Web Design Development Articles

1. Frames or no frames?
In deciding whether your site should or should not have frames, please note the following:

(a) Advantages of frames:

• Allows a faster loading time since fixed.
• Navigation bar or header made at the top in the frame gives easy access to the visitor, i.e., no scrolling back and forth for the user.
• Improve the navigation by providing a clear structure.
• It makes changes to be made very easy if fixed with CSS.

(b) Disadvantages:

• Search engine crawlers can not navigate through the frames i.e. no indexing in the search engines.
• Many visitors find frame annoying.
• A visitor cannot bookmark any specific page of your website.
• The URL of every page remains static. All pages will open under the same URL.
• Another common problem pertains to Refresh and Reload . When a visitor tries to refresh any page, it will take him back to original frame set.

(c) Research what kind of site you want and who are your potential visitors. If you are to cater to a wide audience and are interested in getting your site crawled by search engines, you will find one option and that is, “better go without frames”.

(d) Do not forget to offer a site map or index to facilitate the navigation and access to any information you provide.

2. Charts:

(a) Too many graphic slows the load time. Keep in mind that the majority of users when entering a page that takes long to load, usually get tired and go.

(b) Also keep in mind that many users to navigate more quickly “shut down” the graphics load. However, a website with little or no graphic is “boring” and unattractive. The visuals help to keep the visitor. Incomplete sentence

(c) Use graphics, but with prudence. Text offers an alternative to graphics, especially if they link to other pages.

3. Do not forget to check that your website is working properly with the two most popular browsers (Internet Explorer and Firefox). As majority of the users around the world explore internet on these browsers only.

Yes, it’s true that a professionally designed website initially costs a pretty penny but the keyword in that sentence is “initially.” For anyone who has owned a business, currently owns a business or who is looking to start a business should know that in order to get your company off the ground, you must make an initial investment. A website is one of those “initial investments” that a business owner must make and if used just right, a website can be your company’s best friend.

Have you ever entered a site and been bombarded with paragraphs and paragraphs of content, crazy colors, flash animation and video all at once? Well, take a deep breath because you have just experienced an e-Overload. We are now in a digital era of communication and your web image is vital in the efforts of reaching your target audience.

When it comes to a well-crafted website, make sure you are:

Simple

• An overwhelming website is going to frustrate your customers, driving them away from your website and ultimately your business. A website with one page of useful information will attract customers while getting your company’s vision out to your targeted audience. Keep the downloading speed at 4 seconds or less too.

User-Friendly

• The goal of your website is to attract people and keep them coming back for more. A site that is easy to navigate will do just that. A site map, similar to a table of contents for a book, is a necessary piece to your website. It allows the visitor to quickly search the pages included in your website while creating an easier way for search engines to cache your website pages.

Flash/Graphics

• Including any type of graphic from videos to scrolling pictures to games will maintain the interest of your customers, keeping them on your website longer. It will also showcase the talent and experience that your company will put forth with any project presented to them. A little bit of flash is good because it also lets the audience know that you are familiar with today’s technology.

Contact Information

• Make sure that your contact information link - company name, address, phone/fax number, email address and name of contact person - is clear and can be seen so people will be able to access this information quickly and easily. How else are interested visitors going to get in touch with you?

Consistent and Relevant

• Not normally tagged as being high importance, consistency is key to any successful website. The logo, as well as, the contact information must be in the same spot on every page. Also, if you haven’t revamped your website since 2005, highly consider getting a move on that this year. An up-to-date site will not only increase your online visibility but your customers will have more trust and respect for your business.

Error-Free

• A huge mistake a lot of web sites commit is server incompatibility. With numerous web browsers users have to choose from, companies must build their website to support each platform. Remember to check site compatibility on all possible operating systems including Mozilla, Internet Explorer, Safari and Google Chrome before you set your web site live. Another tip: check spelling and grammar too!

Customer Focused

• Successful websites will always put their customers first. Style and design is not everything in having a website that produces results. Make sure that every page offers something valuable to the customers. When putting your customer’s needs in focus, a good ratio to keep in mind is 75% copy and 25% advertising.

If you keep these 7 tips in mind while designing, revamping or having your website created, then your business could be at the top of its’ class in no time. Good luck!

Designing your own website could be one of the best ventures you can choose to do to make your website much more attractive to your customers and much more informative. You should definitely consider designing your website to make it not only informative but also unique and of course user friendly.

The success of your website will actually depend on the effectiveness of the design and whether or not your customers could make good use of your website. It is important that you consider hiring a professional website designer if you do not necessarily know how to design your website. If on the other hand you have an idea of how you want your website to look like but do not know how to execute it, you can also seek the help of a professional.

When you design your website, you should definitely think about the products and services you are specifically focused on. It is necessary for you to make sure that your website is complete not only with information but also with all the other important things that will make it worth visiting or logging on to.

