Archive for the ‘ Web Site Design ’ Category

The 3 Most Essential Web Design Tools You Should Own

Tuesday, March 24th, 2009

Posted in Web Site Design, Website design tips |

There are several web design tools on the market today, and finding the right ones can be a challenge to a newcomer. While I use many web design tools, here are my 3 favourites:

Dreamweaver

With over 3.5 million users, Dreamweaver is undoubtedly the most popular and one of the best Website development tools in the market today. Dreamweaver has a wysiwyg (what you see is what you get) editor as well as a code view to improve your productivity.

You do not have to be a professional HTML programmer in order to develop a great website with Dreamweaver. You can use Dreamweaver to design forms as well as link to a database that uses popular technologies like PHP, ASP, .NET, and XHTML. Dreamweaver has CSS, server side includes, templates, and many others functions.

If you’re looking to develop professional websites, then Dreamweaver is THE tool for you. Improved CSS, XML and Flash video handling, and various productivity enhancements are just some of the features that are included in Dreamweaver. And while web developers still need to know CSS and HTML, Dreamweaver will allow them to take that basic knowledge to the next level.

Flash

When it comes to website animations, and multimedia applications, Flash is the de-facto standard that’s used by nearly every industry professional.

What makes Flash so useful is that it allows users to make animations (some that rival traditional cartoons) while keeping file sizes small. Small file sizes are vital to making sure your website loads quickly, which means increased traffic.

Flash was designed primarily to be an animation tool, but with each new version, the program evolved to become more powerful and feature-rich, while remaining loyal to its animation roots.

Simply put: if you want to create dynamic web pages with exciting effects, then Flash is the perfect program to get the job done.

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe’s Photoshop was one of the first image-editing programs to come onto the market. It quickly rose to become the number one image-editing program among professional designers and photographers. And while there have been numerous competitors that have come on the scene, no one has yet been able to dethrone Photoshop.

The main reasons for Photoshop’s success lies in its power and versatility. Adobe took the tricks and techniques used by professional photographers for decades, and ported them over to the digital platform. This digital workflow system made it a huge time saver for professionals who needed to create great looking images.

However, while Photoshop’s roots lie in photography, the program quickly evolved to become web-friendly. Adobe has included tools specifically designed for the web-designer — tools that allow them to make sharp graphics and images geared specifically toward the online world. Almost every button, banner, photograph and graphic you see on the web today has gone through Photoshop.

Learning how to use Photoshop is relatively easy; mastering Photoshop, however, can take years because the program has virtually unlimited potential.

Creating a great design for your site with these tools will be a bit on the expensive side, as none of them come with low price tags, but these tools will help give you the best looking site on the web in no time at all.

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What is a sitemap, and why your website needs one

Thursday, December 4th, 2008

Posted in Web Site Design, Website design tips |

Having a sitemap may seem redundant at first, but a well-constructed sitemap can be a tremendous benefit to your readers, and your return traffic.

What is a sitemap?
A sitemap performs the same basic function that an outline performs for printed material. It gives the reader, or visitor, an overview of the pages contained within the rest of the site. Sitemaps for small websites can include every page the site has to offer, while maps of larger websites may only include the major categories and subcategories.

Navigation purposes
While your website’s navigation should already be optimized for easy use, a sitemap is beneficial for people who get lost and can’t find their way back to a particular page. Having the sitemap ensures that there’s a way for the reader to get where they’re going, which makes it more likely that they’ll spend more time at your site, instead of navigating away out of frustration.

Convey your site’s theme
When a visitor loads up your sitemap they can quickly get an overview of what your site has to offer without having to read through each page. Web surfers typically want information “right now” so any time you can save them is a bonus for you.

Site optimization purposes
Your sitemap typically exists on its own page, and contains links to every other page on your website. When search bots hit the sitemap page they’re able to index every page on your site by following the links. It can also help boost your ranking in the search engines if you’re using relevant keywords in the links on your sitemap. Also, remember to put a prominent link to your sitemap right on your front page to assist the search engines.

Organization and relevance
A sitemap also makes it easier for you to add content or new sections because you can look at an overview of your site’s structure and determine what changes you want to make. The end result is that you’ll have a perfectly organized site with everything according to its relevance.

There’s really no downside to having a sitemap, and if you have a particularly large website, it should be considered mandatory.

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What’s More Important To Your Web Site: Design or Function?

