Archive for the ‘Web Development’ Category
published by Dan in Web Development | Web General | Website Design
One question that faces website owners is who to trust with the optimisation of their websites. Many web designers nowadays offer SEO as part of their web design package. While this is very convenient you should be warned that having the web design team take care of the SEO is not always the best thing to do.
Before I explain why this is true let me state that in my opinion web designers should have a solid SEO background. This is important because you want the website to be designed already with SEO taken into consideration. It is important that the “SEO don’ts” shouldn’t be committed and best practices are followed. However, as mentioned earlier the entire SEO, especially the post website designing/building part of SEO should not be left in the hands of web designers. The reason why I say this is that most web design teams do not have the in depth knowledge nor the experience needed to do SEO. This means that….
- it is only the basic optimisation methods that are implemented.
- usually it web designers only consider on-page factors and neglect methods that affect off-page factors for SEO.
- many optimisation packages offered only include the initial SEO and since we know that SEO is a continuous process it is not the best you will get.
That being said this shouldn’t turn you off when web design firms offer SEO services. However you should make sure that if offered the web design firm also has a special SEO team and that it is clear what kind of SEO is exactly offered so that in case they are simply referring to adhering to SEO practices then you won’t end up overlooking the fact that you still need to hire someone to do your website’s SEO for you.
published by Dan in Usability | Web Development | Website Design
If you have passed the planning stages of your web design and already have an existing one you can still make use of focus groups to help make improvements.
As I have mentioned before the ideal thing to do in order to determine your current website’s usability is by conducting usability tests. This entails the browsing and completion of tasks by participants individually.
Focus groups can be used to get a deeper insight on how the participants in the usability test perceived your website. After conducting the individual usability tests you can gather your participants and form focus groups allowing them to discuss their experiences during the usability testing. Encourage participants to expound on the areas that gave them greatest difficulty and allow the other participants who did not find that part too troublesome or difficult to explain why they found it easy and how they approached the problem. Analyse their differences.
Have a brainstorming session with the participants regarding features they want to be present and ask which features they deemed unnecessary. In the end though most of what will be tackled in the focus group will likely echo your findings garnered from the usability tests you will still be able to get a better grasp of your users psyche and expectations. You might also uncover an problem that wasn’t apparent during usability testing and the participants might surprise you with a novel or at least sound concept you overlooked.
published by Dan in Web Development | Website Design
On my last post I discussed the importance of focus groups and explained why and how they can be used to get insight on your users before embarking on your web design. If you think about it though many of the information garnered from focus groups can actually be collected via questionnaires. So why should you spend time on putting together a focus group instead of simply disseminating questionnaires and conducting a survey?
There are several reasons why conducting a focus group is better than doing a survey, especially when it comes to web design. One important advantage of focus groups over surveys is that focus groups allow for more in depth answers. People that answer questionnaires rarely give very detailed answers. Aside from this focus groups allow participants to hear each other’s answers/ideas thus aiding in everyone’s creativity process. This lead to more ideas and more refined answers and suggestions.
Another very important advantage of focus groups is that since there is a moderator present the moderator can steer the group in the direction he/she wants. In case the moderator wishes to dig deeper about a certain aspect regarding web design ideas he/she can give follow up questions to get the needed information. This is not possible with questionnaires since the questions are canned. Even if you add a “Other suggestions/ideas” field at the end of the questionnaire it is completely different that being able to ask specific/pointed questions.
published by Dan in Web Development | Website Design
Nowadays there have been customisable websites that have been coming out that are notable not only because they are different in that they are customisable but because they are actually actually pretty popular. One perfect example of this customisable website is the Google Homepage (iGoogle). Once logged in to your own Google account you can customise iGoogle and customise so many things, from the skin or theme to the actual content of the homepage.