Another thing that you need to take into consideration is how to make your website design stand out and leave an impact on your visitors and you can definitely achieve this if you are able to set up a concrete plan on how to actually make your website work to your actual advantage without having to spend too much or make things very much complicated for you.

All those cute little doodles and colorful designs are great, but is that what makes your web design successful? Just ask any of those that spent hours on the design of their website or hundreds of dollars to have a spruced up site? They will quickly tell you that the designs and special little art work is not the only reason for the success of the site, in fact many of these business owners had to learn it the hard way. Looking great is important and a site must be aesthetically pleasing, but it must also incorporate tools and other facts that bring people to the site. Without a good marketing campaign the site can be as colorful and pretty as possible, but without traffic and revenue it won’t stay that way long.

A web design should be one that looks good and draws visitors, but also has internet marketing campaigns built in. A well designed site is one where the visitor, customer or prospect is unaware of the fact that they are even being marketed too. The keyword rich articles and other pay per click advertising that may have landed them on the site is soon forgotten when their attention is drawn by another part of the site. Keeping the attention of the visitor and ensuring that their interest is peaked is the most important part of any advertising plan.

So to sum it up a web design should be one that is catchy, and maybe even those fancy little doodles as well as designs. Just make sure that the marketing is also well carried out and the site will succeed much faster!

What Is Royalty-Free?

Royalty-Free refers to material that may be used for profit without paying royalties to the original creator.

What Is Stock Photography?

Stock photos are existing images that can be purchased and licensed for commercial or personal use.

What Are The Benefits Of Using Royalty-Free Stock Photography?

Webmasters and publishers can keep their website and ad campaign costs down by using royalty-free images in their marketing materials and webpages.

How Much Do Stock Photos Cost?

The prices of stock photos vary. Some micro-stock photography websites charge as little as $0.99 per photo, while other stock photo websites charge several hundreds of dollars for the use of a particular photograph. In most cases, when you purchase a license to use a photo, the rights are non-exclusive, meaning that others can purchase and use the same image in their marketing materials and websites. On the other hand, if you purchase “exclusive” rights to a photo, it means that you are the only one allowed to use that specific photo.

What Is Micro-Stock Photography?

Micro-Stock Photography is an offshoot of traditional stock photography. Micro-stock photography generally refers to a stock photography company that sources their images almost exclusively through the Internet. They often accept images from amateurs and hobbyists, and sell the images royalty-free at a very low rate.

What About These Royalty-Free Clip-Photo CDs Available On The Market?

Stock photos are often available on CD-ROMs containing hundreds of royalty-free images, at prices ranging from $30 to $300 per disc. Web Design Elements ( http://www.webdesign-elements.com ) is an example of one such disc vendor. Web Design Elements offers CD collections of stock photos, logos, and web layouts, all related to a specific theme.

How Do Photographers Protect Their Images On The Stock Photography Websites?

Photographers use a variety of techniques to protect their photos from being stolen or used without permission. Some photos are encrypted, while others are only viewable at a low resolution, or re-sized to thumbnail proportions prior to purchasing a license. Still others embed watermarks in their photos.

Can I Use Stock Photos Free Of Charge?

Not usually. Stock photography websites contain thousands of existing photographs that can be licensed for specific uses. Legally, you cannot use a photo you find on the web without the photographer’s permission. In regard to copyright laws, businesses must be very careful when using unlicensed photos — the penalties and fines for improperly using an unlicensed photo can be steep. Keep in mind that there are also risks in using “free” photographs.

Many of the free photo websites contain collaborative works from multiple photographers and artists. While the websites may attempt to monitor the images in their collections to avoid violation of copyright laws, there are no guarantees. If you opt to use photographs or images from a free portal, it is important to keep this in mind.

There are a number of options available to webmasters and publishers in need of images for web content, marketing campaigns, or packaging. Regardless of the website selected, be sure to read the agreement and licensing terms carefully to ensure that you are adhering to the guidelines.

Permissions: Permissions and notification of use not required.

An important design element that can give life to your site is photos. Photos can add a lot of character to the site, put visitors in the correct frame of mind to view your site, as well as help someone determine in the first five seconds if they should even bother looking at any other pages.

The most important thing regarding photos on your site is to make sure that they are optimized. This means making sure the photos are clear, properly sized, and grab attention. If photos have to be a small size to fit on your page, add on the ability for a visitor to increase the size of the photo to get a closer look if they wish. Also, do not leave blurry or unclear photos on your site. Visitors may equate your inability to take care of that small detail with the inability to accurately take care of their detailed order.

Adding a caption below photos may also help to increase visitor interest. Tell the visitor exactly what you want them to look at in the photo. The photos should match the text on that page. If the photo relation is not obvious, this could really help so that your visitor does not say “I don’t get it.”

