May 16th, 2012
There is a fine line between designing a creative website or by overdoing it with too many personal quirks. Self-expression is highly encouraged but when it comes to web design then a balance should be achieved.
Websites have become much more interactive in recent years, with the introduction of blogs and social areas such as chat features or instant messaging. The trick for any business is to get visitors to the site coming back time and again, and this is where art meets web design. Heightening interactivity without making it too fussy or complicated will bring visitors back to the site time and again as they will find the site more enjoyable, whether it is for following the latest news, shopping online, or keeping up with the celebrity gossip pages, an enjoyable site is a popular one.
Dr. Shyam Sundar, founding director of the Media Effects Research Lab at Penn State University in America researched this and discovered that there are several ways of increasing user enthusiasm for a particular website, portal or online community. The research showed that a combination of cosmetic variations, such as being able to change colour schemes and background images and allowing users to blog or comment on posts on the site is the best way to boost user interactivity.
Dr Sundar was quoted as saying that users respond better to interfaces that they can personally decorate, such as changing the covers of a mobile phone or the personalisation of the PC desktop image, for example. Active blogging is one way to support continued personalisation on a site and the research showed that it increased a user’s desire to return to the portal in the future. Simple examples of this are the Facebook status update and the short but effective Twitter Tweet.
Tags: Blogging, Interactive Web Design, science, web design
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May 15th, 2012
The importance of making use of a web design service is very simple. Imagine visiting a site that is fairly bland to look at, no real features to speak of and filled with uninteresting images and content. There are many sites on the web like this, the images do not match the content and appear to have been very unprofessionally put together. Most internet users would hit the site then leave immediately to find a much more interesting or user-friendly site to browse through.
Web design services are professional people who are qualified to know the best way to get a particular site working to its optimum advantage. There is a vast array of subject matter to be covered on the internet and each one will need an individual layout. City guides that have poor quality images will just not be attractive, and sites that have long drawn out intro pages can become boring if waiting for the multiple features to load.
There are sites that have a lot going on. In fact some have too much and this can cause loading of the pages to be very slow. This can also make visitors to the website turn elsewhere, which is not what the site, as a business, needs. Finding the right balance is where art meets web design. Web designers are artists in their field.
They can make a site eye-catching without being over the top, and in-keeping with the style of the site content. Website owners who have created their own pages will have more than likely used one of the many templates to build on. These templates are too generic for most needs and are limited in colour schemes, styles and images. An experienced web designer can make something great to keep visitors coming back time and again.
Tags: Professional Webdesign Services, web design
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May 11th, 2012
No matter what the content of a website, it is important that the designer and the website owners have a passion for what they do in order to be sure that the results that are achieved are good. Developing a good website is not done overnight. It takes a great deal of time, patience and dedication. This is the first ingredient of website design.
Knowledge on the subject is essential. Anyone who is not well informed will stand out straight away. Users of the website need to be able to trust the website owner. After all, there are thousands of other places on the web that they could go to for information.
Web design also involves listening to the audience in order to be sure that the site is meeting their needs. Improvements and alterations as a result of this are a good idea as it shows that the audience is important.
A website also needs to show that the designers and owners are knowledgeable about developments in the industry. Being able to keep up with the events that are happening is important as it demonstrates dedication to the subject. Information has to be current as a website that is not regularly updated will stand out.
Websites that advance and take a few risks with the latest innovations are always noticed more than those that do not. The internet moves very quickly and change is rapid. Website owners and designers need to keep up with these changes and be prepared to embrace them into their own work. Letting opportunities like this pass by means allowing other people to benefit from the changes.
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May 10th, 2012
Having a website is just one of the ways to make a new business stand out from the crowd. Most businesses have a website but these need to be carefully considered to establish if the website design has done enough to attract new customers, retain old ones and pass on any relevant information that is needed. Customers need to be able to find information easily and this is why goal-driven web design could be the answer.
The first thing to consider is the business objectives. Setting these goals is important because the business owner can then determine what the website needs to be in order to reach those goals. Goals can include targets such as increasing sales of products, selling any advertising space, generating leads for sales people, increasing the number of people who sign up to a newsletter and encouraging visitors to sign up to the site.
Then it is important to consider what the visitors want when they visit the site. They will want information about factors such as delivery charges, contact details, making appointments, finding a store nearby and information on the products that are for sale. The web design can take all of this into consideration.
The website design needs to think about the tone of the content and the language used and the goals that have been set will determine the structure of the website. All of this information can be used by the website designers to create a site that does exactly what it needs to do. A web designer could be considered to be a partner in this enterprise as they should be involved right from the start and this will give a better chance of creating a successful site.
http://www.destinyman.com/article/goal-driven-web-design-2012-04-26
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May 9th, 2012
The BBC News website has been given the People’s Voice award, for the quality of its service at the Webby awards for 2012. Other websites that collected awards include Google+ and Spotify. The People’s Voice section awards are given alongside those given by the Webby judges and these are voted for by members of the public. Votes this year came from more than 200 countries around the world and more than 1.5 million people.
In addition to these awards, a prize was given to Facebook for its “Special Achievement for Social Change” showing how website design and the internet in general can impact on political development.
The editor of the BBC News website has declared that it is an important win in the news category and was an honour, as the site was voted for by readers worldwide. It demonstrates just how important the design of the BBC News website is, having managed to remain a valued service for people all over the world.
In addition to the sites already mentioned, there were several awards for TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design), which is a not-for-profit organisation. They collected accolades for the best education site, the best app and the best use of video online.
