There are many ways to design your web site. In this section, I'll provide a few examples to stimulate your thought. We'll begin with the web site you are now visiting.

In the following two sections you can read about more and more extensive web development projects.

This curent web site is an attractive, basic design with three main sections: Home, Contact and the Web Solutions page you are now viewing.

The Contact page features a form that a visitor can complete and submit. This generates an email that can be forwarded to one or many people in your organization.

When you are ready to proceed, you can use the features of the Contact page to reach me, and I promise to quickly respond to you.

It is vital that you do not lose your visitor when he or she is browsing your web site. By carefully designing navigational links, vistors can quickly move about your site. In addition, if you reference another web site, a separate pop-up browser will appear.

That way they always have a "foot" on your home page, while exploring detailed information at your site. One example is the Fox Valley Huskers web site. When clicking on this link, you'll notice that I launch a separate web browser, so you don't lose connection to my APLE Web Designs page.

As you examine this web site design, you will notice many special features, such as:

-Attractive scrolling pictures
-Calendar of party events
-Audio/videos, such as the special video in the Fox Valley Huskers main section.
-Nebraska fight song, located just above the calendar.

Now take a look at an even more extensive web site. This was was re-developed, after Rebuilding Together Fox Valley approached me to fix and enhance many things that were deficient in their previous web site. You can take a look at the current one, scheduled to be fully developed and promoted by RTFV in January, 2010.

Here are the extensive improvements made to this web site:

-Web hosting had been unreliable, particularly for visitors who tried to contact RTFV via one of their automated forms. Web hosting via Fatcow is now impeccable.
-The home page had been overwhelming. Too many messages were being communicated.
-Some of the navigational links obscured the web page content.

-Credit card process was not secure--a significant liability for the not-for-profit organization.
-The Leaders section was out-of-date. Some links took visitors to web sites that had no connection to the volunteer leader's place of work.
-Slideshows were used to effectively display the demonstrate the benefits of the organization, plus more efficiently use the web page for content viewing.

-Usernames and passwords had been lost over the years. All critical information was collected, documented and securely stored in a web site file directory.
-Two domains were nearly lost because of failure to pay the renewal fees on time. WHOIS data base information was updated for registrant, administrative and technical contacts.

-Two calendars appear: one is a scrolling calendar of events for the public found on the home page. The other is a calendar and To Do list that is useful to staff and board members. This is located on the Leaders page.
-Distribution email addresses were created so that various board and committee members could easily communicate with each other without having to store individual email addresses at everyone's computer.

-Agendas, minutes and other RTFV documents are now stored in the Leaders section, using password protection.
-The latest volunteer and applications for assistance were installed on the web site, and organized into a helpful flow for visitors to complete.
-A complete set of contact information was provided for visitors who wish to reach out to the organization.