Hence, using a website to promote your business or to promote your agenda is a necessity nowadays.  It is very hard to think of a business or an organization that can continue to function without having some sort of Internet component to it.  More and more people expect to relate to companies or organizations through their website and this is absolutely a necessity in the instances of global entities.  In many cases, your customers can be on the other side of the world and your company headquarters can be thousands of miles away.  However, with the use of a professionally designed website, you can easily make sure that your correspondence takes place on the Internet and thus locations lose their meaning.

But one trap that many designers fall into the trap of using very complex graphics, flashy animations and complex plug-ins to make their websites look more advanced and more flashy.  Many designers feel that in order to compete with the thousands of other websites out there, it is essential for them to do extravagant things; so that their visitors will be impressed and they will stay on the website instead of just moving on.

Perhaps this idea can be justified to a certain extent.  However, it must be remembered that although there are some people who feel this way on the Internet, there is a majority amount of people who can not use the Internet as proficiently as others.  You can see 9 year old kids on the Internet as well as 80 year old senior citizens and thus as a web designer you will need to exercise caution and restraint in your design process.

You have to make sure that these groups of people are represented in your designs as well.  It is very essential for you to design web pages for every one and not just for the select few.  Flashy graphics and complex animations may be interesting for entertainment, but for functional value they add very little to the essence of the website itself.  As a web designer, if you want to design web pages for everyone, it is important for you to focus on content and functionality instead of the aesthetic components.  Your website must be able to provide informative content and it must provide it in a functional and useful way.  Although you may end up losing few visitors who expect to be dazzled, as a gain you will be able to win over thousands of other visitors who are looking for content and functionality.

Peter Brittain
Perth Web Design

Since reading from a web page can be more difficult than that from a printed document, the background colour for the website must be such that the text is readable with minimum effort. While superimposing text on to graphics, the text should still be clearly visible.

Restrict the urge to put in the flashiest of graphics. Flash player is a tool that has been developed from a basic code that is well suited for web applications. But Flash on its own does not display well on many of the sites. Do not prompt the users to download the latest versions of plugins, since they might just move on to another site in disgust. Also, beware of using too many animated graphics to promote products which may be totally unrelated to the site, but whose endorsement you have been paid for. Viewers visit a website with a specific purpose and don’t like to be bombarded with unwanted information.

Using the generally accepted tabs like Home, About Us, Services, Products and Contact Us helps the user get more confident while navigating the site. Even at the risk of appearing to be predictable, structuring information under appropriate headings either alphabetically or otherwise makes searching easier. Incorporating a search box that can pick up keywords from all throughout the site is strongly recommended. Consider the official site of the USFDA – www.fda.gov. The search box throws up all possible information stored under the hundreds of tabs displayed on the site.

Users like to be lead accurately to the site when keywords are used. Hence making use of meta-tags, which should give a precise summary of the page, is always appreciated. Incorporate universally acceptable fonts and options to increase or decrease font size.

Majority of web users are those with less time at their disposal. Hence, try to minimize the loading time and computer memory required for web pages. If the subject matter is too vast, break it up into paragraphs and display on successive pages. All the major browsers must easily display the web pages.

Maintain a header or footer for each page displaying the navigation tool, to avoid the need to use the “Back” key repeatedly. The pages should clearly display the current position where the user has reached. As a generally accepted norm, the navigation buttons should appear on the top or left hand side.

Using similar backgrounds for all pages is advisable, so as to have a thread of commonality running through. This also creates an impression of a unique identity in terms of colour for the site.

The web is a media where users have the option to view what they choose and skip the others. This makes it in fact, easier for developers to gauge their prejudices and preferences, the only requirement being the use proper audience analysis.

Peter Brittain
Slinky Digital

Use these forms from another location to see that it is actually working at all times. Many a times an error message may pop up even when the user has provided the right information. This may be due to a bug in the system. Clearly specify the key to be used to move from one field to another, right at the beginning.

Use minimum number of pages and ask only relevant questions. Remember that the customer knows your product and hence is ready to buy. The form should not appear as though you are questioning their identity.
Make a form logical and do not provide long lists of irrelevant options for a field. Do not add all the countries and cities of the word under the locations field, since you would not be providing services at all locations.

Provide immediate explanations and examples below each field so that the customer understands them. Do not categorize irrelevant fields as mandatory ones. If the customer does not have a landline number, making such a field compulsory will only make him leave or enter a false number.
 
Ensure that the customer is assured of the security of his personal details. The standard “lock” sign should be prominently displayed. Do not make your clients repeat information they have already provided. For example, if you are asking for the mailing address, ask whether it is the same they entered earlier or not. If not they will have to enter it separately.

