WebMastersLoom

A web site is a very commanding and an inexpensive marketing and advertising gizmo and a great way to develop your business into the online market world. Web Designing is an innovative work. For the millions and millions of web surfers, your web site is only the first impression of your business and your trustworthiness. The key concern in web design is how to add value to the user’s experience and how to make them feel that they are truly got something by visiting your web site. Now-a-days in this www world, all industries are in a need of good looking and attractive website, but few are eager to pay for an expertly designed site. Business owners on the other hand want their site that attracts visitors and wants to bring them back again and again, and hopefully buying their services or products. But, it can be rather baffling to choose the right web site designer/ website designing company.

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From the earliest times, human cultures have striven to define beauty. A study of nature, architecture, and art reveals that a common principle - that of pleasant proportion is an universal characteristic that contributes to defining beauty. The proportion that is pleasing to the eye is the Golden Section, or simply the ratio of one relationship to another, or 1 to 0.618.

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Website design has become so complex, with scripting, and dynamic content and pulling content from RSS and ATOM feeds and Ajax enhancement and ad rotation and . . . and . . . and . . .

I’ve got a sticky note right on the lower right corner of my monitor. On it are four letters.

K-I-S-S

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In the physical world you can easily sell a product by your interacting behavior and your marketing tactics. But in the e-world where there is no face to face interaction and all marketing is totally a game of your site’s interaction with your visitor which may desperate them to turn into your healthy customers. While designing your site you must know who your target people are and what are their needs and will your website turns to be beneficial for them. A website’s form and content is what will determine if a visitor will stay just a visitor or turn into your next customer. Today we will discuss how to accomplish the later.

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A nostalgic look back at 90s web design, and a warning to anyone whose website is an accidental anachronism.

Remember the days when every PC was beige, every website had a little Netscape icon on the homepage, Geocities and Tripod hosted just about every single personal homepage, and “Google” was just a funny-sounding word?

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1. The first page appears quickly.

It’s a good way to have your brief tagline in the starting page of your web site and your company logo. Highlight the benefits and advantages of your products on the starting page.

But don’t dump all the information on it so that it will appear quickly. Limit your graphic to a file size of 20 KB or less.

2. It’s purpose is immediately and clearly identified.

Say what you want to say and say it briefly and straight to the point to get across your purpose why you existed in the web.

3. It’s well laid out and well-written.

Take advantage of positive space and check the spelling and grammar of your web site. Tables can be a good tool to place your graphics and text on proper position. Maximize also the use of cell padding and cell spacing. < --more-->

Hire somebody to write marketing materials for you. A good way to start is to access my archive of my newsletters and do a quick research on it. Try the arhives here

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I’m pretty sure that once in your life you have seen a brochure or a postcard. Well correct me if I?m wrong but these things are not new today and they are all over the place. Business talks so much and they are considered the best means for a clear promotion. Some brochures and other printed stuffs may appear to be deceiving. Just one glance at it and you?ll know it is expensively made and processed. You might be wrong with your thoughts because printing nowadays is offered in the most affordable prices if you have knowledge of how and where to find it.

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“The power of the web is in its universality. Access by everyone regardless of disability is an essential aspect.” Tim Berners-Lee, Director of W3C.

The article covers:

• What is website accessibility
• The need for website accessibility
• Why website accessibility matters
• Improving website accessibility

Website Accessibility Definition

We define website accessibility as the ability of a website to be used by all, irrespective of mode or disability.

The ever growing Web is home to immense information. Responsible web content contributors make efforts to have the website information accessible regardless of what mode the visitors are using to access the website and of disabilities.

Website Accessibility: The Need

Web is a huge resource that is accessed by people with different accessing devices and disabilities.

Different devices may include:

• Different graphic browsers (Opera, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer etc) and their different versions
• Reading devices like JAWS etc
• Text-only browsers etc

Different disabilities may include:

• Blindness
• Paralysis
• Alzheimer’s disease
• Dyslexia
• Lack of hearing etc

Even situations like loud and crowded place, lack of an audio device at hand can lead to website inaccessibility.