Customisable websites like iGoogle are a hit for very good reasons. The most obvious reason is that a customisable website gives users control over how the website, from the look and feel to the content. This allows them to filter out content they deem irrelevant to them making the website have less noise and more productive or useful for them each visit. Even if a website does not really offer customisation of content and only that of the look and feel users are often still drawn to this fact because it still at least lets them assert their preference. It makes the website more personalised and we all know how big personalisation is nowadays.
If you have a website and need to make it fresh or are thinking of how to offer a whole bunch of content without overwhelming your users you might want to consider offering customisation options. Note though that customisation is not the best solution each time, however, depending on your customer’s needs as well as your site’s goals it might just be the right solution for you.
published by Dan in Web Development | Website Design
The tools for web design and hence the web pages that we eventually create out of it has evolved through time. Back then, website design needed only a few things: a text editor to edit the html mark-up, and a browser to test the design on. But now, we have a dizzying array of web design IDEs and tools, and everyone has learned to leverage the power of more complex and dynamic web development languages: dynamic html and AJAX. But as the tools and web pages become complex, web designers who offer web design services become more and more prone to creating confusing navigation for their web design. It is therefore important to know the basic rules of navigation design.
A good navigation creates a cohesive “story” for the site, and this provides an excellent experience for the user. A carefully-designed global navigation answers the following questions of the user:
- Where am I?
- Where can I go?
- Where have I been?
The first question means that your navigation should provide a clear context to the user, such that he will know where he is in your site.
The second question is a guideline about links. Global navigation should include carefully-chosen links and the number of it, as too much of it can confuse the user, while too little of it can make the user feel helpless in your site.
The third question is best answered by one very important element in your navigation: breadcrumbs. However you address this question, it is important that you should give the user an idea of the places in your site that he/she has been to. Changing the colour of visited links is one important aspect of this.
No matter how “complex” your site is, it is very important to design a smart and usable global navigation for the user.
published by Dan in CSS | Tools & Resources | Web Development | Website Design
When you’re offering web design services, it’s not uncommon to have similar design specifications even from different clients. Although ultimately the content will be different and there may be special cases for each client, it is important to note that for most of your web design work, you’re actually repeating design elements. This is where CSS frameworks come in. CSS frameworks, much like an application or development code framework, serves as a basis for your design implementations that share fairly common and core elements. For example, the header, the sidebar, navigation lists, and footer. CSS frameworks gets you started rather easily so that you can quickly prototype your project, spend less time on design parts that are usually repeated, and focus on those special cases where the clients have a particular preference. There are many resources that you can find about CSS frameworks: Blueprint was one of the first css frameworks. Tripoli is another one. In fact a simple Google search for CSS frameworks will give you results on different frameworks and articles about them.
CSS framework really simplifies your work flow but it shouldn’t be seen as a crutch for the lack of a solid CSS knowledge. Frameworks must be understood fully and used properly or else, when used improperly, it will bite back when your design gets messed up and you’re left wondering why. Use CSS frameworks when your design specification fits with what the framework offers. If used right, CSS frameworks is a big help to get you started with your web design project.
published by Dan in Tools & Resources | Web Development | Website Design
One of the core principles of modern web designs is the separation of structure and design. Successful website design companies have perfected this process of designing and implementing client websites in a more efficient and distributed way; designers and content experts (usually on the client side) work hand in hand on the project with a clear separation of roles and expectations. Content management is the next step in this separation.
Content management software, more commonly known as CMS (Content management systems), take the central role of integrating content from a content expert and template design from a designer to create the final website. Content management systems allow web design companies to even more structure their work process by letting designers focus on what they do best: designing templates.
Within a Content management workflow, the designer creates his designs and tests it, then the editor or manager decides if it should get published or sent back for modification. And this happens on the content side also – making the job easier for those control and audit the quality of work that gets published.
