Usability and the utility, not the visual design, determine the success or failure of a web-site. Since the visitor of the page is the only person who clicks the mouse and therefore decides everything, user-centric design has become a standard approach for successful and profit-oriented web design. After all, if users can’t use a feature, it might as well not exist.
We aren’t going to discuss the implementation details (e.g. where the search box should be placed) as it has already been done in a number of articles; instead we focus on the main principles, heuristics and approaches for effective web design — approaches which, used properly, can lead to more sophisticated design decisions and simplify the process of perceiving presented information.
Read More Article...
Thursday, July 31, 2008
10 Principles Of Effective Web Design
Web design Tender - Develop City Website
ITMatchOnline.com is the easiest way to find right partners across the world.
Project Details:
Type : Tender
Id : 99153735
Category : Web Design and Development
Title : Develop City Website
Estimated Budget : Need Best Proposals
Description :
Feeds, Interactive Capability, etc. Our website contains more than 150 pages of information. The website is a central source of information for residents, visitors, employees, and business customers of our city.
Scope of services:
- Site must utilize ASP.NET master page feature set.
- Site must utilize DotNetNuke 4.8 or greater as a content management system.
- Site navigation system must be flexible and easily customized using a zweb based form or through the modification of a database table.
- At a minimum, site must be designed to utilize AJAX, Silverlight 2, and Flash technology, and use standard formatting throughout the entire site.
- Every page must be capable of RSS (Real Simple Syndication) subscription.
- During the process, provider will provide a technical quality control overview; including but not limited to the optimization of graphics and downloads to reduce the amount of memory space required, and standardization of videos to AVI and Flash formats.
- Forms will be recreated with web or interactive PDF technology.
- Must use a minimum of 128 bit SSL encryption & must be Microsoft SQL 2005 based.
Country : United States
Status : Closed
Are you interested to work on this project? Post your contact details Now! Click Here
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Why Flashy Web Designs are Bad for Business
Have you heard yourself saying, "I don't understand? I have a gorgeous site, a really cutting-edge splash page with a flash introduction, up-to-date technology, I paid a small fortune for this site, and I'm getting plenty of hits but no one is buying or staying in the site."
Well, you may be one of a growing number of businesses, both large and small, who believed all the hype about the latest in new technology. Many business owners want their website to have that cutting-edge look, and so will ask for things such as animation, music, flash, and other "bells and whistles" that would be detrimental to their site. These extras are probably driving potential customers away because they increase download time and are not search engine optimized.
In the rush to join everyone else on the Internet, businesses have ignored vital steps in the process of getting their business on-line. They assumed that because everyone else had gimmicks such as a splash/intro page, this was the right way to go. The result: businesses chose design companies who readily took their money and who designed exactly what the client wanted without clearly focusing on marketing goals. To be fair, oftentimes the graphic design company has no idea that a site designed with all the latest technology doesn't necessary translate into a site that has the functionality that an on-line business needs. This is because the graphic design firms specialize in graphic design, not in marketing. Many graphic design sites are full of splash pages, scrolling text, animation, etc. They use these tools because it allows the graphic designers to display their creativity and their knowledge of these "bells and whistles." Creativity is good but all the latest cutting-edge technology translates into a lack of functionality to effectively market any on-line business including their on-line presence.
When having your site designed, remember that first and foremost, you are building your site to increase prospects and sales. Don't look for a graphic design firm that believes all you need to do is get in the search engines and place banners to be successful. Don't hire a designer that is new to the Internet--meaning they have years of print design experience but have just decided to expand their horizons to the Internet. Don't hire a graphic designer that doesn't have a professional copywriter or marketing person on staff and don't hire a graphic designer just because they are the cheapest. Remember, cheap can cost you money--you get what you pay for. Hire a marketing/design firm that understands the difference between form and function and can apply it in a marketing perspective. Remember, many of these latest bells and whistles are very expensive and your site may not need them to be effective.
Every single design element affects your web sites functionality and marketability--from the decision about how the navigation will work to choosing the right colors, fonts, graphics, content, HTML code, and more. These will not only influence potential customers but search engine indexing as well.
If and when you’re ready to begin your on-line presence, start with a business plan and strategy. It is essential if you really want your business to succeed. Don’t be afraid to research marketing trends and investigate a marketing/design firm that will fit your needs.
If you are currently on-line but your business is not progressing as you think it should, don’t be afraid to request a web site analysis. There are firms that will analyze and help pinpoint areas of your on-line presence that need improvement for a successful Internet presence.
Last, but not least, keep an open mind to what the firm offers as suggestions for making your Internet experience a profitable one. Remember, this is their livelihood, this is what they do and they have the experience to back it up.
Are you ready to be successful?
Cheryl Carnright and Joann Marsili have over 35 years of combined graphic design & marketing experience. They are the authors of a free monthly newsletter: "B2B Marketing News." Visit their site http://www.b2bstrategicmarketing.com.
Web Designing Project - General Web Design Service
ITMatchOnline.com is the easiest way to find right partners across the world.
Project Details:
Type : Project
Id : 10687845
Category : Web Design and Development
Title : General Web Design Service
Estimated Budget :More than 2000 USD
Description :
A) Live Channels
B) Real time Shows
C) Play recorded Video Clips
D) Delivery of multipoint conference content
Our approximate payout is more than 2000 USD and will be paid by wire transfer on monthly basis. Interested Service Providers are requested to contact with their profiles as soon as possible.
Country : Israel
Status : Closed
Are you interested to work on this project? Post your contact details Now! Click Here
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Why You Need to Test Your Web Site with Real Users
I recently attended the Nielson Norman Group User Experience World Tour (see my review if you want to know more). I learned much about making Web sites more usable, but the most common theme was the importance of usability testing. If you think usability isn’t important, a recent test of shopping sites showed that almost half the tasks set to the test shoppers weren’t completed successfully – which equates to a lot of frustrated consumers and lost sales when scaled up to the global level!
Assessing the usability of your site
To assess how usable your Web site is, you can choose a variety of techniques. I hope to convince you that user testing is one of the most important. Below are some of ways you can assess your sites usability.
User surveys and focus groups are marketing tools, to find out what a selected group of users remember about a Web site (rather than how they actually felt while they were using it). Naturally, the "feel" of a Web site is an important element of branding and corporate image. A good feeling can increase trust in the site, so we should not dismiss it.
User feedback solicits the views of a self-selected user group. Caroline Jarrett (http://www.effortmark.co.uk/) says that experience shows that, usually:
Visitors who hate the site leave promptly without responding,
Visitors with minor problems: broken links, typos etc. Often provide feedback, as do those who love the site,
The majority probably think the site is OK and don’t bother to tell you this. Therefore feedback isn’t a reflection of the overall spectrum of user experience, though it can highlight specific problems.
Webmasters may rely on mechanical aids such as log files and automated testing services (like www.usablenet.com). Log files tell you which pages are most visited, longest studied, first/last visited etc., but not whether users found what they wanted, or why they left. Automated services advise on predictable problems: broken links, and missing ALT tags for images, but are inevitably unable to spot complex things like difficulty in locating products, meaningless graphics, or poor results from search pages.
