Archive for February, 2012

Things to Consider in Web Design

Wednesday, February 29th, 2012

One of the hindrances in creating a website is, not knowing where to begin. It is similar to starting any projects or endeavors the most difficult thing to do is to start, determining the concept of your web design from scratch. It would be good for a web designer if the client has its own idea of the website design, but this does not happen all the time. This is why it is important to find your design inspiration, but even inspirations only comes spontaneously and not upon request. For web designers who are required to work on website upon order from the client waiting for inspiration might prove to be detrimental than beneficial especially so if the web design endeavor is bounded by strict deadlines. If you cannot come up with a website design due to lack of inspiration or maybe you have just hit a plateau in your creative site then it would be prudent to go back to the basics and focus on the following guidelines that may help you get back on track in designing websites:

1. Go Back to your Layouts – draw inspiration or idea by reviewing your previous web design layouts. From there determine what might be the best layout for your new website. Determine the different features that may be incorporated in your new website then draw a draft of what the site’s layout would be. Of course you have to always revisit that drawing because you may have to think of improving the layout and tweak it once in a while.

2. The Site’s Environment – design your website based on what you would like to exhibit in your website. What do you want your client to feel when they visit your website?, is a question that you should be asking yourself before you start developing your site. This way you will be able to determine the general colors of your website and use the images that may contribute to the general look and feel that you want to achieve for your web design.

With these two basic guidelines you will be able to develop your website on the fly, without experiencing stagnation in thinking about your website design.

Tags:layout, look and feel, web design, web design tips, Website Design, website design tips
Posted in Web Design Work |

A Rundown on the Processes of Web Design A Rundown on the Processes of Web Design

Tuesday, February 28th, 2012

Creating a website is not done overnight and contrary to popular misconception a website takes time to be created. The length of time needed to design a website is necessary in order to incorporate several strategies in web design that is necessary in order to accomplish a professionally yet aesthetically beautiful website. The website design process is something that is difficult to execute because of the fact that it entails forward thinking and foresight in order to make a website that is future proof and resilient. To do this the website design process requires several steps to follow in order to properly implement a sound website design and such steps are the following:

1. Conduct Research – just like any other processes, website design requires the use of research. The research is needed for the website designer to know the different contents that will be incorporated in the website. If you are designing a website for a client, part of the research process is the gathering of data from the client, such as the different website pages that will be incorporated in the website along with the different images that will be integrated with the entire website design.

2. Blue printing your Site – a blueprint is a draft of a certain structure it may be a building or even a website. For website design, blueprinting is drafting or creating a drawing of the different pages of the entire website. The blue print shall also show how the different web pages are connected, this is necessary in order for the web designer to efficiently create the links between the different pages.

3. User-Website Interaction Planning – this stage requires the use of analysis in order to create interactivity between the user and the website. Interaction may mean the incorporation of animation for the website, the creation of different forms that may help users connect with the website.

These steps defines the work that is being encountered or performed by a website designer, the work of a website designer is realised through the different steps and accomplishing each step means a step closer towards creating a great website design.

Tags:blueprint of web design, web design, web design processes, Website Design, website design processes
Posted in Web Design Work |

Defining Web Design Colors in CSS

Monday, February 27th, 2012

Whether a web designer likes it or not a good web design is not of a monochrome scheme, while monochrome may work with some designs most of the web designs require the incorporation of different colors. Apart from the fact that colors would add to the aesthetic value of the website colors actually plays a very important role in the converting traffic to revenue, this is because of the fact that colors do have some psychological effect to various types of website users. In website design coding the different colors is very flexible, the flexibility characteristic in defining colors in your website design is due to the fact that there are several ways on how you can specify the colors and how web browsers would interpret the color values specified using the Cascading Style Sheets. In specifying the colors in your website design there are several values that are being recognised by the web browsers as specified the color property of Cascading Style Sheets or CSS. These are the three ways on indicating a color value in Cascading Style Sheets:

1. English Value or Text Value – the English or text value is simply the color value that is indicated by the name of the color itself. An example would be “color:red” where color is the element property and red is the color value. The limitation of this type of color value is that the colors are limited to the color names known to every web designer, different shades of colors could not be specifically indicated.

