Web Design Part 1 - Designing Your Own Website

When it comes to website design, most people get it wrong. It is quite a complex art that involves understanding, knowledge and technique. It isn't after all, just about the aesthetics of a page but how well it works. It's here a few things even web designers get wrong and should be avoided.

Issue number 1 is the first impressions of the website. Many businesses get this wrong, by writing for themselves, rather than the customer base. They also overdo the self praise, making them look a little arrogant. Secondly, the language may be too formal and technical and may not be understood by everyone. Within the first few seconds of visiting the website, most viewers should be able to understand what your business is about.

Another first impression issue is with navigation and focal point issues. If your website design is a little scatty and things aren't where they are expected to be, don't expect too many viewers to stick around. Keep the web design elements in some sort of logical order.

Another issue is loading time. Viewers can be impatient and are generally not going to wait around for five minutes for your website to upload. So make sure your website is free of unnecessary and clutter and any files are not too big.

Issue number 2 is to do with text and links. A fatal mistake often made is that the text and links are not as user friendly as could be. For instance, too many font colours, the font size is too small and you have to use a special browser as the font you used is incompatible with most. The latter is probably the worst crime as it means viewers simply won't be able to view your content in all browsers. The font must also be appropriate for the website and audience.

Links can be a major problem too, as they often not emphasized enough. For instance, a well designed website will show that the anchor text is a link by highlighting it in a different colour or underline, and as soon as the mouse rolls over it, the anchor text will change colour. This simply tells people that those few words are connected to a link. Other common issues are the use of anchor text that is too long or that there is too many of them. Overloading a page with links will certainly put people off and so will long anchor text.

These issues are only one of a few problems web designers come across. Yet, they can be easily tackled by a good web designer.

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In Web Design Don't Underestimate the Importance of Navigation

When people are surfing the web they will get very impatient when they can not find what they want quickly. Navigating the web has to make sense to the surfer and right away, so if the web design is done with this in mind, the layout of an effective website will have similarities to all the others.

You need to use standard conventional links like buttons underlining the text and changing the color. It is not such a good idea to use clever names for the links. Simple is good. Keep in mind the type of people who are going to visit your website and have it designed to suit them.

The elements of navigation are very important so whether you are trying to inform a person about a service or product, or trying to sell them this service or product, the web design for your links can be the important factor to consider.

Inform the visitor to your website that the link is just that. Say you are in real estate and your property is in a specific city so you need a link with a map of that vicinity to guide them to all the particulars about that area. They will need the city name to click on to so specify this on your site. Professional web designers have a rule they use which is the three clicks method. When a person is surfing they will click no more than three times to get the information they are looking for so make sure that they will reach all the particulars of your site within those parameters.

Three clicks on your website should get them to all that they need to know. Keeping your web page with a simple web design is more attractive and is able to keep a persons interest better than one which is too full of information. People do not want to read a huge amount at one time. People who surf the web are basically looking for information,so only use a short movie or clip if it really adds to your site, and make sure there is an easy way to link to it or they will be gone from your site forever.

The best places for navigation

Top Menus-located below the graphic header page where the logo site is found. These will be expanding menus drop menus or single links, A text or graphic will represent them. A visitor can click on the link to any of them. Bottom Menus-can be a footer or menu bar. Footers use text links while menu bars use text links or graphics. These are all very important aspects of web design.

Right side navigation is not so often used but can be on the right side of the page as a text area or column. Most often it is used for advertising. Left side navigation is just the opposite to the right this is located on the left and usually the top of the page.

These are just a few suggestions that you are going to want to keep in mind for your web design decisions.

For more info about web design please visit my website.

Passionate about website designs that generates leads and sales.
http://echodigital.com.au/web-design/

Non-Technical Web Design Considerations

If you are considering a new website, or re-designing your existing one, there are some fundamental web design considerations you should make note of before committing your time and money into your new website.

1. You only get one chance to make a good first impression.
The initial impact of your web design must say "professional". Regardless of whether you want a traditional formal look or a funky modern web design, your website must look utterly professional. You wouldn't want to send out sub-standard leaflets to prospective customers, so your website, which is going to be seen by far more prospects (hopefully!) must be professionally designed.

