Starberry

Website content evaluation and organisation requires that the purpose of the website be clearly defined. Collecting a list of the necessary content then organising it according to the audience's needs is a key step in website planning. In the process of gathering the content being offered, any items that do not support the defined purpose or accomplish target audience objectives should be removed. It is a good idea to test the content and purpose on a focus group and compare the offerings to the audience needs.

The next step is to organize the basic information structure by categorising the website content and organising it according to user needs. Each category should be named with a concise and descriptive title that will become a link on the website. Planning for the site's content ensures that the wants or needs of the target audience and the purpose of the website will be fulfilled.

The digital content life cycle consists of 6 primary phases: create, update, publish, translate, archive and retrieve. For example, an instance of digital content is created by one or more authors and over time that content may be edited. One or more individuals may provide some editorial oversight thereby approving the content for publication. Publishing may take many forms. Publishing may be the act of pushing content out to others, or simply granting digital access rights to certain content to a particular person or group of persons. Later that content may be superseded by another form of content and thus retired or removed from use.

Content management is an inherently collaborative process. It often consists of the following basic roles and responsibilities:

* Creator - responsible for creating and editing content.

* Editor - responsible for tuning the content message and the style of delivery (including translation and localisation).
* Publisher - responsible for releasing the content for use.
* Administrator - responsible for managing access permissions to folders and files, usually accomplished by assigning access rights to user groups or roles. Administrators may also assist and support users in various ways.
* Consumer, viewer or guest - the person who reads or otherwise takes in content after it is published or shared.

A critical aspect of content management is the ability to manage versions of content as it evolves (see also version control). Authors and editors often need to restore older versions of edited products due to a process failure or an undesirable series of edits.

A content management system (CMS) is a program used to create a framework for the content of your website. With Starberry’s Joomla Open-Source CMS*, the framework can be customized with a “skin” that defines the graphic design. This approach is opposite to defining the graphic design first, then coding the functionality second. Whereas the majority of cost of a website is in the functionality, the CMS approach is often significantly more cost effective.

* Joomla! is one of the most powerful Open Source Content Management Systems on the planet. It is used all over the world for everything from simple websites to complex corporate applications. Joomla! is easy to install, simple to manage, and very reliable. There are literally thousands of developers across the globe, releasing cost effective modules and plug-ins that install directly in to Joomla and are ready for your business to benefit from. Joomla reduces the need to develop costly and unsupported bespoke applications.

Starberry believe a website should be designed to allow for multiple pieces of information to be collected and presented in it’s designated spot. All content, whether written, photographic or database driven information should be ‘live’ and ‘updateable’ when and wherever possible.

Integrating with Estate Agent Property Management Software, Google Maps, Property Portals and Live News Feeds are just a few of the kinds of content we manage through our CMS and other Property Management tools.

With the advent of the Blog and the XML format in which they are delivered and shared, Starberry are able to integrate multiple data feeds into and out of your website with comparative ease.

The ability to manage live information means you can not only add rich relevant content to your website, but also distribute it out to partner sites.

Size is everything, the big the better, the more the merrier - This is what your customers are saying when searching for a home. Starberry have developed a number of methods for delivering images at a variety of sizes via Flash and Ajax

Galleries from local databases or online galleries such as Yahoo’s Flickr and alike. We are adamant that good photographs do the talking.