The awards were first established in 1996 and were created in order to recognise the achievement of web owners and innovative web design. These are widely considered to be one of the most prestigious web awards available. The winners at the 2012 awards are representative of the new and ongoing trends that have been seen in the website design industry over the last 12 months. The prizes are to be given at an awards ceremony that is due to take place in New York in May.
Tags: design, Technology, web design, web development, website design
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May 4th, 2012
At the recent design and technology festival one of the speakers chose as a topic the challenges of responsive web design. This is an innovation and it is often presented as the ideal solution for those who need a website that can be used on a variety of media including a desktop computer, a smartphone and a tablet computer. This does sound like a good idea but it is not as straightforward as some think.
For the web designer this can be a challenge as it is difficult to test the one site and all that is involved in it on all the different devices that it can be used for. This is particularly difficult as the importance of content is growing. Sites that contain a lot of content work well as responsive sites but if there are interactive sections then it can make the web design aspect much more difficult. The user of the site may expect that it is the same in all forms of media but these have different factors such as screen size, which can cause problems. The responsive design aspect of the site will deal with the layout but users may not necessarily have the same experience with the site when using it on their mobile phone as they do on their laptop.
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May 3rd, 2012
There are many websites that have not had a search function added but there are many benefits to this additional feature. Those who have a site that is aimed at online shoppers will find that a search function helps customers to find what they are looking for quickly and easily to ensure that their online shopping experience is a positive one.
At a recent ecommerce conference that was held in Brazil, it was announced that up to 50% of website users will use a search facility to help them along. If this percentage is a realistic figure then having a search facility on a website has the potential to greatly increase sales and business.
When planning a search facility the web design company should consider a number of standard features including making the search fields fairly large so that they can be easily read. They should be an important part of the page rather than hidden away. A potential customer is less likely to use a search facility if they have to go looking for it.
The online search facility could also include suggested search terms. This can help to point potential customers in the right direction if they are not sure of the exact item that they are looking for and a customer finding an item in this way is twice as likely to purchase it. Search suggestions should show up below the search box so that they can be clearly seen. It is not essential that words are matched exactly but it can also bring up product suggestions too, so that the customer is shown the range of goods that can suit their needs.
Tags: eCommerce
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April 30th, 2012
It is becoming increasingly obvious that visual appeal is becoming just as important in content marketing as the actual content. There are a number of current trends that clearly demonstrate this and web designers are recommended to take these into account when planning the visual appearance of a site.
One of these is the growing importance of apps. Apps are where art meets web design, as the design of a great app can have a tremendous impact on the overall user experience. As websites are increasingly reliant on apps to enhance the user experience the web designers have had to be a great deal more creative with this aspect of web design. This can be seen with large sites such as Facebook and Google where they are actively recruiting designers who can achieve this level of creativity and innovation.
As more and more people are choosing to access websites via their tablet computers and smartphones the early design platforms are no longer viable for these needs. As a result there has been a growth in web design that has plenty more visual effects and interactive features and this has been made possible with applications such as CSS3 and HTML5. Web users can see features such as interactive buttons, augmented reality and fading visual elements as part of the sites that they are using.
Ensuring that a website can be used on more than one platform for viewing is essential. Designers need to take this into account and responsive designs are now becoming the norm. Some sites differ in appearance according to the type of viewing platform, so mobile phone users will see something a little different than they would if they accessed the site on a laptop.
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April 27th, 2012
Many web design experts are often expected to justify their work as “art” as many people do not consider it to be an art form, although there are many crossovers. The creative process of web design is based on the same principles of art that are taught in schools and colleges. Web design can be considered to be just a different (and new!) form of art rather than the traditional types of art that we may be used to.
If somebody chooses to critique a website they are just giving an evaluation that is very impersonal. The web designer can simply accept the point of view or ignore it as there are not really any right or wrong answers. However, a web designer needs to accept comments from the client who is commissioning the site. A good web designer will also understand the concept of “artistic distance,” which is just the ability to step back and assess the work that they have done from the viewpoint of another person who has not done that work, so that they can see what others will see when they first look at the site.
Many people see art and design as two different things although they do have a common purpose. It is considered that a designer aims to communicate information that already exists with his/her designs, rather than creating something unique, which is what an artist does.
However, many web design professionals will consider that each webpage created is something unique as no client will want a webpage that resembles that of another company; this is the point where art meets web design. With a webpage, the message that is being communicated should be understood by all viewers in the same way, although a painting may be interpreted differently by different people.
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April 25th, 2012
A content management system is often referred to as a CMS and is a type of software that will allow the users to update as well as create new pages for their website. Making use of a CMS can be very beneficial for websites that have a large number of pages or if there are several people that need to work on the site. If contributors to the site have only a minimal knowledge of HTML then it can also be useful.
The first step of a content management system is to create the web design, which is the layout of the page. The web design company then turns this into a master template for all the pages on the site to follow. The CMS is integrated into this design. The people then responsible for producing the content of the web page can then be given access to the web pages and will be able to add the content in. All pages are automatically saved and can be edited or deleted as needed.
There are different types of CMS that can be considered. One of these is a Proprietary CMS, which can be an expensive option but is usually top of the range. It is mainly larger companies that take this option. The open source CMS is at the other end of the scale as it is generally free and easy to use and install. However, users may find that support is limited. It is the Custom CMS that is the most popular option as it can be developed from scratch by the web design company who will be able to deal with any problems that arise in the future.
Tags: CMS, web design
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