What is the MINI-SITE?
SHORT STORY: FUNKMODE.com is designed almost entirely using pictures which allows us to do some pretty cool things creatively with the web pages.
However, using this method also has the side effect of making the pages take FOREVER to
load if you have a slower modem. The mini-site allows all of our visitors without
high-speed internet connections to quickly browse our site and gather important
information. It also allow those who need different accessibility options, such as those who
cannot see, to still browse our website using special tools since the mini-site is
text-based. In the end, it gives you a more classic website option to make life a little
easier.
LONG STORY: Here at FUNKMODE.com, we're a bunch of control freaks. You may not know this, but when you're designing a website you have to deal
with the fact that no matter how you want your site to look to your visitors, the
settings on their browser and computer will ultimately determine what the site will look like
to them. Imagine spending hours getting all styled up for a hot date only to have
your clothes look mismatched and oversized in the eyes of that special someone. Now
instead of hours think MONTHS (the time it takes to build a good site), and instead
of a special some ONE, think MILLIONS! That can be downright embarrassing!
Traditional sites get
around this by keeping their design simple and text-based.
Unfortunately, that doesn't allow for a whole lot of creativity.
Those of us dominated by our insanely willful creative minds demand more. In that case, the
closest you can come to making your site look just the way you want is to use pictures
or animations for everything you want your visitor to see. But once again, besides
the long load times and problems with accessibility mentioned above, using only pics and
animation leaves you with yet another HUGE problem - SEARCH ENGINES CAN'T FIND YOU!
When you use Google or
Yahoo to find web pages, those search engines find the pages you're looking for primarily by searching the text on the sites. If
your website has no text, you remain hidden to the world. It's like that earlier date
analogy, 'cept this time, you don't look sloppy, you're INVISIBLE! The mini-site is FULL O' TEXT, so the little search engine spiders have plenty of stuff to find, which means we stay
visible on the web.
Sooooo, with the
text-based mini-site, we keep the dial-ups happy, the text-lovers
happy, and the search engines happy. At the same time, we still get to
have our pretty pic-based site, which makes US happy!
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