Web Design and all stuff related to it!

To create an eye catching website that draws attention of a visitor is not something every designer on the street can do. A great web designer needs to be well conversant with all web technologies involved. This art involves a lot of research, learning and practice to perfect just like in any other profession.

There however exist lots of books, websites and web forums that claim to offer all this information but only a few have what it takes to comprehensively cover the topic of web design into its depth. With limited or no time to go through all these resources, a one stop shop where one can get information on web design tutorials would be a better choice for many web programmers.

There are plenty of online sites aimed at providing web design tutorials and web design software reviews. The busy web developer do not have the time to surf through each of these sites to find the information they are seeking. The best choice is a one stop shop for every bit of information the online designer needs.

A good online tutorial should have relevant information on web design and technologies with new topics and articles being added and updated from time to time. A site with outdated content is likely to add no value to a web designer who is eager to learn new tricks in his trade.

An online web design tutorial should cater for both new inexperienced learners to advanced designers who want to delve in to the depth of new web development technologies. A web design that tries meeting this basic requirement is worth your time.

If you have spent the time and money following your dream or goal of one day being a web designer or working hard towards a web design degree, you might just be waking up now to the reality of your situation.  Due to the current state of the economy, web industry, international business and many other factors, the web design world will not you let enter this market easily. Outsourcing may seem a bit intimidating at first and you might even have a moral conflict with it but you really shouldn’t if you are serious about making money one day. What’s happening is the United States is open for business for anyone with an internet connection and the ability to speak English. Since HTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL, JavaScript and most other web based technologies have free online tutorials this makes web design one of the most competitive industries ever. Beat the odds and begin outsourcing now.

From a project manager’s point of view, web design, development and marketing are really close to home development and construction.  The article  “Web Property Development” explains how both the web industry and construction industry are the same just one is digital and the other uses tangible,real-world materials. No matter what you still need a blueprint, to purchase land, to aquire a physical address, setup internal utilities, lay a foundation and structure, do the aesthetics and lanscaping, etc. Currently there is no union or organization to help us web designers out so until then your only hope to make decent money just might be to outsource.

Your web design degree is not a 100% scam but the industry is so new and dynamic that it’s almost impossible to find a school with lessons plans that are up to date. It’s hard to find teachers that can really hand code HTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL, JavaScript and the rest of the server-side nd client-side technologies because of the vast amount of skills it takes to design user friendly GUIs, proper valid HTML code, cross-browser CSS styling, secure PHP and server-side engineering as well as database architecture, Linux skills for the administration side, SEO techniques and about 200+ areas critical to most projects. If you want to dedicate your life to this or you might end up looking like a starving artist to your family, friends and possible clients. If your teachers are able to give up to date lesson plans why wouldn’t they be working on their own million dollar site instead of a teacher’s salary? Proof this industry is very hard to actually compete in.

Outsourcing could be your only option. One client that is willing to pay $1,000USD for a website normally will require 1-2 weeks of your time if you’re real good. At this rate, you eventually will only be able to handle 3-4  projects per month.  If you were to begin outsourcing parts of your design, dev or marketing you can now play project manager, hire some talent for cheap and raise your capability to 5-10 projects should your business begin to take off. You also can’t spend forever doing the work all yourself. When you hit a roadblock during the middle of a project, picking up the book and trying to become a pro overnight on a new technology or protocol is just not rational and often can result in disaster. Your best time and money saving option is to outsource to someone who already knows what you need to implement.

If you are stuck on a roadblock, outsourcing is probably the only option you have.  Finally you can get your projects completed within a reasonable budget and time frame. Let us know if you need help, our How to Outsource articles are here just for that reason. Good luck and don’t ever stop optimizing the process!

As I feel that web designing is one of the best career option for all who want to be a web designer with a dedication. Uncountable web designers one can find around the universe, from east to west and north to south. But the question is who is the best, and the answer is the person who creates good web sites, now again a question arise in the mind that how can one decide that a web site is qualifying good or bad merits. When it comes to your website, extra attention should be paid to every minute detail to make sure it performs optimally to serve its purpose.

