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The plan is for this page to chart the development of the technical
side of this web site, as a kind of help guide for any budding TA
webmasters out there. I hope to add more information shortly, but
for now, here's a rundown on things that are, things that have been,
and things that may still come to pass.
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After a very short-lived and abortive attempt
at designing a site using MS Word, I made my first steps with MS
Front Page, relying heavily on the F1 (help) key. I managed to make
some slow, if unspectacular, progress, and concentrated mainly on
content over design.
After a few trial and error experiments (see below),
I found a winning formula and continued to expand by gradually adding
to the diaries and scanning in photos. The very first diary accounts
only ran to a couple of paragraphs (and they’re still there),
but as more and more people were giving me encouraging feedback,
these grew into the mini-novels they are today (3,000+ words for
both Iceland and the Faroe Islands). Likewise, the photographs have
become more numerous. When I first went on trips, I used to forget
to take photos (which is why there is only a handful from places
such as Germany and Bosnia) – these days I have a small digital
camera with the site in mind.
As the site expanded, it became necessary to add more navigation
buttons (making the page headers look quite clumsy) and a site map.
The need to continue expanding the navigation was one of the main
drivers behind the site re-design.
You can view an abridged archive version of NATA Online (from Jan
2003) here.
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The web site you are looking at now was developed
in Dreamweaver MX, and animated menu that you are hopefully able
to see and use was built with Flash MX. The site is on Business
Level Hosting with RedStation
Hosting (£99 + VAT). I have been slowly learning Flash,
and you can see small example of this on most pages, on the Site
Map and on the NATA TV Preview.
I bought the .com domain name early on, in Spring
2001 - through UK Reg, and I
have since added a couple more - see below
for details. UK Reg are very easy to use, reliable and very well-priced
(though bear in mind "global" domain names, such as .com,
are more expensive than local .co.uk ones).
I use the domain name to "point" at
this site (which is actually a .net site) - this is because if there
are any issues with my web space provider (of which I am happy to
report: there have been none whatsoever!) I can always point it
somewhere else. This would come in handy if I had to take the whole
site down, or there was some kind of server crash.
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I haven't spent too much time thinking these through, but the general
principles I have followed with NATA Online can be summed up below:
- Regular updates - the
cornerstone of any attempt at web design success. Unfortunately,
I've not always been able to update as often as would have liked,
but it has evolved into once every 4-8 weeks (and I usually try
to give an indication of when to expect new content). You can
track the frequency of updates on the News
Archive page.
- Navigation - The main
driving force behind the March 2003 revamp. With so many pages
(over 80), covering a variety of themes, I took the decision to
split the site into the sections you now see: Basics, Info &
News, Travel, Interactive, Memories, Fun, Netley Guide and Links.
There are several methods of navigation: the flash menu at the
top of each page, the text links at the foot of each page leading
to sub-menus and the Site Map itself
- the main reason for this variety is...
- Accessibility - I have
tried to accommodate old and unusual browsers, including those
without an up-to-date Flash Player (all the Flash used on NATA
Online is backwards compatible to version 4). The text links at
the foot of each page came about a while back when some users
complained the Front Page hover buttons did not always appear.
- Content over style - Much
as I try to make the site attractive and stylish (hence the re-colour
from the "insipid" yellow background), I have always
maintained that content is the most important aspect of the web
site - after all, it's no use having a lovely looking site if
it doesn't serve any other purpose. Of course, some may say the
recent diary entries may have a little too much content!
- Humour - Always a difficult
thing to call, as not everyone finds the same things funny. Certainly
everything in the Fun section is admittedly
an attempt at humour, but
the best judge of that is you! I have also tried to put my sense
of humour across elsewhere in the site, but as I said, it's very
hard thing to judge.
- Variety - As the site
has grown and more and more content has been added, I have aimed
for variety - a mixture of fun and informative pages, with a wide
range of photographs and reports.
- Reliable - I have been
emailed in the past with questions about upcoming matches, and
comments have been made that the SFA site is not always the most
up-to-date. I have taken care in the past to point out when matches
are only rumoured, and all information I include on the site is
checked.
- "Give the people what they
want" - of late, the site has become very tavel-focussed.
This has been the result of being constantly asked by pals for
travel tips and pub recommendations - "why not put it online?",
I thought.
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(Remember – you can view almost everything that has ever
been on NATA Online via the Web Archive
section)
One of the first experiments, and the least successful, was the
Message Board. At the time there were actually two Tartan Army boards
– the most popular being at Scott’s TAHPs,
with an alternative one hosted on Ezzy’s
Scotland pages. A change to the service of the TAHP one meant
it was discontinued, and Ezzy was happy to open his board to the
new influx. Since then the phenomenon has really taken off, and
it’s offspring, now administered by Mirza (and hosted, ironically,
on Scott’s TAHP web space) is the present-day TAMB.
It was against this backdrop that NATA Online launched, and a message
board seemed a logical step (as more sites seemed to have them than
not). After a brief discussion on the merits of recalling Gary MacAllister,
it simply died a death, which coincided with another change of service
provision, so I simply shut it down (not without copying and pasting
the entries, which are here).
