What a Good Website Designer and a Web Developer Should Know About Web Design

So, what it is really that distinguishes a good website from a poorly designed web site? The topic is as broadly debatable as Windows over Linux is but it all boils down to the two important keywords: development and design! A good web designer offering web site design services must know the difference between the two words.

Web development in itself is a broad term for any activities related to website, web application, web solution, e-commerce development, web content development, client-side / server-side coding, web solutions and web database system. Web development usually refers only to the technical aspects of building a website.

Web design on the other hand is perceived as the artistic side of creating a website that involves the visual styles, layout coherence, color theme considerations and all other factors that has something to do with the general appearance of the site, vis-à-vis its functions.

Therefore, we may conclude that web development equates to a programmer's logic craftsmanship while website design is a product of an artist's imaginative and creative ideas. If this is true which I'm sure most website design firms and individual web designers in the Philippines would agree that a good website must be a combination of digital landscape and well planned programming logic. The dilemma however is that majority of web designers falls short of these two important aspects. Worst, most website developers do not realized these qualifications. I don't have anything against talented and enterprising individual with knowledge on web design and development but there is more than simply knowing the basic of html and image editing to come up with a commercial grade website. We must put in mind that a website is our business or personal identity online. It is the sum total of our being and our business that is accessible to clients and prospective clients. It means therefore that a website is our front line to the information age and that should be well planned and designed in order for it to serve its purpose.

There are however rampant offering on "create your own website in minutes" application and other template-based website. I'm baffled by these ideas simply because it directly contradicts to what I have just discussed above. Choosing to publish a website from a template equates to buying a white cardboard box in the department store and stamping it with your product's name, no branding, no image building, no identity! It's like the usual "Special Patis (Fish Sauce) label you see all over the wet market. All of them claim to be special but the sad truth is that non of them are.

As I have mentioned already, there are two important keywords in the subject, they are Website development and Web site design. Development is of course straight forward and can be learned in school. However, design is a rather different zone in the battlefield of web design. As the word design implies, it has something to do with creative ideas carefully woven by an artist - a full fledge designer who is there to collate the meaning of symbols, colors, sizes and positioning of every element in a website. It is ironic though that most web design firms out there offers template based website that are available in many template stores, worst many of them are available for free. So to say, if you have your prestigious business website made from templates, chances are that you have a twin website somewhere in the internet with only its mole and hair different from yours - the logo and text content, but they are visual replica of each other.

So if you happened to be reading this in search of a good website design firm, check out if the firm has a certified graphic artist and not just a programmer who read a crash course in image editing offering templates and who promised to create your website in minutes. Web site design and development involves careful planning, collaborating of design ideas, and putting together appropriate contents to capture the visitor's attention and to properly reflect your business' image or professional reputation..

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Earn More Profits With Effective Website Design

The main purpose of website design is to give a unique identity to your company's business. Thus, it becomes very important to attract more number of customers by designing user friendly and interactive websites so that it increases the demand for your products.

Good content management, designing skills, easy navigation, excellent layout and storyboarding are some of the pre-requisites required for a successful website design.

Understanding the customer psychology

It is vital for website design to create a lasting impression on the customers to improve your website traffic and visibility on the internet. A good website design draws the attention of your customer and induces him to take a certain action. Hence, it becomes necessary to design the website from the customer's point of view.

If you have been to shopping in the supermarket, you might have observed, how each product is displayed there to attract the customers and entice them to buy the product.

Similarly, you should be able to apply the same principles to your website design by understanding what features of your website is most likely to draw maximum attention of the customers.

5 Powerful website design principles

-Content is the King

It is more desirable to have websites with rich content than which are simply attractive to look. Visitors measure the quality and effectiveness of your website based on the content that you provide on your website. Therefore, it is important to give them interesting and informative information that can prove useful to them.

-Eye catching visual images

Images have a high possibility of creating greater impact on the minds of the visitor. Always try to use more visual images that look more appealing and have the ability to capture the attention of your audience with your message using your website. Thus, it makes good sense to incorporate a fine balance of text and graphics in your website design.

-Self-explanatory web pages

Many a times, websites are not be able to provide an effective solution to the problems faced by the customers and leave them in a state of dilemma. One of the main principles of good website design is to give a clear picture of your website so that they do not have to delve into details. In short, your website should be self-explanatory and guide them easily by providing quick solutions to all their queries.