Heuristic inspections are conducted by a usability expert or a team, systematically examining a representative selection of pages. Most people use checklists to evaluate against, though experience and instinct are equally important. The inspection report describes, at least, the most important flaws in the site, and may recommend improvements. However, they can cause problems - the creative and technical people in the Web team often resent the intervention of a know-it-all consultant! For more details of these and other methods, try the Information and Design or Usability 1st sites. Thus, marketing people, webmasters and consultants can help with usability, but with drawbacks. Let’s look at that word again, "usability." The start of the word is the most important – the bit that’s to do with the users. It is the user’s experience of trying to do something with a site that is the critical thing to get right, and this can only be done effectively by testing with real users.
How user testing works
A small number of users (five are usually enough – see Jakob Neilsen’s Alertbox) are asked, one by one, to perform set tasks using the site. Their behavior is observed (not directed!) by a knowledgeable person sitting in the same room, who takes notes on what they do and say. Sometimes, a video link or two-way mirror allows other staff to watch without disturbing the test.
The users are reasonably representative of the target audience for the site. If there are different target audiences, each must be tested separately. Testing can take place at almost any stage of development – in general, the earlier the better. Simple tests of early prototypes allow problems to be fixed, and then the next iteration of the site can be tested. This is a much more efficient use of resources than completing the site and doing one big test at the end.
Summary: Why you need to test with real users
Consultants, marketing and Web development people have their own biased views of what users want or need. But only users can really tell you whether your site meets their requirements.
However experienced the usability consultant who advised you on your site, there will always be some aspects that real users will find problematic. Caroline Jarrett, who’s conducted many tests, says "In a test, at least one user will surprise you by using the site in an unanticipated way." Testing also has a useful side- effect: it can act as a neutral agent to convince your boss, your designers, the marketing team, and the developers of the importance of good usability. While anyone can legitimately question the opinion of the professionals, it takes real nerve to suggest that the intended users of the site don’t know what they need!
Source : http://www.webreference.com/
Web Designing Project - Designing of Musical Website
ITMatchOnline.com is the easiest way to find right partners across the world.
Project Details:
Type : Project
Id : 12924136
Category : Web Design and Development
Title : Designing of Musical Website
Estimated Budget :500-1000 USD
Description :
Interested Service Providers are requested to contact us with their proposal as soon as possible.
Country : United States
Status : Closed
Are you interested to work on this project? Post your contact details Now! Click Here
Monday, July 28, 2008
8 Tips for Designing a Great Website
Square buttons, round buttons, flashy buttons … will they match my shoes, my handbag or my tie? Are you stuck in a maze of buttons, headings, bullets, sub-headings and colour schemes?
STOP!!!!
Take a deep breath and read some practical tips for professional looking websites.
1. Select a colour scheme and stick to it.
If your company has a logo or preferred colours on its stationery that’s a good start. For those of you starting from scratch, choose two or three complementary colours and stick with them – don’t change colours on every page.
The most common colour schemes include:
- Red, yellow and white
- Blue and white
- Red, grey and white
- Blue, orange and white
- Yellow, grey and white.
If you’re not sure what colour scheme to choose, surf the internet and find a website that you like. You can then model your colour scheme on what already exists.
2. Use templates.
Can’t find a website you really like? Another option is to choose a template. There are many templates or pre-set designs. These come as part of your web design software (such as FrontPage) or you can check out some websites that specialise in designing templates.
Visit:
www.web4business.com.au emplates1.htm
www.newtemps.com
www.website-templates-resale-rights.com
www.123webtemplatesandmore.com
3. Provide an easy to use navigation system.
This is one of the most important issues to consider when designing a website. You need to ensure your visitors can find what they are looking for easily. Most websites either display their navigation bar on the left or at the top. And since most people are used to this type of navigation, it’s best to stick with it.
It also helps to include your navigation bar at the bottom of each page to save your visitors from having to scroll back to the top.
4. Don’t go overboard on special effects
Whilst it is ok to have one or two special effects to jazz up your website, spinning graphics and logos often distract your visitor from the content, not to mention they can take too long to download. Your visitors may click away even before your spinning logo finishes loading.
5. Backgrounds
Ensure your visitors can read the text on the background, ie. no black writing on dark blue background or yellow on white. Also be careful that your links are visible before and after being visited. The default for links in most programs is blue (before being visited) and burgundy (after being visited), so if you have a dark background, ensure your links are light.
6. External Links
It is a good idea to open links to other websites in a new window. That way your visitors can easily return to your site when they are finished browsing the external link
7. Site Map & Search Feature
If you website is more than 15 pages, it is useful to have a site map or a “Search” feature to ensure your visitors can easily find what they’re looking for.
8. Content is King
While it is important that your website looks clean and professional, it is far more important that you concentrate your efforts on the content and promotion.
If you want a professional website, things to stay away from include:
- Flash intros, revolving globes, bevelled line separators, animated mail boxes
- Loads of pop up or pop under boxes
- Autoplay music. Allow your customer to play music only if they choose.
- Hit counters of the free variety, which say “you are 27th visitor”
- Date and time stamps, unless your website is updated daily or weekly
- Busy backgrounds.
Don’t sweat the small stuff and get yourself focussed on what to include on the website and the best way to promote it. We will cover these topics in future articles.
This article is written by Ivana Katz whi is the owner of Websites 4 Small Business - www.web4business.com.au, a company specialising in the design and promotion of small and home-based business websites.
Source : http://www.cyberindian.com/
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Web Design- the invisible hand to the success of your business.
Business and website go hand in hand. Website is the focal point of your business, interacting with your customers and clients round the clock. People judge you by your covers and this is where a good looking website design steps in. A professional website layout puts your business where it matters the most- in front of your customers and set you apart from the noise and clatter of your competition. How many times have you walked in a store which appears shabby? I bet you avoid stepping in, leave alone doing business with them. The same rule applies to your website- it is your virtual storefront and by designing an eye catching website, you are bound to turn a few heads and keep visitors coming back.
Picture this- your website acts as your storefront, your web layout and design the first impression your customers get, your content acts as brochure and catalogs for your customers to browse through, would you be willing to take a chance with any of the pointers that directly affect your business? A professional looking website layout portrays that your website means business. A website should be designed like a car with the purpose it needs to serve in mind. What´s the use of creating a vehicle without passengers? Getting a good looking website does not necessarily cost you a fortune. A well thought out website design would not only add value to your website but open up host of revenue avenues for your website besides creating value to your business. Making your website easily accessible and providing relevant content with your business niche creates a winning combination.
Read More Article...
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Web Designing Project - Design & Develop The Project`s Website
ITMatchOnline.com is the easiest way to find right partners across the world.
Project Details:
Type : Project
Id : 19621704
Category : Web Design and Development
Title : Design & Develop The Project`s Website
Estimated Budget :More than 15000USD
Description :
The scope of this project is to update the existing our website. Our in-house marketing department will provide all of the site copy and provide the successful provider with the most necessary original and stock photography. We will provide a firm that can handle all site planning, interface design and production is required.
Scope of work:
1.) Create a content management system that will permit non-technical staff to instantly update web site content on specific pages.
2.) Convert substantial amounts of existing content to new web site. The site must have an attractive mix of text and graphics.
3.) Each section of the site should have a common look and feel.
4.) Our logo should be prominently displayed on every page as a common header.
5.) The use of images, fonts and layouts should be consistent throughout the site.
6.) The site should be easy to navigate. Information should be grouped and presented in a logical manner and require no more than three levels of “drill down” for the user to find the desired information.
7.) Provide necessary software and licenses to maintain site internally or externally, as decided by us.
8.) Provide search capabilities using key words or phrasing that will identify content from throughout the site.