2. Navigation is key, and print designers are not web designers.
Designing for print is different to designing for the web, especially where navigation is concerned. Good web design can only be done by the kind of designer who knows websites inside out. Once you know exactly what it is you want to say on your website, and you have categorized it, go and see a professional web designer. S/he will be able to suggest an appropriate look and feel based on your business, and the best way of navigating through it. For instance, there aren't many accountants who want a really vibrant green and red fast moving flash based design!

3. Get more than one design route.
You will have a meeting with the designer to formulate a "brief". The web designer will work with you to make sure your corporate identity is firmly reinforced whilst incorporating the colour scheme, functionality, and navigational requirements of the website. After this meeting, the designer should provide you with at least two options from which you can choose and refine, until you are happy with the web design.

4. Do the developers live in-house?
We have written articles on the kinds of questions you should be asking your web designer, and this is one of them. It's not actually the end of the world if your designer sub-contracts the development of your website, but there are advantages if the web development team are part of the same design studio. If they are, it is likely that your end product will be less expensive, your website could be produced more quickly, and if there are any issues they will be easier to sort out.

5. Search Engine Results
Lets make no mistake about it, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the next big thing you need to be concerned about, and you definitely want the people who are actually building your website to know what they're doing from an SEO point of view. The problem of course, if you're on a tight budget, is paying for it, because SEO work is not inexpensive. You will need to retain at least 50% of your budget for SEO. That's how important it is.

These are just a few of the considerations you must take into account when considering a new web design.

Paul Clarke is the Managing Director of Web Equip Ltd. A Web Design company in Sheffield, UK. You can visit Web Equip at http://www.webequip.co.uk/ for Web Design Sheffield.

Reasons to Be Creative With Web Design

No matter whether you have a website dedicated to a business or personal interests, you should always look to create a site that has a distinctive and creative appearance. Unfortunately, if your site looks like every other page on the web, it will never stand out and grab viewer attention. In fact, if your site looks boring and unappealing, you may even find that visitors will not stay long enough to read your content.

A Memorable Site Gets Repeat Visitors

As you look at websites dedicated to a particular topic, you may find that most of them look alike. If you decided not to bookmark a site, this situation can make it very hard relocate the site later on. In addition, when your site looks like all the others, you will have hard time convincing viewers that you are unique in your business practices.

Visitors That Feel Comfortable Will Stay Longer

If you are planning to sell products or services, you will need to find some way to keep viewers at your site as long as possible. Typically, if your site has an attractive, innovative look to it, viewers will be more inclined to look around and buy something. That said, you should never trade off easy site navigation for efforts aimed at prolonging the time viewers spend at your site.

Set a New Trend

As with so many other things, web design fashions come and go. Rather than simply wait for someone else to establish a new trend, you may want to see if you can lead in this field. Individuals that work as professional web designers will usually find that leading in innovation will have a tremendous benefit.

When someone visits your site, they won't want to see hackneyed content, boring graphics, and a site design that looks like the last page they visited. Therefore, you should always strive to be as creative as possible when you design new sites. As long as you can combine these creative elements with a functional and friendly website, you are sure to find that converting viewers into buyers will be much easier.

Notes for editors: Claire Jarrett recommends Warren Phillips, a website designer in Manchester.

Website Designing - A Benefit to the World

The World Wide Web we know today practically emerged accidentally. The truth is that people were trying to find ways to communicate and transfer information via telephone lines and PC's. Along with the development of World Wide Web and its improvements, it gradually became available for everyone using a telephone, a PC and a modem, along with the usage of famous "father" of browsers, the Mosaic. It enabled people throughout the world to access millions of documents available online.

People were viewing these intentionally created documents (the first websites) which were the beginning of website designing. Their scarce graphics, abundance of text and underdeveloped layouts may seem funny today, but using dial up modems via telephone lines, their aim was not to amuse, but provide information only.

However, the establishment of W3 Consortium in 1994 cleared a path for the development of website designing process. The basic coding language was HTML, yet imperfect but subject to developing, with already many polished versions today. The standards prescribed by the W3C disabled huge organizations in development of particular or private browsers in order to monopolize the prescribed code for web design. It is almost impossible how harmful such monopolization of web design would be in the area of World Wide Web we all use on a daily basis.