2. Hexadecimal Value – the hexadecimal color value is using hexadecimal numbers in specifying the color, there are three pairs in a hexadecimal value where each pair would indicate shades of red, green and blue respectively. An example in CSS is “color:#FFAA00” where FF pertains to the intensity of the red color, AA refers to the intensity of the green color and 00 pertains to the intensity of the color Blue. The only limitation of this is that the shades or intensity of the colors are limited only with the highest hexadecimal value.

3. RGB Value – the RGB color value in web design is the most flexible in indicating specific colors in your web design. The syntax for specifying this color “color:rgb(111,10,122)” where the sets of numbers separated by a comma corresponds with the color intensity of red, green and blue respectively. This is the best color indicator as each numeric value could be specified based on the specific intensity of the colors red, green and blue allowing you to combine more colors.

Tags:web color, web design, web design color, website design colors
Posted in Web Design Work |

Identifying the Parts of a Website

Sunday, February 26th, 2012

The only way for a website designer to properly develop a creative website design is to know the foundations of a website. Foundations, meaning the basic features of a website and from the basic features a website developer can be creative and may incorporate designs that could enhance such basic features or structure. One of the foundation or basic knowledge in website design is to know what the building blocks of a web page are. The basic building block of a website starts with its basic structure both on the design and the code side, the latter means that the basic structure is taken from the basic Hypertext Markup Language or HTML code. For the design basic structure the following are such building blocks:

1. The header – this does not pertain to the header element in HTML rather in design this refers to the area where the website logo and the website name will be placed. As stated the important part of the header is the logo and site name however you can also add the site’s motto or catch phrase. This part is usually found at the top of the web page and is constant throughout all web pages in a website. An important thing to note here is to incorporate a home page link in the logo or site name.

2. The Navigation – every website have a navigation area or navigation bar. This navigation bar allows the user to browse through your website through the different links found in the navigation bar. One very important thing to note here is that the navigation bar should be accurate and should not be broken.

3. Content area – this area in your website will contain basically the information about your website and some images that will reinforce your content. For this area the content must always be relevant with the page and that is should be designed to be easily readable.

4. Footer – the area reserved for website owners to place links or copyright notices, this should not overrun the entire page, it must be subtle yet readable.

Combining these four elements or basic structure of a website could help you create a great web design that you can reinvent based on your on creativity and taste.

Tags:parts of a website, web design, Web Developer, Website Design, website designer
Posted in Web Design Work |

Qualities of A Good Web Design

Saturday, February 25th, 2012

There are about hundreds to thousands of websites that are being made live every week, however this increase on the number of websites that are uploaded via the internet also increases the number of website designs that are poorly created. The question lingers, how can we know if a website is poorly designed or not? What really makes a good website design? And what are the elements of web design? For website designers these questions need to be answered in order for them to develop great if not good website designs. The following are some of the characteristics of a good website design:

1. Efficient Navigation – a good website design exhibits good navigation, this is because of the fact that navigation is under the realm of website usability. This means that a good web design must give users ease of navigation or by making it easy for the user to browse over the website. Efficient navigation is a characteristic of a good web design because of the fact that it helps the user as he or she goes through your website.

2. Consistency of Design for All Pages – Your website is composed of different web pages and it is because of this fact that users should still recognise your website when going through the different web pages. This can be achieved by creating a general design for all web pages, the general color and image heading are among the different parts of your website design that should be constant throughout the entire website. Recognising your website through the general colors and structure gives your user the impression that they are on your website while any inconsistencies in designs may make your user wonder whether or not they are still browsing the same website or not.

3. The Web Design Should not Overpower the Site Content – this simply means that you should create designs that does not draw away the focus of the user to your site content but rather the web design should draw the attention to what your website is all about.

Of course there are other elements that would make a web design good the three qualities given above are considered to be the primary characteristics that should always be taken into consideration whenever a website designer is developing a website. This way you web designers will be able to create professional as well as aesthetically pleasing web designs.

