Consumers often judge online stores by visual aesthetics alone, so Internet shopkeepers are wise to use large appealing images, handsome fonts, and occasionally an eye-pleasing curve.
When that curve is added someplace unexpected, say in a border around a text box or an image, it can be especially impactful. In this Web Design Tips, a recurring Practical eCommerce feature, I'll show you how to use CSS alone to bend the corners of your site's border elements. I'll also give you an update on the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) border-radius property in CSS3 and discuss browser compatibility—since Microsoft's Internet Explorer trails most other browsers in supporting this property in any form.
Rounded Borders in CSS
As you probably know, CSS stands for cascading style sheets. Basically, CSS are short text documents that serve as a "mechanism for adding style (e.g. fonts, colors, spacing) to web documents," or so said the W3C in its official description of the standard.
For years, designers have been using images or complex JavaScripts to add rounded corners to boxes and borders. But there is a CSS3 property that effective smoothes out otherwise pointed corners, simply and easily. The border-radius properties will round the corners of a border. The available tags are border-top-right-radius, border-bottom-right-radius, border-bottom-left-radius, border-top-left-radius, border-radius. The border-radius tag will take two lengths.
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Thursday, January 8, 2009
Web Design Tips: Rounded Borders in CSS
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Web Designing Tender - Website Re-Design
ITMatchOnline.com is the easiest way to find right partners across the world.
Project Details:
Type : Tender
Id : 33056906
Category : Web Design and Development
Title : Website Re-Design
Estimated Budget :Request for Proposal
Total Requirement : The Contract is for 40 Months
Description :
Scope of work:
- We wishes to redesign our web site to modernize and make the web site more useable, professional and adaptable for future uses.
- The web site requires an extensive redesign, including structure, content and graphics, so that it conveys the image of one of a world- leading biomedical institute.
- Service provider needs to provide a website with open-source Content Management system (CMS) that leverages the power of PHP and MySQL and a custom designed template.
- The web site must have the capacity to connect with other web sites/systems used at Our premises and public access to all features of the web site must be there. Payment will be done on the basis of terms and conditions. Interested providers are requested to send their proposal on or before February 13th, 2009 via courier and hand delivered only. This tender is Global and offsite. The service provider may have visit our premises for meetings and briefings. For more details have a look on attachment.
Are you interested to work on this project? Post your contact details Now! Click Here
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Tips For Ideal OS Web Hosting
Have you completed designing your website? Yes, so now you are on the lookout for a web hosting company is not it? Remember, choosing the web hosting company at random will only create problem and empty your pockets. What should be done? Before choosing the web hosting company you have to chalk out a plan about the operating system that you require from the company. What does operating system mean?
Meaning of Operating System:
The operating system means the server that provides all the necessary aids required for providing your website the best possible services as per the design of your website. Which are the available servers? The commonly available servers are Windows, Linux and UNIX.
These along with the software that they are equipped with gives the maximum benefit to you. What facilities do the Windows provide? The windows are easy to operate for people who use their personal pc which is installed with any version of Windows like ME, XP, NT or similar system. In the same manner there are two other servers Linux and UNIX which are equipped with PHP, BSD which is available in two types that is free and open.
How to decide which operating system should be chosen? It depends on your need but you should also keep in mind that the hosting companies use the servers that is most in demand so if you try to choose any company explicitly you may have to forgo many facilities that are provided by the reputed companies and will have to opt for a company which in the long run may prove to be a disastrous choice. Then what is the best way out where a hosting company can be chosen which will provide all the facilities that are required?
Tips for Ideal OS in a Dedicated Web Hosting
What is dedicated web hosting? It means that the server will not be shared with anybody but the hosting company will allot the server in totality for your website. You will have full control over the server which will contain hardware required for your operating system.
The hosting company may also give additional service which will be free of cost. This way you can get more returns than your investment in the long run. What is the Operating System support available on dedicated web hosting? The basic operating system available on dedicated web hosting is open source operating system, net BSD, open BSD and free BSD. The added benefit is that all these systems are free of cost.
For a beginner it is best to choose the Windows as he will not have to worry about any technical language nor face the headache of maintaining and updating the UNIX system. But this is best if the website is for personal use.
What about the newbie who will install the website for business purpose? In that case it is better to choose the LINUX or the UNIX system which contains enough space to incorporate the expansion of the business in the long run. The technical support is also more advanced and the main advantage is, it is free of cost. So always choose the OS which is the most suitable for your website.
Rehn is a Linux Systems Administrator, Web Programmer, PHP Developer and CEO of Hospedagemlocal hospedagem de site brazilian web hosting services.
