The idea of layout in web design
In web design, the term layout is usually used to describe the various kinds of methods and steps associated to the measurement related aspects of the substance in a device display, along with the release of the multi media in a stream related to content. The web design layouts can give rise to visual or image related content structures. Now these structures or the frameworks can be set, they are capable of using the units of measurement which are relative, Continue reading
Making plans for designing a web site
While there is no doubt that planning, designing and executing a web site is certainly not an easy task to accomplish, one must realize that there are certain key points to be kept in mind while going through this process. The planning about a web site should preferably be on those following lines:-
- Context – Web design can be compared to the traditional idea of print publishing where every site, just like a book is an information display container; and each page are similar to the page in a book. Nevertheless, web designing uses a structure that is based on the concept of digital code and display tools to build and sustain an environment to deal out information in various formats. Web design undoubtedly has the prospective to be the most intricate and complex technique to sustain communication today.
- Purpose – It is of extreme importance to identify the very point of the website as among the first steps in the course of the planning process. Ideally a purpose declaration must be able to reveal in details the various elements that the website will primarily deal with and accomplish and also what the browsers will gain from the site. If the purpose is properly defined, it will certainly facilitate the remaining of the aforementioned planning procedure as the content on the site is built up and the target audience or the user base is recognized. The purpose will certainly be clear and also the planning will be achievable for the future when growth, modification, and enhancement will take place if certain short and long term goals for the website are set at the very beginning. The practices of goal setting as well as measurable aims should be recognized in order to monitor the rate of progress for the web site and decide its success as a commercial venture.
- Audience – A most significant step in the entire process of the web site planning involves defining the audience and recognizing it. The audience is in fact the market being besieged or the set of public who are likely to visit the web site. They will most likely be viewing the web site for a particular cause and thus it becomes important to identify the exact motive for their visit. If the reason for the users visit to the site can be realized, it will automatically help in identifying the target audience. Thus it is very important for a site to have a clearly distinct intention or goal. On bearing in mind the most likely section of people to require or utilize the content, a catalog of characteristic traits familiar to the users would contain:-
- Audience Characteristics
- Preferences for Information
- Computer provisions and specifications
- Web familiarity
General introduction to web design
With the whole world becoming smaller with each passing day in terms of networking and connectivity, even the activity dynamics are also getting shifted to its online avatar in order to facilitate a globally accepted form of work culture and promote the notion of compatibility despite the varying degree of differences. As a result the idea of web sites has suddenly gained immense significance and they are literally multiplying in numbers right in front of your eyes. Whether for catering information or for facilitating certain kind of activity, the web sites are now on the verge of taking over the physical notion of offices around the world.
Amidst all these phenomenal development in the area, the aspect that has succeeded in grabbing every body’s attention across the globe is that of web design. Web design can be defined as the ability to create a template for presenting the content which is typically hypertext or even hypermedia and is to be sentd to another end user via the World Wide Web, either by makinf use of a Web browser or any other Web enabled software application like the Internet television or microblogging clients and even RSS readers. In fact, web design can also be understood in terms of a category of graphic design proposed for developing and styling the objects of the information environment of the net in order to supply them with consumer features of high-end nature along with certain aesthetic traits. The definition and the subsequent explanation offered in the above lines tend to separate the notion of web design from that of the concept of web programming, giving more importance to the functional characteristics of a particular web site, in addition to the positioning of web design as a particular form of graphic design and art.
Whther it is a question of creating web pages, web sites, web applications or multimedia for the Web, the procudre usually followed for designing is not a simple one. In fact, mostly it has been seen that more than one of the following areas of expertise are applied in the course of the procedure and moreover in case of complicated high end projects, it may even demand certain applications from all of them. They generally include disciplines such as graphic design, interaction design, animation and graphics, information architectureand design, concepts of authoring, communication design, SEO or search engine optimization, corporate identity, marketing, human to computer interactivity, typography and even photography. It should be noted that the web pages as well as the web sites can both be static pages, or dynamic pages depending on the programming objective which will routinely adapt content or visual elements such as look depending on a range of aspects, especially like those of the input delivered by the end user or by the Webmaster or maybe even modifications and alterations witnessed in the computing milieu. However, with the developmenst in the specialized nature of the skill, a propensity of creating a division between designing discipline for web pages and web development is gainin more strength.
Essentials regarding web design
- Images can always stir up real trouble in terms of their sizes and the time required for them to load. Hence, it is always better to have a plan regarding a fixed size of around 10 or 15 kb for every image to be put on the web site. In fact, the notion of optimization of images which is quite an easy thing to do should be put in to use.
More ways to promoting a web design
There are many more ways to publicizing a web design apart from the conventional methods that we already know of. We will tell you about a few of these important techniques.
- One way to promote is to submit tutorials. Tutorial sites are a great way to promotion. Submitting tutorials makes you get a lot of traffic through links. Some designers like submitting tutorials to gain exposure. A few helpful links would be www.pixel2life.com, www.good-tutorials.com and www.tutorialoutpost.com.
- Another good way is link baiting. Link baiting refers to the act of writing something that has the potential to be featured in blogs. This will only be possible if your article or content is very good. Another way of gaining popularity is to post videos along with your articles. This gives it a sassier look.
