HI

I am going to design website for my client for first time(I have done a magazine work for them earlier). I am newbie to webdesign and a Graphic Designer with very limited knowledge on Programming. This site is mainly an entertainment e0magazine site, which will be updated monthly. As some one said in the previous posts, I understand only with dreamweaver knowledge it is not possible to design a professional website. I have little knowldge on HTML, CSS, average knowledge on Dreamwaver and same for Flash. This site os going to be with 20% flash, 10% streaming video in the future and rest non-interactive pages. My client want me to create pages/upload all his clients ads as PDF files(almost 100 files).

My client is looking for something similar to te sites I listed below. My question is, can anyone tell me what application these sites used? I understand most of them in Flash and may be high level programming, but is it possible to design and deliver thie quality website with my limited programming knowledge? I dont want to do entire flash site. At the same time, I want to deliver professional website. I am a fast leaner, but deep programming is out of my learning range at this point. With my designing background and little knowledge on HTML and CSS, is it possible to design these kind of sites, if yes what kind of application do I need to use to deliver it professionally.

One more question, As i said 20% flash, and with almost 25 pages along with home page and almpst 100 PDF file links and files, can anyone tell me how long on an average this project will take?(I know lot of reserch need to be done by my side and with my limited knowledge I understand it may even take twice the time of average, but since I am designing it for first time, and I hope most of you guys might be in this position earlier in your career and same for Pricing. I have no knowledge what range shud I charge my client, I understand mst of you charge hourly base, but in my case, I can't do that. How to charge a flat rate? Charging Per page? Since most of the heavy work will be in Home page, how do I do it? Sorry for the lengthy email, I have read previous posts and all your informations are really helpful and any suggestion/ information will help me at this point. Thanks a lot!

http://www.fat-joe.com/
www.mtv.com
http://www.bustarhymes.com/
http://www.westcoastcustoms.com/Home/Pages/index.htm
http://www.aetv.com/growing_up_gotti/index.jsp
http://www.disbealig.com/
http://www.bet.com/

Thanks a Lot!

Looks like all of those sites are mostly Flash, so if your flash knowledge is limited, you won't be able to do it yourself.

HTML and CSS are NOT 'programming'. PHP, ASP, Javascript - that is programming. If you want features that only that kind of programming can provide, then you can't do it yourself.

It is possible to make VERY great site designs without advanced Flash, or programming as mentioned above.

Take a look at http://www.csszengarden.com - no javascript, no PHP, just HTML and CSS in those designs. Dreamweaver is merely a tool to be used. If you don't know HTML inside and out, or CSS at all, them Dreamweaver will not help you to design a site.

So do you suggest me to design the entire site in Flash? I dont have advance knowledge in Flash, but I do have experience working with flash.

No, I would not. Flash only sites are basically ignored by search engines because there is NOTHING on the page for a search engine spider to index. They are also completely inaccessible to anyone using assistive technology to browse the web.

My suggestion - LEARN html and css and use Flash just for small fluff pieces.

I agree with LadynRed as I often do about the all Flash site.

If you don't think you'll be able to do the programming have you though about outsourcing that part of the project? Is there really programming that needs to be involved or is it really just html and css that you're considering to be the programming?

You can create a site in DreamWeaver if you want. Many professional sites are. You're better learning the code so you can understand how to make changes better when DreamWeaver doesn't seem to want to do something you want it to do.

How long it will take is hard to know mostly because I'm not sure if the pages are just static or if they will need some programming. It's also hard to know based on your experience. For myselt I might estimate an hour a page for a static site. It's just an estimate though since I've done it both faster and slower depending on the page.

If the pages need some interaction and programming I would need to know more of what the functionality of the page would need to be before I could estimate the time.

Hope that helps.