The last implication of a content management system in the web design process is that it enforces specialization: designers get to design, content writers get to write, letting each participant in the process do what they do best with minimal or zero work overlap. The content writer is given a simple interface for adding contents, which does not interfere with the design process. This proved to be a difficult thing to achieve in a complex project without a content management system. Ultimately, content management makes the process of website design more efficient.
published by Dan in Web Development | Website Design | Website Standards
One of the things that you need to be able to do to be a good web designer is to write W3C compliant code. I have mentioned this time and again but I cannot stress this enough. If you are new at web designing this may be one of the biggest hurdles in your way. If you find that the sites you design do not pass the W3C markup validation service though, don’t be too down on yourself. The truth is that the web is littered with sites that do not have validated code. Of course, this doesn’t mean that it is alright for you to keep on designing sites that are not W3C compliant. As a new web designer, this only means that you should start learning more about W3C and the current web standards and guidelines that it has developed and set.
To get started you can visit the New Visitors page of the W3C site. It could be a trifle bit overwhelming though since there’s just too many information to digest at once. I suggest that once you’ve read about the basics and skimmed stuff you are interested in that you head on to actual tutorial sites like W3Schools, where you can find free tutorials on everything from basic HTML and XHTML to advanced XML, SQL, Database, Multimedia and WAP. Do not try to learn everything at once! Start polishing your coding skills one language at a time. In the meantime, while you are still polishing your coding skills, give your existing clients the best service possible by getting someone who’s already good at it to join you and work as a team.
published by Dan in Usability | Web Development | Website Design | Website Standards
Apologies for almost having forgotten to delve deeper into the difference between the two. The first time I mentioned the importance of knowing the difference between the two what I neglected to emphasise is that, aside from merely knowing the difference, a good web design company should be skilled in both aspects of web development.
Building a website entails much technical knowledge. Just like in building a house or any building for that matter, the builder is essential to make sure that the infrastructure has a solid and functional design. Builders or engineers know the regulations, the code, which is why you can be sure that with a builder the foundation is secure. This is also true for websites. Those that focus on “building websites” make sure that the code is clean, follows web standards, works properly and all those things that are taken by many for granted but are essential. They are the “behind-the-scenes” designers.
Designing a website, on the other hand, is a more creative process. It involves the navigability/usability and the over all look of the site. Designers are like the architects and interior designers in one. They make sure that the website looks the way you want it to, giving your website a unique look that is apt for your website’s purpose. Designers are also very much concerned about the experience of the visitors and aim to not only impress but ensure that they have an easy comfortable time, hence taking care of usability issues. Designers are very important since they make sure that the first impression is a good one, and as we all know first impressions can make or break you.
With the difference between building and designing a website cleared up it is obvious that there really is no such thing as building versus designing. Choose a web design company that subscribes to BOTH ideas or else you will end up with either a solid but really bland site or a pretty site that keeps on giving errors.
published by Dan in Tools & Resources | Usability | Web Development | Website Design | Website Standards
Despite all the signs I previously mentioned that pointed out that a web design company is a good one to work with, they’re all pretty meaningless if you cannot gauge the technical knowledge of the web design company. This is especially important if you do not know anything about web design since there are plenty of smooth talkers out there that might convince you of the superiority of the web design services, when in fact they’re just a start up company that lacks technical knowledge and experience. Now there isn’t anything wrong with start up web design firms after all everyone has to start somewhere. My point is simply that you should learn to check whether a web design firm really does know what it’s supposed to be doing.
To check the technical knowledge of a web design firm here are some simple tips you can follow:
- Go to their website and check it using the W3C Validation Service for code errors. All you need to check their website is to enter the website’s URL on the empty box labeled Address and click on Check. If there are lots of errors then their website isn’t W3C compliant. Steer clear from such web designers.
- Use several browsers (aside from Internet Explorer) to see how their website displays for each browser. While the website will more probably than not look different in some browsers you will want their website to still look presentable and be navigable.
- Do the same thing (steps 1 and 2) for their client’s websites. While some may do their best job with their own sites you would want to see the same effort going into the development and design of their client’s site.
0845 838 7448 
