Web Applications

Website Designing

Web design involves the structure of the website including the information architecture (navigation schemes and naming conventions), the layout or the pages (wireframes or page schematics are created to show consistent placement of items including functional features), and the conceptual design with branding.

All websites should begin with a clear strategy so that it is apparent what they are trying to achieve. The strategy then enables the design to fulfill defined goals.

Web design is different than traditional print publishing. Every website is an information display container, just as a book is a container; and every web page is like the page in a book. However the end size and shape of the web page is not known to the web designer, whereas the print designer will know exactly what size paper he will be printing on. 

For the typical web sites, the basic aspects of design are:

• The content: the substance, and information on the site should be relevant to the site and should target the area of the public that the website is concerned with.
• The usability: the site should be user-friendly, with the interface and navigation simple and reliable.
• The appearance: the graphics and text should include a single style that flows throughout, to show consistency. The style should be professional, appealing and relevant.
• The structure: of the web site as a whole.

A web site typically consists of text, images, animation and /or video. The first page of a web site is known as the Home page or Index Page. Some web sites use what is commonly called a Splash Page. Splash pages might include a welcome message, language or region selection, or disclaimer, however search engines, in general, favor web sites that don't do this which has caused these types of pages to fall out of favor. Each web page within a web site is a file which has its own URL. After each web page is created, they are typically linked together using a navigation menu composed of hyperlinks.

Once a web site is completed, it must be published or uploaded in order to be viewable to the public over the internet. This may be done using an FTP client.

8 Tips for Designing a Great Website

Square buttons, round buttons, flashy buttons … will they match my shoes, my handbag or my tie? Are you stuck in a maze of buttons, headings, bullets, sub-headings and colour schemes?

STOP!!!!

Take a deep breath and read some practical tips for professional looking websites.

1. Select a colour scheme and stick to it.

If your company has a logo or preferred colours on its stationery that’s a good start. For those of you starting from scratch, choose two or three complementary colours and stick with them – don’t change colours on every page.

The most common colour schemes include:

- Red, yellow and white
- Blue and white
- Red, grey and white
- Blue, orange and white
- Yellow, grey and white.

If you’re not sure what colour scheme to choose, surf the internet and find a website that you like. You can then model your colour scheme on what already exists.

2. Use templates.

Can’t find a website you really like? Another option is to choose a template. There are many templates or pre-set designs. These come as part of your web design software (such as FrontPage) or you can check out some websites that specialise in designing templates.

Visit:

www.web4business.com.au emplates1.htm
www.newtemps.com
www.website-templates-resale-rights.com
www.123webtemplatesandmore.com

3. Provide an easy to use navigation system.

This is one of the most important issues to consider when designing a website. You need to ensure your visitors can find what they are looking for easily. Most websites either display their navigation bar on the left or at the top. And since most people are used to this type of navigation, it’s best to stick with it.

It also helps to include your navigation bar at the bottom of each page to save your visitors from having to scroll back to the top.

4. Don’t go overboard on special effects

Whilst it is ok to have one or two special effects to jazz up your website, spinning graphics and logos often distract your visitor from the content, not to mention they can take too long to download. Your visitors may click away even before your spinning logo finishes loading.

5. Backgrounds

Ensure your visitors can read the text on the background, ie. no black writing on dark blue background or yellow on white. Also be careful that your links are visible before and after being visited. The default for links in most programs is blue (before being visited) and burgundy (after being visited), so if you have a dark background, ensure your links are light.

6. External Links

It is a good idea to open links to other websites in a new window. That way your visitors can easily return to your site when they are finished browsing the external link

7. Site Map & Search Feature

If you website is more than 15 pages, it is useful to have a site map or a “Search” feature to ensure your visitors can easily find what they’re looking for.

8. Content is King

While it is important that your website looks clean and professional, it is far more important that you concentrate your efforts on the content and promotion.

If you want a professional website, things to stay away from include:

1. Flash intros, revolving globes, bevelled line separators, animated mail boxes
2. Loads of pop up or pop under boxes
3. Autoplay music. Allow your customer to play music only if they choose.
4. Hit counters of the free variety, which say “you are 27th visitor”
5. Date and time stamps, unless your website is updated daily or weekly
6. Busy backgrounds.

Hope you like this facts..

Website Development

Web development is a broad term for the work involved in developing a web site for the Internet (World Wide Web) or an intranet (a private network). This can include web design, web content development, client liaison, client-side/server-side scripting, web server andnetwork security configuration, and e-commerce development. However, among web professionals, "web development" usually refers to the main non-design aspects of building web sites: writing markup and coding. Web development can range from developing the simplest static single page of plain text to the most complex web-based internet applications, electronic businesses, or social network services.