Incorporate a system that will save information filled in each field separately. This will allow the user to go back to something he thinks has to be changed without losing information. Anything incorrectly filled has to be identified there itself and not after the form is submitted.  If the form is pushed back over and over to be corrected the client will leave after some time.

Indicate when each page has been successfully completed. This will help the customer be confident of completing the rest. Giving the customer an option to pay though a trustworthy source is a good idea.

These include sites like PayPal and Escrow, which in turn are helpful in getting you the payment in a safe and assured way. Commercial firms doing electronic purchases have fixed payment sites that are thoroughly vetted by them. All purchases without such options are rejected outright. Hence, going in for the safest options are advisable.

Sending a prompt reply to customers will assure them of the receipt of the form. Recognise former customers ad make their current purchases to be processed faster. Some tend to use these forms for dual purposes, like purchase checkout and also a market surveillance study about their product. Do not ask your client to add good captions promoting the product. The client may not find any suitable words for your product.

The checkout form is a way the purchase procedure for the clients. They would not like spending more time filling the checkout form, than actually scrutinizing the product for its quality. In addition, remember that the whole purpose of online purchasing is it minimize time taken for transactions.

Peter Brittain
Digital Agency

There are trusted feed programs that are of considerable help for companies that have large websites. Say, for example, if your website has something like 600 pages, using a trusted feed program can help a lot. Some companies allow you to make payments only if there is traffic to your site, as against the paid for inclusion program wherein you have to pay even if you do not get traffic. The pay for performance program proves beneficial if your returns are comparatively lower due to some drawbacks. These programs are called as XML feeds by some, as they use the XML protocol, which has become an integral part of today’s web services and other applications. It is very useful for large websites that want to reach out to a highly targeted traffic. Moreover, the trusted feed is continually re-indexed and appears as generic listing and not as advertisements. It has guaranteed indexing of every web page that is submitted, even the dynamic pages. It is very useful for eCommerce websites that are largely database driven. Some of these tools also provide mechanisms that allow advertisers to remove discontinued products.

There are several advantages of using trusted feed programs. Even if you have dynamic content it can be indexed now. This is because it provides easy refresh cycles that can keep your specified content updated. Up to a certain extent it allows you to have control over what content is indexed. Large sites should certainly use the trusted feeds. Similarly, if these sites have deep content like extensive catalog of product in database, it is useful to get indexed. As it can index the deep content, your large site can also get a competitive ranking.

Generally, these providers also support you in identifying pages included in database powering a search engine search. There cannot be any assurance on placement but using trusted feed could be of great use to make it search engine friendly. When you use trusted feed your listing start appearing in around 72 hours and continues for some more days. Most of these providers allow you to track your trusted feed campaign’s ROI and Return on advertising spend. Similarly, you can even monitor the traffic volumes for each search destination where the trusted feeds are used. You can easily determine the most popular keyphrase searches as well the URLs that have the best performance.

There are a few drawback of this technology also. Though it is useful for database driven website, it does not assure you top rankings, and sponsored ads may be better in such situations. Using trusted feed is a time consuming processes and mainly beneficial for bigger companies. Though smaller companies can use them, the cost involved may prohibit them.

Trusted feed programs remove the wall that blocks the search engine spiders from crawling dynamic and deep content pages. Research well and then select the trusted feed program that seems to be the best solution for you.

Peter Brittain
Perth Digital Agency

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Having said that, make sure that you use graphics in your website to spruce it up. You can add life to just about any website by adding images. Images play a major role in breaking the monotony of your text, though proper use of graphics is crucial. With graphics, you can greatly enhance the appeal of your web pages and thus impress your visitors. Outlined below are some quick web page design ideas to incorporate graphics effectively in your web design.

1. Use JavaScript to swap images – Swapping images is a simple but powerful technique that can be done using JavaScript. With this technique, you can swap graphics if the cursor passes over any web object. For instance, if you are into interior decorating business and you wish to include some of your latest designs in your website, this technique would be of great use to you. So, if your visitor passes over a button that says ‘living room’ while the current graphic is a bed room design, then a living room design would be displayed in place of the bedroom design until the cursor remains over the living room button.

2. Using Rollovers – Rollovers are pretty similar to swapping images. As such, a primary image changes into a secondary image the moment a user passes the cursor over the image link. As soon as the cursor is moved away from the link, the secondary image changes into the primary image. Like image swapping, rollovers can also be created by means of a simple JavaScript. As long as you don’t overdo rollovers, they can be very good for the look of your website. However, make sure that it does not take ages for the images to load or else your visitors will get bored and simply move on to a different website.

3. Add background images – Background images can enhance the appeal of your website and also convey your message to visitors more effectively. You can fill up suitable background images in rows or columns to make your web page look good without giving it a crammed look. For instance, if you are into gardening, you can include the image of a small plant at the bottom that is seen growing vertically towards the upper side of the web page.

