Friday, April 3, 2009

How to select Web Designers?

Maybe you’re thinking of getting the services of a web designer. You have felt the need to come up with a web site to increase business presence, or perhaps to highlight a product or a service that you now want to introduce to the market, or maybe just to provide you an avenue to generate more sales. Whatever the reason, you’ll find many web designers that could take your idea and come up with a design and a solution to move it forward.
How can you tell a good web design? How do you select a web designer? These are questions that are often asked and not doubt, as you consider the web site you want to put up, have entered your mind. Before you go around shopping for a web design company to start working on your site, first determine the idea behind and the purpose of your website. Why are you putting up a website? What do you aim to achieve with it? Once you have carefully considered the answer or answers to this question do you move on to finding the web site designer otherwise it will be a waste of time not only to the designer but also to you as both come with a design to match with a measure that just isn’t there yet.
You want to check the web designer’s company reputation and reliability as your next step. If you find that asking around the local community may be too much work, performing a simple online research may work for you. A record of the companies they work with of previously have done business with would reveal much. Also, you’ll find owners of the business they’ve done work with willing to recommend them if they are satisfied with the work done for them. Moreover, the length of the time the web design company has been in business could also be taken into consideration.
Next thing you want to see is the web designer’s portfolio. Look at their past projects and see how their work previous works appeal to you. Viewing a sample of their work helps you gauge the quality of their work. Lastly, you want to evaluate whether the web design company has had previous experience or specialty in developing the kind of site you have in mind. They may have completed visually superior and appealing website but they haven’t had any experience designing a site with the kind of product you are offering the market. The website design company should have the ability to understand your needs, your purpose and design a suitable website that will address those needs and purpose.

Sunday, March 15, 2009

How to Find the Right Web Design Company

You want to put up a website and don’t have any idea how to go about it? Well, don’t worry. There are hundreds if not thousands of web design companies that could help you with your need. The problem may more particularly lie in finding the right web design company.
When looking for the right website design company to address your needs, you’ll be going through a lot of searching as the internet abounds with information on a lot of website design companies. But using technology to your advantage should lessen your work and lead you to the right direction in no time.
Maybe you have a special content that you want to target a specific niche with. Or perhaps you have tons of pictures you want to see posted together with information describing these pictures. Maybe you offer a service and you want to let people know in a given area how they might avail of your exclusive work. Whatever reason you have for the website you have in mind, you want to have the right web design company to look into your needs and objectives and translate this into a website that not only will appeal to its target audience but also translate their visit into revenue.
You want to web design agency that listens and tries to understand your requirements. Beware of web design companies that are ready to offer you solutions before they are able to hear what you have to say. You are looking for a design company that will be honest and forthright in dealing with you. If they are offering customized solutions, then there should not be any of their work that looks like it or comes close to looking like it, else it is not customized. You want a company that has a good length of experience working with your kind of product or service. You want to look at their previous work, the quality of it as well as the results it has achieved with its intended customers. You will also need to know the cost of the services beforehand. More importantly, you’ll want a web design company that will present you with their finished product before asking for any payment. There is a big risk of being scammed nowadays and you want to protect yourself from that.
The right website design company is there for you. But rather than expect them to find you, you have to look for them yourself. And with a little bit of effort, you’ll be sure to come across the right one.

Help for a Novice Website Designer

It you’ve been itching to create a website design of your own but do not have the confidence that experience and computer education background brings, this could be a formidable challenge. Well, fear no more. New web development programs available in the market now make the task so simple that almost anybody can do it. Aspiring web site designers will be amazed of drag-and-drop functionality that makes it so easy to design a site from scratch with only the use of basic building blocks
When you visit www.automatic-content.com, you’ll find options in the creation of headers or banners. You can customize these to suit your specific needs. And you will be able to do this without having to learn anything about HTML coding. It is the software that takes care of all of this, all behind the scene.
There are times website designers just couldn’t come up with an idea for design. Software gives you a jumpstart that’s just enough to give you the boost you need to get started with the website design task. Take the creation or design of banners and headers for instance. Web design software is able to take care of this job nicely. Some software allows users to tweak the existing banners by changing backgrounds and colors, or by changing the graphics. This makes it easy for users to remake banners and gives them flexibility to create their own. Better programs even allow the option of storing banners which have been modified within the program for future use.

Although design and layout may be learned, it is easier and faster for a novice website designer to make use of an existing site as a template or reference when creating a skeleton layout. New generation website design software help users create layout by allowing them to drag and drop building blocks to their website framework. This software does not require the knowledge of CSS or work with complicated codes and tables. You may check www.javascript-magic.com for additional information. Some programs even allow auto-size of images as they dragged and dropped into their place.
In the past, one had to learn HTML and all that stuff to be able to create a website. Now, it’s all a thing of the past as website designers never had it so easy.

