Sunday, December 17, 2006

Easy Introduction In Webdesign

Style is everything that surrounds us, even if just walking down the street or watching a fashion show on the TV. Not all people go hand in hand with the latest fashion trends, as they are free to see fashion the way they like it.

People cannot choose their appearance, as this is given from our birth and we will never be able to change it, without using plastic surgery. But we can still focus on the last details, on the finishing touch and define our personal style. We always express our style by the way we dress wherever we may go, as we all dress up, choose make-up and change hairstyles from time to time.

In the dating game, style is crucial in the partner selection process. The first look and appearance is important although not often decisive. The selection is also based on getting to know that certain person, which tends to take the first place when choosing the partners.

Style is something that defines a person’s personality. Just by looking at one’s apartment, you can see what kind of person he or she is. If everything is in its place, then the owner is a well organized person who is able to solve any problem in due time, thanks to that.

After all this talk, let’s get to websites, which, just like people, must be expressive, because with no interesting colors and forms, do not send any message to the visitor. Style offers a website a unique identity that cannot easily be determined by text alone.

By using the text alone, a website can still have a specific style, but it is not visible when focusing on the look and feel of the site.

The best solution is that text and style both support each other in order to send a certain message and a specific feeling to the person that takes the time to browse it. So, always match the text and visual style of a website.

Now, as you all know, the main internet structure is hypertext based, but it is expected that the visual styles will eventually take over the web. Style will then be crucial in webdesign.

The conclusion anyone can draw from all this story is that style, including the style used in webdesign, is something very hard to set limits on. The only things that can stop you is the lack of time!

Understand The Webdesign Standards

Webdesign must always comply to a set of standards and rules, defined by by national or international bodies, such as the International Organization for Standardization.

Such a standard states for example that: ‘Incompleteness of theories underlying the design of interactive software makes it difficult to produce authoritative and specific standards’. (ISO 2002:3)

As you can see for yourself, these standards are only general guidelines, which can be used in one stage or another of the design process for a specific website. As a general rule, the more abstract the guideline, the more suitable it is in informing the earlier stages of design such as the requirements specification. Detailed design needs more specific guidelines, such as ‘Apple Human Interface Guidelines’. (Apple.com 2003:1).

Based on the ‘theory-based knowledge, experience, and common sense’. (Preece et al. 2002:21), these guidelines and rules have been made from design principles and most importantly state the principle of consistency. This one states the fact that ‘designing interfaces must have similar operations and use similar elements for achieving similar tasks’. (ibid. 2002:24). This all leads to the consistency issue.

There are two kinds of consistency when it comes to websites: the internal and the external consistency. The first type can be obtained by maintaining the uniformity within the design, that is for example, by the fact that the ‘help’ and the ‘back’ buttons are the same for all pages. The external consistency refers to the similarity of execution of tasks between the physical world and the interface, or, further more, to the use of similar terminology and functional attributes across platforms or commonly used interfaces. For the first similarity in question, we can take as an example the fact that the user can go to a specific location on a map, and for the second type of external consistency, we could look at the ‘back’ button and the Windows ‘minimize’, ‘maximize’ and ‘close’ buttons. These are used on a very large scale in all the world wide popular interfaces such as ‘Internet Explorer’.

In order for a web designer to improve the design of his or her website, reference to guidelines and standards is absolutely necessary, not to speak about actually using the design principles defined by these standards.

Should all these rules be obeyed by any freelancer web designer, websites and webdesign would be a little less wilder world to live and work in.

Webdesign don ts

Your website is the life and soul of your Internet presence, if your website appears and acts unprofessional your company will seem unprofessional and people won't feel confident buying from you.

With that said webdesign is a complex issue and I could discuss it for days with you but for this article and for the moment anyway I'll concentrate on sharing the things you shouldn't do when it comes to designing your site as ultimately bad webdesign affects people more than good webdesign. These don'ts of webdesign are in point by point format.

Don't use frames. Frames are a thing of the past and are out of fashion, they mostly confuse visitors and they basically destroy your chances of getting good search engine traffic, not to mention the problems associated with bookmarking and printing pages that use frames.

Don't limit access to your site by requiring visitors to already have or download a certain plug-in, this is the same as increasing download time and most people won't bother to wait for the download, they'll just visit your competition instead.

Don't have scrolling pages which require the visitor to scroll sideways to see the whole page. This is so annoying to most visitors that they'll leave straight away. This happens when you design your site at a certain resolution and someone visits with a resolution lower than that. Design for a resolution of 640x480 if you want to be sure that your pages avoid having scroll bars. You're pretty safe however designing and maximizing your pages for an 800x600 resolution because most people nowadays surf in that resolution.

Don't annoy your visitors with blinking text, pages full of banners, continuous background music that slows down everything, pop-up windows, text that's hard to read because it's a similar color to the background etc. If you do annoy them you can bet they won't return.

Don't use under construction pages, you're only wasting peoples time if you direct them to a page that's not ready so never link to pages unless they're finished.

