Michigan Business Information

Designing a Website or Hiring a Michigan Web Developer for your Business

First, Get the Facts, many Michigan Web Developers Don't Even Know this Information:

Google Chrome has replaced Internet Explorer 8 as the most widely-used browser in the world, according to data from StatCounter.

Internet Explorer 8's market share once made it the most popular browser, but it's been slipping lately.

Chrome has since risen to 25% (in Dec. 2011) while IE8 has continued to fall to 22%.
XP is the most dominating operating system
Most users are using a display with 1024x768 pixels or more, with a color depth of at least 65K colors.
90% of Internet users in Michigan have Javascript enabled on their browsers.

The traditional HTML (think the 1990's) approach was to "hardcode" all of the appearance information about a webpage. Every heading, in every page, the font size and face properties were set. Now think about a 100 page website. That is a lot of editing, and a lot of re-editing if you decide to modify the appearance of your pages later. And with all of that editing there is plenty of possibility for introducing errors. There are many more reasons to use Style Sheets (CSS), but the above should convince you quickly - make sure that your Michigan Web Developer (or yourself if you are a Do-It-Yourselfer) understands how to use CSS effectively.

It is impossible to recommend the "best" dynamic page language since what is best will depend on your needs. However, even if you just use scripting to include the headers and footers on your Michigan website, you are a step in the right direction to easy maintenance of your website.
If you do not already know a scripting or programming language, use one of the embedded languages. SSI is probably the simplest, but PHP has some useful extra features.

The top 3 FREE CMS systems for websites are listed below:
- According to WordPress, there are 69,774,073 websites in the world using its platform. WordPress is a state-of-the-art publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability. WordPress is probably the most popular CMS and blogging platform out there
- Joomla is an award-winning content management system (CMS), which enables you to build Web sites and powerful online applications.
- Drupal is a free CMS that allows an individual or a community of users to easily publish, manage and organize a wide variety of content on a website. Tens of thousands of people and organizations are using Drupal to power tons of different web sites.
Looking to design your own without an online CMS? Web Creator is a complete website software solution featuring efficient editing tools. No two websites built with Web Creator are the same, build your website using the structure you desire. Choose from a wide variety of templates, partial transparency and /D effects, simple drap and drop, text editing a pull-down menu generator

The Web is an increasingly important resource in many aspects of life in Michigan and throughout the US: education, employment, government, commerce, health care, recreation, and more. It is essential that the Web be accessible in order to provide equal access and equal opportunity to people with disabilities in Michigan. For general Web Accessibility Guidelines, CLICK HERE.
Schools and Colleges for Web, Graphic Design and Visual Communications