As a web designer, I have a personal interest in a new trend which threatens to put me and my kind out of business. That “threat” is Web Design Templates. In short they are ready-made web design products which can be used as a basis for a fast and high-quality website. You usually receive a Photoshop file (.psd), Flash file (.fla), HTML files with your tables and initial scripting already complete, fonts, sounds and anything else which may be part of the website design.
A couple of years ago these templates were a small issue in the world of design. Most of them were of minimal quality and there were not all that many out there. Now some of the “big players” like BG Website Templates, The Discount Directory and Plantillas De Website are supplying spectacular designs which include 3D animated Flash, multimedia and dynamic programming for prices comparable to dinner out. Many of these templates rival even the best custom designer's work. So how can we (the humble designer) survive?
* My first suggestion is to “aim high”. By that I mean start targeting a “higher end” clientele. Most companies of any size will not want to have a website design which may well be found on dozens of other websites around the world.
* These templates, while very impressive, are still templates. They still require the knowledge and skills of a professional for them to function to their full potential. So consider promoting your customization skills to those clients who are looking for a low cost solution. You can still make a pretty profit on the website and you'll get it done much faster. Another advantage to this method is that the client has already chosen a design, so the process of “back and forth” designing is removed.
* Finally, you may choose to directly promote templates on your own website. You may feel that you're cutting your own wrists, but as mentioned before, the clients who wish to use a template most likely didn't want to spend the money for your custom work anyway. Once you've saved them money on design work by selling them a template, you have a much better chance of upgrading their order with add-ons like chat rooms, help desks and newsletters. In the end you may end up coming out ahead.
Whether or not our careers as designers will survive this competition remains to be seen; but in the meantime it doesn't hurt to at least become familiar with web templates. Knowing your competition is key to success.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Website Re Design
My site is working fine. The links work. Content is added regularly. We have new features. Why does my company need a re-design?
Those are all great things. Sites should be updated regularly, have new features added, and by far have working links. However, as the site grows it soon outgrows its foundation. Leading to an unorganized use of content, poor usability, and eventually chaos. A re-design is a perfect opportunity to take an inventory and put things back on track. It will also allow for a better user experience.
New Foundation
With any re-design it is a great time to do a little rethinking. Looking at the current site a question needs to be asked. What is it that people want when coming to my site? By understanding what it is people are looking for from your site you will be able to better position that information within the architecture of the entire site.
Judging by the Cover
The old adage "Never judge a book by its cover" doesn't apply to your website. Users to your site make quick and often harsh judgment calls within seconds of viewing your homepage. By making outstanding first impression with a crisp, clean, professional look the user gets a sense of trust from the company behind the site.
Follow the Leader
Your site could have the exact information a specific user is looking for. However, if it takes too long for them to locate it chances are they will go somewhere else to find the information. By making your site as user friendly as possible you will be able to guide the user to specific areas of content. Bringing content that is hidden under multiple clicks to the forefront makes it easy for a user to locate. As well as, leads the user to other areas of your site that they might not have known about.
New Experience
New features can dramatically improve the user experience. Online calendars that allow a user to register for events are a perfect example of how a simple feature increases the value of a site. No longer does the user have to call or mail in an RSVP card. As such, the company doesn't need a person to answer the phone for every registration.
Cheapest Employee
Your website could be your cheapest employee. It has already been mentioned that your site could make your day-to-day tasks a think of the past. By adding features to your site that help educate your user base, ehhance marketing efforts, as well as, develope a sense of who your users are you are in reality making your site work harder for you. The simple fact is that you have a site. Why not make it work harder and do more for you and your company? An offshoot of adding features like this is that your users have more interaction with your site and your company.
Your Future Customers
The whole goal of a re-design is to create a better experience for your users. There are many approaches to attain such a goal. Maybe it is a new look, a revised navigation scheme, or a complete overhaul. Whatever the outcome, your site should reflect the company behind the site and insure a sense of trust with you future customers.
Those are all great things. Sites should be updated regularly, have new features added, and by far have working links. However, as the site grows it soon outgrows its foundation. Leading to an unorganized use of content, poor usability, and eventually chaos. A re-design is a perfect opportunity to take an inventory and put things back on track. It will also allow for a better user experience.
New Foundation
With any re-design it is a great time to do a little rethinking. Looking at the current site a question needs to be asked. What is it that people want when coming to my site? By understanding what it is people are looking for from your site you will be able to better position that information within the architecture of the entire site.
Judging by the Cover
The old adage "Never judge a book by its cover" doesn't apply to your website. Users to your site make quick and often harsh judgment calls within seconds of viewing your homepage. By making outstanding first impression with a crisp, clean, professional look the user gets a sense of trust from the company behind the site.
