Web sites do not have them. Solid color backgrounds such as you see on this page are fine as long as there is sufficient contrast between the text and the background. I also don't generally recommend light letters on dark backgrounds for large blocks of text, since they are also hard to read. They work fine for things like the navigation bar, but if all of this text were in yellow letters on a dark brown background, you would have a real headache by now.

If you're not really sure what you want in terms of layout, you can leave it up to me. I will ask what colors you like, and I will get all the basic information from you, and then I'll just take it from there. Once I have the basic site laid out, I will tell you where you can view a sample. If you approve, I'll finish the site and you will be up and running.

I will also ask you for images to use on your site. You may want to use pictures of your clinic or your staff. If you have a scanner and can scan the pictures, you can send the images to me electronically. If not, you can mail the pictures to me, I will scan them, and then I will return the pictures to you.