-Keep it as simple as possible

You main aim must to give all the required information to the visitors through your website which provides easy and simple navigation. Keep the layout of the website as simple as possible without creating undue distractions in the form of ads that pop up every time the user is browsing on your website. Try to give them a more customer friendly experience by designing a simple user interface.

-Good communication medium

It is vital to communicate effectively with your customer; this can be made possible only with a good website design. Always try to use language that is more customer-friendly and avoid using technical terms as far as possible. Make sure that you are able to put across your ideas and suggestions along with the message in such a manner that it gets across to the customer. Thus, your website design must be able to create more familiarity about your company and its products.

John Mahoney is a freelance author who writes about various technology related subjects including business card printing. For more information about John visit his website: http://www.techstore.ie

Tips For Proper Web Design

Welcome to the web site design tutorial section. These tutorials are easy to follow and fun to do! From website design tips and ideas to CSS Styles, Dreamweaver, Flash and Fireworks and you'll find all you need to know about web design right here!

This is the number 1 tip that every web designer should follow. You might design a web site that looks fantastic but few people are going to see it if it takes a long time to load. Your designs should be optimized for the web and should not take more than 15 seconds to load. Remember, you might have a great design but very few people are going to see it if it takes a long time to load. Click here to for 10 tips to fast-loading web pages.

There's only one way to learn HTML, and that?s to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty with some actual code. But fear not: HTML has one of the easiest learning curves you?ll ever come across and you can create a basic web page with only a couple of lines. Writing code by hand also ensures that you write the leanest code possible, which is the ultimate aim of all HTML geeks.

The placement of the navigation buttons or links of a website are usually placed in one of 3 different areas of the page. Across the top of each page or down the left or right side. Regardless of where you choose to put them try to keep the text on the buttons or in the links as short as possible. Anything longer than one or two words will cause that part of your layout to be too wide and crowd your content area.

Topics in this huge subject cover tutorials on online marketing, Internet marketing in general, Internet PPC (pay-per-click) advertising campaigns, marketing plans and strategies, and much more. You'll also find a section on top-notch Internet marketing resources, such as online marketing newsletters, Web sites, and marketing blogs. Visit Google AdWords Resources for insightful AdWords tutorials, tools, newsletters, Web sites & blogs, and much more. Visit Google AdSense Resources for helpful AdSense tutorials, tips, blogs, and more.

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.

The time for a page to load. It is most critical for the most eye-catching elements of the website design to load first and near the top of a page. Website designs therefore need to first-of-all have loading principles in mind.

Make sure your site is browser compatible. Your web site should look good in Netscape as well as in Internet Explorer. Don't stop designing your site as soon as you find that it looks great on IE. Usually Netscape gives some problems, especially when you try doing complicated HTML designs. But don't give up too soon, usually with patience these problems can be easily fixed.

Website designs evolve over time. A website needs to be thought of as a living entity as it is never in a state of stagnation but rather in continuous growth. There are four stages which need to be considered in the process of website design. These can be used as website design tips to ultimately improve a website with increased sales and traffic resulting.

A site that is easy-to-use always encourages visitors to stay and read your content. For site with long pages of content this is very crucial as the amount of scrolling required is reduced. Suppose your site doesn't look good for a particular resolution it is very probable that the visitor will close the browser window feeling that the web page is not for their viewing. Designing stretch layouts that fit any screen resolution ensures that you know all your visitors see a visually appealing and professional site.

Finding a particular Web site is like finding someone's telephone number. Every Web server in the Universe has a unique number that identifies it, called an IP address. For obvious reasons, nobody wants to have to remember numbers like this, so early in the development of the Web, the system of domain names was devised.

Keep your site simple but neat. Don't clutter your page with big, bulky images that take ages to load. Instead use tables creatively and design eye - catching icons that will draw a visitor's attention to a particular section of your site. Tip - Visitors are usually more interested in content than in design.

Ensure Web site scalability: Make sure your code and design is scalable. As technology advances and configuration of computers & their monitors keep increasing and varying it is impossible to test your site in all screen sizes and platforms.

Have you ever tried to put up a web page with photos or images using Nvu or KompoZer, only to find that when you publish the page, the pictures don't show? This guide tells you why it happens and shows you how you can fix the problem.