9.) Gather e-mail, areas of interest and demographic information from visitors in a format that permits us to maintain a single database of users and e-mail each according to their area of interest and profile. Provide training and all necessary support to permit easy use by a selected our staff person.
10.) Implementation of tracking software to produce user defined site log reports.
Interested providers must send Ten (10) copies of their proposal no later than 12:00pm/noon CDT, August 15, 2008. Your proposal must include a cost proposal as described above. All costs associated with the delivery of the project should be presented in a flat rate, fee for service format. For more details have a look on attachment.
Country : United States
Status : Closed
Are you interested to work on this project? Post your contact details Now! Click Here
Website Design Tips - How To Reduce Website Load Time
An important aspect of website design is to reduce web page load time to the lowest possible. A slim trim website design is in some ways like an attractive athletic woman, so let us call this article "A website weight loss programme" that will help you make your web pages load much faster.
Why is it so important to reduce website load time?
A website has global reach but Internet connection speeds in various countries are not the same. A lot of dial-ups and slow broadband connections still exist. Recently published research has revealed that unless massive amounts are spent on improving Internet infrastructure, the average global connection speed may show a dip by 2010. Even for those who do have high-speed connections, the total number of relevant websites on the Internet is growing fast. This directly translates into less time spent by the viewer per web page. Generally speaking, patience is a rare commodity in today's world of reducing resource-to-consumption ratios. Do you want to neglect a large proportion of potential worldwide customers just because your web page load time is slow? If not, then follow the steps below to reduce website load time.
Women usually work on trimming the hips, shaping legs and removing cellulites in various places. Similarly, I have classified below "website weight loss programme" into three 'broad' categories: Graphics, Code and Other Factors. Please note that you should meticulously follow as many steps as you can to take the redundant fat out of your website design and reduce "website loading time" to a bare minimum.
WEBSITE WEIGHT LOSS PROGRAMME
A. TRIM the Graphics (Slim hips:-)
- Avoid Graphic Heavy or Complicated Web Design
Website designs that use many images (especially those with special effects) generally take a long time to load. What if a good looking website keeps loosing valuable visitors just because its web pages take too much loading time? Try to be discrete and use less number of images / graphics while maintaining the look and impact of the website design. Remember that text links are easily read by search engines and load faster than graphic buttons. Sometimes it is also possible to move large images from an important page to a section like "Gallery" to reduce web page load time. - Use Only Optimized Images
Optimize each image in editing software like Photoshop. There are different image formats like GIF, JPEG, PNG, TIFF etc., so try to save images in the appropriate format. As a rule-of-thumb, GIF is more suitable for uniform color images and JPEG for real world scenes. GIF saved at 256 colors should be reduced (as much as possible) to 128, 64 or 32 colors without comprising image quality. To reduce website load time JPEGs should be saved in the lowest quality possible without spoiling picture impact. You can also use PNG if you are sure that your users are using newer browsers. - Specify Image Dimensions
While inserting images in HTML always mention height and width attributes. This helps the web browser to know the image size before loading it. The browser will then reserve the area for the images while rest of the web page design continues to load, thereby reducing website loading time. Do not use the height and width tags for image size reduction. - Pre-load Your Images
You can pre-load some heavy images of the next pages (that can be reached by clicking on links within the current page) by defining them at the footer of the current web page. For example, img src="nextimage" height ="1" width="1" inserts a 1x1 pixel image in the footer that is read by the browser when the code above it has been read. Thereafter, while your visitor is viewing your main page, images of the next page will continue to download to the viewer's PC in the background and will reduce subsequent web page load times. This is not recommended for direct Adwords landing pages because Google has recently announced that high web page load time will negatively impact the landing page quality score. - Optimize Flash Files
Animating important stuff can make an impact on the visitor. If possible, avoid animated GIF images in website designs; instead use Flash with discretion. Always use optimized flash files. There are so many ways to reduce Flash loading time that I will be covering this in a separate article.
B. TRIM the Code (Shapely legs ;-)
- Remove Useless Code:
While using an HTML generator, some extra or empty tags get inserted in the code, for e.g. breaking spaces, block quotes, unnecessary extra space, blank lines etc. Even if you hand-code HTML, always manually check your website design code and remove the empty or unnecessary HTML tags. Use appropriate DOCTYPE and close all HTML markup elements. The browser will then have less work to do matching elements. Clean coding of a web page will not only reduce website load time but also increases your text-to-code ratio and search engine spiders do not have to spend time deciphering irrelevant stuff. - Use of Shorthand External CSS
CSS helps make your website design code compact as well as clean and its proper usage helps reduce website loading time. Define common font styles, images etc. (used in a set of web pages) in one single external CSS. By doing this, you will not have to insert the same tags again and again on different pages - just call the CSS and apply that particular class. With all your repetitive stuff defined in the CSS file, the browser won't have to read each single tag all over again. Always use External CSS file and remember to remove extra, unused styles from it.
Use smaller class names and shorthand CSS instead of putting each CSS attribute in its own line.
For example:
"body{
background: url("image.jpg");
background-color: #cccccc;
background-repeat: repeat-x;
}"
Above code can be written as below when using shorthand CSS:
"body {
background: #cccccc url('image.jpg') repeat-x;
}"
A properly created small external CSS file will substantially reduce website load time. - Use External JavaScript
If you must use JavaScript, merge small common JavaScript files into a single external file and then (for newer browsers) you may compress it. This will reduce website loading time and you don't have to write the script on each web page - the web browser has this file in its cache and won't have to download it each time another web page loads. - For Table Based Website Design
Avoid unnecessary nested and full-page tables. If you insert a table inside another table, it increases web page load time because the browser has to read the content located in the innermost table. Avoid unnecessary nested tables, instead divide your page into different sections like header, body, footer etc. according to your layout and use a different table for each section. Your browser will be able to load your web page a bit faster. - Use Table-less Website Designs
Every time when a website is opened, the browser has to first scan tables and then load the content of the page which increases the website loading time. Using CSS and DIV tags you can avoid tables altogether and reduce website loading time substantially.
C. OTHER factors that reduce website load time (remove the cellulites:-)
- Host on a high-end server with fast connectivity to decrease website loading time.
- If you have a database driven website, it is faster and more secure to place your content on one server and your database on another. Consider SSI for common page elements, AJAX for page refreshes and Jar compressed files that load faster into the temp.
- Avoid background music files and if it is very necessary to use them then use highly compressed music file formats. Avoid having much stuff on your website loading from other websites and reduce the number of HTTP requests.
- Adding a slash at the end of a link like domain.com/contact informs the server that this is a directory page and it does not have to waste time working out what kind of file exists at that address.
- Using fewer redirects, Iframes, PhP and database queries also helps reduce website loading time.
If you have followed the above website weight loss programme and made your website design slim and trim, you will be thrilled every time you see its performance. Remember that quality websites offer a lot of fresh content. When you add new pages, do not forget to apply the above tips to reduce website load time.
Article written by Rajiv Kakar of Centaurhosting.com (Website Design Company India) actively engaged in SEO Services, Web Designing and Web Hosting. He recommends visiting their Web designing Delhi Studio for more information on website design processes.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=R_Kakar
Friday, July 25, 2008
Web design Tender - Website & Database Development Services
ITMatchOnline.com is the easiest way to find right partners across the world.
Project Details:
Type : Tender
Id : 19880826
Category : Web Design and Development,Database Development Services
Title : Website & Database Development Services
Estimated Budget :Need Best Quotations
Description :
We have identified that the service provider will have responsibilities in the following areas:
(a) Website development.
