This Site
The content, structure, and layout of this website illustrate some important principles of designing for the web.
The overall principle is that the needs of the visitor must come first. People who cannot find what they need, or are confused by how the site is organized, or just don't like the visual design of the site, are not likely to come back.
On the Internet, as in any other aspect of life, you only have a small amount of time to make a first impression. If that first impression is not positive, your visitor will disappear. There are millions more sites out there, so it is up to web designers and content creators to offer something worthwhile to their visitors. Only if a site is good enough will people tell others about it and keep coming back themselves.
Notes on Technology
Various technologies have been used in the development of this site. They make the task of creating the site and maintaining it much simpler. It is important to note, though, that the technologies are completely silent. Visitors will not even notice they are there, but they work in the background to make the site more consistent, easier and faster to update, and more reliable.
PHP
The site is written using the PHP Hypertext Processor. This is a powerful scripting language that can be used to dynamically create web pages. In this case, PHP is used to ensure that all pages follow the same template. It also generates the site navigation menus and modifies them depending on which page a visitor is currently viewing.
PHP makes website maintenance much simpler because a change made in one spot can apply instantly to all other affected pages.
Apache and Linux
The site is hosted by a third party, which uses the Apache HTTP Server. Apache is by far the most popular web server on the Internet, with over 60% of all servers running it.
A web server is a program that processes requests from browsers. Whenever you request a page from a website, there is a server on the other end that finds the correct page and sends the information to your browser.
Apache can run on nearly any computer hardware and operating system. In this case, the host company uses Linux as its standard operating system.
