Web site development
Multimedia
Electronic Publications
Web Browser Starting Points
On-line Research

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Athene designs your web page to get results. Your site is geared toward the target market - often a mix that includes older generation computers as well as high tech. The first step is to review your unique organization. We need to understand who you are, what your goals are, and what your message is before we even start designing a web presence. What we learn in this crucial first stage will shape the entire design process. This knowledge enables us to design a site that not only fills a void in cyberspace, but reflects your organization's philosophy and message on a deeper level.

The next stage is to identify and prioritize high level goals for your website. It's important to build consensus on these priorities, to ensure that everyone is happy with the end product! As soon as high level goals have been defined, we need plan for website look and feel - the website style. Should it be educational? Professional? Upbeat? Friendly? Warm and fuzzy? Based on how we describe goals, look and feel, we begin to define a style guide.

The style guide might include a color scheme, use of corporate logos, marks and images, style of graphics art to be developed (line art, photos, nature images, etc.), and type of multimedia that might be appropriate. At this stage it is important to remember that graphics and special effects must be balanced; size and download time vs. web page appearance. It may not be necessary to add overpowering special effects when a more subtle effect will accomplish the same result!

Once we have established the web site's purpose, objectives, look and feel, we get down to development. Some of the guidelines we follow include a cap on the size of each page, including the graphics. In general, it's best to keep pages under 40 Kbytes each. The development process begins with a layout of the front page and secondary pages. After you approve the templates, we begin to add content. It is useful to edit content "blocks" into visual units that are physically distinct from other topics. It also helps to review each block and verify that it supports the websites main objectives, and doesn't become a distraction.

Once the basic content has been developed, we add advanced features such as counters, forms, mapped images and animated graphics. We work with you to ensure that these advanced features are carefully crafted to meet your needs and stay within the bounds of file size and development cost. The appropriate use of advanced features give your website a polished look - but if overdone, make the page look cluttered and distracting.

Examples of web site features and multimedia services that are available as needed for your site:

Statistics tracking	Digital video capture
Forms and data collection	Original 3-D graphics art
Frames/Floating frames	Animated graphics
Mapped images	Image mapping
Adobe Acrobat page conversion	Image scanning
Online forms	Image conversion and cleanup
On-line database services	Color optimization
On-line credit card transactions	Original music
Hot links to other resources	Audio recording and compression

Remember, developing your web site is a joint effort. It takes time, creativity, and persistence; remember that a wise investment in planning and design up front can pay off. Working together, we can plan, design, and produce a top quality website that gives the visiting public the message you want to send!

Once your web site has been designed and installed, it is listed on appropriate Web directories, i.e., on-line databases that allow clients to search for Web sites based on keyword entries. We craft your entry to contain all essential key words likely to be used by persons looking for sites like yours. Athene will also submit information on your site to appropriate on-line publications, and assist you with online research as needed.

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