Here are some important rules of thumb to observe to make sure your website performs well. Please read all carefully to avoid all the followings in your site:

1. Never use splash pages

Splash pages are the first pages you see when you arrive at a website. They normally have a very beautiful image with words like “welcome” or “click here to enter”. Do not let your visitors have a reason to click on the “back” button! Give them the value of your site up front without the splash page.

2. Do not use excessive banner advertisements

Even the least net savvy people have trained themselves to ignore banner advertisements so you will be wasting valuable website real estate. Instead, provide more valuable content and weave relevant affiliate links into your content, and let your visitors feel that they want to buy instead of being pushed to buy.

3. Must have a simple and clear navigation

You have to provide a simple and very straightforward navigation menu so that even a young child will know how to use it. Stay away from complicated Flash based menus or multi-tiered dropdown menus. If your visitors don’t know how to navigate, they will leave your site.

4. Must have a clear indication of where the user is

When visitors are deeply engrossed in browsing your site, you will want to make sure they know which part of the site they are in at that moment. That way, they will be able to browse relevant information or navigate to any section of the site easily. Don’t confuse your visitors because confusion means “abandon ship”!

5. Do not use uncontrolled audio on your site

If your visitor is going to stay a long time at your site, reading your content, you will want to make sure they’re not annoyed by some audio looping on and on your website. If you insist on adding audio, make sure they have some control over it volume or muting controls would work fine.

6. Do not make your web pages bulky

Every website owner does not only want to get his website ready but also expect a big benefit by the website in terms of business and branding. So are you taking care about all these things also when you work on a website? If yes, then OK, and if no then read all it very carefully. First of all, avoid using heavy jpg files, optimizing all the images, avoiding excessive use of table, you can replace now table with div tag. Always use external css, provide alt tag to all the images, put separate title name to all the pages, and most important is don’t forget to use proper meta tags also.

7. Test your website’s compatibility with all browsers

Your website isn’t just compatible with a lot of Website browsers. One of the foremost reasons why your website design doesn’t click at all is because it won’t show up with majority of Internet browsers. Keep in mind that there are many types that can be utilized by Internet users. Classic examples include Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, and Crazy Browser. Thus, it only means that if you want to make sure that you can reach out to as many potential customers as possible, your website should show up in all of them. Before you upload your website, do some testing first so you can already correct possible problems.

8. Is your website is readable by all the visitors

Fonts are not friendly to Internet users. Besides the overall layout of your web pages, you also have to take into consideration the font that you are going to use. The usual mistake in website design is using very small fonts, which makes content very inconvenient for Internet users to read. Sometimes they are frozen, which means you cannot adjust their sizes. You should ensure that your font is readable by complementing them with the background.

9. Is your website is Search Engine Friendly

Web pages are not search-engine friendly. If you’re not taking care of your headline tags, not adding Meta tags in each of your web pages, or if you’ve been stuffing a lot of keywords in your websites, then you will surely not gain the favor of search engines.

Interactive Web Design: The Best Way to Attract Users

The goal of any good web designer is simple; to create a site people want to visit. There are many ways to attract people to a site. Visual effects, flash animation, and user-friendly layout are just a few. However, as the design field becomes more innovative and competitive, many designers are seeking to create interactive sites, which give users something to do other than passively absorb information. There are a variety of interactive features you can add to your site. A few will be highlighted here, and you can find more information and tutorials by searching the web.

One great way to add some interactivity to your site is to attach special effects to your images. This allows users to feel involved as an image changes when they roll their mouse over it. This usually requires two kinds of scripts. A tag attached to the image, or another object you want to emphasize, and an “action” description in the section of a page. This “action” will usually be coded in JavaScript. Usually you will want to create two images; one that is normally displayed, and one that appears when a user rolls over the original. This can be an entirely new image, or a simple variation like a black and white or blurred effect applied to the first image.

Allowing users to post their thoughts and interact with one another is a great way to keep them coming back. This can be done in one of two ways. The first is through a comment box, where users simply post their thoughts to a site. A more complex approach is the creation of a discussion forum where complete conversations with various threads and topics can take place. Since people want to see responses to their posts on either option, they will continue returning to your site. Additionally, using these features allows you greater insight into what your viewers are interested in. Thus, you can modify future content to appeal to your users.