(b) Database development and management.
(c) Project management and communications.
Scope of work:
- Refine existing third party designed sites to coincide with our design.
- Some graphics will be required to brighten the appearance of some content. Some left-side navigation bars would benefit from having iconic images as exemplified in the biology channel.
- The existing site is built on a bespoke ruby on rails and a mySQL infrastructure. This allows a level of user editorial over the site. There is a preference to move to a standardized, more widely supported content management system.
- We expect that the entire website will uphold the agreed style and design standard.
- New functionality for the database should be proposed.
- Proposals should be made for the integration of the website with the database to ensure that the website acts as the front end to functionality supported by the database.
- Proposals for hosting the website are also included in the requirement.
- The service provider will also manage and support the existing hosted POP3 email server infrastructure in use by our team.
Country : Ireland
Status : Closed
Are you interested to work on this project? Post your contact details Now! Click Here
Top 10 Things to Look For in a Web Host
Although this is a “top 10” list, most of the following things could easily be listed as the #1 most important consideration, so take them all seriously. It doesn’t matter if you are a large company, a small one, or just a hobbyist who wants to display photos of hand-painted electric trains. Everyone needs to consider the same things, just to different degrees.
Now, remembering that there is really no firm order to these, let us consider the top 10 things to look for in a web host:
- Reliability (“uptime”) – Your host should be reliable, stable and fast, and should guarantee its uptime, the minimum figure for which should be 99%. A straight 99% is actually considered low these days, as 99.5% or higher is rapidly becoming the new standard. Check to see if the host provides a prorated refund if uptime falls below the stated benchmark. With how much business a company can lose any time their website is down this crucial aspect of web hosting probably does deserve to be in the #1 spot, but read on for other important info.
- Data transfer (traffic or “bandwidth”)
– Data transfer mean the number of bytes delivered from your site to its visitors as they browse. If a web host advertises "unlimited bandwidth,” find out how much traffic the particular deal you’re considering really allows. Most new sites that are not archives, storage or “drop-send” sites normally use less than 3GB of bandwidth per month. If you expect your traffic requirements to increase over time, check the host’s policy for “overages.” If there is a charge (usually per additional GB) over the allowed bandwidth, you need to determine if it’s cheaper to pay it once in a while (if it will not be ongoing) or to upgrade your service level.
- Disk space
– Be on guard against the "unlimited disk space" deals, too, and view them with the same skepticism as you just observed being applied to data transfer. The vast majority of sites need no more than 10-20MB of web space, so don’t fall prey to enticements like 500MB, or “unlimited space.” To get an idea of relative size, a site with about 200 pages and the usual assortment of text, pictures and motion graphics will use only about 10-15 MB for all of the pages and supporting files.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Web Browsers Used In Professional Web Designing
The client software that allows you to display and interact with hypertext document hosted on the web server is called the web browser. When you access a document using a browser the document is transferred to the local host and the link is broken thereby reducing the amount of traffic on the internet. Viewing the web requires the use of any browser program to view files, download images and movies or listen to the downloaded sound files.
There are different kinds of text based and graphical user interface based browsers. Text based browsers are simple and require less sophisticated computers and terminals than graphic user interface browsers. The graphic user interface browsers are mouse or icon oriented programs that run under graphic user interface systems such as windows, Macintosh etc. most of these programs automatically display the formatted text with various fonts, pictures, sounds and movies, with a simple click of the mouse- they provide internet multi media.
The text based browsers also read the same hypertext markup language text files as graphic user interface browsers but they display them without formatting. They do not display inline pictures from the document being read, but allow some of the pictures and the sound files to be downloaded and viewed or played on the local computer at a later time, provided the computer has the proper software and hardware. Browsers allow you to directly enter a uniform resource locator to go to a specific document.
Also there are different types of text based web browsers like Linux. It is a text- only browser developed at the University of Kansas. Linux runs on the UNIX or VMS based host computers where you have your login id not on your PC. Therefore phone line access does not require a SLIP or PPP account with the internet service providers. Just as a shell account with internet access the presence of the Linux program
on the internet service providers system is sufficient. With Linux you cannot view graphics or listen to sound, but you can read hypertext, place the cursor on highlighted words and move around the web by clicking on the mouse.
The graphic user interface browsers are easy to use, point and click type that operate under the same graphical system like windows, Macintosh etc. when started, most of them automatically retrieves and displays a home page. This default home page is often the home page of the site where the browser was developed. You can also change this home page to any other page for which you have a universal resource locator. Netscape navigator and internet explorer are the most popular graphic user interface browsers.
Author Resource:- Kyle Newton is a Professional web design and ecommerce professional with 7 years of experience in the web development and internet marketing field. He has developed total online presence systems and has helped establish many successful online businesses.
Source : http://www.articleriot.com/
Web Designing Project - Development of 1.5 Joomla Website
ITMatchOnline.com is the easiest way to find right partners across the world.
Project Details:
Type : Project
Id : 21143931
Category : Web Design and Development
Title : Development of 1.5 Joomla Website
Estimated Budget :250 USD
Description :
It is a website where people will exchange gadgets with each other by only paying a nominal amount to us. There will be one section for mobile phones and another for other gadgets. The homepage will have around 2-3 good offers and the best offer which we will be able to choose.
- A user can only offer gadgets and ask for a similar gadget in a given price-range which we will manually select.
- We would like a forum based on SMF.
- Some custom graphics and logos also need to be developed.
Interested service providers are requested to send their profile as soon as possible.
Country : India
Status : Closed
Are you interested to work on this project? Post your contact details Now! Click Here
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Using logos in banner designs
When is it preferable to use a logo in a web banner? While displaying your logo may be essential for print and related media promotions, a logo on a banner deserves serious reconsideration.
People react to ads differently on the web than other types of media. A logo in a banner usually screams "advertisement" to the audience, and web pages are already oversaturated with banner ads. Visitors usually don't want to see ads when they come to a web site. Visitors are expecting to find information or entertainment.
One of the most ineffective banners is one that contains a logo and a company slogan. How does that banner ad benefit your audience? What reason does the viewer have to click on to your site? None! You've just said in your banner "look how good I am" rather than thinking "look what good I can do for you."
There are some instances when a logo in a banner ad can be helpful: one is for "branding" purposes, that is, getting your company name out in public so people are more likely to remember your company, product, or service. Some companies purposely create branding banners when their logo or name is already well known with the public, such as Coke or Microsoft. Other companies using banner ads just to tell the public that their business' services will be available soon.
Companies who use banner advertising for branding are companies which (a) are already well known to the public, and (b) have a large advertising budget to feature their name in many places. And that means for the majority of businesses, using a company name and/or a slogan in a banner ad is an ineffective way of obtaining high CTRs (click-through-ratios).
So if your company is not a big, well-known company, then how do you get people to click on to your site through your banner ad? Design your banner with the appearance that it will provide information or solve a problem if you click on it. If you have to include your logo on the banner, then make sure the logo is not the main focus of the banner. Make your logo small and place most of the emphasis on the call-to-action.
Logos in banner ads can generate better results if they are part of a keyword search. Say for instance, you have purchased keywords from a portal site, such as Yahoo, where anyone who enters keywords in a search query will come to a web page on the portal's site that has your banner displayed. Because you have already narrowed down your target audience, and people who have come to the particular web page are more likely to be looking for what you provide. A logo that says what your company does may let the visitor be more likely to click on your banner and go to your site.