Follow the Leader
Your site could have the exact information a specific user is looking for. However, if it takes too long for them to locate it chances are they will go somewhere else to find the information. By making your site as user friendly as possible you will be able to guide the user to specific areas of content. Bringing content that is hidden under multiple clicks to the forefront makes it easy for a user to locate. As well as, leads the user to other areas of your site that they might not have known about.
New Experience
New features can dramatically improve the user experience. Online calendars that allow a user to register for events are a perfect example of how a simple feature increases the value of a site. No longer does the user have to call or mail in an RSVP card. As such, the company doesn't need a person to answer the phone for every registration.
Cheapest Employee
Your website could be your cheapest employee. It has already been mentioned that your site could make your day-to-day tasks a think of the past. By adding features to your site that help educate your user base, ehhance marketing efforts, as well as, develope a sense of who your users are you are in reality making your site work harder for you. The simple fact is that you have a site. Why not make it work harder and do more for you and your company? An offshoot of adding features like this is that your users have more interaction with your site and your company.
Your Future Customers
The whole goal of a re-design is to create a better experience for your users. There are many approaches to attain such a goal. Maybe it is a new look, a revised navigation scheme, or a complete overhaul. Whatever the outcome, your site should reflect the company behind the site and insure a sense of trust with you future customers.
How to Create an Enjoyable Web Page Design
Novice and professional designers alike – you may probably be skilled enough of any one or all of the techniques in creating a Web page and designing them. However, not all designs, even those made by authorities in the field, prove to be enjoyable and entertaining enough for the users. This is a fact that we hope does not irk some of our design enthusiasts and discourage them from honing their skills.
In terms of honing your skills in Web design, here are several pointers that will give you a chance to make enjoyable designs on a web site. These elements should be kept in mind to make it easier for your customers to interact with your web page, get satisfied with what they’re looking for and thoroughly have an enjoyable experience. A logo is required – it’s high time for your business to acquire a logo. The logo is a means to define the look, feel and direction of your business. The concept of your logo will eventually transfer over to your web page design.
The purpose is required and you must understand it – you must identify the objective of creating a Web page. Various companies have various reasons for putting up a Web site, you should have a major purpose, too. And you must be consistent with it in your Web pages.
The goal should be identified – evaluate each page and align it with the goal you have for it. You might have an ultimate goal of having clients contact you and inquire about your services. If that is so, then you must create your Web page in a logical sequence wherein you will provide for instruction for your clients to contact you.
A navigation system that’s not confusing – your navigation system must be consistent throughout your site. It would not help you gain more visitors if your recent visitors get helplessly confused in the middle of your site and decide to close the window. The information may be good, but visitors don’t want to waste time thinking where to click next and how to make certain pop up windows appear.
Fast loading of your pages is a needed as much as possible - your corporate identity is reflected in the graphics and navigation inside your Web page. But they must be optimized for fast loading. Loading a page in 20 seconds or more is too long already for Web surfers.
Having readable pages are important – Avoid dark colored backgrounds and heavily patterned pages in your site. This tends to make your text confusing and hard to ready. Most visitors do not find it enjoyable to spend time in a Web site that they have difficulty deciphering. This also goes with small sized texts and very large texts where text that is too large can make it appear as if you are screaming at your viewers.
Technical jargons are a no-no – avoid the use of technical jargons that will just be ignored by readers. Make your users understand you and you will be able to connect with your target audience.
Create templates for consistency – all the elements in your site is guaranteed to be consistent if you provide a template. Having the navigation system and all common elements in the same place throughout your site is a great help. It makes it easier for your visitors to find information, and enjoy their experience. Having a template for you to work from makes creating new pages easier.
Use CSS style sheets – to have your users be instructed easily on how to get the contents of your page use the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). There are several typographical information that you’ll found in CSS such as fonts, font size, colors, and spacing.
Frames are not advisable – in dividing the Web page into multiple windows, some designers use frames as a technique. The reasons for not using them tend to outweigh the reasons to use them since several browsers still do not support frame sites. Search engine optimization is affected then. It is best to create non-frames site first and then see if frames adds any functionality that your visitors would miss.
These elements are basic principles that any designer must live by. By remembering them, you will find even more reasons to enjoy brandishing your skills in Web design and make users enjoy your Web pages, too. -30-
Lala C. Ballatan is a 26 year-old Communication Arts graduate, with a major in Journalism. Right after graduating last 1999, she worked for one year as a clerk then became a Research, Publication and Documentation Program Director at a non-government organization, which focuses on the rights, interests and welfare of workers for about four years.
Book reading has always been her greatest passion -- mysteries, horrors, psycho-thrillers, historical documentaries and classics. She got hooked into it way back when she was but a shy kid.
Web Design How To Get Your Visitors To Stay
Remember the famous line from the movie Field of Dreams, "If you build it, they will come"? In the world of Internet marketing, you not only want them to come, you want them to stay.
