Re: Need some help in creating a team website.
 

Three things are needed to create a great website - content, design, and ease of use/navigation. Try to get a good design, and then add lots of content like photo galleries, videos, unique stuff, and imformative content.

A very important thing is don't assume that everyone who visits your site will know what FIRST is. :eek: You may scare off potential team members/mentors/sponsors if they visit your site and have no idea what everything is about. Provide good details about your team or FIRST, with bonus points for getting it onto the homepage.

Adding a search feature to your website is an easy way to help people find specific information or media quickly without hunting for a needle in a haystack. Also, try to make sure search engines like Google easily find your website. (Google seems to love the Team 228 website, as when ever I search for something FIRST-related like "robotics teams" or "UTC New England Regional videos", the Gus Robotics' website is often in the first page of results, and often ranking higher than CD threads.)

Feel free to browse our team's website at www.team228.org and use any of the ideas there.

Re: Need some help in creating a team website.
 

Also you might want to look at web tools that you can utilize. Our website utilizes such a tool in our picture gallery. If you have the room and time do a HTML version of your site then do a Flash version you can go wild with! :D

Re: Need some help in creating a team website.
 

That sounds like a good idea, that way, everybody is happy. People with 56k or whatever can visit the HTML, while graphics enthusiests can view the flash.

Re: Need some help in creating a team website.
 

If you use flash for things like navigation, make sure it does not take any additional time by the user if they want to get somewhere. I'd say most flash sites I've seen it takes time for a menu to drop down, or for the flash to load, or for links to appear, or whatever. Special animated features will be cool looking but if it takes longer to navigate, forget about it. If I can't quickly easily navigate a site, I leave. Flash navigation is probably the leading reason why I just get up and leave some websites. Don't get me wrong, it can be very effective and elegant if done properly, but most people do it wrong.

Clicking an HTML link is instant. If your flash isn't, you may want to reconsider. Also, if memory serves me correctly flash is generally much larger than HTML meaning it will take more bandwidth on your server. That may be a non-issue but I thought I'd point it out nonetheless. Finally, if you have a flash intro, make sure you have an easy to find skip button.

As one last note, average people who aren't all "in" to the computer and internet like we are (less competance) may prefer flash because it is "prettier" which makes them feel more comfortable. But then again they mught not have flash and they'll get a box asking them to get it, which might scare them away. :D

EDIT: Also, I don't think anyone has brought up a databased php site which can be made very nice. But it takes a lot more work.

Re: Need some help in creating a team website.
 

Although even then you have to consider everything we're saying. You just have the convience of easy site-wide design changes and similar nifty features. :)

Re: Need some help in creating a team website.
 

First you should decide on a site map before you actually start to design the actual look of the website.

Re: Need some help in creating a team website.
 

actually their is allot of cool effects you can do with HTML and you might be able to simulate flash animation using HTML.

Re: Need some help in creating a team website.
 

Another thing on frames-- the back/forward buttons in some browsers don't do what is expected with frames, and that can make it hard to navigate.

If you want to use frames because you want a common header, footer, or menu, then some simple php can be used for the same effect without the clumsiness of frames. Include or require functions can easily insert HTML from another file into a page. Another advantage to php is that there's absolutely no variation between browsers (as far as the php goes) because it's processed on the server side.

Re: Need some help in creating a team website.
 

- No frames
- Limited Flash
- Plenty of content
- Orginazation!
- Navigation

Keep it simple. Have enough content to back up the page, and make it easy to find. Even if the design in beautiful, if I can't find what state your team is from, there is somethign wrong.

http://metalmuscle.org

-axe