Not being able to serve your audience with the information they need is a handicap that must be avoided. Making the website accessible not only addresses the needs of users with disabilities but also caters to user preferences and situations.

Website Accessibility Benefits

Website Accessibility Guidelines were released in May, 1999 and yet larger part of the web still inaccessible to many. Here are a few reason why you should be part of the Web that follows website accessibility standards:

• It promises equal opportunity to all on the Web
• It enhances web user experience
• It makes your website more usable
• It makes your website more manageable
• You can reach a broader audience
• It can improve your conversion rate by 100% (http://www.useit.com/alertbox/20030107.html)
• It makes you a responsible web content contributor
• It’s a law in many jurisdictions (http://www.w3.org/WAI/Policy/)
• Denying access to all can be seen as discriminatory and may land you into expensive lawsuits

Improving Website Accessibility

Improving accessibility features depends on the tools used to develop the site and the design itself. While it may be possible to improve a few features, it is not possible to implement all features if the site was not designed flexibly.

Nonetheless, all efforts should be put towards making the website as accessible as possible.

Making the website accessible to all would endorse the universality of the Web. When we create a website, we are reaching out to the global audience. By creating a website which adheres to accessibility standards, we are respecting our audience and the web space.

I believe some people create and publish websites for the sole purpose of tormenting their visitors. Browsing various websites and navigating the Web can often be like trying to read on an airplane while a kid kicks the back of your seat and the baby next to you alternates between screaming, crying and drooling on you. There are some excellent websites out there to be sure, but there are also a lot of dreadful ones too. The latter are the bane of so many people?s existence, especially those who use the Web regularly.

The Net continues to grow in popularity and importance for consumers and businesses alike. Therefore, the quality of sites needs to keep pace. Creating and maintaining high-quality websites is more important now than ever. Higher quality equals more revenue.

The following lists the top ten ways that a website misses the boat and contributes to hair loss and nervous breakdowns. Notice the common thread that runs throughout each of these. Namely, a bad website neglects to consider the site visitor?s experience in some fundamental ways.

1. Animation

Seven year-olds like watching animated cartoons on Saturday morning, business people, professionals and most other adults don?t. Sites that include showy Flash animations as an ?Intro?, animated gifs on every page, or flying words are really annoying. They take away from the content and distract the visitor from achieving their goals. Unless your site is an entertainment site, try to avoid maddening motion. However, if your product or service can be better demonstrated using Flash, Quick Time, or other multimedia, which is common, offer your visitors the chance to click a link to view it. But don?t force them.

2. Too much scrolling

Once I scroll down a full screen?s worth, my eyes start to blur, I feel slightly lost, my head spins and my interest wanes. Computer monitors really aren?t the best medium for reading. The Net and many sites are so big that it?s important to always provide a clear frame of reference for your visitors at all times while they?re on your site. If a page requires two full screens of scrolling or more, simply split it up into multiple pages.

3. Long, text-heavy and blocky paragraphs of unbroken text

I really have to be into a topic or desperately need to glean the information to trudge through big chunks of unbroken text online. If I?m just shopping around for a product or service, you?ve lost me if I have to endure this kind of torture. Again, it is harder to read text on the Web than in other mediums such as books. Additionally, Web users are notoriously impatient, so make your content easy to read and non-intimidating. Use titles, sub-titles, small paragraphs, bullets and numbering.

4. No obvious ways to contact the company

If all you supply is an email on your website, your legitimacy may be questioned. Why can?t you answer the phone? Why hide behind an anonymous and cold email address? Make it easy for your existing and potential customers to talk with you.

5. Unchanging or out-date content

If I start reading content on a site and soon discover that the content was written three years ago, I split. Since there?s so much information out there, my reasoning is there?s got to be comparable information online that?s more current. If you keep your content fresh your site will attract repeat visitors. And repeat visitors are more likely to turn into customers.