The Internet is fast-paced. Your visitors decide very quickly whether or not you have what they want. There are five strategies that will help you engage your visitors and encourage them to explore what you have to offer.
Make Your Site About Your Visitors Not You
In order to do this, you must clearly know your target audiences and what you anticipate they will be looking for when they visit your site.
For example, your target audiences could include the client groups you serve, potential donors, policymakers, members of the general public and the media. In order to get and keep their attention, you must quickly let them know that you understand their needs and have a service or product that meets them.
Remember, your visitors want to know what's in it for them.
Make Your Site Easy to Navigate
Limit the navigation choices your visitors can make. One recent study found that many sites offer an average of 25 options from the home page. That's too many. In addition, make sure the wording of your navigation bars gives your visitors a clear idea of what they'll find. You want to make it easy for visitors to get the information they want.
Visitors who get confused or frustrated leave.
Make Your Web Site A Funnel
You want visitors to decide that they want to get to know you. Give them easy ways to learn that you can meet their needs.
Let me give you an example. If you provide health-related services, guide them to content that gives them health tips they can use. Then let them know that they can receive this kind of information regularly through your monthly e-newsletter. Give them an opportunity to subscribe. Then lead them to content that talks more directly about your programs, services or products and the benefits of what you offer.
Draw your visitors into the work of your organization.
Use Testimonials
Word of mouth is one of the best ways for people to learn about you.
You can get the same result with testimonials.
Ask your clients what benefits they got from participating in your services or activities. Ask board members to tell you why they chose to become involved with your organization. Ask your volunteers what benefits they get from working with you. Then ask their permission to use what they said as a testimonial and put those testimonials on your site.
Testimonials help visitors feel more comfortable with you.
Make Your Site Interactive
Use short assessments and other feedback mechanisms to engage your visitors. Offer opportunities to attend events or to volunteer. Make sure that visitors can easily contact you - both online and offline.
Interaction starts building a relationship.
Take a fresh look at your web site. Look at your site's organization and content in terms of these strategies. What action can you take right now to encourage your web site visitors to stay?
CAD Software
This article provides useful, detailed information about CAD Software.
There\'s a lot of software dealing with CAD. This industry is very dynamic and no one program can clearly claim a singular dominance of Computer-Aided Design software, especially since most of them get merged or were taken over eventually. Nearly half of the CAD software in the market comes from just a small group of four companies. Smaller companies enter the market from time to time to cater to specific or niche markets.
The assortment packages are classified into three main types: the two-dimensional drafting system; the mid-range, three-dimensional solid feature modeler; and the high-end, three-dimensional hybrid systems. But then again, there is a clear distinction among the three these days because most two-dimensional packages can contain the three-dimensional features of the others. The packages have adjusted to one another, and the result is a high-end system that is developed with their user-interface of Windows program. CAD Software increases the speed and competitiveness of design. Some programs have file-sharing compatibility, and the result is more accurate and less time-consuming products.
When choosing software for CAD, one must look into the field of his expertise. Some software manufacturers produce stripped-down versions of CAD software. Some manufacturers have their reputations firmly cemented on Architecture but that may not be of much importance if you\'re a mechanical engineer trying to re-work sports cars.
There are many books offering tutorials on some CAD software; as the advancement of CAD is very fast paced, so is the curriculum of these books. One good thing to do if you have time is to enroll yourself in a CAD academy, where you not only get to read lessons from a manual but share ideas with learners, too. CAD software version renewal is about one to two yearsScience Articles, depending on the manufacturer.
There\'s a lot of software dealing with CAD. This industry is very dynamic and no one program can clearly claim a singular dominance of Computer-Aided Design software, especially since most of them get merged or were taken over eventually. Nearly half of the CAD software in the market comes from just a small group of four companies. Smaller companies enter the market from time to time to cater to specific or niche markets.
The assortment packages are classified into three main types: the two-dimensional drafting system; the mid-range, three-dimensional solid feature modeler; and the high-end, three-dimensional hybrid systems. But then again, there is a clear distinction among the three these days because most two-dimensional packages can contain the three-dimensional features of the others. The packages have adjusted to one another, and the result is a high-end system that is developed with their user-interface of Windows program. CAD Software increases the speed and competitiveness of design. Some programs have file-sharing compatibility, and the result is more accurate and less time-consuming products.
When choosing software for CAD, one must look into the field of his expertise. Some software manufacturers produce stripped-down versions of CAD software. Some manufacturers have their reputations firmly cemented on Architecture but that may not be of much importance if you\'re a mechanical engineer trying to re-work sports cars.
There are many books offering tutorials on some CAD software; as the advancement of CAD is very fast paced, so is the curriculum of these books. One good thing to do if you have time is to enroll yourself in a CAD academy, where you not only get to read lessons from a manual but share ideas with learners, too. CAD software version renewal is about one to two yearsScience Articles, depending on the manufacturer.