Source : http://www.informationweek.com/
Monday, January 5, 2009
Flash design tips
To create precise vector graphics in Flash, it’s all about learning to use and control the tools.
The drawing tools in Macromedia Flash MS 2004 allow you to create precision vector graphics. Vector graphics are line-based graphics. In the world of mathematics, a vector is a line that has a defined starting point, a designated direction, and a specified distance. With vector graphics, vectors control the manner in which curved and straight lines are shaped between specific points. The picture is made up of these lines as well as the colors of areas enclosed by the lines.
Because of how they are created, vector graphics can be resized easily without reducing image quality. A vector graphic appears much smoother and more precise than a raster (or bitmap) image, which is made up of pixels (dots). Vector graphics also download faster than comparable raster images.
Tools
Flash offers several drawing tools for drawing vector graphics. The Tools palette should be open by default, but if you can’t see it along the left side of the Flash window, select Tools from the Window menu to activate it. (Don’t confuse the Toolbars submenu with the Tools command; they are two separate entries on the Window menu.)
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Sunday, January 4, 2009
30 Ways To Keep Visitors On Site: Watch Your Conversion Rate Soar
Search engine optimization, links, directories — all of these are well-known means to drive visitors to your site. But, what can you do to keep them there? The number of visitors who land on your site and quickly move on is called your bounce rate — the rate at which visitors bounce to another site.
So, here are 30 sure-fire tips to keep visitors on site longer — and maybe even bookmark your site for future visits.
- Teach them something. You can't swing a dead copywriter without hitting a Glazer-Kennedy "Who else wants to make a million dollars?" long-form sales letter on the web. It's page after page of hype, with a PS and a PPS just to make things urgent and "interesting."
Interesting? That's not what visitors want – steaming piles of hype. Provide informational content – no sales – about your product or services. Teach visitors and they'll look favorably upon your site. - Keep it fresh. Related to #1, if they've read it once they won't wont to read it again so keep adding new articles of interest to your primary demographic – your ideal buyer.
- Add a blog. Blogs can be added to a site with a click if you go with a web host with a big tool kit. Blogs are an easy means of adding new content. It's a great way to add user-generated content (free stuff) and it's a terrific way to build a site community – a dedicated group of visitors who visit your blog everyday.
- Keep the navigation really, really simple. First, navigation links should be large and clearly labeled. One boating supply site uses "Gulls" and "Buoys" as labels for their women's and men's clothing line. May be cute but it's also confusing.
Also, keep navigation consistent throughout the site. If you use a navigation bar at the top of the home page, keep it there on all landing pages so visitors don't have to look for it. - Provide a site map. It's easy to get lost on a site that has a couple of hundred pages. A link to a site map helps visitors (and search engine spiders), and an omni-present link to the homepage keeps visitors from bailing on your site simply because they took a wrong turn.
- Provide product pictures. Indeed, product pictures sell products….something about a picture being worth a 1,000 words.
- Provide complete product descriptions. Skip the sales yak. Keep your product descriptions 100% informational. Be sure to list all product features. Then move on to #8.
- Describe product benefits. Most site owners (and copywriters) describe a product's features, i.e. 300 watts of raw power, a low-cut vamp, etc., but buyers don't purchase features; they purchase benefits. Be sure to describe how the product will make the reader's life easier, simpler, more productive, more fun or just better.
- Provide numerous marketing channels. Some visitors will be comfortable ordering online; others want to order by telephone. Give visitors a choice and post that telephone number on every page of the site.
- Keep it fun. Write in a chatty tone. Even serious subjects become more readable – accessible – when written in normal-speak not web-speak.
- Ask for site feedback. Provide the visitor with a means of leaving feedback for you and other readers.
- Encourage product reviews. Amazon does it and look what it's done for them. Good product reviews from visitors (1) shows you care about their needs and (2) provides solid gold marketing input. If the item is routinely slammed, dump it. If it gets good buyer reviews move it to the home page.
- Separate informational content from sales content. The easiest way to do this is to create an archive of informational content separate and distinct from product pages.
- Don't assume all visitors will land on the home page. Search engines index every page of a site so a category landing page may have more relevance to the user's query than the home page. So, consider every page a landing page and every product page a landing page, i.e. tell the visitor where s/he is.
- Keep site pages light. Even 30 seconds is an eternity when waiting for a page download. In fact, you'll lose 90% of potential visitors who have to wait for a 30-second download. Now that's a short attention span!
- Create visitor trust. From home page to landing page to checkout sequence, create trust in the minds of visitors. Not only does it keep visitors on-site longer, it generates more sales.