Another important thing to keep in mind is the number of photos you have to put on your website. It is best to use multiple photos throughout your site. If a visitor is taking the time to click from page to page of your site, they are obviously looking to learn more. So why keep showing them the same image over and over? This is not going to make a great impression, instead it could give off a negative impression such as you do not offer a large supply of product or that you were too lazy to go out and get other photos for your site.

Finally, make sure that your photos are exciting and motivate visitors to take action. Do you think a photo of the front of your building or a sign with your name really gets visitors excited? Try to put yourself in the visitor’s eyes and think about what you would want to see.

Remember, your goal with photos is to make it easier for the visitor to envision themselves being helped by your product or service.

The impression that your website gives off in the first five seconds to a visitor is critical. This is the amount of time that it takes for someone to decide if they will look through the rest of your site or not. For this reason, it is extremely important to have a visitor-oriented homepage. A visitor-oriented homepage means that the visitor can easily determine who you are, what you do, and why they should choose you within the first five seconds.

To best way to answer the question of who you are is to have your logo prominently displayed. This does not mean to stretch the size of it so that it is very large and takes up a lot of room on your page. Keep the logo formatted properly and displayed at the top of the page along with your company name. Near the top of the page, it is also a good idea to have a sentence or phrase that tells what it is that you do. This will easily answer the second question. The third question of why someone should choose you can also be fairly easy to answer. Perhaps it is important to put an icon of an award you won, maybe it is important to display a short testimonial on the first page, or perhaps displaying the number of years you have been in business could be important. Whatever that important element may be for your business, display it on the homepage in a way that can be recognized quickly as verification.

Colors can also help a visitor to determine if they will stay on the site. A nice background color can set the tone of the site and put the visitor in the correct frame of mind for viewing. Make sure that the colors you use give off the correct feeling and impression of your business. Be careful of how many colors you choose because using too many can be distracting.

The font is also an important element in creating a visitor-oriented homepage. Make sure that you are using only one font type throughout the page. Also try and make all of the text just one size and use bold to emphasize important points. Many websites make the mistake of using small text in one section and large text in another section of the page to grab attention. Mixing different sizes, italics, bold, and different font styles can be a disaster. The reason is that it causes the eye to jump around and it takes away from the natural flow of the text.

Remember, the goal of your homepage design is to give off a great first impression, answer the three basic questions quickly, and put the visitor in the correct frame of mind to want to view the rest of your site.

Most sites become very attractive thanks to the right website design tools. These tools help a website become handsome not only in terms of aesthetics, but as well as in terms of efficiency and functionality. You don’t actually have to come up with complex designs, for the best sites usually consist of the simplest templates and tools. If you want to know more on how to come up with truly fantastic website designs, then here are the tips Yahoo Answers recommends:

First, you must focus on effective layout and navigation. Among the most important aspects in designing a website is to pay attention to layout and navigation. Your site would look more functional when it uses adequate white space, as your readers get to see more of your content. Your viewers won’t be distracted by the fancy backgrounds and special effects since their attention has been captured by the white space, redirecting them to the content. There are many free web site tools which you can use to come up with simple designs, just learn how to choose which ones you are going to use.

Meanwhile, if you plan to have too many links on your site, then you should use flyouts or drop-down menus for your main categories. This helps your site become cleaner and neater to the eye, and your audiences would not be confused in going to the different parts of your website. Some free website design templates do provide you with this kind of feature, so why not check them out.

The next thing you have to work on is enhancing the aesthetic appeal of your site. This is the part where you can use different free web site tools that generate HTML and JacaScript codes, making your task easier. You can find a good list of design tools at Yahoo Answers, so why not check them out.

Another important factor you should work on is to use simple rollover buttons and images. Fancy rollover buttons may be fancy, but they can make your site run slower and distract some of your audiences, so it’s best that you stick with the basics. There are free website design tools which offer plain yet functional images and buttons, so why not try and see if they will work well on your site.

Special graphic and photo effects on the other hand need special expertise, so if you are a newbie in developing website design, it is best that you try to use services which are ready and easy to use, not those that need complicated codes. However, if you tend to be more imaginative and already have good knowledge with regards to web design codes, then you can go ahead and create your own designs.

Finally, Yahoo Answers recommends that your site should be interactive and dynamic. You can do this by adding a Flash Player plug-in on your site, which is the most compatible player for most multimedia files. A lot of free website design widgets provide Flash-player functions, so better include them on your site as well.

How often do you browse the internet and find a page and quickly leave only to not read their content or view any of their pages? This happens all too often on the internet each and every day. This is because of tacky or unattractive web design that is not easy to navigate. Why have a web page if no one is really going to read it? They might have excellent content but if things do not look attractive you will quickly leave. There are a lot of elements that make a good web site design. A good web page should be dynamic, attractive, and easy to navigate.