Guide to Effective Web Design

With all the different websites that we come across daily, it is so easy which ones are exceptional, which ones are good, and which ones have no business being up there anyway. We don’t need any special training to be able which web design works and which ones plainly do not. However, it is one thing to visit web sites and offer judgment on its design; it is quite an entirely different matter to design the website yourself. The following guides should help you create an effective web design.
The textual content should be formatted in an organized manner and should be easy to read. Keep in mind the principle behind headlines and sub-headlines. Use font styles and sizes that are easy to read and easy on the eyes. Refrain from use of scripted fonts other than in graphics where it may be used sparingly. Use universal fonts that come loaded in everyone’s computer. If not, your selected font will be substituted on a computer that doesn't carry that font. Most people prefer Verdana and Arial for the web since they appear neat and are easy to read. Avoid grouping things together and placing them close to the margins. Correct spelling and errors in grammar that you find.
Navigation buttons should clearly define content areas and be consistent on every page. Visitors shouldn’t have to hit the back button to move around or to look for pages. Nothing is more frustrating than getting lost on a website due to faulty navigation. And make sure the links you placed all work. Create a template from the design that is applied to your pages. Primary colors have universal appeal, particularly for corporate sites.
And whether the web site design is fixed in size or towards screen percentage, you should be aware that there are now bigger monitors with higher screen resolutions compared to what we had before. The design may look great on your monitor but may be an eyesore on others. The designs should be tried across browsers and in different screen resolutions. Be on the lookout for any issues on design. Contact and email subscription forms should work properly. It is also a good idea to see from time to time if forms work since problems can arise mysteriously, especially if there are upgrades or issues on the server. If you are getting constant stream of feedbacks or sign-ups, you know that your website is working just great and being the effective website it is supposed to be.

Getting Your Website Design High Ranking

You’re probably asking why you’d bother to get your website high ranking. Well, if your website was put up as a hobby or for social purposes, it probably wouldn’t matter much to you. But to commercial websites or even those that rely on revenue generated by hits to keep the web site up and running, it matters a lot. Whether you like it or not, there are expenses associated with keeping a web site running. Higher ranking can be equated with higher hits or site visits. And hits are the lifeblood of web sites.

Website design is probably the most significant element in helping a site attain a good search engine ranking. It is usually the websites that observes good design principles and offer quality content that obtains high ranking from the search engines.
Website visitors more often take to the design of the site, than any other feature. The elements of visual design, which includes layout, images, typography, color scheme and white spaces create the first impression on any given site. High quality images and graphics create an impression of better quality products or services. It seldom fails to impress visitors who often make snap decisions to make a purchase based on the appearance of a website alone.
In order for a website design to obtain a better search engine ranking, the objectives set as the reason for creating the site must be clearly defined and understood, not only by the organization but also the website developer. The site should be designed to fulfill the objectives set. It should be the objective that drives the design and content of the site.
The website size also bears a significant impact on web rankings. Search engines favor content, so it is a difficult task indeed to obtain high search engine rankings if the web site if composed of only a few web pages. Along with this, the correct use of HTML Meta tags becomes essential. Although offering visitors a more aesthetically pleasing reception by using images and graphics may look like a reasonable option, it is the most difficult to optimize for search engines. The search engine robots are unable to read graphic or animation texts. A reasonable amount of textual content is highly suggested.
Anyone can make a great website design. However, if no one finds it or visits it, it hardly serves a purpose. It’s like building a very beautiful house, but with no doors to let anyone in.

Essentials to Web Design Company Selection

Web design company selection is the first step to starting your online business. Your business web site not only serves as the meeting place for your customers, it also becomes your showroom or online office. It is a place from where you shall conduct your business. For this reason, it is crucial that to design your website well and tailored to your requirement. Consider the following questions when you select your web design company to build your website.

Is your web design company a proven professional? No matter what some people would have you believe, to designing a website is not a very easy task. There is a lot that need to be carefully considered and evaluated prior to and after the completion of the web design. And this best done with the collaboration of a professional. A website calls for an expert's eye to recognize inadequacies and flaws that might just not be there to lay people. It is therefore imperative that your website be designed with the help of a professional or someone who possess a complete and thorough knowledge web design.

Have you seen any of their previous projects? One of the surest ways to assess any web design company is to go through a portfolio of their previous work. Learn how they handled their past projects and what came as a result of it. This usually gives you a good idea of what they are capable of and what you may be able to expect from them. It is not unusual for web design companies to display their best accomplishments in their company portfolio. You need to be smart and do your homework. You should be able to find additional information with just a few strokes on your keyboard.

Do they offer extra facilities? These days, the web development industry is in a big competition, and to be among the leading web design companies, they usually take extra efforts to stand out from the rest. This works to your advantage as many of them offer value added facilities and services on top of the usual. These special services include SEO specific content development, or even Flash home page design. These offerings differ from project to project and from client to client. Take advantage of this development and demand extra services on top of what they are offering you.

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Essential eCommerce Principles for Web Designers

If you are a businessman thinking of putting up a web store, ask your web designer about making use of ecommerce website design. eCommerce websites are designed in such a manner as to persuade visitors to purchase by the means of positive reputation established with the customers. Although it may sound simple, a web designer actually has to abide with a number of selling principles in designing the website.
Designing an eCommerce website is similar to working on a regular website in the sense that you give due consideration to the design layout, color selection, etc. You have to make it well organized and appealing. When a prospective customer visits the website, he should be able to easily navigate it. All internal links has to be functional, or it becomes annoying to visitors and increases the chances of their leaving the site disappointed. These are not entirely new as these are known to marketing experts. The challenge lies in converting these guidelines into online marketing techniques.
The major challenge for web designers working to build web stores is recreating the same interest, drama, and suspense that are found when a customer visits a physical store. The entire eCommerce website has to have a format bearing specific online paths or links that lead them to the final checkout of the product they desire. However, in many instances visitors find a short cut taking them to another page other than what you intend for them to go.
Selling any service or product via a web store is much more difficult compared to selling in a physical store or shop. Well-designed eCommerce sites are able to lead a customer to the desired page in one or two links max. Putting a sales letter helps and it is usually linked to the order form. The sales letter’s unique property is that it sells one product at any given point of time. The visitor finds information relevant to the product in an orderly and presentable manner, with the option to click on the order form any time he decides. Should the visitor need more information before he can decide, he may continue to read more product details.
There are many other principles pertaining eCommerce website designing and creation. These are largely affected by the type of service or product your business is into. Your web designer should be able to assist you with an effective eCommerce site for your business.