In conclusion, we rarely recommend that companies use logos in banner ads because those banners tend to have the lowest CTRs. The only time we recommend using logos in banner ads is for branding purposes, but expect low CTRs.
Source : http://www.grantasticdesigns.com/
Monday, July 21, 2008
Using php effectively for a good user friendly design
Using php effectively for a good user friendly design
Website development has become more common in the present world and optimizing for shopping carts. This is encouraged by all the companies. Many of the websites are designed according to their business plans. Some of the website is utilized for promoting business, shopping, official. Each website is tuned accordingly with their requirements and desires of the owner of website. Depending upon the criteria the entire website, they are designed on the basis of the platforms and the requirement. There are many platforms and web design languages including ASP, ASP.NET, PHP, Java, Flash and HTML.
HTML Website design is purely for search engine crawlers and promotes the techniques. The only disadvantage with this is it prevents search engine spiders to view actual content on the web page with the advertisements.
Dynamic advertises online and they give better results in developing a large scale of the website. In this instead of creating one page for one product, we can create one template with good back end database of the website. It gives you spiders of illusion where hundreds of pages are opposed to help the search engine to crawl. It is the most important and effective search engine friendly for e-commerce websites to market its product well through internet and gives output of the marketing solutions.
The most popular web scripting program is PHP that is know as Hypertext preprocessor programming which is server side scripting language. It is the software used for web hosting and developing. It can be used by all web programming for web hosting and website development. Present world has great demand towards this scripting. It has dynamic property and works with HTML for displaying a dynamic web page and its elements. There are some more types where it is combined with Relational Database Management System and runs the programs in different web servers too.
PHP is very simple to use by net programming counter part. IT inputs into different streamed files and instructs the output which displays in another stream of data. This PHP is used for preparing various website with different concept.
- Online shopping – Where you can sell different products and competent to search criteria for facilitate consumer with desired products. These sites have different features of maintenance and payment processing.
- Social Networking Website – It is one of web portals residing with internet and telecast the social exposure. It is designing in such way the people get interested with the appearance of the site by the colors used and the style of designing with good back end support.
- Business Promotion Website - It is a portal where the products and other services of the business needed to be promoted in the present market to over come with the competitors. It furnish all the details of company, their business , services providing and the contact details which are essential to get in touch with customer with out loosing them.
- Good Navigation & Neat web page with good professional look
- Try to optimum the loading time so that downloads are faster and make much interested to the customer.
- Design the screens with good resolution along with good coding and scalable.
Source : http://www.promotionworld.com/
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Some General Rules for Set a Price for Web Design Work
If you're first starting out as a freelance Web Designer, you need to think about how much you're going to charge, and how exactly you'll charge. But before you quote a price, you need to take a few things into consideration. If you're first starting out as a freelance Web Designer, you need to think about how much you're going to charge, and how exactly you'll charge. But before you quote a price, you need to take a few things into consideration.
- What is the project? Before you evaluate any Web design project, you need to determine what it will entail. Some questions to ask include: o How many pages will need to be created? o Are there images and/or design that need to be used, or will they be created as part of the project? o Is there content for the site, or will that be written by the designer? o Will there be any Flash, multimedia, programming or scripting required? Depending on the answer to those questions may raise your prices.
- When do your clients want the project completed. The more urgent a project is, the more you can generally charge. But be sure that if you agree to an accelerated schedule, that it's one you can meet.
- How much experience do you have? The more Web design experience you have, the more you can charge, and the more your clients will expect to pay. Keep in mind, however that if you don't have a lot of Flash experience and that's what your clients want, you shouldn't rely on your six years of HTML coding to increase your prices.
- How much long-term maintenance is required? Often, when a Web site is commissioned, the clients have not thought beyond just getting the page up on the site. As a Web designer, you should make sure that your clients have maintenance covered. If they expect you or your company to cover it, you should probably get a separate contract for that aspect of the job.
- What is the going rate? This can often be difficult to determine. The best way is to talk to other designers in your area. Check out the salary and pricing Web sites in the sidebar for more assistance.
- How much do you want to make? The bottom line, after everything else is: how much do you want to make? For example, you might have a project you would love to do, because it would be fun, or interesting or challenging. Your bid might reflect that. On the other hand, you might feel uncomfortable doing a job or would have to do extra work just to complete it, such as if you would have to hire a database programmer to complete the project. Some General Rules of Thumb
- Never bid on a project you do not have the resources to complete. If you assume that you'll be able to hire a Perl programmer when you make the bid, chances are you'll be scrambling 2 days before the due date and spend all your fee on a last minute programmer.
- Get as clear and specific a contract as possible. If the contract is vague, you may find yourself providing more services than you expected.
- Be careful with pro bono work. There are many good reasons to build Web sites for free, but you should treat your pro bono work as seriously as any other contract. And if you give away your services, your customers might not want to pay after the free period is over, even if they like your quality.
- Always be honest with your clients. If you say you can meet a deadline, then meet it, and if you can't give them as much warning as you possibly can. Did you find this article useful? For more useful tips & hints, Points to ponder and keep in mind, techniques & insights pertaining to Web Designing, Do please browse for more information at our website :- http://www.thedesignbuild.com http://www.webdesign.reprintarticlesite.com
Friday, July 18, 2008
Creating a Web Site for Your Green Business
So you’re starting a green business. Congratulations! Now that you have a dream, a business name, and a plan, how do you go from the initial idea to making that first sale? If you’ve done your homework, you probably have a marketing plan for your business (it’s wise to make it part of your business plan). One of the most important pieces of your marketing plan should be your company web site. Your web site will be the first impression many of your clients and customers have of your business, so it’s important to invest the time and money necessary to create a well-designed, informative, easy to use, and sustainable web site.
Not only does your web site offer you a chance to market your company, it’s also an opportunity to exercise your commitment to sustainability. One way to green your marketing is to make the web your primary advertising focus. Through e-mail newsletters, online ads, and promoting your domain name on all company correspondence, you can drive traffic to your web site and cover a lot of marketing ground without having to waste paper. Focusing your advertising efforts on the internet means less printed advertising, which means less paper waste and fewer pollutants released (the printing process and ink pigments create a lot of them).
Read More Article...
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Web Designing Project - Ongoing PHP Requirement Service
ITMatchOnline.com is the easiest way to find right partners across the world.
Project Details:
Type : Project
Id : 67323416
Category : Web Design and Development
Title : Ongoing PHP Requirement Service
Estimated Budget : Looking For Best Proposal
Description :
Interested service providers are requested to contact us as soon as possible.
Country : India
Status : Closed
Are you interested to work on this project? Post your contact details Now! Click Here
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Web Development Tips For Contact Forms
The purpose behind the creation of a website is to get people to know about you and to contact you for business purpose. The only point of contact for your website visitors to visit your site and contact you is to go to the contact form and fill in their queries. Hence, it is extremely essential that your contact form be well designed and quite impressing too. Here are some important tips that will be helpful in the development of your contact form.
The first thing that you need to realize about web development of a contact form is to make sure that it is not too long or consists of irritating questions. Keep the web development of the contact form simple . Do not complicate it too much, as people do not like to think when it comes to website surfing. They look for fast and immediate actions.
Many websites restrict their query space text box with character limits. This is incorrect. If the user is not able to file in his complete query there is a possibility that he will get irritated and will not file in anything at all. If your contact form web development can not allow query submission beyond a certain extent, it is advised that you provide a file uploading option, where the user can upload his query file wherein, he can add as many queries as he wants.