4. Don’t forget to leave some white space – White space is nothing but the empty space between text and images and is often called as negative space. White space plays a dual role in web designing – it gives a squeaky clean look to your website and also makes content reading a more soothing experience for the eyes.

When designing your web page, don’t forget the rule: less is better. Use graphics sparingly only as complementary elements for your text.

Web site development involves the client who requires a site, a developer who is well versed with the coding and other technical jargon that goes with it, and more often than not a content developer who deals with the artistic layout required for the website. Almost all of those involved are mostly who are capable of working independently when the task is clearly specified. But getting them work to work in a team for a product that is in itself quite dynamic is the key to a good website.

First and foremost the client should chalk out thoroughly all the features he wants to be displayed on the site. The content of focus should be decided well in advance. The website should be able to communicate in a few seconds its purpose and what in general it has to offer.

The client, say from a banking firm may be an expert in the field of investments, shares and stocks, derivatives, etc, while the developer might be a wizard in the realm of designing. When communicating the intricacies of the requirements, the client as well developer should not assume that the other understands their technical talk easily. Both should be patient enough to explain their view points. Both must make themselves accessible to each other as much as possible.

Remember that a client will have the most fancy ideas concerning his website. The developer has to clearly specify the limitations associated with a specific designing tool, and suggest alternative ways to achieve the result. Also, the multiple ways to reduce file size, page load time and appropriate graphics to be added, without compromising much in the quality can be explained. A customer may suggest changes during the process of designing. A developer who is a good communicator can maintain the clients confidence in him by explaining the pros and cons of such changes.. After having designed many websites, the developer’s suggestions must be valued and can be incorporated in the site design.

The client might desperately want a specific graphic, picture or video to appear on the page. The developer must be able to clearly communicate the inevitable changes that may occur while optimising these to load them on the site. It is advisable that personal meetings be held at regular intervals throughout the development process. Ambiguous statements and instructions must be avoided while e-mailing one’s requirements. It is better to continue development only after reaching a mutual point of understanding in case of issues of contest.

The field of web designing is an area of expertise which cannot be measured by any yardstick. There is too much subjectivity and customisation associated with it. This makes the client apprehensive about whether he is receiving quality service for the cost incurred. But the customer will surely appreciate the efforts put in if the designer is a good communicator.

Peter Brittain
Perth Web Design

Choose an interesting topic before building the site itself, so that traffic flow is increased. If your site is already up and running, see to it that the latest happenings in your field of interest is covered on your site.

A simple way to start earning is to reserve space on your page for others to advertise their products. Such advertisers can be found on affiliate networks on the web. Choose sites and products that match or belong to your area of activity. For example, if you are a medium scale automobile servicing company, you could advertise for a range of firms from vehicle manufacturers, spare part producers, and insurance providers to firms buying and selling used cars. There are a variety of payment options that can be negotiated. One method is that you may get paid if a user actually takes the effort of going through the banner and buys a product. Another is that you get paid even if the user only clicks on the banner. Or a still better option is that you are paid a flat rate just for hosting the banner. The first two options are certainly preferable if you have developed a really interesting website. You can attract lucrative deals if you employ time, technology and manpower on making the site an outstanding one. The logic behind is simple – Tiger Woods is paid more to wear a particular sports outfit than any other golfer.

Assuming that you have got a very interesting and informative site running, the next step could be to add a tool which allows visitors to subscribe to the site to receive regular e-mails on the latest updates. This has been a tremendous success with publicly listed corporations. In an effort to keep up with the daily changes and forecasts of company performance, investors subscribe to such auto generated reports and messages that keep them informed of their asset value.

Instead of devoting space on the web page, hyperlinking key words in the content itself to pages that carry advertisements may also be a way of earning. Getting job consultancies to advertise jobs that are related to your niche can attract traffic. Displaying sponsored content on your specific topic is also a way of generating income, although viewers may not fully believe the integrity of the content. Some firms pay the host for carrying out a survey on their behalf. These appear as small boxes on the page which can be easily turned if the viewer does not wish to take part.

Developing reliable and precise news content within a short time span and allowing other sites to access these can be a stable source of revenue. Compiling and archiving articles and press releases, like those related to science and technology, and providing them online when required is a growing trend in e-business.

Peter Brittain
Perth Web Design

A website, unlike regular advertising and communication tools, has an unlimited scope of attracting attention. The choice of the designs and content incorporated depends primarily on the target audience, purpose and requirement. It is not advisable to incorporate animation just because it is attractive, rather it should enhance the already available features and content. A thorough analysis of other methods of inducing interest must be thought of before thinking of animations. One has to decide on the value addition that an animation can give to the site. If it proves to be a distraction and takes away attention from the actual content it may be worth skipping.

