Easy Websites on Small Budgets
Resources for the CDLC sponsored workshop – April 23, 2015.
Website Tools
- The two tools we’ll focus on in the workshop are WordPress.com and Weebly. Both free, easy to use, user-friendly tools for creating websites without having to write code. Both also offer additional options for a fee.
- WordPress Resources
- Weebly Resources
Web Design Tips
- Define goals for the website.
- Find out what your community needs and wants from your website.
- Design for mobile first and use a responsive theme/design.
- This will ensure site is easy to use on all devices.
- Accessibility – make sure it can be used by as many people as possible.
- Simple & uncluttered! Don’t add something ‘just because.’
- Have a reason for what you add.
- Write conversationally. Not formal mumbo jumbo.
- Bullet points – lists are easier to read than paragraphs.
- White space – use it!
- Use graphics and photos, but please, no cheesy graphics.
Photos, Editing and More
Photo Sources
- Pixabay – Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license. Many search options, over 320,000 free photos, vectors and art illustrations. “Finding free images of high quality is a tedious task – due to copyright issues, attribution requirements, or simply the lack of quality. This inspired us to create Pixabay – a repository for stunning public domain pictures. Your source for free vectors, free drawings and free photos. You can use any Pixabay image without attribution in digital and printed form, even for commercial applications.â€
- Unsplash | Free High-Resolution Photos – Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license. Has a keyword search and browse by broad categories. Many photos also appear in Pexels. Each featured photographer has a profile page with all their photos and a link back to their websites.
- Pexels · Free high quality stock photos – Creative Commons Zero (CC0) license. Monitors other sources and aggregates them. Provides search.
- Flickr advanced search – use creative commons search in Advanced search
- Compfight flickr search –  Searches flickr. Check each photo for licensing details. Provides text to copy and paste for attribution.
Lists with more photo sites
- The Ultimate Roundup of Free Stock Photo Websites
- 53+ Free Image Sources For Your Blog and Social Media Posts – tons of sources for free CC images
- Five Great Sources of Public Domain Images
Screenshots & Online Editors
- Screenshot tips and tricks – PC, Mac, browser addons and other tips from the Cool Tools for School project.
Quote Tools & More
- Pablo from BufferApp – Add your quote, pick from images or upload your own. Choice of fonts, size and additional text blocks.
- Spruce – Add quote, pick from selection of images or upload your own. Choose from a few fonts.
- ShareAsImage – Has browser addon & bookmarklets. Highlight text on a web page and quickly turn it into a image.
- Lists with more tools:
- 23 Tools and Resources to Create Images for Social Media more tools for creating social media images and infographics
- 36 Visual Content Creation Tools the Pros Can’t Live Without
More Resources
- Smore – create attractive online posters, event announcements, inviations or easily updated newsletter to share with your community.
- Canva – “Create designs for Web or print: blog graphics, presentations, Facebook covers, flyers, posters, invitations and so much more.”
- Online Broken Link Checker – free link checker for you site. Run it now and then to make sure your links are up to date.
- W3C Link Checker – another link checker.
- The Benefits of Less / Simplicity for Library Websites
- Sensible library website development – Slides from a presentation by Amanda Etches.
- What the Heck is Responsive Design?
- Website Redesign Using WordPress as CMS
- 7 Things Every Designer Needs to Know about Accessibility