When it comes to website designing and its improvement, we know them as 'generations' today. First web sites were known for abundance of text and poor graphics. Basic website designing used to operate on slow modems and had to consider the flow of information in a given timeframe. As for the second generation, more and more properties were added to the prescribed HTML, which very soon led to the third website designing, with its variety of backgrounds, layouts, animated images, ability to convey sound while browsing etc.

We consider web design of today to have reached its fourth generation, filled with advanced programs and techniques, which guarantees uniqueness in every page. Website designing, as a complete and developed process within the entire internet industry, enabled us to use codes and computer languages ourselves and make our own websites. Usage of Flash, XML and JavaScript are just minor details in the modern website designing. As an extremely complicated and yet interesting and necessary area of work today, web design and people working on it constantly incorporating additional elements, online games and videos to ease browsing but advertising as well on a regular basis.

With the modern era in website designing, practically everything is possible in every area on the web. We all gained access to numerous data which were inaccessible for a long time. There is still no one to monopolize the website designing processes, due to the existing rules and techniques in coding languages. To the benefit of all, World Wide Web Consortium still provides basic rules for the web design.

Rapid development of information flow, such as flat, wireless etc., provide further support to the resourcefulness of website designing, being a very valuable asset on market and in business promotion. There are no visible borders to web designers' creativity. These people are highly appreciated and valuable asset on today's market, since it is they who enable us find whatever we are looking for.

Author is an associate editor for Seo company india. Get all possible information about website designing india and SEO Services India. We also provide information about Link Building and Internet Marketing Services.

The Expected Costs of Web Design

When you are having a new website built, there are a variety of costs to take into account. Exactly what they will be depend on the size and complexity of your website, who is building it and the quality of the finished product. But these are not always in proportion!

Manual Charges

The main cost of the website will be the charges for the time spent actually building the website. There is a huge difference between the time spent building a simple one page website and the time spent building a website with hundreds or thousands of pages, an admin system and top class graphics. Expect to pay more the more you want.

But the hourly charges will also vary depending on the size and reputation of the company building the website. Usually a small freelancer will offer a lot lower hourly charge than a large company, who also have the overheads of marketing, admin, legal, accountants and other departments to cover. The bigger the company the more layers of management there are who are not actually building your website, but who you are paying for!

Hosting Charges

Gone are the days when free hosting services were acceptable for websites, especially business sites! But hosting does not need to be that expensive. The basic hosting of a website, with email and sufficient 'bandwith' (the amount of data you are allowed to transfer each month) is probably £60 - £120 per year, depending on your exact requirements.

On top of this, if you are using a Content Management System, including the WordPress blogging system, you will also need an SQL database. This is probably included in the more expensive hosting options, but might be a small add on to cheaper packages.

Domain Name

The domain name does not cost much, but all of the adverts you will see will no doubt under price the cost. That is because a lot of adverts just state their charges and not the actual registrar's fee. For a domain name expect to pay about £8 - £12 for 2 years for a .uk name, but only 1 year for a generic name.

Having said that, I have heard of web designers locally charging £50 per year for a .uk name. This is just pure greedy markup on the price and an indicator to avoid them!

Annual Maintenance

Lastly, you might need to pay for annual maintenance, but most reputable designers will look after the website and make required changes for you for at least the first year. But after the first year expect to pay an annual maintenance charge. It is hard to say what this would be, because the maintenance on a 1 page site is usually far less than the maintenance on a 100 page website. Again, the exact figure will also depend on the size of the company looking after the site for you!

Other Fees

Anything else from here is then optional. You can get listed on the search engines for free, but might want to pay for advertising or extra Search Engine Optimisation on the web site.

Have a look around at a few website designers and do not be bound be geography. Our customers are spread around the UK, Europe and even South Africa and the Caribbean! If you would like us to give you a quote, just visit the janric.co.uk website and drop us an email. If you prefer just to follow our web design blog then pop over to the website.

Article by Keith Lunt, freelance website designer since 2003.