Animation includes simple features like moving text, to complex ones like moving caricatures and cartoons. Addition of appropriate animations greatly enhances user interest usability and popularity of a website. A marquee at the top and bottom of a news website, which shows a latest updates available is more user friendly compared to tabs which show their content only after they are clicked. In a maze of information, the user’s attention is directed to the matter of utmost importance in the shortest possible time.

Flash is a common tool used for developing animation graphics for websites. Compared to a site displaying plain text, the presence of animated graphics is more appealing. Some websites have a animation display as soon as a user enters the site. The user is prompted to either wait for it to complete or skip the show entirely. Such displays present the purpose and focus of activity right at the beginning. Moving caricatures and text phrases linked to other independent web pages is a wonderful way of structuring huge volumes of information while at the same time greatly reducing the load time of the home page.

Animation gives a sense of live interaction and instant response to the user. Generally they are of two types, frame and sprite animation. Frame animation consists of that done within a specified area like a rectangle. Here a series of fixed frames are made to run at a fast pace, creating an illusion of a picture in motion. The limitation of this method is that the entire frame is visible, is independent of other parts of the site and is not interactive.

In the sprite form, there is no restrictive frame as such and the picture moves all across the site page. The use of such animations is more common on websites for online games. The various images are linked to program scripts that pre-written. As the user clinks on to the images the appropriate programs run and show the respective animated effect. This leads to other graphic images that prompt the user to choose movements out of a range of options.

Initially animation was considered as the pure use of images or photographs manipulated using tools to create motion. In the fast developing digital world, the development in video effects has lead to linkups between video and graphic animations. This explains how for example the caricature of a political figure is used along with video clips to deliver a strong message compared to plain text. Thus the right use of animations will be an added attraction rather being the sole one.

Peter Brittain
Perth Web Design

Of course, just like any other project, the most important part of web development is its initial planning stage. The reason for that is because you will need to decide some things up front, so that your website design can reflect these decisions. Hence, it is important for you to decide the overall purpose and the general theme of your website, before starting on its development.

In the planning stage, you will need to identify:
1. the general purpose of the web site
2. the overall theme of the website
3. The elements of the website and whether it will use Web 2.0 elements
4. The design team that will work on the website
5. The types of software and tools that will be used for the designing of the website
6. The research that will need to be completed, in order to accumulate the necessary content
7. The editor who will edit and critique your website

So, as you can see, the planning stage will be pretty much the grand layout of your website, as well as the identification of the people who will be present in its design. It will essentially help jump start the web development process, as it will identify the proceeding stages of web development.

Once the planning stage is completed, then the design stage will start. Here the relevant content will be woven to your website with the help of graphical and animation features to make it more interesting to your visitors. At this stage, it is essential to use rich, original and informative content on your website for maximum benefit. By this way, you can be sure that there will be important information for people at your website. The need for original content must be stressed over and over again, as it can be the threshold between success and failure for your website.

Of course, using a Content Management System will help to organize this content and make it dynamic and ever changing. This way, you can be assured that the content will evolve and thus this will allow your page ranking to increase as well. Of course, you will need to use Flash graphics and other graphical tools to allow for interest for your site.

However, the most important thing to remember is the fact that web development is not a static process and it is an ongoing, dynamic process. As long as your website is up and running, you will need to develop it constantly and make any appropriate changes so that your website can remain competitive on the world of the Internet.

Peter Brittain
Web Design Services

Similarly, the file size of the documents required to enhance page utility like various image files, multimedia elements and even the scripts, is also a factor. Typically the image files, as well as video or audio files that you add to the page are responsible for increasing the page size. These take longer to load on slower Internet connections and thus are a drawback in page performance. You can use CSS sprint techniques to load all images at the same time. If you define dimensions for images on their container elements, it can help ensure rendering of the page correctly, thereby ensuring that there is no jumping around, when images are loading. You can also use PHP script, when you want to collate several scripts or CSS style sheets into a single file. It is easy to use and can cache the collated file till you make many changes to any included file. This helps your files to be automatically packed and cached and included file also gets updated, when you change them. This helps in maintenance, as well as improvement in page performance.

If you include large dependencies at the end of the document, it is better, as the rest of the page will at least get shown first before browser loads them. Even the JavaScript should not be put in the header, as it lowers the speed. If you are using any third party content from their server, then it is better, if you can use RSS feeds locally instead. You need not deal with their DNS server delays nor have to be affected by its down times.

There are different techniques that you may use to enhance page performance. This is a very basic idea of some of the techniques available. You can select those that match your requirements.

Peter Brittain
Perth Web Design