Wednesday, May 14th, 2008

Posted in Functionality in websites, Web Site Design, Website design and function |

Ask 10 different people and you’ll get 10 different answers, but the truth is that both design and function are vital to having a successful web site. In fact, the two are inseparable when it comes to web site design, and achieving the right balance between the two is the key to creating a successful web site.

Why is Good Design Important?

Regardless of what anyone tells you, looks are important. Image means everything especially in the business world. Imagine going to a restaurant and being served by people in dirty, torn clothes. The food might be great, but people will be reluctant to eat there based on the staff’s appearance.

The basic function of design is to communicate. It says something about you to your customers, which is why good design is so important in today’s competitive marketplace. Since the visual appeal of your web site is so important, you can’t be haphazard about picking colors, graphics and layout choices. The message you want to send your customers has to be carefully planned out before you even think about writing a line of code.

Why is Functionality Important?

Using our restaurant example, imagine walking into a beautiful building with fancy decor, and not being able to find your way to your table. The maze of hallways may be tastefully adorned, but what purpose does it serve if customers can’t do business with you?

The same applies to your web site. Beautiful graphics, colors and animations are fine, as long as they don’t hinder your customers’ ability to navigate the site and conduct business.

What Can Go Wrong?

The most successful web sites marry design and function so well that customers don’t even think about it while they’re using the site – they’re just doing business.

Web sites fail when they’re out of balance. A web designer that tries to be clever or artistic is putting craft over usability. While graphics can add visual appeal, and even encourage users to delve more deeply into the site, they should never exist without providing some benefit to the customer. Don’t use graphics just because they look cool.

The same holds true for functionality. You might think it’s clever to make people run the cursor all over the page just to find the lines, but what you’re really doing is making the experience more confusing and frustrating. We live in a world with millions of online choices for web consumers, making a site difficult to use for the sake of art is like putting up a ‘Closed’ sign on your business’ front door. Likewise for the site’s layout. Creating a maze because it hasn’t been done before might win you an award for creativity, but if the customers can’t easily navigate to do business, then your award will be your reward, and that’s all.

If you’ve never put together a business web site before, you should consider hiring a professional web designer to assist you. Find one that understands the importance of visual appeal and functionality, and take a look at their past work. Go through their web site portfolio. Did the design jump out at you? Did you notice how easy it was to use? If you answered yes, then it’s likely because the web site is functioning the way it should – without drawing attention to itself.

Remember: Things work well when they’re in balance. It’s the way of life. When things are out of balance, chaos ensues. And that’s the last thing you want for your business web site.

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Web 2.0 – The Machine Is Using Us

Sunday, November 25th, 2007

Posted in Web 2.0, Web Site Design |

Here is an great video on Web 2.0. that you will enjoy.

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Squeeze pages – What are they and how they can bring you more leads

Monday, June 11th, 2007

Posted in Low Cost Web Site Design Secrets, Squeeze Pages, Web Site Design |

Squeeze pages are generally web pages that stand alone to be used as a landing page for a special marketing campaign or offer. These pages usually offer the visitor some information in exchange for their email address or other contact information.

The ultimate goal of these sites is to take the visitor’s information and use it to turn them into paying customers sometime in the future.

Important things to remember

It’s recommended that a squeeze page stand alone rather than act as a home page for your site or any other site. Because they contain such little content, these pages can impede the indexing of a website and the overall page rankings.

Your squeeze page is meant to do one thing — get a customer’s information. Because of that, you’ll want to make sure that there are no other distractions — like links to other sites — that might steer them away before they’ve completed their task.

When choosing a domain name for your squeeze page you should get one that’s close to the name of your giveaway. For example if you’re offering a free report on How to Get Traffic to Your Website you should try for a domain like: getmoretraffic.com.

What you should give away

Although your give-away is just a means to get people to give you their email addresses, it still needs to be something of value to them. It should be something that helps them with a major challenge they’re currently facing like getting more traffic to their web site.

Information products like ebooks, white papers, special reports and audio courses are all great ways to give the person something that’s valuable in exchange for their information.

People will gladly give out their email address for free information that helps them conquer a specific problem.

Following up

The ultimate goal of your squeeze page is to turn visitors into paying customers and the best way to stay in touch with them is by using autoresponders. You can create different messages to be sent out every few weeks after someone has downloaded the free information in your offer.

These messages can be set up to read something like: Since you enjoyed our free report on Getting More Traffic to Your Web Site, you might want to subscribe to our monthly newsletter that provides tips on ecommerce.

With the right offer and the right squeeze page you can develop a huge list of leads to market future products and offers to.

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