Creating your own homepage is a great opportunity to check your abilities in creating web pages for the first time. Usually when you make your own webpage you are doing everything: from making a graphic design through writing HTML, CSS and JavaScript to programming the server-side apps. Many people, especially those, who start creating their own webpage make mistakes by putting everything into the layout. And by everything I mean really everything. People, mostly, those older (e.g. from the universities) think, that by placing more garish elements they will make the homepage more attractive. Obviously, it is huge mistake.

While creating your own homepage it is good to think about it like it would be your real home. I think it is perfect method of creating such a page in many aspects. With this in mind I will show you how should the work over your own homepage look like.

Build your house

Let’s analyze the steps of a house building. When you’re building such you:

  • Choose and buy a plans
  • Buy a terrain for a building
  • Make a foundations
  • Build the walls, floors, roof.
  • Design interior of every room

The way you should build you homepage is similar to the description above. In the next points I will describe the connections between the house and webpage creation.

Choose the plan – graphic

First of all you create a plan of the house. It is very important part of the work, since after start of the build you won’t be able to make many changes. Luckily, during the homepage creation you are always able to make some changes. Still, before you create a page, you should think what you will place in the page: the boxes, columns, containers. All of them should be prepared on the “plan” – the graphic design of the page. On the basis of this plan, you will be able to create the real building from the real materials – the HTML code.

Buy a terrain – hosting

When you have decided to create page, you will need a server and a domain. There’s a lot of hosting companies, that serve the space to place your own webpage. They also serve the domain registration service, so you can take care of everything in one place, since you’re not much experienced in making webpage. While choosing hosting pay attention to the technologies they serve. There should be PHP, mod_rewrite accessibility, basically. What you need depends on the technology and applications you want to create. Some need PHP, some Python with frameworks and access to the shell. You have to know what you need.

Make foundations – backbone HTML

Start your HTML code from the scratch. Use only backbone elements of the code. Put the divs (or HTML5 elements) into the document. They are most important at this moment. They will decide how the flow of your page will look like. At this stage you should avoid using many CSS. Use only the styles you need to position your elements on the page. Also, don’t make any boxes, text containers and so on. Focus on preparing the header, content container and the footer. Also think about the sidebar and navigation bar.

Build the walls – all needed HTML elements

Place in your HTML code all basic elements like headers, paragraphs, empathizes (i.e. strongs, ems). Also create boxes, buttons and all types of containers you would like to put in the content. Still you should thing about scanty CSS code. Use only position and size-related code. It is important to cover all basic elements. Even if you don’t plan on using them, one they you will. Trust me! Using them now will reduce the work later.

Design interior – CSS details

Now the time has come for you to make all HTML elements look the way you want. Choose the sizes of the fonts, colors, backgrounds and borders of all elements. Try to make your CSS file clean, so you can return to it within one year and not swear. It is important to cover all basic HTML elements with the styles, even if don’t plan on using them. It is also time to write some JavaScript code that refers to the elements of the page, by changing their functionality and the look. Later, while creating the server-side code, you will be able to write JavaScript for connections with the server (probably using AJAX technology).

Design you page like interior

When someone comes to your home, you want to make him feel comfortable (expect unwanted visitors). Your vestibule should be simple and useful. It shouldn’t overwhelm your guests, or they will feel intimidated, as if they would enter the shop with souvenirs. The same you should make with your homepage. The main page should be simple and clean. There should be basic informations, maybe some introductions to the subpages like last works from your portfolio. Never try to make your page homogenous. Use different colors and often think about contrasts. You should avoid using garish color, since they distract humans eye.

All those advices are good for the beginners. When you will create more then ten pages you will see that some customs can be broken. But of course you have to know what you are doing and why! The rules presented above are guidelines to get some good habits. When some time will pass by, you will learn how to make exceptions. Good luck!