Work website - HTML for ease

[Derek W]

Hi all,

The work website that we currently have is a Wordpress site with one of the basic themes. I've been doing a little bit of ChatGPT 'Architectural Website' stuff in HTML. I'm almost at the point where it's ready to replace the current pages and alter the links so that it's based on website links rather than links to my desktop.

My concern is when i integrate the new pages into the existing website it'll screw up and I'll not have the knowledge to make it work again. I've only got a very basic grasp of HTML and no one else in the office has much of an idea either.

My thoughts are to create a new page in the old setup which will remain hidden from view as a test to ensure the new style etc will work.

I think the main concern is when i replace the 'index' page which makes reference to the theme and CSS with the new code that the website will disappear.

Am i being daft thinking this or 'should' it be replaced no problem (barring sorting out links etc)

 

[Derek W]

I don't think running a virtual machine is an option. Worst case scenario is I'll make a backup of the website before i mess around with it so i can restore it should something go wrong.

I'd hope that there wasn't too much that could go wrong as ultimately it should be just url alterations to include all the different pages and directing towards the images that i need to include.

 

[Derek W]

If you do backup the website make sure you backup the database and the files. Both are required and they should be in sync meaning the backups need to be taken at the same time.

Aye, its been a while since i had my own website with a wordpress template so messing about with the company website is a bit more duanting!

 

[Derek W]

Can I ask why a virtual machine is not an option?

I know nothing of sorting out a virtual machine and i suspect my bosses would rather i work on my actual job description!

 

[Derek W]

Fair. I would say though that if you make a mistake because you are working on production they'll be far more annoyed about that than spending time preparing the update / change before you push it to production.

Possibly not, the website the company has is crap. I'm making it less crap providing i get it up and running ok!

 

[Derek W]

If it falling over could cost them money / lost sales the other option would be to create a new wordpress site with a new domain choosing either a random domain name for testing purposes only (thisismytestingpage1234.com) or one similar to the one they are using e.g. (companyname.net) instead of (companyname.co.uk) etc...

Otherwise have at it and see what breaks because you've got the original files and can always put it back?

I'm thinking it'll have to be the latter. When we first set up the website we got the .com instead of the .co.uk so that may be an option but knowing them spending cash even though its in their best interest might be an issue! I'm sure they've just ordered up various stationary stuff with the .com info on it though.

 

[Derek W]

To go on from the post above, this is essentially what I'm working with.

Before

After

Obviously the Empire State Building is a place holder for when i get our images sorted but you get the idea. Nothing too wildly different but an improvement with at least some form of identity.

 

[Derek W]

You've designed a website (well done for getting that far) but don't yet know what differentiates a good website from a bad one (read about UX).

Some quick wins:
- white text on light green is too low contrast
- company name should be written in text in the header
- people might miss the nav up the top there, move it under the header
- add more text content for search engine optimisation

Thanks for the feedback. The page that I've shown is the project page so its already within the website. The home page will be a bit more obvious in terms of 'this is us!' but it's going to be 'clean' with just a carousel of project images / renders so that may direct them more towards the navigation bar across the top. In terms of the text, I've actually just changed the colour scheme slightly so its on an all green with white scheme so I'll be running this past the folk in the office this week. Don't particularly want to go black with it but a drop shadow similar to whats on the separate project headings might help make them pop a bit more.