Structuring Your Site

One of the primary rules of web design is "don't make your visitors think". It's much better to present them with what they expect and what they expect is an "information tree" approach.
A site like ours has 150+ pages and we have to employ every possible artifice to make it properly and easily navigable by anyone who might visit it.

We use menus, search boxes and site-maps to aid visitors in finding what they need but mechanism is the structure of the site itself.

Like most sites we define four types of page

The 'Home' Page
Normally the first page on which a new visitor 'lands'
On most sites this will contain a single message with a few links to key areas of the site.
Social networking sites differ in that there are often dozens of links on the home page often leading to specialist areas or individual contributions - normally in date order.

If Your Business Website Could Speak To You, What Would It Say?

Imagine your current business website as a living, breathing entity. An entity that observes things, that can process the same way our minds process. Imagine that each day, your website "wakes up" in the morning, ready for business, ready to show your customers and potential customers the best of you and your business.
Imagine it as a salesperson, sitting across from a prospective client. What does it look like? Is it dressed to impress, or is it in need of a new look? Is it ready to answer questions, show them your features and benefits, and meet their objections? Imagine the way it would interact with your prospect. Is it a good interaction?

If your website could talk to you, what would it tell you? Would you get good feedback about what's working, and what's not working? Would you be able to evaluate your sales method on your website, and together, come up with a system that works better?

Making the Most of Your Mobile Website

In the ever-changing digital world, yesterday's fringe activities have become today's mainstream. More and more people now rely exclusively on smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices to browse the web, shop online, and stay in touch - and this opens up a unique marketing opportunity for online businesses. However, a mobile website differs in crucial ways from a standard one. For retailers looking to take the next step in online marketing, bearing a few key points in mind will help your mobile site put its best foot forward.

Automatically detect mobile devices.
Among other things, website design should strive to make things easy for viewers. There is no point to creating a separate mobile site if users must hunt for a link or remember a particular URL in order to see it. Configure your main website to detect visitors on mobile devices, and automatically redirect them to your mobile site. Alternately, make your primary websiteresponsive so that it displays optimally on any kind of device, regardless of screen size. Both approaches lead to the same result: a clearly translated and fully functional mobile site to assure the best experience possible for your mobile clientele.

Don't Commit These Mistakes While Building Your Website

If you wish to promote your business, a website is indispensable. You are looking at local as well as global business. The purpose of a website is not just to attract visitors but to get them to respond. If your web is not designed properly and does not have content that achieves this purpose, visitors to your site will leave without exploring or responding the way you expect. Your website is your online marketing tool, your representative and should ideally aid your business. What are common mistakes web designers commit to please clients and what should you, the business owner, know about websites in order to avoid them? Here are a few:

Visual Overload
It is all very well to have flash and a lot of images as well as graphics. However, they can detract attention as also result in pages taking too long to load. If this happens, visitors will leave your website. You have to keep in mind slow connections and access on smartphones while creating websites.

Current Trends in Website Design

From passive to dynamic to interactive, website design has evolved rapidly. A web browser today is the point for interaction and a launch pad for apps with a host of functionalities in the background. While refining technologies, developers have also paved the way for sophisticated visuals, making it easy for visitors to navigate the site and record better satisfaction. Of the many developments in recent year, a few noteworthy ones are:

Interactivity Rose to a Higher Level
Technologies like ASP, Ajax, Jquery and LAMP have added whole new features, making it easy for visitors to interact. You notice this in the way when you hover your mouse pointer over a link, a small pop up appears and displays information. You can click to know more and it can be in the form of a pop up or a separate box. You need not leave the main page.

Menu and Navigation Systems
Pop out or fly out menus or drop down menus are not a new concept but the way they are incorporated along with a streamlined navigation system makes for a happier browsing experience. Users can navigate to the pages they are interested in. Web designers can subtly design navigation to lead visitors to the desired locations. Not all websites are considerate. Some have a landing page where you must enter your email details to proceed.

Your Website Must Have These Properties

Before you have your website designed and deployed, preferably by an experienced professional, ask yourself what it should have and what should be avoided. It is easy to do without flash, extended animations, rich graphics and lengthy content. That leaves you to consider what the site should have in order to get it to deliver expected results. You could keep the following in mind:

Get a Committed Professional Web Developer
Most small business owners think it is easy to develop and deploy website with free tools but such websites will never get you the expected results. A professional web developer will make the effort to understand your business, target audience, your competition and your objectives and will customize the site to achieve all the aims.

Content
Give content the importance it deserves and create it yourself, leaving it to the web developer to incorporate the right keywords and give it the "web" touch. That leads us to consideration of Meta tags, titles and keywords. Take time to discuss your business, competition and related facts with your web developer to assist him in creating the right titles, tags and keywords, in important consideration for rankings and listing by search engines. Keep content brief and to the point. Your developer should know how to take points to create a point of interest to lead visitors to main pages.

Keep These in Mind While Hiring Web Design Professionals

In recent years the web has exploded with virtually all businesses establishing a web presence. The number of web design companies has also grown to meet the demand. A professional web designer is absolutely essential if you wish to deploy your website considering the sophisticated technologies in use today. Professional design companies usually have teams comprising graphic designers and web programmers working in coordination and their services can be expensive. Luckily, there is a surfeit of design companies and you can now negotiate and bargain terms to get the best at the most affordable rates.
Before you assign the task to a company, assess them from all angles and satisfy yourself on all these points.

Technological capabilities
Today's requirements dictate the use of PHP and LAMP, Ajax, ASP.net, Jquery, HTML5 with e-commerce and database integration into websites. First list out your objectives and with these in mind approach a web design company to find out their capabilities. If they have teams with experience and capabilities, short list them. Some may offer websites based on templates while others will create your website from the ground up. Consider costs of each. Customized web design to ensure your site is accessible on desktops, laptops and mobiles should be the preferred route.

What Are The Challenges Of Responsive Web Design?

With the introduction of devices of all screen sizes that are able to access the internet (including tablets and smart phones), responsive web design has seen an increase in popularity. This technique enables a website to sense what size screen it is being viewed on and will resize itself accordingly. But what are the challenges encountered with this sort of design?

• Development time: The biggest challenge is that it takes more time to develop than a standard website. And it takes even longer if you are converting an existing site to a responsive one.


• Different devices: Unfortunately, it is impossible to build a website that works equally as well on all devices. The people using each of these devices will have very different needs and wants.


• Media queries: Responsive web design involves media queries that determine the correct layout; older browsers don't actually recognise these queries, meaning that they won't shoe the mobile version.


• Image details: When images are scaled down, they quickly lose their details (and, therefore, their meaning). Some people get around this challenge by cropping their images.


• Navigation menus: As there is less space on smaller devices, designing navigation that works can be quite a challenge; you must also keep in mind that many small devices are touch screen.