Tags:web design, web developing, Website Design, website developing
Posted in Web Design Work |

Choosing A Web Hosting Company

Friday, February 24th, 2012

A great website design must always be accompanied by a great web hosting service, this is because of the fact that the former will be useless unless the latter is present. You can only broadcast and set your website live online if you actually have uploaded it via your web hosting Service Company. A website design may be useless if only a few or no one can view your website. Not gaining traffic, audience or revenue can be a result of a poor web hosting company’s services, a web host that is constantly down may result to your website to being unusable. Find a good website hosting company or a great web hosting service by:
1. Researching the best web hosting companies – a simple Google search could help you find a list of web hosting companies that provides great services. There are review sites that reviews websites and web hosting services you might want to start your search there. Scrutinise every service that the web hosting company provides and compare every web hosting company.
2. Deepen your research by using forums – forum sites give a firsthand look on all aspects such as products and services. Look for web hosting company forums join them and read about the experiences of actual users in the different web hosting companies. You can read about complaints and point of views of actual users, that way you will be able to balance the pros and cons of such web hosting companies.
3. Billing System Efficiency – the lifetime of your website and its hosting depends on your length of subscription, this is why a great web hosting company should provide avenues for efficient billing system to avoid any inconveniences. Do not choose any web hosting company that cannot offer billing automation and payment system as this would just cause problems in your account.
Finding a and using a great web hosting service is as good as a great website design this is why it is imperative that you do not be swayed by promises of web hosting companies research and you will be able to decide what is best for your website.

Tags:web design, web hosting, web hosting services, Website Design, website hosting
Posted in Web Design Work, Web Hosting |

Things to Consider In Mobile Web Design

Thursday, February 23rd, 2012

Mobile internet is becoming popular every day, this is because of the fact that conventional mobile phones are rapidly being replaced by smartphones. Smartphones gives the user the power to connect to and browse the internet. This feature, along with the increasing number of free Wi-Fi hotspots makes the mobile internet browsing to be a lot more popular, add to that the fact that laptops, netbooks and tablet pc’s are also contributing to the use of the mobile network or internet. The point is, that mobile browsing is becoming popular and that there is a need for mobile website design capabilities for majority of websites. This is because of the fact that the web page that we know of is different from mobile web pages, which means the web design process differs from the conventional with that of the mobile. What will be presented in the succeeding texts are the things that should be remembered or should be considered when creating web design for the mobile platform.

1. Consider the common device width – with the varying sizes of mobile hardware that is capable of viewing and browsing the internet web designers should consider the fact that there is a difference in the mobile web page with the normal web page especially for the size of such web pages. This is why it is imperative that web designers design the website to be able to accommodate variable sizes this way every image and text will conform to the screen size as the web page is displayed in a mobile device.

2. Consider avoiding forms – forms that will require long answers should be avoided because of the fact that mobile users do not have the luxury of using a keyboard that will allow them to input data quickly and efficiently.

3. Use Small File Sized-images – since you want your web page to be compatible with the mobile platform download or loading speed of the website is imperative, this is why you should design your web page in such a manner that your images would load faster making your website to load a lot quicker too, and to do this you must use images that are low in file size.

Indeed the technology community is changing fast with the introduction of mobile browsing; every website designer must therefore be a lot more updated in these current trends in order to cope with the very demanding and competitive market for website design.

Tags:mobile web design, mobile website design, web design, web designer, Website Design, website designer
Posted in Web Design Work |

Quick Tips on Website Design Layout

Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012

Website design is already becoming popular among internet users, well this may have been sparked by the curiosity of such internet users. One of the common errors committed by those starting out in designing a website is the unsightly layout of the website. Website layout is often overlooked because of the fact that web designers are focused on the codes and on the features of the website. It is important to create a layout that would not only be aesthetically pleasing but would contribute to the usability of your website. A usable website or a website that would cater to the needs of the viewer or visitor would be preferred rather than a website that may have a lot of animation but does not really help the user to navigate around the website. Here are some quick tips in order for you to start or create an effective website layout.

1. Avoid Clutter in your layout – clutters like too many images that are placed on different locations in your website design would only confuse your visitor, use the images sparingly and only when needed do not liberally place images in your website design. Further, your text should be partitioned properly, identify the headings and the sub-headings in your paragraph texts. Capitalising all the text should be avoided, capitalise only the first letter of the first word in your sentence and only when necessary. Finally, use a single background color and do not place a different background color for each section of your web page.