POS Software
This article provides useful, detailed information about POS Software.
Point of sale (POS) software integrates the physical devices in the POS systems with computer language and thus facilitates automated data processing. POS software not only monitors almost all day-to-day activities of any business, but also helps to run them systematically, keeping track of income and expenditures, inventory, stock, and clearance, billing, customer, and transaction records and customer service through touch screen information kiosks and vending machines. Speedy business transactions and accurate budgeting helps vendors increase their profits significantly. The software also helps in paging in hotels and restaurants, taking online food orders and delivery of food items.
The very first POS software was introduced by IBM, which came out with IBM 3650 and 3660 Store Systems in August 1973; the software was first installed in Pathmark Stores in New Jersey and Dillard\'s Department Stores. Now, POS needs have become so wide and varied that different POS software is tailored to suit the specific needs of different industries. The most popular of these industries include restaurants and retail stores. Software for each of these industries has unique features that automate sales and customer transactions and ensure staff accountability. For example, POS software for a hotel will ensure that a guest\'s personal calls are automatically are automatically billed into his account by the computer and added to other charges. And a retail outlet\'s POS software will require employees to swipe their cards to record their work hours and will keep stock of all the product details. Some point-of-sale software also includes credit and debit card swipe facility, fake-check tracing, and report-generating capabilities for day-to-day and monthly transactions.
Vendors usually take trials of different software before deciding the best software for their industry. Essential for the installation of basic POS software are computers, printers, cash registers, scanners, and keyboards. Barcode printing software, cash register express softwareFree Reprint Articles, and inventory software are essential for any business that uses a point-of-sale system.
Point of sale (POS) software integrates the physical devices in the POS systems with computer language and thus facilitates automated data processing. POS software not only monitors almost all day-to-day activities of any business, but also helps to run them systematically, keeping track of income and expenditures, inventory, stock, and clearance, billing, customer, and transaction records and customer service through touch screen information kiosks and vending machines. Speedy business transactions and accurate budgeting helps vendors increase their profits significantly. The software also helps in paging in hotels and restaurants, taking online food orders and delivery of food items.
The very first POS software was introduced by IBM, which came out with IBM 3650 and 3660 Store Systems in August 1973; the software was first installed in Pathmark Stores in New Jersey and Dillard\'s Department Stores. Now, POS needs have become so wide and varied that different POS software is tailored to suit the specific needs of different industries. The most popular of these industries include restaurants and retail stores. Software for each of these industries has unique features that automate sales and customer transactions and ensure staff accountability. For example, POS software for a hotel will ensure that a guest\'s personal calls are automatically are automatically billed into his account by the computer and added to other charges. And a retail outlet\'s POS software will require employees to swipe their cards to record their work hours and will keep stock of all the product details. Some point-of-sale software also includes credit and debit card swipe facility, fake-check tracing, and report-generating capabilities for day-to-day and monthly transactions.
Vendors usually take trials of different software before deciding the best software for their industry. Essential for the installation of basic POS software are computers, printers, cash registers, scanners, and keyboards. Barcode printing software, cash register express softwareFree Reprint Articles, and inventory software are essential for any business that uses a point-of-sale system.
Professional Web Site Designers
Most companies today realize the importance of marketing on the net. As a result, many companies are hiring professional Web designers to maintain their Web sites and remain competitive in the marketplace. The scope for Web site designing as a profession is positive all over the world. This is because on a regular basis, thousands of companies either launch new Web sites or redesign outdated ones.
Companies hire professional Web designers with a specific business objective. The purpose of designing a site is to introduce or promote the company’s products and to reach out to a larger global customer base. Web designers are hired in accordance with this objective. A professional Web site designer typically has a bachelor’s degree in computer science, graphic design or digital media. A marketing or advertising degree combined with advanced computer training is a good blend of qualifications for a web designer as it helps them apply their designing skills with a business focus.
Professional web designers offer their services to a wide range of establishments. Industries, universities, retailers, design firms, media and advertising agencies are all in need of a good corporate Web sites. Attractive Web sites with updated information are very useful in acquiring new customers and in retaining existing ones. Designers can be hired as employees or as freelancers on contract.
The first step, after hiring a professional Web designer is to give them an outline of requirements. Professional Web designers work closely with customers to gain an understanding of the project expectations. They may also act as advisors, guiding clients through each step of the website design process. Experienced Web designers generally charge several thousand dollars as fees for their services.
Small business establishments also require a good website to boost their image. They typically design online brochures to give visitors information about their products and services, location and contact details. To cater to such organizations, many medium-sized Web design companies have emerged in the marketplace.
The range of services offered by professional web designers include web design and development, Web application design, professional e-commerce shopping systems, Web site hosting, search engine optimization, Internet search engine promotion and submission, e-learning, 3D solutions.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)