INASP Links & Resources
USING THE INTERNET:   
Web site design and maintenance

The Alertbox: Current Issues in Web Usability
A helpful bi-weekly column by Jakob Nielsen, containing a great deal of practical and hard-nosed advice about good Web site design. There is (free) access to the complete archive, going back to 1995. The main message is: keep it simple! http://www.useit.com/alertbox/  

Analysing Web Site Traffic
Useful article, by Lisa M. Balbes, about Web usage statistics describing the functions of the different types of log files used for analysing Web site traffic. http://WebDevelopersJournal.co.uk/columns/traffic.html

The CGI Resource Index
Provides access to over 2,600 CGI (Common Gateway Interface)-related resources, programs and scripts, in more than 240 categories, including access counters, bulletin board message systems, calendars, clocks, homepage communities, Internet utilities, link indexing scripts, tools for logging access and Web usage statistics, mailing lists, cookies, database manipulation, editing Web pages, file management, form processing, news posting, postcards, redirection, searching, shopping carts, survey and voting programs, guest books, Web server maintenance, Web site promotion, and much more.
http://www.cgi-resources.com/ 

Developing Web Site Selection Criteria
This short essay, by James Testa, sets out the evaluation and selection criteria for inclusion of scholarly and research oriented Web sites in the Institute of Scientific Information's (ISI) Current Web Contents service. However, it is also useful as a general set of criteria or guidelines for evaluating Web sites and resources, and which considers these factors: authority, accuracy, currency, navigation and design, scope, audience level, and quality of writing.  http://www.isinet.com/isi/hot/essays/selectionofmaterialforcoverage/23.html 

META Tag Tutorial: Back to Basics
A helpful short tutorial (in two parts) by Scott Clark from Webdeveloper.com, about the importance of META tags, and how to implement META tags in your Web pages, together with a good links section to other Web sites and resources providing tips and tricks about META tags and getting listed on the search engines. http://www.webdeveloper.com/html/html_metatags.html

Moonfruit
This somewhat obscurely named site is offering free online Web site building kits, using Macromedia Flash technology helping you to create a fully customized, interactive and animated site. It aims for Internet beginners to be able to build a site within about 30 minutes! http://www.moonfruit.com/

Netmechanic HTML Toolbox
A free online tool that helps you to spot errors in your HTML coding. Type in your URL, and NetMechanic will find broken links, check the HTML codes, check browser compatability, find slow-loading pages, and will also check your spelling (this last feature is less useful however as it will pick up anything it can't find in the dictionary!) Netmechanic also offers design tips on how to improve your site. 
http://www.netmechanic.com/cobrands/zd_dev/ 

Password Protecting Web Pages
From the Web publishing service of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne this is a useful set of instructions to establish password protection for Web pages within a university system. It covers the creation of an authorisation file, basic password protection, specifying combinations of authorized users, and restricting access by domain and/or user name.
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/diy/university/password.html

TechKnow: Web Site Designing Course
Developed by Vikas Nath of the KnowNet Open Initiative in India, this is a Web-based (as well a Email administered) training manual how to create and maintain a Web site. It is “intended for organizations and communities working for human development to create their own Web sites to host local knowledge on the Internet”, and to empower them to create livelihood opportunities. http://www.techknownet.org/  

Tips, Tricks, How to, and Beyond - Web Design Resource
Aims to provide answers for your Web design problems, dealing with HTML, improving page design and layout, Web programming, how to chose a good Web hosting service, and how to announce and promote your Web site. http://www.tips-tricks.com/index.shtml

Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design (by Jakob Nielsen)
Written in 1996 this short article presents some good hard-nosed advice how to avoid the pitfalls in Web design. http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9605.html

“Top Ten Mistakes” Revisited Three Years Later (by Jakob Nielsen)
An update of the above article—which finds that, for the most part, the mistakes from 1996 are still being perpetuated in 1999. http://www.useit.com/alertbox/990502.html

W3C HTML Validation Service
This free service checks HTML documents for conformance to W3C HTML and XHTML recommendations and other HTML standards. http://validator.w3.org/ 

Web Developer's Journal
News, tips and tricks, etc. to web site design and development, web hosting, technologies, and tools, plus a step-by-step guide to setting up a small network. http://WebDevelopersJournal.co.uk/

Web Publishing Curriculum Resources
Based on a series of Web publishing workshops run at the University of Oregon, these pages to curriculum and workshop resources provide lots of links to some of the very best Internet resources on Web authoring, Web design and publishing and guidelines for good practice, as well as resource on Web standards, HTML elements, style sheets, tutorials, software, utilities, and more. http://libweb.uoregon.edu/it/webpub/ 

Webbed Environments
This is the archive of a weekly column in the UKspaper The Independent, by Jason Cranford Teague, with good articles and advise on how to get started as a Web designer, including articles and other resources. http://www.webbedenvironments.com/index.html  

This page was last updated on: 07 July 2003 © International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP) 1998-2003.