How to Add Or Embed a YouTube Video to Your Yahoo SiteBuilder Website

Now if you are currently using Yahoo SiteBuilder to build your website then you will probably want to put a YouTube video on your website at some time. This why and how you can do it yourself. Video makes up almost 60% of the traffic found on there internet and is watched by 200 million Americans each month. This is huge! Why is video so popular? Video converts. People would rather watch a video then to read text. Pour a cup of coffee, sit in front of your computer and watch and listen. That is why your website should have video on it. This article will show you how to embed a YouTube video or any other video that gives you the option onto your new website in Yahoo Site Builder.

Step 1: Go to YouTube and find the video you want to embed. If its your own video make sure you upload it to YouTube first by creating an free account. On the page your video is displaying you will find a box that says "embed," just below the videos description. Next to the word embed you will see the HTML code for that video. It looks like object width="560" height="340".... Click and copy the HTML code.

Step 2: Open up Yahoo SiteBuilder and insert an new HTML Box. You can go to insert in the top bar or right click and click insert HTML. Once you have inserted an HTML box double click on it and paste in your code. You should see the numbers in the code that gives you the width and height of your video. Write down the length and width if needed.

Step 3: Stretch the HTML box to be just a little bigger then the height and width of your video. Move the video to the place you want it on the page. Save, publish, and your done.

If the video isn't showing up after you publish it may be a few things. It may be that you didn't stretch the HTML box enough with your mouse or that you didn't copy all the code from YouTube itself. I hope this article is helpful to you.

To watch a video on exactly how you can add online video to your Yahoo SiteBuilder website click the link below:

http://howtomakeawebsite.tv/yahoo-site-builder-videos/free-website-course-add-video-and-YouTube-videos/

http://www.howtomakeawebsite.tv

Aaron Fischer is a professional online marketer and expert on using Yahoo SiteBuilder to build websites. He has wrote the only exclusive E-Book that shows people exactly how to use Yahoo SiteBuilder to make money!

What Makes a Good Web Design?

When it comes to web design, its all in the eye of the beholder, but there is also a delicate balance between unique, artistic, complex and consensus which all come into play as to what people like and respond to when they browse the web and the sea of websites in it.

unless going for art only, the consensus is the right place to start. what works? What do people like? What do people respond to? And that does not mean recycling. It means building upon the tried and tested. one has to take into account the purpose of the website and conclude the best functionality for it. the layout has to make sense and the most important things for that specific website have to stand out in a way will be intuitive and useful.

What pages should be in the menu bar, what graphic elements should surround it? A good web designer can take any web development project, even a web redesign and transform it into not only a good looking home page but a successful site in a sense of it accomplishing its purpose.

The graphic design is as important as the coding itself but has to appeal as a web design to its targeted audience. Whether a graphic designer and a website designer are working together on a website or they are one and the same person, these have to be coordinated.

Now when a budget is limited one should not rule out web templates as an option to take and redesign on its existing basis or overly the content on its structure. Web design in Los Angeles has a lot to offer, as a place as big as Los Angeles, a professional web designer is not hard to find.

The advantage of looking for a local web designer or web design company in Los Angeles is the ability to meet face to face.

An India web design company could be cheaper but communication is not always at its best. now even though there are some good remote designers, having the ability to meet the person you are hiring can give you a much better impression of who you are working with and give you confidence as to the level of work and work ethics you can receive.

Web Design Los Angeles offers what most people might be looking for but in Los Angeles you will definitely find a wide range of freelance web designers as well as web design companies with an actual office. Look for someone you can meet, whose previous work you like and can visualize your website in his style.

James Wise, A content writer for Web-Design-Los-Angeles.org
A Los Angeles web design company

Website Building Progams Let You Create a Site Without Programming Skills

The speed at which the Internet has evolved to allow even non-tech-savvy users contribute content is really astounding. A little more than a decade ago, the average web user couldn't hope to create their own professional-looking website without going to school for it or paying someone else. Today, though, easy-to-use website building programs let just about anyone create a great looking Internet presence quickly and inexpensively.

That's not to say, however, that every cheap website building program is as user-friendly as the next. With dozens of different software choices available to someone who is looking for a web design program, you still need to take care that you choose the best product for your needs.