Dynamics and Attractions Go Along Way

You need to find a way to make your site interactive because people want to interact. Think of it this way; what reason would your user have to come back? A good way people are making web site dynamic are by applying ASP.NeT, PHP, C#, AJAX, Javascript, etc. You site should use an effective color palette that is appropriate for your audience. Also, your page should not be all static unless it is just exceptional content. Static web pages are boring and way over used on the internet. Nothing is more unattractive than clashing colors that compete with each other. Also, make sure that the design works in every web browser and under the most common resolutions.

Typography Is Vital To Your Web Design

Design in print and in web design relies around the same principles. Readability and effective type can make or break a design. I would recommend that you use no more than 3 different fonts. This includes just three types of fonts too. For example Arial Bold is one and Arial Italic is another. Ask anyone who knows about design; a novice graphic designer or web site designer does not know typography. The size needs to be adjusted accordingly and with clarity. Make blocks of content rather than having a 150 line paragraph. I try to make spaces between ever six lines to help with readability. Make sure you make proper use of CAPS and do not over use them.

Navigation Is Key

Everything should be laid out consistently on your site. All the buttons should be in the same exact spot on every single page. If the user is hunting and searching just to find their desired content on your page; chances are they will just get frustrated and leave. A lot of people underestimate the power of an easily navigational web site.

Much has been said about website design. The topic itself opens a lot of ideas between internet savvies and website designers. In as much as every internet user wanted to have their own page in the web, webmasters can only provide them a pseudo-personalized form called web hosting. This page has a given set of functionality to enable users to download/upload files, post messages for individuals and groups, or design the page according to their preferences. Popular examples are blogging platforms and social networking pages. But these functionality are only limited to some sort of webmaster’s purpose in creating the page and cater only to the basic demand of majority of users.

Such backdoor encourages anyone to make and design their own website according to their preferences. However, getting a bad website design is far worse than the limitations of hosted sites. Not to mention making your own website needs payment versus free service of a hosted site. Having your own website could just be anything, but a successful website is really something. The following were just basic areas of consideration in conceptualizing a website design :

1. Purpose

The reason why a website has been created is a foremost consideration in website designing. In fact, every inch of a website and its sub-domains will reflect its purpose. The website purpose can range from business oriented, open information site, directory listings, blogging site, and even to extremely personal. This purpose will also control on what stuff the site is made of and even to its most subtle modifications later.

2. Organization

After the purpose has been established, the organization of the site will be composed of flow of operations on how every single user will interact with the page. Sometimes, it is called the blueprint of the website where placement of banners, main menu buttons, and topic tabs will be selected. The goal of website organization is the enhancement in navigating streams of data found on the site. Some even fortified it with an advanced algorithm scripts. Regardless of software applications to be used, a highly organized website will always enable users to land on the page where they wanted to be.

3. Color Scheming

Some may have been not so careful with this aspect but it can be as important as the website’s organization. After all, website designing is still both art and science. Appropriate color selection for every square inch of a webpage matters a lot in supporting the purpose and organization of the site. Aesthetically speaking, some vibrant colors may become insignificant in some sorts of combination in the same way as a dimmer hue can become a sound choice for a particular spot. Although noone could tell at what extent a certain color may become redundant or significant. Some website designers often used simulations on different color combination and at different levels of shade. In this way they can evaluate the visual appearance of the page in the web.

4. Size and Space

Different data types correspond to a certain size or space in the page. A size refers to the amount of memory a certain data type could consume while a space is an area occupied by a certain data type. A text can be the simplest and the smallest among data types but it can also occupy a considerable amount of space just to convey specific information. A picture, on the other hand, could paint a thousand words but it is likely to be static and cost more size than text. Video files offer great interactivity with the user but they consumes a lot of memory and takes time to be loaded in the page. Thus, a significant balance in using different data types must exist somewhere for a website designer to discover.

5. Promotional Features

Aside from the purpose of why a website has been created, every website designer should always anticipate the promotional features of the site. After all, why make a site when you can’t broadcast it? Website designers often incorporate the sites capacity to attract search engines since a significant number of internet users browse over search engines for every particular topic. In onsite search engine optimization (SEO), proper placement of topic words over the page will make it to be “crawled” by search engine robots called spiders. Conventionally, the more your website talks about a particular topic in a non-spammy way could make your site land on the primary search engine results pages (SERP’s). SERP rankings indirectly determine the number of users visiting your website.

Although website designing involves a lot of hard decisions to make highly successful websites, it is still so fun doing it. Imagine being a digital artist and your website is your masterpiece. The more you spend a little more time on every area of consideration, the more it will become detailed. It will also reflect on the way how you make your site more effective on whatever ends.