Estimating the Cost of Your Website

At the start of the web development process, we ask that you:

• Provide the item number of your chosen template, plus any instructions for adapting it for your website—adding a logo, changing colors, changing menu items, etc. Please note that your template may include elements that are not fully functional; among these are web forms which usually require the addition of form handlers before they can actually function.
• Provide the text content for each individual web page—in electronic format if possible: a word document, text file, etc. If text for some pages is not available, provide a brief description of the expected content; if the final content turns out to be significantly more complex than the description, an extra charge may be required.
• Provide any pictures—in electronic format if possible (gif, jpeg, etc.), plus instructions regarding picture placement—at minimum the page and paragraph where each picture should be inserted.
• Specify which forms included with your template are to be implemented, so that form handlers may be created for them. Also provide descriptions of any additional forms, including all desired form fields. Please describe how you want each form to be handled, e.g., form results emailed to you, form results posted to an on-site database, etc.
• Provide any other specific instructions regarding the layout of content on specific pages.
• If you wish to have content generated dynamically—for instance, taking the user’s input and using it to select database information for display—describe how you want the system to function.

We will develop an estimate based upon the above items that you provide to us. Any additional content, pictures, form descriptions, or instructions provided to us after the initial estimate for inclusion in the site will have to be evaluated and priced apart from the initial estimate.

In the absence of specific instructions to the contrary, we shall endeavor to add content to the content areas of a web page in the most straightforward manner—a columnar format with appropriate pictures inserted at the left or right of the appropriate paragraphs, and with text flowing around the pictures. Pictures will be resized to fit the content according to our judgment, but otherwise used as provided to us.

Keeping costs down

The customer should understand that some items can greatly inflate the cost of a website; among these are:

• Graphics processing:
  Adding border effects, compositing (combining several images into one), manipulating shape, colors, etc. Your cost can be lessened by providing your pictures to us as you want them to appear; so that all we need to do is resize them to fit the content and then insert them into the content area.
  
  
• Complex or crowded content:
  Please be aware that the final look of any web page is dependent upon the type of browser used and its user-settings, as well as the device’s accessibility settings. It is possible to override some user-settings; however, given our aging population’s diminishing capacity to resolve small text, it is best to develop websites that work with these user-settings, not against them.
  
  Unfortunately, it may not be possible to make certain complex or crowded content appear aesthetically pleasing in all browsers and at all text-sizes or accessibility settings, or it may require a significant amount of time to do so. See "Complex Content" for an illustration.

Be aware that text sizes are dependent upon browser and accessibility settings. You can speed up the development process and lessen your cost by avoiding content layouts where the aesthetic appeal is dependent upon particular text sizes, or upon line-breaks occurring at particular points within the text.

If the layout of content within the content areas of any page is to depart from a simple columnar display with pictures inserted at left or right and with text wrapping around the pictures, then specific instructions, sketches, etc., must be provided to us before we can estimate the cost. Be aware that some layouts may be easy to create on paper or in a text or graphics application, yet be difficult to duplicate on the web due to the need to accommodate the wide range of user settings that can affect the display of the website. For web content, simplicity is the key to keeping costs down.