2. Create your layout using the most common resolution – when you start the web design process using Photoshop create your layout according to the most common screen resolution. One of the most common screen resolution is 1024 x 768, some would even recommend to develop a website using the lowest resolution which is 800 x 600.

Proper website layout is imperative in creating a usable yet aesthetically pleasing website.

Tags:layout, web design, web design layout, Website Design, website design layout
Posted in Web Design Work |

Towards Building a Usable Website

Tuesday, February 21st, 2012

Website design does not only entail the creation of colorful and creative websites, of course websites that would look pleasing to the eyes or a website that surprises the user because of animations and audio incorporated in the website. Apart from the aesthetic value of a website it is also good to take into consideration the welfare of those who will actually use your website. This is why it is imperative that usability is to be considered when conducting a website design. It is in the web design phase where every element that would be included in the website will be created thus it is in this point that usability must already be realised. The question that website designers might be asking themselves is “how do I make my website creatively designed and usable at the same time?” The list below illustrates some of the examples on making a website design usable.

1. Plan with Your Target Users in Mind – when designing your website incorporating usability would start from your planning stage, in order to efficiently plan the website and incorporate usability with it design the website according to your target user. This means that you have to take into consideration the psychology of the intended user, for example when choosing colors for your website you have to consider the fact that every niche or user is attracted to specific colors, using such colors will start to motivate your users to further explore your website.

2. Design a Logical Navigation Bar – now that you have already decided on the basics of your website it is time to focus on the areas where you have to incorporate logic. One of which is your navigation bar, your navigation bar must be designed in such a manner that your users will easily find the web pages that they are looking for.

3. Use compatible scripting codes – web browsers is constantly being updated on a regular basis, this is why it is important to design your website using scripting languages that are compatible in a cross browser situation. Web designers cannot control what type of web browser will be used by the site visitor and if incompatibility is present between the web page and that of the web browser it may result to different consequences, commonly the website or web page may not be displayed properly.

Usability is truly one of the biggest considerations in web design, although the word design implies the aesthetic part of the web development process we must also realise that usability is implied as well.

Tags:usability, usable website, web design, web development, Website Design
Posted in Web Design Work |

Speed Up Your Photoshop Application

Monday, February 20th, 2012

Only a few are blessed with being able to purchase the fastest computer in the world, capable of running multiple applications without slowing down. However, there are a lot of people who can afford a modest computer, where running applications that require a lot of memory usage would tend to slow down the entire computer system. One such application that requires a lot of memory in order for it to function is Adobe’s Photoshop. If you are such person who loves to design using Photoshop but does not have a large computer resource the following tips may be helpful in order to speed up your Photoshop application in order to have a smooth image design or web design experience.

1. Take control of your Computer Memory – Photoshop will utilise every available memory in your computer, if your computer has a low memory, this would cause the slowing down of your computer whenever you run the Photoshop program. Fortunately, you can set the memory usage that Photoshop is allowed to use. This feature could be activated by clicking Edit>Preferences and then Performance. If you are using your computer for multitasking like browsing the internet, listening to audio and web designing using Photoshop you have to set your memory usage to at most 50%.

2. Augment your Memory with Scratch Disk – scratch disks functions as secondary memory resource, you can set your hard drive to function as a scratch disk. Creating a scratch disk is recommended if you are editing large image file size. One caution though, it would be prudent not to use your primary hard disk as your scratch disk, it would be better to utilise secondary hard disks or external hard disks as your scratch disk.

3. Turn of Thumbnail Preview – whenever Photoshop displays preview for channels, layers and the path palettes the application utilises your computer memory, this is why turning-off the preview function would decrease memory usage by Photoshop. In order to turn this features off use the “panel options” in every palette.

For a website designer whose bread and butter resides in efficient use of image editing software such as Photoshop increasing the speed of such software could ensure a smooth flow of the website design process.

Tags:computer memory, photoshop, scratch disk, web design, Website Design, website designer
Posted in Web Design Work |