- Add RSS feeds. This simplifies the visitor's day by providing in one place all pertinent information relevant to the topicality of your site. So, instead of having to visit 10 sites for the latest in gold investing news, visitors can access your site for the latest via RSS feed.
- Please the eye. It's a subliminal thing. Pastels are appropriate for sites selling makeup or clothing. Fluorescent green works well for that high-protein energy boosting shake. Two completely different buyers, two different products, two different looks.
- Give them something to watch. A how-to video or PowerPoint deck will keep visitors watching, especially if it provides useful information. There's just something hypnotic about moving pictures!
- Allow visitors to bookmark pages. This is so simple to do yet few site owners do it. It's the best way for visitors to compare product A to product B.
- Don't be afraid of syndicated content. Some webmasters shy away from syndicated content because it's duplicate content and, therefore, doesn't help in SERPs placement. Okay, but it does provide informational content relevant to the interests of your visitor. And it's free. Remember, the objective is to keep them on site for as long as possible to make that sale.
- Personalize the homepage. Welcome repeat visitors by name. Make recommendations based on previous purchases. Create a "Your Shopping Cart" feature. In other words, make the visitor feel welcomed and valued. They are.
- Plant Easter Eggs. You don't see this much but it's a great idea. Easter eggs are little surprises. The term comes from computer gaming in which programmers plant little surprises to be discovered by the player.
In the case of your site, tell readers about the Easter eggs on the home page. Tell them what they can "win" by discovering an Easter Egg – a small give-away that you can buy in quantity. Visitors will be looking at every page trying to find those fun surprises – and FREE stuff. - Make sure your informational content is accurate. There is so much mis-and dis-information on the web. However, your visitors will stick around to read what you say – especially when you back it up with references – even links to references!
- Yes, grammar counts. Spelling and punctuation, too. Sure, most people won't care if you use except instead of accept. But some will. And they'll draw the rightful conclusion that if your site text isn't dead-on, maybe other aspects of your business are off target.
- Provide shopping carts. Again, obvious, but you'd be surprised how many sites don't offer shopping carts – even though the software is OSS!. Without a shopping cart, the user has to write down all product info – way too much trouble.
A good shopping cart program will enable visitors to view cart contents, change quantities and delete items at any time. - Slap security all over your site. Still more than one-half of all buyers won't buy online because they're afraid of getting ripped off. There are plenty of trust building tools like Verisign and BBBonline. Make sure your visitors and buyers know your site is secure – or they're gone.
- Offer a "Track Your Order" feature. Just another reason to get the visitor back on site. "Hey, as long as you're here, we have these on sale for the next two hours."
- Expand the viewers scope. You sell canoes online and you're doing okay. Well, put up a couple of informational articles on the joys of sea kayaking just before bringing out a new kayak product line. You can't always be sure what the visitor wants. Sometimes the visitor doesn't even know. But you can tell him or her, provide some interesting reading, some food for thought and, if all falls into place, generate a kayak sale.
- Tweak. Not every bird flies. Use site metrics analysis software to determine which features readers find appealing and which are ignored. Then, it's just a matter of building on the good stuff and dropping the unseen.
So, once you've got them on site, keep them there with interesting, easy-to-find information that's relevant to the visitor's needs and wants. That's what makes conversion ratios skyrocket.
Source : http://www.edezines.com/
Friday, January 2, 2009
Web Designing Project - Redesigning of Healthcare Job Portal
ITMatchOnline.com is the easiest way to find right partners across the world.
Project Details:
Type :Project
Id : 14690829
Category : Web Design and Development
Title : Redesigning of Healthcare Job Portal
Estimated Budget :Upto 1000 USD
Description :
Country : United States
Status : Closed
Are you interested to work on this project? Post your contact details Now! Click Here
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Flash developer is a high-demand job
Steve Cucinotta's job lets him work with state-of-the-art software, create the latest Facebook applications and collaborate with equally cutting-edge co-workers.
And if that's not enough, consider this: His office has a Foosball table.
Cucinotta, 27, works in the Hollywood office of the marketing firm Sapient, developing animated Web content using software like Adobe Flash.
And his skills are in demand: Industry insiders say the hottest fields in the tech world include those, like Cucinotta's, that help companies market themselves on the Web.
While many Flash developers have college degrees, it's not necessarily a requirement. Many get hired just from learning Flash on their own or after taking a few Web development and design classes. Becoming an expert with the programs can be a part of on-the-job training.
What is a requirement, however, is natural creative talent and a problem-solving spark.
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