A more recent failed experiment was the NATA Poll, a bi-monthly
opinion poll running on the front page, with questions running from
who the best young player is to which trip was most eagerly anticipated
to what away shirt was the best. This failed to capture the imagination
of the web-browsing public, and was consigned to the archive (here).
There was also a non-publicised (except on the TAMB) poll to try
and establish club support – this was sabotaged by an Aberdeen
fan who failed to grasp the point of such a poll, which rendered
the whole exercise useless (this can be seen here).
Finally, one experiment which perhaps failed to take-off as I had
hoped, but nonetheless remains in place, is the Tartan Army postcards
section. This service is hosted by MyPostcards,
and allows someone to write a greeting on a virtual postcard then
send an invitation to an email address to come and pick up the postcard.
The original idea was to rotate the pictures, although the lack
of interest has led this to be put on the backburner. You can navigate
to the Postcards page via the Basics part of the menu.
NATA Radio was another experiment
that never really caught the readers' imaginations, hamstrung by
slow download times and the need for Broadband connectivity, although
other additions to the fledgling Interactive section, such as the
Guide and the Game
have received better feedback.
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The Search facility at the foot of each page is
courtesy of FreeFind.com.
The Guestbook and counter on the index page are freebies from Bravenet
- an excellent, if ad-driven, site for newcomers.
One small and effective addition was a favicon
- if you add this site to your Favourites list you will see a small
Lion Rampant icon in the address bar - you can design your own here
for free.
The most recent gimmicky addition is the alternative
CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). I use external style sheets, and these
are basically a twist on the HTML tags that usually denote different
text effects(e.g. bold, header etc) as well as using the body
(for the background colour) and link
tags, allowing much more flexibility and creativity. I knew nothing
about CSS for 2 years, having come from an MS Office background
(i.e. FrontPage being just like Word), however I took the time to
read up about them (many resources exist - try here
or the invaluable WebMonkey
and Site
Wizard resources). I decided to put CSS in when I made the move
to DreamWeaver (it really is much easier if you think about this
ahead and set it up before
your site gets too big!).
The alternate style sheets was inspired by an
HTML Help Guide on a piece of software I use at work, and after
much trial, error and gnashing of teeth (and a wee bit of help from
A
List Apart) and a spot of JavaScript (view the code of this
page to see what and where) and we're away. Again, try and plan
ahead for this if you can - everything went much more smoothly on
the WFCSA website!
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Many of the previous plans for the site have been realised in the
recent re-design, however a few more possible developments I have
in mind include:
- A password-protected section, to allow a franker exchange of
views without upsetting casual visitors
- A feedback form
- More animation and video (through the NATA TV pages)
This is in addition to the usual updates of stories, photographs
and travel information.
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Over the past few months, I have steadily expanded my "web
empire" - I bought pallison.co.uk,
followed shortly by paulallison.co.uk
- egomaniacal perhaps, but I'd rather own these names than something
else. This has given me a chance to develop non-NATA related content
on a suitable platform, and indulge myself with different types
of web design.
I've also got no less than three Worthing FC related sites on the
go - all do different things. The WFCSA
site is an information-only site for the Supporters' Association,
and the Woodside Road domain
is ear-marked for future development as a tribute to the ground.
Meanwhile, the Rebel Rebels
site started off as a mere portal to an alternative WFC message
board, but has since evolved into a Worthing webzine.
Finally, and surprisingly, the tartanarmy.net
domain name became available a few months ago - not wanting this
to fall into less scrupulous hands, I have turned this into a one-page
hub for TA resources on the web.
See www.pallison.co.uk
for links to all these sites.
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Aside from the F1 (Help) key, I've used a variety of resources
to help shape the site. Here are some of the most helpful:
Rival sites
I don't like using the word "rival", as there is always
room for more Tartan Army web sites, but it's a good idea to see
what is already out there and what works well. Personally, I like
the Tap Shop TA, the Bishopton
TA and the Loony Alba,
and particularly the new and innovative Crack
of Dawn TA, sites for different reasons (some style, some content)
- have a look at the Links
Page and see what works for you.
Web Resources
There are loads of resource sites out there for every type of Web
Design software, and reams of free code (for javascript or complicated
HTML). I'd recommend the following as starting points:
Printed Resources
A lot of money has been spent in PC World and Waterstones, although
in fairness I have learnt a lot from these books. Of particular
help have been:
- Web Pages for Dummies
- for help when first getting to grips with how to structure the
site
- Using Dreamweaver MX -
by Babani Computer Books - a very reasonably priced softback (although
the illustrations are often on different pages)
- Practical Web Projects Magazine
- a regular expensive magazine (around £6 with a cover disk)
that you should find in Smiths. A different piece of software
is covered each month, and the Flash MX and Studio MX editions
have helped me no end.
- Web User Magazine - 99p
every fortnight. Although the DIY Web Pages section is now less
prominent, it has helped with ideas and suggestions. Also good
for what other sites there are to look at.
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