For larger organizations and businesses, web development teams can consist of hundreds of people (web developers). Smaller organizations may only require a single permanent or contracting webmaster, or secondary assignment to related job positions such as a graphic designer and/or information systems technician. Web development may be a collaborative effort between departments rather than the domain of a designated department...

Client Side Coding

• Ajax Asynchronous JavaScript provides new methods of using JavaScript, and other languages to improve the user experience.
• Flash Adobe Flash Player is an ubiquitous browser plugin ready for RIAs. Flex 2 is also deployed to the Flash Player (version 9+).
• JavaScript Formally called ECMAScript, JavaScript is a ubiquitous client side platform for creating and delivering rich Web applications that can also run across a wide variety of devices.
• Microsoft Silverlight Microsoft's browser plugin that enables animation, vector graphics and high-definition video playback, programmed using XAML and .NET programming languages.
• HTML5 and CSS3 Latest HTML proposed standard combined with the latest proposed standard for CSS natively supports much of the client-side functionality provided by other frameworks such as Flash and Silverlight.

Server Side Coding

• ASP (Microsoft proprietary)
• CSP, Server-Side ANSI C
• ColdFusion (Adobe proprietary, formerly Macromedia, formerly Allaire)
• CGI and/or Perl (open source)
• Groovy (programming language) Grails (framework)
• Java, e.g. Java EE or WebObjects
• Lotus Domino
• PHP (open source)
• Python, e.g. Django (web framework) (open source)
• Ruby, e.g. Ruby on Rails (open source)
• Smalltalk e.g. Seaside, AIDA/Web
• SSJS Server-Side JavaScript, e.g. Aptana Jaxer, Mozilla Rhino
• Websphere (IBM proprietary)
• .NET (Microsoft proprietary)

Best Website Development Tips

You can get high rankings and increase web traffic to your site by doing the following steps.  Not following our advice on any tip will result in lower rankings on some search engines.  Please contact us if you need to know "the why" to the below statements:

• research what keywords people use most often on search engines that pertain to your products or services;  use these keywords as text in the design to increase website traffic.
• "Keep It Simple" - 99% of all web designers use too many graphical images and programs like Java, Flash, etc. which results in lower rankings and less traffic..
• Web pages, like a spread sheet, are made using cells and tables.  Use as few cells and tables in your web design as possible.

Create good Meta Tags.  Each page should have different keywords in the Title and the Description Meta Tag.

• Limit the number of times that you repeat words in your Keyword Meta Tag.
• Place your important keywords at the top of the page as text headers.
• Your most important page and keywords should be on the first page of a website.
• Frames based websites should only be used for Intranet (a site only for company employees) and not for Internet.
• Do NOT include pages that re-direct (a page that automatically sends you to another page) people to other pages.
• Run an analysis program to count the number of times keywords are used in the first 7500 characters of computer code.
• Limit your use of services that automatically submits your URL to the top 10 search engines.
• When finished with a page, run a spell checking program and then compress the html code.
• Keep track of your search engine rankings and website traffic.
• Once a website is indexed, a good web designer should go back and improve pages that didn't get high rankings on key words.
• Every 3 months you should make a small change on each web page.  Search engines like to see that changes are being made to a site and that it just isn't sitting there for years with no upgrades.
  
  
  Why Web Designers Don't Follow The Above Tips
  
  
  

  

  
  
  
  
  • Time is money.  Most web designers bid on projects and know it takes at least 30% more time to create a site that gets high rankings.  Since most companies / people don't know what should be done to get an increase in website traffic, web designers cut corners and only design a website that the customer sees is appealing.
  • Most web designers haven't taken the time to learn how to get high rankings on multiple search engines.

Many web designers don't care about getting high rankings, as it's not fun and creative work.


Test Your Web Designer

We are aware of many details that are important in getting top rankings.  To evaluate the skill level of your web designer, ask them these sample questions and record their answers.  Then contact us, and ask us the same questions.

1. What's the maximum number of characters that should be used in the Keyword Meta Tag?
2. What's the consequence of placing the page's Title just beneath the "<head>" statement vs. the bottom and just above "</head>" statement?
3. How do you get a high popularity rating?
4. Which search engine bases a majority of its ranking on popularity?
5. Which search engine gives "bonus points" for high popularity and for being listed on Yahoo or LookSmart?
6. Why is it a bad idea to create websites that use frames?
7. What are the top 3 search engines or directories used by people?
8. A listing on what directory also gets that page listed on MSN, Google, Overture, Go, and Iwon?
9. Besides Yahoo, what is the second most important directory to get listed on to increase your web site traffic?
10. Which search engine indexes ALT Tags?