Old web site needs redesign

[Dave44]

I have an old web site(http://www.lovepoetry.com), started in 1997 and fixed up/propped up/spiffed up over the years. It now needs a complete redesign. I am leaning toward redesigining with LAMP, with selective XML and Javascript, conforming to w3c stardards and designed using the principals of IA.

I have started a design document that details the requirements of the new web site. My questions are:

Is LAMP the way to go?

Will w3c stardards allow me to get a new web designer to maintain the web site if the old one goes away- for whatever reason?

Are there IA people who are reasonablely priced? Would I benefit from employing them? The document has shown that the web site is quite complicated and i want the redesigned web site to have even more features.

How do I qualify a web designer. I selected one and gave him a small job and he screwed it up so I am unsure of my criteria.

How do I select a Hosting company that will offer real internet redundancy and good burst bandwidth. I have only moderate bandwidth requirements at the present time- 75 GB/month.

If any of you have input I am all ears. I am assuming the redesign will end up costing about $100,000. so I want to spend my money wisely. I don't want to get into it and find halfway through that I can't get to the end with my resources.

Dave44

[Zeeble]

Hey, just to briefly answer your questions we've just had a quick word with our senior coder, I believe his feedback should be sufficient enough to help you chose a professional design company for the time-being. Feel to free to send us a private message if you have any further questions.

Is LAMP the way to go?

> Yes. Can't beat the performance to price (free). And for future expansion, you have more resources and developers at your disposal than any other solution.

Will w3c standards allow me to get a new web designer to maintain the web site if the old one goes away- for whatever reason?

> Yes, but it's larger than that. Ideally, you want to emphasize not only on maintaining the W3C standards for XHTML and CSS, but also require some type of coding standards, naming conventions, directory structure, and strongly consider using a templated system to separate logic and design.

Are there IA people who are reasonablely priced? Would I benefit from employing them? The document has shown that the web site is quite complicated and i want the redesigned web site to have even more features.

> I've never thoroughly researched the principals of IA, however, I'm familiar with it and believe it to be, in a sense, a way of standardizing the concepts of good web design. Therefore, adhering to those principles would be beneficial. But it is also a relatively new IT "hot phrase" and although designers may unknowingly adhere to a similar set of guidelines, may be completely unfamiliar with IA. In short, I don't think it's a necessary requirement, but a good plus.

How do I select a Hosting company that will offer real internet redundancy and good burst bandwidth? I have only moderate bandwidth requirements at the present time- 75 GB/month.

> Generically speaking, when selecting a hosting company you should make sure that the host is competent enough to reply to customer support questions in a timely manner and that all software and hardware is updated when server performance is questioned, along with a company which actually knows how to secure a server. Also, make sure you don't host with you're average joe when working on a $100k budget, choose a hosting company wisely, one which is not a one-man band.

> The internet redundancy depends mainly on the bandwidth backbone and the stability of the servers. For example, we have chosen our bandwidth providers which offers best network uptime and fast networks. We have experienced network issues only very few times in the past couple of years, and have always maintained near 100% network uptime (99.9 uptime is our guarantee).

> Our servers run HSRP (Hot Standby Routing Protocol) and we are BGP multihomed to Internap and Level 3 and our ping times are from 30 to 48 ms

(Also, check your private message)