Another great way to get interactive feedback from visitors is to create a poll. A poll relevant to the content on your page will attract interest. The key is to keep updating with new polls regularly. This will keep users coming back so they can see what others think on a variety of issues. Plus, polls are easy to implement. Many sites offer free poll creation and subsequent code to insert the poll into your website. A great place to start is www.snappoll.com or www.coolsurveys.com.

A site can remain useful to a user even after they have browsed to a new page. How? By adding a syndicated RSS feed that visitors can subscribe to. This allows content from your site to be available in their e-mail or in an RSS feed aggregator, like Google Reader. You can also use RSS feeds from other sites to add new content to your page. This lets you bring in information from other sources with minimal effort. A great place to learn more about using RSS feeds is www.rssgov.com. The site offers free online tutorials for working with RSS.

Ultimately, adding interactive features to your site will attract and retain visitors. This not only improves your site’s popularity, it can help you generate enough interest to produce revenue from advertisements. These are just a few examples of some features you may want to add. Once you have explored these, consider going one step further with games, member subscriptions, and other great additions.

n is a process that really demands a lot of energy. It means providing the web design that is informative, pleasant and applicable for the web site costumer. Such web sites have a good design and right below are some advices that can be helpful in web designing.

Priority

The main thing that matters web design is the informative side of the web site. That is a good web design. The good web designer should provide to the costumers the best screen leading and it is the priority that shows different weight of all visual parts that web design has.As an example for most important status in many web designs can be the logo you see on the web site. But the priorities can go much further and it is up to you, your web designer to choose from many tools that are in your disposal you wish your costumers look at.

Spacing

Starting with web designing some beginners can consider that it is important to use every blank part left in the web site design. It seems them like a pity not to fill every space. But it is opposite. Web design must be clear and pleasant for looking. There are three aspects of spacing that are considered as necessary. Those are line spacing which directly determines the readability of the text, padding that represents the space between text and elements. Generally there shouldn’t be any touch between text and some other elements but some exceptions exist. The third aspect of spacing is white spacing and it considers empty spaces that doesn’t have to be white. This space gives a web design that is clear and elegant with balance, proportion and page contrasts.

Navigation

Something worst that may happen to you when navigating the web site is not to know where to go. Web designers must enable you to know where to go and to make it to easy figure out where you are in every moment. There are two important navigation aspects:

Navigation- to know where next to go.Orientation- to know the right position at the moment.

Typography

Text belongs to a web design and there for a lot of attention is turn toward it. The things you must take care about the text appearance are next:

Font ­­- it is recommended to use the appropriate font and not too different.

Font sizes – Today texts are written to read and the font size must be consistent and the proportion between headings and sub- headings must exist.

Line length – It doesn’t need to be too long.

Colour – It must be a good contrast and not too many colours to use.

Spacing – We have already discussed it above.

Usability

Putting as many information, text and images must be usable for the costumers so web designers must pay attention on it.

Sharpness

The sharpness of web design is very important for having design very crystal and sharp. If want a sharp design certain things must be achieved:

Make shaped edges into pixels.

Use appropriate anti- aliasing setting for any text.

Contrast must be high how the borders can be clearly defined.

Emphasize the borders just a little to increase the contrast.

On my YouTube Channel www.Yoututbe.com I (Ford Saeks) have several short video clips related to Effective Web Design and Internet Marketing. This video continues the secrets of creating your Online Cash Machine aka your website. Secret # 7: Keep the Graphic Designer and Web Programmers in Check. Your web designer shouldnt be in control of the marketing process and you should identify your specific outcome for each area and page of your website. Remember that you’re the marketer You need to …

Nowadays, there are many professionals out there, who are specialized in converting the design in your website according to your demands, the modern technology they count on enabling them to overcome your expectations. PSD 2 HTML is a professional web design service, being one of the most popular choices in web development. The wish of every web designer is to get their sites on the first pages for search results and this can be achieved by means of a search engine friendly site.

There are some web designers who use tables and claim that they facilitate the design process, stating that tables are compatible with different browsers. However, there are some designers who support tables formats, believing that tables represent an impediment to web accessibility and this is where PSD to HTML plays an important part. PSD 2 HTML provides web designers with the efficacy they need in order to create sites, the conversion services of HTML allowing them to enhance the performance of the website and at the same time to create an original layout.