Benjamin K is a search engine optimization specialist in Milwaukee Wisconsin. You can visit his site at http://www.everykeyword.com

Website Design - What To Look At Before Choosing Your Website Based On Cost

I was online today and saw a person advertising that he would create a website for 200 Euros.

This is a reasonable price, but not a reasonable offer.

It is not possible for a doctor to tell you what medicine to take unless you tell him what ails you.

In the same sense, a website designer can not honestly offer a service without knowing your business, your existing client base, your prospective clients and your overall objective.

A one page website designed to give out one bit of information and gather contact data or make that one sale is much different than a website created to advertise a restaurant or an online mall.

These are only 3 example of the multitude of different types of websites. Each of these different websites has its own form.

Buying a generic off the shelf solution will probably not meet your needs.

Generic websites do not take into consideration niche markets. It does not take into consideration any specific marketing needs you may have.

Here are a few other questions you need to consider:

• Does your market require the heavy use of video or animation?
• Does your market only sell to government organizations?
• Does your market have a high penetration in the international markets?
• Does your site... ?

Every objective is different, so every site should be different as well.

Would you consider having only one flash animation for your entire site?

A one page website is not that uncommon and in certain areas this can be appropriate.

Do you need one single sales page?

For many products and services sold online this is the best solution. Your business model will determine whether this is the right choice for you.

Is having a blog as your main website the right choice for you?

Many businesses look down on the idea of using a blog platform as their main website. But if you have a constant flow of information, a blog is probably a very good solution.

It is so easy to maintain you will not need to outsource much technical work to optimize your website.

Blogs get higher rankings online than other website formats. This is one of the decision factors for businesses to use blogs. And blog platforms can easily be made to look like traditional business websites.

Will you be using social media?

There is an addition reason for businesses to use a blog platform. It is easier to leverage the power of social media in your business using a blog platform.

The social media scene is developing rapidly, almost on a weekly basis.

Many different types of businesses of all sizes and from all industries are finding ways to benefit through social media.

The Choice Is Yours

The choice of the format of your website, the platform you use and the language used to create it are much more important than the price tag.

What seems like as easy solution today at a reasonable cost may cost you much time and money in the long run.

Get a free special report that gives you the 8 Steps To Develop Your International Business easily from where your business is now. This valuable report is yours when you sign up for the Get International Clients free weekly newsletter, with easy to implement tips and case studies to help you develop your international mindset and get you more international clients today. Get yours now at http://cindyking.biz/get-international-clients

The Benefits Of Buying And Selling Online

No matter where you live, one of the best ways to get rid of unwanted possessions is to sell them online. Similarly if you are looking for a good deal on something new, the internet is ideal for that too.

More and more people are trying the experience of buying and selling various items online nowadays, instead of looking in their local papers and newsagents' windows.

It's not hard to see why. Most people have an internet connection either at home or at work, and it's far easier to hop online for a few moments to search for what you need, or place an ad for something you no longer want than it is to use any other method.

You can also reach a much wider audience online than you can via any other means. People from outside your area can see your advert so you have an even better chance of finding a buyer. Here's a good tip to remember though - always make sure you put the words 'buyer collects' or a similar phrase in your ad if the item you are selling is a big one, so you don't end up misleading the buyer. Double check your wording before your ad goes live to make sure you don't get caught out like this.

Of course you'll reach a larger potential audience if you live in a big city than you would in a more rural area. Classifieds in Manchester, for example, will have a huge number of people looking at them from all over the city. The great thing about this is that if you are looking for something to buy, you have a good chance of finding it, since lots of people in Manchester will be selling off their unwanted goods as well.

Manchester is a good example of a location where there will be a very wide range of goods for sale, which is ideal for the bargain hunter who doesn't want to pay full price for anything. This gives you a good opportunity to check out what other people in the area are selling things for as well, since you wouldn't want to overprice anything you're likely to want to sell yourself.

Another benefit of these sites is that searching for what you want is made particularly easy. You can start by looking in the general category that you are interested in; beyond that if you want to narrow it down to a particular postcode, you can do. For example you might want to buy something that is within close range of where you live or work, for convenience.

In short, whether you live in Manchester or anywhere else in the country, you will find that the internet really is your fastest route to buying and selling; so long as you take the time to browse round the websites you want to use, so you fully understand how they work, you will be online and well away in no time.

Isla Campbell is an online, freelance journalist and avid traveler and pilates devotee. When not on the road she lives on the outskirts of Oban.