Once a design has been created for your website project, it begins the development phase. During this phase the layout and graphics are created so that the framework, or "look and feel" of your site is ready to receive content. At AssKickin Solutions we design your site so that the layout (the look) of your site is a container for your content. This makes it quicker and easier to change things that appear on multiple pages like logos, menus, and colours. When the site is ready for content, there are a few things that can be done which will streamline the process and ensure that your website project is developed as quickly and efficiently as possible.

First things first, what is content?

The content of a site is anything that goes "in" your site. This is really the body of the website pages. Like articles, news, a page of information about your company, photos, links, lists, forms, galleries, company contact information, descriptions of products or services and anything else that will be added to your site. This is the material that you want people to come to your site to read and look at. Things that are not content are logos, banners, colour schemes and layout details.

What type of data can be added to a website?

The good news is that almost any kind of information in electronic format (on a computer) can be added to a website. This includes text, photos, music, video, files and more. The bad news is that some types of information are easier to add than others. And some info is VERY large (like video) and will be slow to load for visitors to your site with slower Internet connections.

Most types of data can be added to a site with a link to the file. An example of this is a PDF document. Users can click on a link and open a PDF document in their browser. Unfortunately, proprietary document formats often cannot support inline web functionality and in some situations they will likely have to be converted. If this is the case, there will be additional development time required. Another concern is that information in different formats (like PDF) usually require the visitor to have special software installed on their computer to view it (like Acrobat Reader). There is no way to guarantee that all visitors to your site will have the required software or will even want to install it.

The best, and easiest content to add to a site that will be fast to load and almost universally accessible by visitors is text and images. Plain text and images in jpg or gif format are the main staple of the world wide web. Your project development time will be at a minimum if your project is chiefly composed of this type of content.

Providing your content to AssKickin Solutions

The first thing to note is that many of our clients choose to have a section of their site password protected and available to select members only. Much of the content in these sections is private. At AssKickin, we protect your privacy rights and guard your content at all times. Our staff is very professional, and our system is carefully secured to the best of our abilities.

When submitting content to asskickin, all text content should be in plain text (txt), rich text (rtf) or Word (doc) format. Images are best submitted as high quality jpg or gif images, however we can convert most image formats as required. The most important consideration for images is to supply the originals. If an image must be copied out of a Word document or PDF, then the quality will usually suffer.

Your file names should be in lower case letters and should not have any spaces or special characters in them. Try to keep file names short and consisting of lower case letters and numbers only. If 20 pdf documents are sent with names like 'this is a long file name with spaces.pdf' then we must rename each file to a shorter name without spaces. To date, the Internet does not universally support file names with spaces and other characters and longer names are more likely to be mistyped.

If your website has several sections or menu items, it can be helpful for you to list all sections and then list what content goes in which section. Also indicate where the images are to be inserted. In your text content you can put something like [insert dog.jpg here]. If you have several photos with confusing names, or photos of products, it can be helpful to explain what each photo is. Sometimes companies have a wide selection of products that look similar to us and an explanation from you, the expert, can ensure that we don't need to guess.

If some of your content is to be private, please also indicate this to us. If your site has an area that is for members only, we will require a list of usernames and passwords that will allow access. An estimate of the expected volume of members is also very helpful.

Are these guidelines a requirement?

No. Our staff can modify and convert nearly any information in any format. These guidelines will merely help you to ensure that your project will be organized the way you want. Otherwise, we can only guess where the content is supposed to go and then modify it AFTER we get your feedback. Also, these guidelines can go a long way toward minimizing your development costs by making sure that less time is spent organizing and converting information.

What if I want to re-do my website?

If you are having AssKickin re-work an existing site that you had developed elsewhere, this will make the process even faster. In most cases we can use the content from the old site and put it into your new site. Much of the content will already be in the format we need, so switching to AssKickin from another developer will be a seamless experience.

If your site was designed by AssKickin and you want some minor changes, a new design, a new layout, or a whole new structure, staying with AssKickin for this new development work will save you time and money. At AssKickin we develop websites so that the structure and layout are independent of the content. This means that changes we make to your site will not have to be done from scratch. We always develop with the client in mind.

If you have questions about these guidelines, our services or to submit content please contact us today!

(Note: emails over 500KB often have problems being transferred. If you have a large amount of content, consider compressing it in a zip file and sending it in several parts. For VERY large amounts of information or content that is graphics heavy, it may be preferrable to copy the content to a CD or DVD and bring it by the office during our next meeting.)