6. Long page downloads

It?s amazing that this is still a problem. When I click on to a site and have to sit there waiting for it to appear in my browser, I start sweating, picking my teeth, tapping my toes, rolling my eyes and soon want to throw my computer through my office window. I?m obviously a little impatient, but again, I know there are other sites out there with the same information that will download more quickly, so why wait? I?m gone.

7. “Me, me, me!” instead of “You, you, you”

Generally speaking, no one cares about you, your company or your thoughts. What they do care about is what you can do for them. So sites that show pictures of the company building or tout their deep philosophy on the way business should be conducted really don?t bode well for keeping the interest of site visitors. On the other hand, sites that speak directly to potential customers about how they can solve their problems, make their lives easier, safer, richer or more comfortable have a much better chance of keeping the eyeballs glued.

8. Non-explanatory buttons or links

Here are some examples of buttons that leave me dazed and confused: A wedding site with a button called ?Blanks?, a boating site with a button named ?The Lighthouse?, a book site with a button called ?The Inside Story?, or a Web design site with a button called ?Tea Time?. They sound like Jeopardy categories. Imagine trying to find your way on a highway where its various signs read ?Over Here?, ?Moon Beams?, and ?Lollypops?. Good luck navigating your way through. It?s the same with navigating websites. Button and link names need to tell the visitor where the link leads to. Make it as easy as possible for a visitor to know where they?re going before they click. However, there are times when naming a link an ambiguous name may pique the curiosity of a user and get them to click on it. But as a general rule, keep your links and buttons as descriptive as possible.

9. Inconsistent navigation

Imagine sitting down at a restaurant and the waiter comes over to you and hands you five different menus, one for the appetizers, one for the soups and salads, one for the entrees, one for the desserts, and one for the drinks. Annoying. Now imagine if each menu had a different format, layout and method for listing the items. Brutal. I really don?t want to work that hard at picking out my dinner, I?m hungry and I just want a meal. Don?t make your visitors work hard either by expecting them to re-learn your navigation system each time they enter another section of your site. They too are hungry; for useful information and they?re even more impatient.

10. Inconsistent look & feel

When the look & feel completely changes from one page to another in a website, I think I am visiting another site, another company, a partner or subsidiary. I get very confused. This screams poor planning and often results from tacking on new sections later after the original site was built. This can lead to design-drift. It may be tempting to stray from the original design; you may have a better design now. But wait till you do a complete next-generation re-design of the entire site before introducing a new look & feel. If not, lots of visitors will be scratching their heads with one hand and possibly clicking away with the other.

Finally, any site that employs a number of these notorious features is particularly painful to experience. When I click to a website that has five different fonts and colors, scrolls down to the core of the Earth, incorporates zinging words and big fat blocks of text, lists no phone number and has content written and dated in 1996, I scream and know deep down inside that pulling my fingernails out wouldn?t be as torturous as having to remain there a minute longer.

When designing or redesigning a website the most important part of the project happens before any graphics or code are created.

Start by determining the primary goals of your website. Are you using it to sell your products or services. Maybe it’s intended simply to advertise your offline business, provide support to your existing customers or build your company brand. Whatever the goals are, clearly defining them ahead of time will better guide you in the actual creation process.

Next, remember that first impressions mean everything. Your website design must be professional and portray the right image for your business. Most web surfers decide within seconds of reaching your main page if they will browse deeper into your site or click away to another. Studies have shown that this decision is usually made based on the appeal of the design rather than the text copy. This means that your site design has to grab their attention and convince them that you?re offering something of value fast.

Chances are you’re not a graphic designer or web coding guru, so how can you develop a professional design? We get asked this question a lot by potential clients at BanPro NET, especially from owners of home-based or new small businesses.

You basically have two options, hire a professional designer or firm to create your website or purchase a website template. Templates are pre-made designs that allow you to just add your text and product graphics. Templates have the advantage of being able to go live with your website quickly and usually for a very low cost, however they also have the disadvantage of being seen on numerous websites, so you won?t stand out from the crowd as well.

Either way, keep in mind that your website design is what most online visitors to your site are going to judge your company on, regardless of your industry, so it must be as professional as possible.