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Designing a "Web 2.0" website: Where to begin?

GTaudiophile

GTaudiophile

Lifer
It's been a while since I tried to design my own website.

Back in the day, I guess was using "Web 1.0" tools...Dreamweaver?

I know a little bit about CSS but could use more info on how to properly implement it.

So, is there a really good "how to" out there on how to start building your own "Web 2.0" website? What tools/software are needed?

Just thought I would throw the question out there.
 
I only dabble a little in web stuff but:

What are you trying to do or learn?

Step 1: look at other websites to see what can be done

Step 2: decide on what features will actually make your website better. Remember the old IBM ad "do you want a flaming logo or a spinning logo"? Don't do that.

Step 3: then look for tools.

AJAX can make sense to refresh sections of a page instead of the whole thing, but using it just to use it is stupid (except as a learning experience). You can create AJAX code in PHP, JSP, ASP.NET, etc. so you need to choose your platform.

Depending on the type of site it might also make sense to use a pre-written content management, wiki, or blog package and just customize it as needed.
 
Web 2.0 is a buzzword term. It refers basically to the evolution of techniques for breaking up the atomic request/response per-page nature of websites into potentially smaller blocks of UI elements and transactions that populate them. The key, as DaveSimmons said, is to figure out what you want to do, and then figure out what tools will let you do it.

 
I was always under the impression that "Web 2.0" was more referring to the network-like contributions to a particular web site by users contributing their own information (Wikipedia, Flickr, del.ici.ous, Digg, etc). The AJAX-snappy user interface was also a component and I think is what you're referring to.

My personal website used AJAX one way in that I asynchronously retrieved blog posts from the database, so for example if you clicked on "August 2008" in the right sidebar under "Archive", that month's posts would be loaded into the main area without a full page postback.

I'd first get a good handle on CSS and why and how they are used, and then move on from there. DaveSimmons made a good point in that choosing a platform is important when using AJAX. I did the functionality I described above using PHP + MySQL + jQuery JavaScript library. I just got some Windows hosting so I'll be moving over to ASP.NET 3.5 and MS SQL though.
 
Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
It's been a while since I tried to design my own website.

Back in the day, I guess was using "Web 1.0" tools...Dreamweaver?

I know a little bit about CSS but could use more info on how to properly implement it.

So, is there a really good "how to" out there on how to start building your own "Web 2.0" website? What tools/software are needed?

Just thought I would throw the question out there.
Click to expand...

What platform are you on?

Win / Linux / OSX?

There are a few standard tools that you'll be using no matter what platform (e.g. FF with Firebug / Web Dev Toolbar / HTML Validator etc.) but depending on your OS and tastes, there are multiple options.
 
Originally posted by: GaryJohnson
There's really only a top 2:

1. \(Notepad++\|Coda\|GVim\|[^e][^m][^a][^c][^s]\)
2. Photoshop

*Note: swap 1 & 2 if your an artist and not a developer.
Click to expand...

Fixed, with a regular expression. 😉

But while I'm here, I found something online the other day called Aptana Studio, which seems to be an editor for most web languages, based on Eclipse. Anyone have any experience with it, good, bad, or indifferent?
 
Aptana Studio is just a perspective to Eclipse. So it is basically using Eclipse. Which is java. Which can be slow. It's better on the mac than it is on the PC.

Personally I like phpDesigner on Windows and Fireworks.

On Linux I will use Komodo Edit + Gimp.

On Mac I'll use textmate + photoshop.
 
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