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Archive for the ‘Web design’ Category

I love getting a great deal! So many industries are entirely based on getting you the best product and service for the cheapest price and many can lead to an enormous amount of savings. Especially in this economy, it seems that the businesses booming the most are the ones that will get you or at least claim to get you the most or best for your money. I’m all for getting a good quality item or service for cheapest price and often find fantastic deals on what I’m looking for and am proud and pleased with many of my ‘finds”. In some scenarios though, I’ve regretted wasting money on what turned out to be not such a great deal and spent more money trying to getting what I was really looking for in the first place. Can’t tell you how often I’ve worked with clients and friends that have gone down the road of bargain hunting for their design/development projects. Each time they went for the cheapest design and web work they ended up being disappointed, wasting their time, and/or left with unfinished work. Eventually, they ending up having to go back out and pay for “real design” on their project.

Additionally, I believe people forget that a website is more than a one time product purchase, instead of realizing it is a continuously evolving online presence that importantly represents their company, organization, message, or brand. Your web project will need maintenance and updating. If you hire a professional to design your website, you will already have the connection you need to make changes and updates to your site from the person who originally put it together and who is already invested in your success. This relationship is key to providing you with a professional and informative web presence that is cost effective and stress-free.

All of that said, here are some helpful strategies on what to look out for and things to consider when looking to hire someone for your web and interactive projects.

Things to Consider & Recommendations on What to Look Out For:
Flash Builder Websites – These templates will lock you into a site design and structure that allows little to no flexibility, you’ll find yourself looking to add something that isn’t doable. Additionally, these templates will not allow viewing by iPhone, iPad users as they may not provide a default or html option for non-flash web browsing.
Off the Shelf or Online Builder Template Websites – These will allow for more flexibility but are often implemented by IT groups or developers alone and will leave your site functional but much to be desired with design and a custom look & feel. You may also come across another site that uses your exact same template, YIKES!
Trying to develop your own WordPress, and the like, website with purchased templates can lead to stress by trying to work in an environment that isn’t within your expertise. Additionally many paid templates do not cover everything you’ve set out to accomplish and can lead to broken links and layout structures.
Do your research on what design styles appeal to you, look at other sites on the web that are attractive and well laid out and don’t be afraid to look at websites outside your industry. Providing your designer with these are a helpful tool for them to design something with your sense of style and desired functionality.
Don’t be afraid to get an estimate from a good designer or group, they are be more affordable that you think and well worth the investment.
Hire a designer/developer you really like… you will be building a relationship with them and are always willing to give you a deal for future work and add-on features.
Consider hiring a designer or team that is local, as they will be more flexible and reliable when working with someone in their own community.
If you have a large or multi-tiered project, consider working with a small design team or individual designer who has work that appeals to you instead of going with the large agency, as they will have a network of creative associates that they can bring in to work on aspects of your project that may be outside of their specific expertise and coordinate the efforts for you. Additionally this choice will save you a bundle!
Hire a web designer who is also a developer, as they can minimize outsourcing and bring the time and work savings to your project cost.
Make sure you get who you pay for – sometimes firms will sell you with their best designs and then either assign your project to the most junior person on staff, or you will find out the person who did all their best work moved on to another company. A small firm or individual designer will work directly with to achieve your project goals.
A professional designer will design with an eye toward the future – give you a look/feel that will stand the test of time, and an open architecture to expand your web presence over time.

Web design aims to provide you with a website that is not only pleasing to look at but could leave a lasting impact to the client. One of the components of a website is its header. It is the first thing that a visitor sees upon landing on your page. It is safe to say that your website’s header makes an immediate impact on your user so it’s extremely important to get it right.

A website’s header must be able to achieve what you want to achieve-to effectively convey what you want to tell your users when they drop by your site. So think about things that will intrigue them, things that will get them to read further.

You must use your creativity when making a header. There are several techniques that you can employ to connect with your users.

Here are the 5 different types of header designs that you can integrate in your homepage’s web design.

1. The Huge Header

From the description itself, this type of header takes up a lot of room. It can be quite risky because you’re taking up valuable space on your website. However, the advantage is if you do it right, it looks really great. This type of header can make a huge impact because it can immediately convey your message with just one glance. The more pleasant your header is, the greater the chance to attract your users to investigate on your website further. They key is grab the attention and hold it for a long time.

2. The Web App

The Web App header shows off screenshots of their products and/or services. When done right, this type of header is the real eye candy for the user’s point of view. The screenshots are accompanied with a prominent call-to-action button. The call-to-action button aims to entice and lure the users to immediately find out more about the particular product or signup to avail of the website’s other services. If you want this type of web design, better instruct you web design developer to do it right.

3. The illustrated Character

In the field of web design, the illustrated character header is currently a popular trend. What it does is add character, personality and emanates a sense of friendliness to your website. This is very appealing to the users.

4. The Portfolio Screenshots

If you want to showcase your work, then tell your developer to create this layout. You have the liberty to show off different examples of your work. You can also put a tagline alongside to introduce yourself and the work you do.

5. The Carousel

If you’re creating a website with many features, the carousel header would be a good choice. Carousels allow you to fit in more information in your header. It also has a slider effect.

Knowing the function of your website can help you decide the best header to use. A web design that doesn’t mix with what your website is about can negatively affect your image in your users. So better tell your web design developer what you want and how you want it done. Also, doing some research on how you can make your website

A clean markup means the web design which is simple, void of confusion, complies with the standards and in which the structure along with the tags of the coding languages are used for the anticipated purpose.

The utility of HTML is said to be void of clutter only when the tags are used sparingly, the extraneous is got rid of, and the task is achieved with only the markup that is needed. Attributes like inline CSS that are needless are just avoided. This results in a design that is well organized and structured.

The CSS is said to be clutter free only when the repetition is avoided and there is optimum use of the re-use classes and inheritance wherever possible.

We can say that the web design complies with the standards when the design is validated with the W3C standards for HTML, XML and CSS.

Why is the clean markup needed?

There can be a number of reasons for adhering to the clean markup. Some of the prominent reasons are as follows:

• There are many clients that want the web design to be prepared as early as possible. The designer may succumb to the pressure of delivering the web design and for this may compromise on the requirements of a clean markup. This could result in a design that is carelessly prepared.

• If the designer were to adhere to the clean markup he/she would have to take the future projections of the business into consideration. When the design is done hastily, it is only the present that is given importance and not the future. When the web design becomes 3 or 4 years old it is most probably going to require changes or upgrading. If clean markup is not used the upgrading or changing can become a very difficult task.

• If the web design does not comply with the standards prescribed by W3C, there are least chances that the search engines favor you. On the contrary the web design may not be considered search engine friendly and fare badly on the search engine listing.

Here are some tips for Clean Markup

• Terms that can be understood should be used to name the IDs and CSS Classes

• The tags need to be used where they are needed the most and not everywhere. The heading of the page should have h1 tag. Care should be taken that no other text on the page has this tag.

• The CSS inheritance should be put to good use.

• The code generated by the WYSIWYG should be checked twice and changes made where necessary.

• The designer should not have a “will do” attitude. The website needs to work perfectly.

• If you are running short of time it does not mean that you should introduce extraneous tags or inline styles.

• The HTML, XML and CSS that you use should be validated.

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