Make sure that your web development for Contact forms has made use of Captcha readability. This is the only way you can restrict the SPAM submissions in the contact form. Do not forget to develop your thank you page. The thank you page is a very important page in contact form development. From the user's point of view, if this page is not visible, the user cannot confirm if his query has been successfully submitted or not. Hence make sure that you develop a complete contact form with an encouraging and assuring message in the page that will tell the users that you will revert to their query.
Once your contact form web development is complete do not forget to do a complete QC testing of the form. This is the most important stage of the entire project. The testing should be done keeping the user in mind and ensure that there is no loose thread in the development. Check all the messages, codes and the final appearance of form to cross check all the details.
About the Author- Naman Jain is an online marketing professional, Presently working with Rupiz Media, one of the leading online marketing company offering expert UK web development services and website designing solutions over the globe.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/
Monday, July 14, 2008
Few fact to design your links
It is a fact that links have always been a vital part in the internet navigational process. Depending on the links and also on the content of the site that the link leads to, internet users decide on the worthiness of coming back to that site or not. It is a fact that links have always been a vital part in the internet navigational process. Depending on the links and also on the content of the site that the link leads to, internet users decide on the worthiness of coming back to that site or not.
One cannot fail to notice the latest trends imposed by web 2.0, the emergence of a new writing genre designed to cater for the new needs and tastes of internet users and also the transformation process that search engines undergo.
Broadly speaking, users go from page to page selecting only the most important information or just the information that is easier to spot; they need to be able to make a quick assessment of the page content, get the information they are seeking and go to another page.
Usually, web authors employ hypertext links to create or reinforce concepts: a list of related links can serve as the focus of a site. The problem posed by links has little to do with the web but is rather related to the concept of hypertext. A collection of links does not have the same effect on the reader and is not as legible as conventional linear text.
In the case of linear text, readers have to work harder in seek of needed information. Links also become a technical problem, because most web pages have a certain rank on search engines due to links. Links are to be used as a reinforcement of, not a substitute for content.
What is worth mentioning when tackling the link issue is that designers are supposed to use relevant link labels, give consistent click ability cues and also differentiate links that have been clicked from those that haven't.
1. Use relevant link description
Users' confusion must be avoided at all costs. In this respect, they should be able to look at every link and be able to predict to some extent the destination or the website they are about to visit. A negative example in this case is using the label - Click here-, which is rather confusing and does not provide any kind of information about the link destination.
Another relevant case is that of embedded links; when employing embedded links, the link text should accurately designate the link's direction. Users have a certain tendency towards ignoring the text surrounding embedded links; consequently, it is recommended that you should not create embedded links that use the surrounding text in order to provide hints about the link's destination.
2. Be aware that textual links do have certain main characteristics like:
underlining and color.
The second trait is not as important as the first one, i.e. underline can be eliminated in some cases like the one when an area functionality is absolutely obvious - for instance, we could think of a site menu where everybody expects a content summary as a presentation.
Thus, you should provide users with sufficient click ability cues. Trying to put the cursor over different parts of the page is time consuming and not quite "affordable" with a view to gain more traffic. At the same time, it's worth keeping in mind that there area certain click ability expectancies regarding different regions of a web page; for instance, items on the center, left, right side have a high probability of being links.
3. Use different colors for visited and unvisited links
Links that were clicked must differentiate one way or another from the ones that were not; the best way of doing that is the color contrast; links are supposed to stand out on the computer screen as much as possible; in this respect, bright, vivid colors are preferable - links should differentiate from linear text in any case.
Conversely, links that were already clicked should employ a rather pale and "washed" color. The effect of using different colors but both at the same level of chromatic intensity might result in a failure to establish a concrete content relationship between those links, users won't be able to tell visited from non-visited links.
Even though some compromises would be acceptable (like using other colors), using blue for text is an exception. Blue is a color with the most notable perceived affordance of click ability.
4. Colors for text are to be avoided
It is recommended that colors should be used for hyperlinks only. Nevertheless, there are generally recognized and allowed colors for certain words such as red for "error" or green for "ok". Technically speaking, when referring to document colors, it is advisable that you specify all of the colors (BGCOLOR, TEXT, LINK, VLINK, ALINK), to ensure an enjoyable and legible composition. Find out more about choosing the right colors for your web site.
The main reason reinforcing this idea is that some users may have certain colors set as default, so if you don't specify all the colors of a document, they may end up with an illegible document. In addition, even when using a background image, you should still specify BGCOLOR, because the user may not have the image loading on.
Did you find this article useful? For more useful tips & hints, Points to ponder and keep in mind, techniques & insights pertaining to Web Designing, Do please browse for more information at our website :-
http://www.thedesignbuild.com
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Web design Tender - Web Development & Related Services Required
ITMatchOnline.com is the easiest way to find right partners across the world.
Project Details:
Type : Tender
Id : 31200121
Category : Web Design and Development
Title : Web Development & Related Services Required
Estimated Budget : 10000000INR (1 Crore)
Total Requirement : Contract for 3yrs.
Description :
Scope of work:
- To host a secured web portal on the internet and intranet to show-case our achievements, success stories, major important events in which we participates and favorable other interesting news items, so as to make it available to the corporate world, stake holders, employees, other interested persons and the public at large.
- The website must be Bi-lingual (English & Hindi).
- The service provider shall provide a separate (exclusive) domain name (to be suggested by us).
- To publish appropriate contents with website like feature articles, news summary, web cast, slide shows and animated stories, from time to time in an interesting and attractive manner as directed by us.
- The content in different forms will be provided by us and provider has to convert it to the suitable format for updation in the website immediately.
- Creation of appropriate contents with user friendly multimedia front end encompassing features such as article, new summary, web cast, other dynamic content in tabular, graphics mode from time to time.
- On-line complaint lodging, publishing RTI rules and report.
- User management and audit trail.
- Web casting and web conferencing.
- Website should have a advanced search options and category based browsing. The service providers shall get the website registered with reputed search engines like Google, Yahoo etc. with priority.
- On-line tutorials for use of the website & its applications.
- On-line download of different forms (separate set for internet & intranet users).
- Digital certificate depositary (maintain digital signatures).
- On-line registration of internet users with verification of e-mail address. Password recovery/ reset option with user profile updating for external users. Integration and providing user log-in to internal (LAN) users.
Country : India
Status : Closed
Are you interested to work on this project? Post your contact details Now! Click Here
Friday, July 11, 2008
Goal of eCommerce Web Design
Before you start to design a winning website you should have a precise idea about the objectives of your site and what all priorities you have to set because from the past experience it has been seen that lots of e businesses, which were launched without any proper goals, failed in establishing themselves.
When you go for designing an e-commerce website you should have certain goals and priorities in your mind. You can ask yourself if you want to make a brand and position your company or if you want your website visitors to call you and visit you physical store. To generate high revenue within short span of time could be another goal. Your goals and priorities can be various.
Unfortunate the fact is that, in most of the ecommerce web design we usually don’t get achieve many of these goals. Or you can rather say that many of them are poorly prioritized or misunderstood as a whole. But making it a customer oriented website can change the whole outlook of your business website. So prioritize this as well.
Three guiding factors for Smart eCommerce
If you want to achieve your goals you should take into consideration of these three factors:
Your target
There should be some uniqueness in your site. Which simply means the benefits, features or services you are offering should be different from what your competitor are giving. This will give you a definitive edge in the competition. Distilling your unique value proposition (USP) and communicating it
quickly and clearly on your Website is the first element of profitable ecommerce Web design.