Don't make visitors wait, if people have to wait for a page to download because it's bogged down with too much graphics and other media they'll just leave.

Avoiding the above don'ts of webdesign will at least give you a chance of retaining visitors and maybe even have a few of them return.

Friday, December 15, 2006

Best colors for web designing

There are many web design tutorials that cover Web color in detailed scientific terms. However, for our objectives, let's briefly discuss Web color and how it will be used in the Web portfolio. You will need to develop a color scheme for your Web portfolio pages. This means that you will designate colors for your page background, the type used on the page and any other static elements that reside in the page. There are two types of color that can be used in Web graphics. The colors can be associated with the Web graphic file formats we just mentioned: GIF and JPG.

GIF

GIF files use index color. Index color consists of 216 common colors found on all computer monitors and within all Web browsers. These common colors reside in a Web palette. The Web palette of colors is available in Macromedia Fireworks and Adobe Photoshop so they can be used in design of Web screens without variance of color when the pages are on the Internet. Also, the Web palette is the standard color palette in Macromedia Dreamweaver and Macromedia Flash. This allows us to achieve consistent color across Web applications and Web browsers.

We use Web colors for:

• Web text/HTML text
• Web page backgrounds
• Web page colors used for table or layer backgrounds
• Web links
• GIF files

JPG

JPG files use red, green, and blue (RGB) for graphical color. RGB color is also known as full color. Full color items include bitmap graphics or photographs. We want to utilize photographs as much as we can within a Web portfolio to add to the visual rhetoric and the narrative that we are trying to present. Extensive use of photographs, especially their manipulation in programs such as Adobe Photoshop, require a brief description of the RGB color model. RGB color is known as additive color because of all colors, red green, and blue were added together at their full intensity that would create pure white. The mixtures of the relative strengths of these colors, "create the millions of colors computer monitors can show" (Kimball, 2003, p. 95). The strength of these colors is set in from zero to 255 with zero being the least intensity and 255 being the highest intensity. When red, green and blue are combined at zero intensity the result is black. At full strength, high intensity, where the values are set at 255, 255, 255, the result is pure white. To remember this, here is a simple metaphor. Think of the red, green, and blue as light switches. Each light switch using a slider has a range of zero to 255. When all the white switches are set at zero the room is dark. What all the light switches are set to 255, the room is lit at full intensity. Once you begin to use image-editing applications such as Adobe Photoshop and Macromedia fireworks, you begin to explore computer color within your graphics and photographs. When discussing color usage, full color or RGB color is present in photographic JPG files and other created artwork. Full color images should not be saved as GIF files because of the limited number of colors. By having limited colors, the full color image will represent the true colors using the existing Web palette of 216 colors.

This creates a poor, dithered, and ugly image. That is why it is very important to use the right file format for each specific graphic. When converting print images to the Web, it's important that you do not use the CMYK color model for anything including graphics. The CMYK model is not a monitor friendly color space. The CMYK graphics cannot be seen in CMYK on the Internet. They can only be represented by the RGB color model or the Web safe (indexed) color model. Here are the rules for Web color:

• Full color images (RGB palette) and photos are saved as JPG.
• Flat graphics (Web 216 palette) with limited color are saved as GIF files.
• For Page backgrounds use the Web safe palette (Web 216 palette) in all computer graphics, multimedia, and Web development applications. Now, let's discuss Web page and graphic size.

Size

Web pages are measured in pixels. Pixels are the unit of measurement for the screen. A Web page can literally be any size. Standard Web pages usually fit into a few sizes:

• W × H
• 600 × 800
• 640 × 480 (Dreamweaver default)
• 1024 × 768
• 550 × 400 (Flash default)

The default Web page sizes provided in Web friendly applications and listed earlier are a great place to start. You will probably use a smaller, custom size for pop-up windows. The Web page size you choose is up to you. Remember to use actual space for the Web page effectively so that the content is in the proper proximity to the user's navigation patterns. Web page size affects the way users move around the Web pages and the Web portfolio site. One rule: Pick a size for all main screens and stick to it.

Consistency in page size r should be used on each level of the Web portfolio design flowchart. You will need to understand size in the image editing application when you develop screens and Web graphics. We must keep our graphics within the page size guidelines otherwise they will over extend the Web browser and the user will need to scroll to see them. That is not a good thing and will definitely turn off the user. When you are looking at Web screens and graphics in an image editing application such as Macromedia Fireworks or Adobe Photoshop, you can see the exact size the image will occupy on a monitor when the view is set to 100 percent.

This means that you can get an accurate indication of how a page will look before going through the process of making it an HTML Web page. This helps with design and production. It helps eliminate guess work when developing pages. Size also depends on resolution. Let's discuss resolution next.

Design the website with customer in view

Businesses world wide have realized the importance of going
online and having a website. Websites play an important role
in marketing a company and its products and boosting
e-Commerce.

Websites are designed keeping the customer in mind, since
they are the one who is going to buy the product.

