Page 1 Design

With advances in online database programming, there are now many programs/modules that are oriented towards building an on-line community. We have recently started working with Drupal to build out some of our more complex websites.  We have found it to be highly versatile and user friendly.  We also like it because there is a strong online community available for support.  One of the biggest advantages is that it allows a designer/programmer to create a website with an online community.

It is important to decide if your site will be community driven. You can identify a site that will have a community if it contains login/registration features, blogs, forums, polls, shopping carts, commenting ability, and rating functionality, E-Newsletters. These features are ways to create interaction among members.  Each feature that encourages the users to interact actually makes the website become dynamic and lively. When a site is dynamic, it is easy to keep the users coming back to make and read new updates as the content is always fresh.

Community sites can be easy to use by a person with no programming knowledge or skill. Once the user joins or logs-in, he or she can explore the content, view other users’ profiles and posts as well as create a profile by filling in the questionnaire. Profiles are used to help identify the users and discover more about the members. It can be very educational, create and build relationships, and allow easy access to stay in contact with users around the world. There are programs/modules that can create multi-lingual website to meet requirements of an international audience.

Websites can become more interesting by allowing the users to interact. This makes it fun, builds relationships, and makes the users come back for more.