You Should Understand Your Target Audience
An essential part of any business is to understand your market, and Online business is no exception here. You should design your web site for your target audience not for yourself. Your website style and content should be reflected in the context of your customers' immediate needs and desires.
Achieving a Defined Objective
Once you're satisfied with what you have done till now then its time to communicate your USP to the target audience. You should then concentrate on your sales process. For this you can analyze the mechanism of your sales channels, provide the necessary educational steps and requisite product information. And finally design a Website that optimizes action while eliminating disruption, because ecommerce web site works on “One Second Principle”. According to this principle, on the Internet you have only one second to make a powerful impression, one second to establish your professionalism and start building trust and one second to generate the interest of your target audience. So work accordingly and make it easy for customers to buy from you.
About Author :
Shopping Cart Software: Sanjeev Pandey is associated with Cartedge for ecommerce shopping cart solutions & online shopping cart related activities.
The Web development skills crisis
The proliferation of Web technologies has been much on my mind lately. Last week, I talked about the continuum of Web development tools, ranging from traditional browser-based technologies all the way to applications deployed as binary executables. The interesting thing is that all of these tools are designed to achieve similar goals. So which do you use?
I'm not trying to start a flame war. Some developers will swear by Flash, while others will choose AJAX, and even within those groups there will be individuals whose preferences are even more rigidly defined. The question is, how do developers maintain their skill sets -- and, by extension, their value in the marketplace -- when the so-called state of the art seems to change on an almost daily basis?
In contrast to large biological systems, which favor diversity, large programming projects tend toward homogeneity. Excess platforms and technologies are costly and wasteful, both for developers and for the users they target with their applications. Each site will want to standardize on the one or two tools that best meet its needs. Identifying those tools for a Web project, however, can be a daunting task.
Read More Article...
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Ten Tips for a Better Website
Whether you're designing a site from scratch of making changes to your one, the following tips can help you provide effective web content to prospective customers.
Know Your Customer
Before you start redesigning your website, it’s best to learn as much as you can about your customers and what capabilities they expect. The design of the most useful and effective sites typically starts with thorough analysis of customer needs, identifying the tasks that site users seek to accomplish. Not only will such an understanding improve your site’s effectiveness, it can also eliminate costly mistakes.
There are many design questions that customer research can help answer. Do your customers expect a site that looks professional, conservative, playful, or sophisticated? What should be the tone of your website copy? Do your products and services lend themselves to photography or custom graphics? Will you be changing content frequently, or not at all?
Avoid Troublesome Techniques
Avoid using frames, doorway pages, sound, custom mouse pointers, and technologies that require users to download uncommon plug-ins. More often than not, such techniques scare away potential visitors as they can be confusing, they may increase download times, and they can complicate navigation.
Design with Search Engines in Mind
Most web surfers start looking for products and services with search engines. Thus, not only should your site be listed, its design should facilitate inclusion of all of your content. Make sure that you have good internal linking with your site, and make sure that all of your important pages can be reached from the home page with no more than 3 mouse clicks.
There are many more important factors for search-engine-friendly design than will be addressed here. To list some briefly: research what keywords people use to find your product or service, use keywords and phrases in your web copy, create relevant page titles and descriptions.
Note: It is not necessary to submit your site multiple times or to submit individual pages. Once submitted, your entire site will be scanned periodically by the search engine, although it may take several months for the initial scan. Multiple submissions could hurt if they keep putting your site to the "back of the line" of sites to be reviewed.
Don’t Confound Usability with Branding
Many site owners pursue a unique look and feel that differentiates them from their competition as well as builds brand awareness of their company. While your website design should reinforce your brand, it should never compromise your site’s usability. Not only may usability problems send potential customers surfing elsewhere, they may also result in an association of your brand with poor user-friendliness.
The elements most at risk from “over-branding” your site are text legibility and site navigation. Readability may be compromised if you use fonts and color palettes consistent with your brand but that are hard to read. In general, avoid designs that rely upon highly customized text appearance. It may be tempting to change menu text and links to differentiate your company from others or to identify your specific products or capabilities; however these practices make site navigation difficult for anyone who is unfamiliar with your company. Most web users are familiar with the same top-level link structure found on thousands of sites, thus being consistent in your design will help them find the information they need. The most common top-level menu items include Home, Products, Services, Resources, News, About, and Contact. Similarly, lower-level menus should be descriptive enough for people unfamiliar with the material on your site to find what they need.
Sparkle Versus Simplicity
Flash and similar multimedia tools have their place, but not in site navigation. Use multimedia to tell a tightly scripted story, provide a feature-rich and realistic demonstration, or to entertain. Do not use multimedia if visitors to your site want quick and easy access to information.
Some sites use Flash for their menus, often in ways that are inconsistent with "standard" web navigation. Most users expect clicking on an item to cause a new page to quickly appear and clicking on "back" to take them to the last page viewed. Often Flash navigation introduces unconventional interaction requirements and time consuming animation. Flash and rich multimedia can also take a long time to download which may cause users to look elsewhere. Flash also prohibits some search engine spiders from being able to read and index embedded content and thus may hurt your ranking in search results.
Some websites have home pages that act like a splash page or company advertisement through which the user must go to get to the “real” home page. Such “doorway” pages are only useful in very specific cases (entertainment and strong consumer branding), otherwise they annoy repeat visitors to your site and they complicate route control if links to pages within your site are shared among users.
Speed Matters
Carefully consider how much graphical and dynamic content is necessary to convey your message, because there is a risk of alienating site users with long download times. Graphic file formats should be chosen for best representation and compactness. Flash files often add little to usability while significantly adding to download times. Keep in mind that the majority of home users still rely upon dial-up connections, and even high speed connections aren’t fast enough in the middle of a hectic work day.
Text as Text
Many sites embed text in graphical elements in order to maintain complete control over appearance. While this is appropriate for logos and other critical brand elements, it presents two significant problems. The first is that search engines cannot “read” the text, and therefore you are missing opportunities to be indexed and found by search engine users. The second problem is that graphics take longer to download which often causes frustration and may turn some users away to your competition.
Headings and Bullets
When looking at text, people’s eyes naturally fall first on headings and bulleted lists. Since many web users are not inclined to read large blocks of text, careful use of headings can help them quickly scan and navigate your site. Likewise, bullets are a great way to provide a lot of specific detail in eye-catching, quickly digestible chunks.
Headlines are also becoming more important for search engines. The spiders that “crawl” your site and index them for the search engines may determine the importance of words based partly upon location, thus those found in headings may be given more weight. For this reason, it is a good idea to place likely search terms in headings.
Get a Second Opinion
Nothing will tell you more about your website than looking at it through someone else’s eyes. If you are the site’s designer or owner, you are too close to the material to be objective. You know how the site is “supposed” to be used rather than how customers are likely to use it. Remember that the customer is always right: if they don't use the site the way you intended, there may be a problem with your design. Don’t stop at one outside opinion; get as many as you can, and try to make them representative of your expected user population.
