Authoring a Website

 
What is Authoring?
Authoring is being able to construct an electronic document or system which will most likely include creating a specific website. The author would have to go through different productions to get a particular look for the website they have in mind. Things should be taken in consideration like whether they wish to have products they want to sell via this website/system. They must also be able to use the HTML codes and also any other information they need when designing. Authoring tools and Authoring Software are things such as Dreamweaver and Photoshop which are now owned by Adobe rather than Macromedia. As well as tools and software you must also think about the many different formats such as DVD, TV, phone, sat nav, tablets, games consoles, camera, kiosks, radio, websites, docking station remotes, interactive TV, games and CD-ROMS. 

Applications and uses

Many different websites get created for many different purposes such as entertainment purposes which can be shopping online, playing online games, and watching videos online, watching TV programs, finding different films (Netflix and Love film) and socialising on programs such as Facebook ECT. On smart phones or iPhones there are many different types of applications for these purposes for websites to be able to get to audiences in a much quicker way which will improve marketing purposes and also then the audiences are able to use these applications much easier without needing a computer/laptop. Other reasons include researching purposes, marketing and promotional purposes, developing skills and for information purposes. These of these purposes could help you to create your own personal website. The image below is a picture of YouTube. The purpose for this website would be for entertainment purposes as its audiences are able to search for many different types of music and videos from all over the world. Down the side there is also a banner advertising New Look which then could make whoever is on this website go to the New Look website to go online shopping which would be for marketing and promotions purposes.

Assets of a website

When looking at the assets of the websites you should think about what features could be added to make the product interactive and also very interesting to someone who is a possibly viewer of the site. Things such as using sounds, video, graphics, texts, quiz's and images are all essential to a website for marketing or just to make the website more exciting. Every website will most likely have text and images on their sites to explain their site and theirs sites to people. If it is a website which has a checkout so sites such as Amazon and Ebay they will have images to show people what they are going to buy. They also have comment/review boxes so then people are able to leave comments online for other users. 

What about the Interactivity and Control?

 When creating a website interactivity and control is an important. Things such as buttons or any form of navigation like ‘Home’ buttons or navigation such as the curser will be navigating the audience to different things around the website. There could also be video’s on these websites so it’s important to make sure that the buttons for the video are working so they are able to be viewed easily. Features such as comment boxes or forums could be important for your website depending on what type of site you have made. YouTube has comment comments so then people are able to comment on the videos they are watching. Below is a print screen on the website 'Facebook' which has loads of different navigation points which can be seen on the left hand side of the image. Things such as messages, events and photos are all different navigation to get to different pages on 'Facebook'.

What about the Opportunities?

There are a number of things you should consider when looking at the opportunities of authoring products such as promoting your website and gaining brand recognition of your site and its products as well as advertising and getting the website known to different audiences who may be interested in your products or what the overall website is about, it will also providing a service and also for personal marketing. 

Finally, what are the Limitations? 

There are many different limitations which can be considers for websites such as speed, the different browsers such as ‘FireFox’, ‘Google Chrome’, the different screen sizes (laptops, tablets, iPods ECT), plug-ins, user inexperience and security. Below is the security which my personal laptop has which is McAfee. It tells me that my computer needs scans, updates and also whether I have picked up any viruses which browsing. A website creator must think about all of these limitations for their target audiences and possibly users. Without thought on these limitation websites could go wrong or users may not be able to use/view them correctly. Download speed is something which could cause problems for some people as they might not have a high/fast download speed as others may have. The language is important because if your website was to become bigger than the UK than you would need to think about having more of a choice in the language which your site could be viewed as, for example French, German, Chinese ECT. When creating your website think really hard about the font and whether it’s a easy font of everyone  to read you wouldn’t want a handwritten font which is too difficult to read, make sure it’s easy enough for all age ranges to read. The colour is important too because you wouldn’t want to add a bright colour which would be difficult to read as well as a font which is also too difficult to read. Make sure there is a balance between the both so they both make it easy for people to read.