And there's another risk that you take if you purchase the first website building program that you come across: getting soured to the prospect of building your own website. If you end up buying software that is difficult to use, you might decide not to ever try building a site again, which would be a shame. Regardless of your education level or how much experience you have with computers, there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to find a web design program that is fun and simple to use.

In fact, as website building programs become more and more sophisticated, it's likely that designers in the future won't have to have any knowledge of coding at all. Some rudimentary HTML and coding knowledge can help amateur web designers create more attractive and engaging sites today, but all of that will probably be unnecessary as programming software advances.

Drag-and-drop web design software is gaining popularity as the populace at large becomes more aware of the benefits that personal and company websites can bring. Thankfully, businesses no longer have to pay thousands of dollars to an outside entity or hire a tech specialist to create and maintain a great website. In fact, regardless of what niche your company serves, you can probably create your own effective website and start increasing your leads online in just a few weeks.

Please visit our website today to find out how you can download a free trial version of our website building programs. We make quality and affordable web page design programs that can help you create a professional, effective online presence.

Things Web Designers Should Understand

Search engine optimization (SEO) and web design domains are like two opposite poles which repel each other contrary to the theory that opposites attract each other. In order to do business online, having a website is the first requirement and then to market the online property, search engine optimization is imperative. A good online business plan supported with exceptional website design & development and built according to search engine standards is a force to reckon with. This means that design, development and SEO are inter-dependent.

Quite often, designers and SEO professionals clash due to difference in opinions. What is good from design point of view may be a disaster for SEO and what is good from SEO point of view might be a catastrophe for the web designer. Due to this, many a times search engine optimizers and web designers are at loggerheads. Web designers need to understand the fact that although "design" is a small word, it connotes big things. A design should not only be aesthetic or appealing but also intuitive and if it goes well for the user then it would definitely be a darling for the search engines too.

Few things that web designers need to understand are:

• Change is the only thing permanent - This is a famous saying which means, nothing is permanent except the change itself. The word "nothing" also includes website design and the designers need to understand this fact. Some times, designers are reluctant to change the wok they did because of SEO interference. They feel that they can't take orders from a guy who knows nothing about design issues which is true but to a certain extent. The world of a designer is limited to designing the website but the SEO professional knows exactly about the design issues that affect the rankings and other SEO efforts.

• Copying the Competitors' - Doing the analysis of competitors' websites is an imperative and a wise thing to do. On the other hand, blindly copying them for no reason is an idiotic step. If your competitor or any other website has exhibited some innovate or unique design skills on their website, we need to analyze it first from the user point of view and then assess the other design issues. Although, we can definitely derive some ideas from it but copying them for no reason does not help. Also, if our competitor is making some mistake, we just replicate the mistake by copying it.

• Difference between discussions and arguments - It is very common for both the parties to disagree on some issues but it is not at all professional to start arguing. If there is some deviation in the views, it should be discussed in a cordial environment to come to a proper solution. Everyone has their own views and the right too to make it known to the teams. It is not necessary that views may be right but a discussion helps in achieving a much better result. Moreover, it also helps to clear the doubts and supplements the personal growth.

Search engine optimization is a dynamic field and things change with a blink of the eyes and therefore require continuous research. Web design too is a dynamic field but few designers disagree and reach the saturation point too fast which is not correct. Web design is a vast field and requires lot of research so as to make the website intuitive and also look appealing and professional. At the same time, every other design should look different. But, a wonderful website with zero consideration towards SEO can never reach to the intend audience. It will always remain like a diamond in the coal mine whose value can only be assessed in the world outside.

Therefore, it is necessary for SEO as well as the web design team to work together and ward-off any issues which can be a threat to their work via discussions.

I simply love the web! According to me, it's the most happening and the best place to interact and gain knowledge. I work as an Internet Marketing Specialist at BatchMaster Software Pvt. Ltd, specializing in the development of ERP Solutions for process manufacturing industry namely - Food & Beverage, Coatings & Chemicals, Life Sciences, Nutraceutical and Cosmeceutical.

Writing is a hobby for me and I author articles and blogs on the subjects that interests me. To get in touch with me, please contact me at LinkedIn