You’re Never Done
You have already invested an immense amount of time and resources into developing a terrific site. It has been published on the Internet and is getting traffic. You’re done, right? Think again. A number of factors may necessitate revisiting content and design: your products and services may change, as could the marketplace, customer needs and expectations, the competitive environment, browser and search engine technology, your brand, etc. You may launch advertising campaigns, start or end critical partnerships, invest in new product lines, or drop old ones. Most of these changes do not require complete redesign, especially if you keep on top of changing circumstances and make appropriate adjustments. The point is that your customers are unlikely to tell you that your site needs updating (except by leaving), so it’s a good idea to have a plan in place for periodic review.
Source : http://www.web1marketing.com/
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
The Truth About Shared Hosting
If you’re playing a poker game and you look around the table and can’t tell who the sucker is, it’s you.
-Paul Newman
A good shared host will take you a long way. Most of us will never have the traffic to really justify a dedicated server and it’s accompanying expense. In all honesty a quality shared host should be able to sustain a site that enjoys 1000+ uniques a day and around 50 gigabytes of bandwidth a month before excessive resource usage drives you to greener pastures. Those figures are daily averages from a site that I am involved with that is on a shared host. That site can at times see as many as 10,000 uniques a day, and those days do bring resource overusage shutdowns, but most days it runs just fine. That is a lot of traffic by most people’s standards, certainly enough for the vast majority of blogs.
Read More Article...
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
The Mobile Web Industry Takes Center Stage
It's still early in the development of the mobile Web. The majority of the iPhone Web apps currently available are cool little tools created by a developer for kicks or because they want a better way to access a Web site. While many people get that the mobile Web has potential, most companies still need to figure out how to profit from it.
Wait. Scroll. Scroll. Tap-tap. Wait. Wait. For many years, that was the typical experience of someone surfing the Web using a mobile phone or PDA, at least in the U.S. Although some content Relevant Products/Services providers offered stripped-down versions of their sites specially designed for mobile users, most did not, and reading a page designed to be viewed on a PC on the small screen was about as much fun as sitting in a dark room reading a newspaper by flashlight.
Today, the mobile Web environment is in a period of rapid change, thanks in no small part to Apple's iPhone. From the phone's introduction in June, 2007, through March, 2008, 5.4 million iPhones have sold, and to date developers have created more than 17,000 sites or "Web applications" optimized for the device.
Read More Article...
Monday, July 7, 2008
Web Design- the invisible hand to the success of your business.
Business and website go hand in hand. Website is the focal point of your business, interacting with your customers and clients round the clock. People judge you by your covers and this is where a good looking website design steps in. A professional website layout puts your business where it matters the most- in front of your customers and set you apart from the noise and clatter of your competition. How many times have you walked in a store which appears shabby? I bet you avoid stepping in, leave alone doing business with them. The same rule applies to your website- it is your virtual storefront and by designing an eye catching website, you are bound to turn a few heads and keep visitors coming back.
Picture this- your website acts as your storefront, your web layout and design the first impression your customers get, your content acts as brochure and catalogs for your customers to browse through, would you be willing to take a chance with any of the pointers that directly affect your business? A professional looking website layout portrays that your website means business. A website should be designed like a car with the purpose it needs to serve in mind. What´s the use of creating a vehicle without passengers? Getting a good looking website does not necessarily cost you a fortune. A well thought out website design would not only add value to your website but open up host of revenue avenues for your website besides creating value to your business. Making your website easily accessible and providing relevant content with your business niche creates a winning combination.
Before you start creating a website, there is an important factor to be borne in mind- your target audience. Your target audience should dictate your website theme and design. For instance if your business niche is real estate, your target audience is in the age group of 25-55 years and your website theme, layout and concept should be governed by your target audience and by over looking this key component you would end up turning your website-"internet real estate" into an "internet wasteland" . Your website should speak the language of your customers. Hiring a professional web designer to turn your vision into reality might come in handy but remember no one knows your business better than you, so your involvement would always create a personalized professional website leaving your footprint on the website, helping you to communicate efficiently with your customers. Make sure the website serves the purpose for which it has been created.
Business is what Business does- making contacts with the right people at the right time at the right place. But how can we do it all the time? This is where a website steps in. In simple terms it puts your business on auto pilot. Every Business needs a website-PERIOD.
Source : http://www.americanchronicle.com/
Friday, July 4, 2008
What’s hot in Web Development?
“People are beginning to figure out that Web sites are very complicated things that need to be maintained and upgraded regularly,” says Jeffrey Hoffman president, CEO, and founder of WebslingerZ, a North Carolina-based Web development firm established in 1995.
Since people generally do not have the ability to do Web engineering on a developer level, they’re looking for ways to do updates and maintenance themselves rather than pay others to do it on an hourly basis. So, even “People you wouldn’t expect to say the words “content management system” are asking for them,” says Hoffman.
“They may be marketing, sales, PR folks who have things they want to accomplish via the Web: updating photos and text or more complicated things like using content management systems as sales or marketing applications,” Hoffman says. “They want to do their entire workflow on the Web and use it as a lead generation service.”
That means, he notes, they need a content management system that lets them build a form to intake leads and manage them.
Read More Article...
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Five Hidden Benefits of Designing Your Own Logo
These days, do-it-yourself (DIY) is everywhere, invading industry after industry. So if you're weighing the pros and cons of designing your branding materials yourself instead of hiring a graphic designer, you're not alone. Obviously, you expect to save money as a design-it-yourselfer -- and you probably will. But that's just the beginning. There are other DIY advantages that are less well-publicized.
Here are five hidden benefits of employing your creative side and designing your logo:
Read More Article...
Web Designing Tender - Re-designing of Website
ITMatchOnline.com is the easiest way to find right partners across the world.
Project Details:
Type : Tender
Id : 41452267
Category : Animation & Multimedia,Web Design and Development
Title : Re-designing of Website
Estimated Budget : 25000EURO
Total Requirement : We Require the Website to Go Live Within Three Months
Description :
The website is intended to be an authoritative and up to date source of environmental information for the general public and other key audiences. Information is also given on sustainable living.
Scope of work:
- Provide documentation on the new site, including technical and users manuals.
- The html portion of the site (i.e. excluding attached documents etc.) will be fully bilingual (Irish/English) and dynamic switching at page level will be facilitated.
- The new site should also perform well with regard to search engine optimization and this should be accommodated from the site build stage (HTML tagging).
- We require a bespoke content management system to be developed by the successful provider to enable content to be submitted, maintained and updated.
- Build the site database in accordance with the design document. Documents are to be stored in a single location, accessible from multiple points in the site, if required.
- Build the content index and implement the search facility.
- Build the web pages in accordance with the approved design document and implement the approved navigation scheme.
- Populate the ‘go live’ version of the site with any content not accessible via the content management tool.
- The successful provider will provide a detailed introduction to the system and deliver specialist training to our staff in the use of the content management tool.
Interested providers are requested to send their detailed proposal on or before 5.00pm on 15th August, 2008. Tenders can be submitted in English or Irish. For more details have a look on attachment.
Country : Canada
Status : Closed
Are you interested to work on this project? Post your contact details Now! Click Here
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
10 ways to make your Web site design project go smoothly
Time and time again, I have seen companies struggle with Web site design projects. Initial Web site design and redesigns of existing sites may each face a few different challenges, but overall, they are similar. My experience has been that these problems are not technical issues, but project management and cultural issues. Often, no one follows a game plan — they just blindly rush off and attempt to re/design the Web site with little forethought. On the other hand, I have also been through a number of successful Web site re/design projects (measured by, “Did we get a good-looking, usable Web site deployed in a reasonable amount of time?”). Here are some of the things I’ve learned to do that will help make any Web site design project go smoothly.
Read More Article...
