Content Management Systems in modern web design by Robert Sheppard, lead in-house designer at givemegraphics.net
web design Cambridge.
Content
Management Systems have transformed the way both designers and website
owners approach the internet in terms of design and their technical
requirements and expectations and how these can create a better more
rewarding experience for the end user. Before Content Management Systems
entered the horizon of modern web design, websites were static
entities. More precisely, website designers would design and engineer
the website according to the instructions of the website owner. If
further changes were required once the website was live, for example new
images, pages or edits to copy, then the web designer would be
re-hired to make these changes as only they had the necessary technical
skills and knowledge of how the internet worked, image editing
applications and programming languages such as html, css, javascript,
php and mysql – together with a solid understanding of FTP (File
transfer protocol).
Of
course it was soon realised that site owners would want to keep their
website up to date quite regularly for all their users, encouraging
return visits, recommendations and possibly the addition of new products
on an online store environment encouraging further purchases. So the
advent of what is now known widely in internet terms as Content
Management Systems was soon to appear. Content Management Systems
combine the front end visuals of any website with a backend database to
store the page content, image locations etc etc and a website
administration area. The website designer is employed to build the
website in this more technically advanced way so the website owner can
make any changes agreed through the website administration area. The
website owner only will have access to this privileged resource and they
will be given a unique username and password so they may access this
administration area and make changes on their website any time they
wish.
The website designer may still be hired for more
advanced changes requiring programming. The changes available to the
website owner depend on what sort, how advanced the Content Management
System is and what features/functions were agreed. It is very important
that the website designer and the owner of the website have a detailed
meeting upfront to discuss and decide exactly what elements of the
website they want the freedom and ability to access and change them
selves. For instance they may just need to edit the type on any page,
they may want to be able to add new pages and therefore new navigation
elements to lead to these new pages, they may wish to upload and add new
images themselves. For instance there may be a banner or slideshow 100%
wide on the homepage which features say 3-4 images and text captions
which revolve automatically for the end-user.
The website
owner may wish to upload and be able to swap images themselves and to be
able to edit these captions. One of the issues for the web design build
is if the owner is uploading images themselves do they have the
knowledge and technical know to upload the image in the correct file
type ad be able to crop the image so its is the correct dimensions to be
in keeping with the original layout. The Content Management System must
make this process as easy as possible. Some popular applications,
especially the very well known wordpress Content Management System
already have these functions programmed in making it a very popular
choice for any web designer. It also uses PHP and mysql which are the
most popular choice of programming languages.
Please do consider
givemegraphics.net web design Cambridge for all your business online requirements.