Furthermore, the PSD 2 HTML conversion provides a complete separation of content from presentation and the HTML codes were upgraded so that you can maintain satisfying rankings for the most popular search engines. Due to PSD to HTML you will benefit from much better cross-browser compatibility, your website being accessible via Opera, Firefox and others. This program is meant to put at your disposal an international conversion service, improving the performance of your website and allowing it to maintain its original design. Also, your website will maintain positive ratings for the popular search engines.

If you want to improve your site’s performance, PSD to HTML is definitely what you are looking for, because you will have at your disposal; a number of options which will enable you to implement your design. Due to these modern programs, you will have not only affordable and quality design but also development services. Your PSD 2 HTML should be accurate, concise and you will need to specify the number of pages required and your additional requirements.

Before giving an order for PSD to HTML, you must decide whether you need a fixed width layout pr a fluid one, where you can stretch each column. This program will enable designers to create and at the same time to write down the hex codes for the design areas. All these new, modern programs are meant to ease your every day work and by means of table less PSD 2 HTML you can achieve layout control without using any tables. The text and the other elements that can be seen on a page are arranged by means of css, thus using HTML for semantic purposes.

All in all, there are many good reasons why most professional designers have chosen to work with this program since web site design is of vital importance for the success of your site. These days, things are meant to be as simple as possible, even for web designers. Internet marketing is based on web development that offers search engine optimization and multi-browser compatibility.

Many potential online business owners want to develop a powerful website that is a blending of their own personality and a potent visual presentation that will be attractive to visitors.

Interestingly, these same business developers often have very little in the way of solid direction for their site. They know they want to sell products to customers, but may not be sure how to translate that desire into a web design. This is where a web designer can come into the picture to help identify what you may actually need in the form of a web development and design.

The biggest problem with hiring a web designer is you are likely to pay a significant outlay of capital to get the site up and running and the cost continues as you essentially pay a retainer fee each month to keep the designer on hand in case of any major changes. The straightforward answer to your dilemma is your lack of planning will ultimately cost you significantly in present and future web design application and redesigning.

Is there a way to make design and development easier?

Yes.

Think about a website in terms of a family tree. Instead of the patriarch of the family at the top of the tree, you have your homepage. Under that homepage you list primary pages (instead of children). These pages may consist of features such as “About Us”, “Contact Us”, “Shopping”, “FAQ”, etc. Then you should identify how many pages you will need under each of these pages. For instance in the shopping section you should determine how many pages you need to list individual products and descriptions.

If you can work to develop a site map (something like a family tree) for your web business then you can develop the website yourself at significant savings. What’s more you can also make any changes to your website on your own without needing to work through a web host or designer (who may or may not have time to help you once the original design is finished and they have found a new client to work with).

Template rich site builders can allow you to develop your own web design. The primary difference is you will need to take some time to plan the site and then work to implement the ideas on your own.

Most of us have some idea about how a family tree works. With that same principle a new website can take shape that conforms to your own personality and offers the opportunities to use the latest in web tools to help you make your site unique and distinguishable to site visitors.

Think about it another way. If you are looking to complete a home repair you might likely look at a website designed to provide details on managing a home repair project. This information can allow you to gain the satisfaction and pride that comes with saving money and gaining a new skill.

Online tutorials can help you learn what you need to learn about web building tools for a positive, self-directed web design.

If you are a Virtual Assistant who is struggling to find potential clients, why not consider learning web design? Web design is a very profitable skill which is in high demand as the Internet becomes our marketplace.

How Learning Web Design Will Help You as a Virtual Assistant

Learning web design will give you another marketing strategy to offer potential clients. If people know you are not only a virtual assistant, but you are also a web designer, you will be more attractive to them. Businesses are looking for people who can provide more than one service because it saves them time and money.  Also, it means that there is one less person needed to be contacted on a regular basis.

You will be able to market your services as a web designer alongside and independently from your virtual assistant services, to make for greater income stream potential. Some people will want one service over the other, and some people will jump on for both, especially if you offer specials or package deals.

