Building a Web Site For Dummies®, 3rd Edition

Tapping Creativity

Although much of what goes into making a Web site function is pretty much simple, mechanical, left-brain stuff, there’s another level — creativity. You need to reach that level to stretch beyond the basics and create a site that really shines. Fortunately, you can use a lot of simple techniques to get from here (the basics) to there (an extraordinary site).

The Web 2.0 When the World Wide Web first got started, it was pretty much a one-way street — Webmasters like you always made the decisions about what would appear and how it could be used. As the Web has evolved, however, it has taken on some important new characteristics. Today, some of the Web’s most popular sites aren’t so much controlled by their Webmasters as they are by their users. Places like YouTube and MySpace are hotbeds for the users’ self-expression and, indeed, that is their reason for existence. The new trend that has led to the phrase “Web 2.0” is user-generated content, supplemented by social networking. Of course, the majority of Web sites are still generated almost totally by either individuals or small teams working together, but the public’s hunger for its own chance to shine is seemingly insatiable — and it’s something you might want to keep in mind as you design your own Web site. Wikipedia and the other wikis are collaborative efforts, and the old personal home page has largely given way to blogs — Web logs, or personalized diaries that can be syndicated and sent to others automatically. ...