Designing a website can be an abstract process, where it is\ndifficult to know what is possible or what the space should look like until you\nstart building. Using metaphors to describe your new space can help you\narticulate and pin down what you want to do, and support you to flex your\ncreative thinking and problem solving skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Imagine your new web space is an empty plot of land<\/a>. What would you build there? Who would be invited in? What would you want to keep there?<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are other metaphors that might help you think about\nhow to best use your web hosting, or what kind of space or website you would\nlike to build. Maybe your website is a cloud, a boat, a balloon, or a shed at\nthe bottom of the garden. Check out the metaphors below to see other ways of\nimagining the potential of your space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Think of your website as a house. Your website will consist\nof both content (your images, articles and other work) and the structure and\nstyle of the world you build for your content. The rooms of the house are the\npages and spaces within your website. Think about the arrangement of rooms, the\narchitecture, and the purpose of each room. What does each room look like? How\ndo people move through the house? What are the spatial juxtapositions between\neach of the rooms?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Think of your website as a room. A room is cosy with finite\nspace. But a room is also flexible: you can build temporary partitions, change\nthe layout of furniture, and create new entrances to other rooms with links.\nYou can change the content of the room depending on the occasion. You can live\nin the room, and once you get bored of the wallpaper you can redecorate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Think of your website as a shelf. Maybe a shelf is easier to\nthink about than a whole room or house. What do you want to place on the shelf?\nThink of a small number of things that you would like to place here (images, texts,\ninteractive media). Think about the juxtapositions, combinations and ordering\nof the objects on the shelf. Do you want to take something off the shelf and\nreplace it with something else? Will objects on the shelf become old and need\nto be replaced?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Think of your website as a plant. Plants are organic: they\ngrow slowly and on their own. Your website can be the same, so long as you pick\na good idea seed and nurture it. Different parts of the plant might grow at\ndifferent rates or in different directions. In a couple of years, it may grow\nand bear fruit, if you are lucky. The fruit could be friends, reputation, work\nor something else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Think of your website as a shed. A shed sits on its own, separate from a house that might share the same plot of land. It can be cobbled together out of old wood, and be as wonky or sturdy as you like. Sheds are great as an extra space where you can hide away at the bottom of the garden. You can use it as storage space or a workshop to make things and test ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If this is your first time creating your own self-hosted<\/a> website, instead of thinking \u201cwhat is the biggest, shiniest website I can build?\u201d (or feeling like you have to build something big and shiny!), start by planning towards a small prototype website. This could be a one page website introducing yourself or a project to the world, or it could be a small collection of pages and posts<\/a> with a defined purpose. Once you have this small prototype you can tweak it and grow it further as you get more confident with the technology and ideas behind your website!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Designing a website can be an abstract process, where it is difficult to know what is possible or what the space should look like until you start building. Using metaphors to describe your new space can help you articulate and pin down what you want to do, and support you to flex your creative thinking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-how-to-plan-a-website","category-think"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coventry.domains\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coventry.domains\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coventry.domains\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coventry.domains\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coventry.domains\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/coventry.domains\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":495,"href":"https:\/\/coventry.domains\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471\/revisions\/495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coventry.domains\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coventry.domains\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coventry.domains\/learn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}House<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Room<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Shelf<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Plant<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Shed<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Start small<\/h2>\n\n\n\n