Not only will you be able to market these services to potential clients, but you will be able to use your skill to work on your own website, to enhance a primary communication vehicle between you and your client base, both active and potential. If you have a web designer who works for you, you can save money by doing the work yourself, and you can team up with them and network to find more work for each of you.

Ways Virtual Assistants Can Learn Web Design

There are several different ways virtual assistants can learn web design, including:

College Courses: For those who are really serious and want to earn a formal education in web design, check out your local college campuses to see what kind of web design and development programs they offer.  (Having a formal degree in web design is not necessary for success.) Online College Courses: For those interested in earning a formal education in web design, but want to do so from home, there are several reputable online colleges that offer degrees in web design. Online Courses for Enrichment: For those who are interested in learning web design but do not want the expense nor do they have the time to devote to earning a degree, there are several online courses one can take to learn more about web design. One of these courses is: “Introduction to Web Design” offered by AI Virtual Solutions, www.aivirtualsolutions.com. E-books: There are several different eBooks online, some free, and some you must pay for, that will help you learn web design. These are great supplements to formal education because web design and development is a changing field that requires a lot of continuing education. Online Tutorials: Many websites have tutorials for web design and development. No matter what part of web designing that you want to learn or what your level of expertise is, you will find something to help you. Learning web design completely using only these online tutorials is hard, but they make great supplements to other methods of learning.

The skill of developing web sites is important, not just to Virtual Assistants, but to everyone in today’s marketplace. In taking the initiative to learn this skill, many Virtual Assistants have seen an increase in their businesses, and they are also enjoying using the skills of being a Virtual Assistant and a web designer to make a living from home.

Most of the people think that it is visual appearance that determines a site’s success or failure but in fact it is Usability that determines site’s faith no doubt that visual appearance does have involvement in site’s success but first thing is Utility. After all it’s all about user; finally a user has to use the site and has to decide everything. So, most of the designs we do see over different websites are user-centric. Before talking about principles of web design, first take a look at how user look or interact with a website and their basic patterns of behavior.

Visitors glance at every new page and scan some of the text and normally do click at something of their interest on a website and if they don’t find it of their interest then Back button is clicked and search is continued. In all this process there may be the large parts of text at which they even do not even look at. Overall users do appreciate quality content even if a page is filled with lots of advertisements and is not well-designed then too they don’t mind reading it. Second thing to notice about them is that they don’t read they just scan the whole thing and normally they are impatient i.e. they do return if they don’t find what they were searching for or if the page takes too much of time to load. They usually follow their intuition and want to have complete control.

After having a glance at user’s behavior let’s talk about the basic rules of web design now the principles of web design are:

Rule #1 Web Page must be obvious and self explanatory – Website’s navigation and architecture must be user friendly in all respects. A web designer’s basic objective must be to don’t let users think and eliminate question marks related with usability of the site.

Rule # 2 Keep user requirements minimal – Let user explore, discover and test your site and services without filling up long web forms and forcing them to share their private data.

Rule # 3 Attract users – Integrate images and web 2.0 elements in your website to make it more attractive. Make your website eye catching providing both static and dynamic content.

Rule # 4 Make uses of Modern web designs – Simple 1-2-3-done steps, large buttons with visual effects are definitely better as compared to simple web elements.

Rule # 5 Effective Writing – Fine-tune your writing approach to users’ preferences and browsing habits. Talk business; avoid company specific or unfamiliar technical names.

Rule # 6 Keep it simple – should be the fundamental objective of the site design. From the user point of view, the best site design option is to keep pure text without much advertisement in it.

Rule #7 Divide the content – into digestible pieces of information to reduce the load cognitive load for the visitors as complex structures are harder to read, scan and analyze and work with it.

Rule # 8 Express yourself effectively – Follow the visible language which has three basic fundamentals as organize i.e. provide user with a clear consistent structure, economize which includes elements like simplicity, clarity, emphasis and distinctiveness and communicate i.e. match your expression with user capabilities.

Rule # 9 Conventions are not always bad – Conventional designs doesn’t result in a boring website as they reduce the learning curve and can help you gain users’ assurance and belief.

Rule # 10 Test early Test often – This so called theory should be applied to every web design project. Testing is a repetitive process i.e. one must keep testing to produce useful results.