Which Website?

OK. So you want to have a website built. The question is which website?

There are of course different technologies for different purposes. If you looking for a small website, perhaps a few pages with some text and images then a good option might to use a simple content management system like Wordpress. Wordpress is very good for basic sites but it not as powerful or extensible a content management systems such as Joomla and Drupal.

If you are looking to setup an online shop then there are various shopping cart applications such as Zen Cart and OSCommerce. These shopping cart applications are quick and easy to setup but can be very difficult to customise and expand. I tend to favour Virtuemart, which is a Joomla extension to handle any projects that require shopping cart functionality. I would not say it was better than Zen Cart or OSCommerse but it has the advantage of being driven by Joomla.

With regards to the design, custom made designs can be expensive but of course they are more suited to your needs. If you are looking to cut costs then perhaps buying pre-made website template is the answer. Rockettheme provide a very good selection of customisable website templates. If used with a CMS like Joomla you can install the template with just a few clicks of a mouse. You will however need a small degree of technical knowledge in order to setup and configure the CMS.

You may have seen websites with lots of slick animations and special effects. More than likely this type of website has been build using a piece of animation software called Flash. Admittedly a good flash website can look very cool. Unfortunately they can also a hinder the productivity of your site for many reasons.

• Flash website are hard to update and maintain
• Search engines still have big problems reading Flash sites.
• Accessibility is a big problem as well. People who use assistive devices such as screen readers, Braille readers etc will be unable to use your site. Not to mention the fact that some users do not have Flash installed on their browsers.
• Flash websites are also expensive! As I'm sure you imagine, creating lots of fancy animations and effects is time consuming process in comparison to standard development techniques.