After all this work planning the actual party and designing the website, the next big step is getting the word out.

There are sites that have the emails of a large number of spades players, but they are linked within charts and lists. To harvest the actual emails, she can download a free parsing program and run the parser on the different charts to compile her invitation list.

Once she has a compiled list, she needs to clean it up, removing duplicates and removing emails addresses that are no longer valid. Then she can send out one email notice, with an opt out line so she doesn’t get busted for being a spammer. The next challenge is to find a way to send multiple emails without triggering the receiving email client’s spam filter, or all her work will be automatically directed to the players’ bulk folder or spam folder and they notice won’t be read.

So there is quite a bit of work involved and not much time to do it. Thankfully, a lot of this can be handled using software to make things faster and easier, but there is still a need for the human touch and oversight.

My friend who is planning the spades party had a few questions tonight, so we stopped shooting messages back and forth on Yahoo Messenger and I gave her my phone number so she could call and talk, to save time.

Ideally, she wants to have an online form so people can register on the website with some core information, such as name, email address, when they plan to arrive, do they want to have the catered dinner on Saturday, etc.

Well, for this project to go from a simple web page as a flyer to a multiple page website with a form for data entry and perhaps shopping cart to handle the processing of the registration fee, there is a big difference in the amount of time that I can spend on this as a free favor.

Programmers have various methods of handling forms and that is getting into an advance skill level. There is information on the internet for people who want to learn about processing forms, and a few free or low cost sites that include simple forms as part of their hosting package. If you are asking the general public to input information, there is a good chance that someone will not enter the correct information or they will enter it in the wrong format. For instance, if you ask for an answer that includes a number, for example 45, there is a difference between these answers:

• 045
• 45.00
• forty-five

If the user puts the answer in the wrong format, you have a problem processing the answers. To help make sure the answers are in the format you need, your form needs to have a step or process called validation. You can see the benefit of using validation before the answers are accepted and why this is not longer a simple web page flyer.

Most people start with a list of things they want to say, rather than making the decisions and planning the first steps that I outlined earlier. So when we get to content, it should be relatively easy. Well, maybe not.

Content has to be presented in a format that we are trained since kindergarten to read and comprehend. Some of this overlaps into the design area of concern. The most basic thoughts are:

• We read from top left, across to the right, and down.
• We read a headline or title first
• We read best for comprehension and speed if the text is in short lines within multiple columns versus one column with very long lines.
• Answer the 6 “W’s” (Who, What, Where, When, Why, How)

So for the spades party she needs to make this information clearly presented:

Who, from two perspectives:
Who is hosting the event and who is invited?
Are you inviting people of all skill levels? Members of a club? General public? Children?

What?
Are these social games or competitive games? Will there be tournaments? What kind?

Where?
Name of venue, street address, and contact information (for those who get lost) plus directions and a map

When?
Event dates. Start time and finish time for each day of the event. Deadline for RSVP or registration.

Why?
Purpose of this event? Social gathering or competition? Fund raiser or for profit?

How?
What do you want them to do to RSVP? What if they have questions? Do you need an FAQ section? What if someone wants to come a day early? What if someone wants to share a ride or the cost of a hotel room – how do they hook up?

And last, since this is, in effect, a sales pitch to garner attendance, you have to make a “call to action.”
What do you want the reader to do next? How can you make them RSVP? How will you know who is coming? What deadlines do you have to meet, such as room deposit on the venue or catering head count?

Now, how do you get the word out and draw readers to your site? That is called “Marketing.”

In my opinion, design is the most critical aspect of a web site. You can have the most vital, important information to share with your readers, but if the design is crap, most people will move on without reading what you are trying to say. Design is combining art and style with form and function. It takes a talent for composition, a sense of style, an eye for detail and a deliberate learning process that develops skill to be a good designer.

The biggest mistake most beginners make when designing anything, whether is is a flyer that hangs in the convenience store window, a personal scrapbook of family photos and memorabilia, or a web page is to clutter the page with too much “stuff.” Beginners use several different type styles and fonts, making the page look like a ransom note. They use too many “cute” embellishments like clip art, busy borders and doo-dads. And they often lose track of the main thing they are trying to communicate – the original content.

You can’t teach someone everything they need to know about design in just a few minutes. And some people never “get it” no matter how hard to you try to teach them. But if you have an interest in design and any talent for art or composition, there are a lot of books in the library and free web resources to learn the basic principles and then move on to advanced skills.

One of my favorite resources on the web is a blog by a designer who really knows the internet. His posts are short and to the point, and they cover a wide range of talking points. This is not for the beginning designer, but anyone who has successfully completed a dozen or so projects will most certainly appreciate his comments and suggestions. If you are interested in learning some of the intermediate and advanced techniques, you should check in with the web design blogger site once in a while. He talks about more than just design. Recent posts include topics like search engine optimization, determining your Google page rank, and web site templates. So you can see that there is a variety of useful information presented and worth the time to click over there.

After we choose a web host, the next step is to decide the format of the web page itself. Do we want to have a single page divided into different sections? Or do we need to have multiple pages so that the user has a quick pageload and links to other pages targeted to their specific interest?

Do we want a conventional website designed in PageMaker, Dreamweaver, Net Fusion, etc.? Or could we use a blog to handle the job? Should the website BE a blog or just HAVE a blog as part of the site?

Since we are doing this project on a very tight budget, we are checking out the free resources first, and if the free ones don’t meet our needs, then we are moving up the cost ladder one step at a time.

For something fast and easy, we can use a single page hosted on Yahoo. For something a little more advanced, I don’t think a free web host or free web page designer program will do a good job. I have access to all the big name web design packages, but there are some free ones available for download if you know where to look. Since I’m supposed to be helping her – not doing this project myself and giving it to her – I am giving her the resources and links and letting her make the decision on which way to go.