- Take part in web designing contests. These will be very beneficial to your web design. If you win any award then link the information of your achievement along with your website. This is an excellent promotional tool. However, remember that winning awards is only possible if you have made a very good web design.
- Emphasize on link exchanges. They will boost up your site’s publicity campaign remarkably. This is debatably the best way to promote your site. Exchange links with relevant sites. This attracts a lot of traffic to your website. Check out the following links for help: www.seaopen.com/seaopen-tools , blogsearch.google.com
- Virtual marketing is also a good option to consider. Post your site ads on you tube, metacafe and wherever else possible. It is a good method and the videos will definitely get lots of views. Think of funny and clever ideas that are very catchy.
- Post as many videos as you can. Videos are a huge favorite with surfers. Some useful sites would be www.youtube.com, www.metacafe.com, video.google.com, vids.myspace.com, video.search.yahoo.com, video.msn.com and video.aol.com.
- Pod casting is also a way of promoting that is soon catching up. This basically refers to audio files and RSS feeds. You will have to be well acquainted with these new techniques of publicizing if you want your product to sell like hot cakes. This can be done at affordable prices.
- Blogs are a great way to let people know of your views. This is also becoming an increasingly popular technique of promotion. Some useful sites are www.wordpress.com, www.blogger.com, www.twitter.com, www.squidoo.com and www.tumblr.com.
- E books will also help you make people know of your website. Create communities and get people to subscribe to your newsletters. This is another way of ensuring loyalty.
- Lastly, do what all big shots do. Go for a grand press release. This maybe time consuming and expensive, but it is definitely worth it. Good press coverage will do half your promotional job. So do not ignore this aspect. It is very important that you get the press to write good about your product.
Ten ways to make a good web design
There are some basic strategies that have to be adopted in order to implement a good web design. Users will always go by the first impression of the website, so you have to be very careful in designing your product. We will give you certain tips on how to handle the design of a website.
• Your website should be informative and self explanatory. Do not have very heavy duty content which is not understandable to most users. This will make it a very niche site and following will be very low. Make it comprehensive and lucid. It should be in very simple language. The layout and links should also be very simple to follow.
• Never test a user’s patience. This is probably the worst thing one can do. Do not keep offering adwares, toolwares, etc to your users. This is very irritating and the reason why most sites adopting these techniques never work well. Be professional. Have a clean layout and approach to marketing.
• Try to catch the user’s attention. This is a tough task as most people in today’s world are very impatient. Moreover they do not have much time in hand as well. They will not go through your entire website to see if it is good. Have both static and dynamic content to give your web design that extra edge.
• Have lots of features. These may include articles, animations, songs, audio files, videos, snaps and just about anything interesting. These are extremely visually appealing and will have a very positive impact on your website and its fan following.
• The writing style should be chosen with care. This is the defining factor of your website and cannot be ignored. Talk sense. Keep your articles brief and crisp. Do not write too much. Remember, your user has no time to waste.
• Simplicity is a key factor. The simpler your site is the more followers you shall get, this is a thumb rule and should be practiced religiously by all designers.
• Do not make the website too congested. Have sufficient amount of whitespace in the website. This not only has a visual impact on the user but also gives your site a soothing appearance. Too much content will only lead to congestion. And who on earth would want to read a congested website?
• Be interactive and communicative with your users. Get their feedbacks. Have interactive software to add to your skills.
• Follow the basic web designing conventions. It is good to be new and innovative but some conventions really help a lot. More so because a lot of users will not be able to handle a new kind of design. Thus again your website will end up becoming a very niche one.
• Keep testing your web designs frequently to remove any kind of inconsistency. It is always possible to improve.
Web Designing Rules
The only online platform is a website, where your clients could meet you and interact with you. That is via your website web site and the contents which the viewer will decide your value and plan for doing business with you. So as to ensure that the viewers browse through your web site and purchase your services and products you have to pay a maximum attention to design the web site. Few points are discussed below that will let you know a proper way to design your web site so as to make it more user-friendly.
The first feature of web designing must be to make sure that your web site navigates smoothly and orderly. Various web sites have trust in displaying the whole things on their navigation bar, that results in a crowded webpage. Avoid this messy appearance, rather build your web site to the point and display only the most essential aspects of your web site on home page, thereby viewers navigate to the subsequent pages suitably.
Knowing the requirement of graphics in a ecommerce web site, where the visitors purchase the services or products just by taking a glance over the images, it is too essential for you to know that images extends the loading time of the web site and downs its speed. So as to make sure that this type of a flaw doesn’t occur in your site, its recommended that you optimize each image with an image cutting tool prior to loading image in the website. It will be helpful for reducing the loading time of your web site.
The next essential need to design a web site is the content. It is said that content is the king of web site. A web site will be dead without contents. However, it is essential too to recognize that to overdo the content bit in web site will make your site boring and monotonous. So, ensure that paragraph length of your site content is not very lengthy. Too long contents on the monitor will be tiring and couldn’t be read by readers. Thus, internet content requires to be short, short and simple.
Making use of scripting language in web designing is also known for having slow loading time of the web site. People who are using java script to draw images and to put in visual effects on web site face this difficulty frequently. It will be rather better to use only scripting for handling and manipulating data.
These simple tips for web designing will be helpful to make your web site more professional and ready for business.