The Don'ts for a visitor friendly website

1. Slow download 2. Confusing web site 3.Irrelevant matter.

These factors will affect the business, since the visitors donft
wait for hour long for website to download. Visitors don't have
the time to go through the hazy and confusing navigation nor
would they go through the content which is of no use to them.

The first impression which you give is the last impression for
the visitors.

The Do's for a visitor friendly website

Plan the site with the customer in mind: Imagine how your
customers (existing and prospects) will use your site.
Consider their reasons for visiting and their needs.

Have clear goals: What is the aim of your web site? What
products or services you wish to sell? Target audience?
The answers to all these will give you the clear-cut idea of
how to do about the website.

Design: Simple and easy are two main keywords to be kept
in mind while Web Designing .

Certain aspects in designing the website to be kept in mind
are do not upload heavy graphics (large download time), use
the look that is pleasing to the eyes, layouts, colors, and
graphics which speaks the kind of company you are.
Consistency in design throughout the website is main. If
you are having the brand logo blends it with your design on
your site and will help in boosting the traffic to your site.

Easy Navigation: Navigation should be easily understood by
customer. The links should be self explanatory. The
navigational links should be thoroughly tested and regularly
updated.

Page size: Maintain the page size for the download to be
faster.

Content: Content is king that should be kept in mind. It
should be relevant, should provide all the information. Good
content also increase your page rank. Sites containing good
and relevant content which is updated always get indexed
by search engines.

Make the site more interactive in terms of visitor. Ask for
their comments as well as acknowledge the comments.
Keep the visitor updated with all the information about the
site like when it is getting updated etc.Reply to the
customer queries. Provide them with help page, terms and
conditions, privacy policies etc.

Importance of Website Design and Development

A website is an online identity of a company or of an individual involved in Internet Marketing. The task associated with the website is to represent a company, sell company’s name, attract more visitors, generate more business leads, promote more sale of company’s products and services and ultimately, help to gain more return on investment.

In this era of advanced technology, electronic commerce have highly dominated the marketing practice, and due to easy availability and affordability of the Internet, people are running after it and making huge profit at the comfort of their home.

As a serious online business person, what is important for your business is, to prepare a website that is well designed, attractive, easy to navigate, highly usable, good content, full of relevant information, enough functionalities and are capable of retaining visitors for long and make them come back again.

We know, Web is the visual interface and what people look on the Web will be manipulated and interpreted into their mind and perception. So being a website designer and programmer, you must be careful about the use of color effects, lights, visual effects, positioning and size of contents and use of search engine friendly technology, so that people must remember your website name first and search you first on the Web.

To achieve all the above mentioned strategies, your website building needs a professional touch from qualified website designers and developers who can put their best acquired knowledge and experience to make a suitable portal that can turn each visitors into potential buyers.

In fact, there are two types of website design such as; static and dynamic website design. You can opt for static as well as dynamic website design where former is based on simple HTML code and latter is developed with advanced and sophisticated technologies based on the information provided in the database. Dynamic website is actually selling these days, because apart from its beauty and diverse applicability, it gives the ease of quick and self information updating facility to site administrator without being proficient technically.

Another important factor for a well designed and programmed website is the quality search engine optimization (SEO) service. SEO is the basis of search engine marketing success, because website optimization process spice-up the website with relevant keywords, facilitate one-way link, enhance link-popularity and place website at top or near the top of search engine result page that ultimately help in attracting motivated buyers and more traffic to website.

If you want to excel high in your online business, aforesaid strategies of website design and development must be dealt with great care. There are numerous such companies which can give promising website designing and development solution at an affordable rate, at the same time, false promise making dudes are also in plenty. For affordable Website design and development, you can even think of any offshore website design and development company with thorough research on their portfolios.

Screen Capture Software Selecting the Right One

Screen capture is the process of saving what your monitor is displaying, usually as an image. You might use screen captures in a game, on the internet, or you can even use a screen capture to prove payment or statistics for something.


If you play games or movies on your computer, screen capture software would come in handy to even take screen captures of your high record in your favorite game, or take clips from the latest movie scenes on your computer.


When it comes to what screen capture software to use, you should take careful consideration when selecting what program you use. Some programs don't offer important features you might deem useful, like the ability to capture scrolling windows. This feature will enable the capture tool to scroll automatically to capture something like a list.


Some utilities will even allow you to capture full web pages. Capture your competitor's web page so you can analyze them with scrutiny. Better yet, create a helpful tutorial for users of your website or program. At the end of this article you'll find great, easy to use screen capture software that will let you do this.


Along with the handy features in your screen capture program, you'll also want to make sure that the screen capture program you're using is easy to use. There's nothing like purchasing a program to save you time, and you spend an eternity learning how to use it!


That's why I wholeheartedly recommend Longfine Software's Easy Screen Capture software. It combines the latest new screen capture features with a program that is sleek and easy to operate. The value is limitless. Save huge amounts of time when creating tutorials or other useful documents. Copy entire websites as an image file.


You can even try it free for a while to see if you like it.