Hmmmm, Good Advice For Being A Good Client…
We jumped when we saw the title of this post: How to be a good client, but then when we read the content, it wasn’t what we had in mind. Don’t get us wrong, it’s all good advice, but we’d really like to take this time to advise readers on how to get the most out of hiring an online freelance web designer:
1. Link to an example of what you want. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. You can talk to a designer all day, “I want an arty header and a side link bank, but it should move with the scrollwheel and have green and blue colors…” That can still be interpreted 100 different ways. Find a picture to start with, then detail how you want it different.
2. Take the designer’s / developer’s word for it. We don’t know how many clients out there have made their own lives miserable by saying “I want the whole site in Flash.” or “Can I get it with animated GIFs and use this big image as the background?” You hire an expert; if they say that something isn’t a good idea, listen to them. That’s what you’re paying them for is to know their stuff!
3. Be clear about your purpose. You need to detail what you’re going for in a business model. Something like “We sell lady’s dresses, so we want a site with a virtual wardrobe where they can try on different styles, a section with articles about fashion tips, and a social photo sharing section where customers can upload photos showing how hot they look in our outfits.” The virtual wardrobe helps buying decisions (sell lady’s dresses), the articles draw search traffic (bring ladies to buy dresses), the photo-sharing part encourages customers to come back (so they buy more dresses). Each part of the site should make some kind of business sense.
Things like that… readers, do you have any more ideas?
Web Design – The Irresistible Draw of Mashups and APIs
It’s worth checking in over at Programmable Web once in awhile just to see what they’re up to, with their API discoveries. Google, Twitter, Flickr, and all, the defining mark of a popular Web 2.0 service is whether people do things with your API.
Notable developments from just one recent week:
- Comedy on Spotify – A directory of comedians and their albums, with video clips for sampling, mashed up out of Freebase and Last.fm. Just dive right in and look for the wit who tickles you the right way.
- Today’s Special – A Google Wave bot serving up quotes, words, horoscopes, sports scores, and whatnot.
- Tickets Suck – A Twitter and Twilio mashup that reminds you to move your car so you don’t get a ticket.
- Quote Relish – A real-time news ticker using the Freebase and Moreover APIs.
Mashups and APIs are an exciting tech trend that’s worth keeping track of, because new gizmos are getting invented every day. This is something we couldn’t do only a decade ago. But even more fascinating is the potential that mashups have; they represent evolution at a lightning pace. Ideas build on ideas, just the way innovation is supposed to work!
Peter Brittain
Web Design Tips
Websites are the soul of any organization. It represents the entire company and makes a positive or negative impression on the viewer. A website needs to create a neat image. It may be easy to come up with a website, but to make it appealing is a challenging task. To stay in the competition, upgrade your websites frequently. However, make it easy for browsers to navigate through the site by being simple.
Dynamic Site Design
Many websites like those of newspapers constantly update the website. These websites will have different content every time you visit them. Such dynamic websites need to provide you with the latest content. What these sites require is to pull information needed from a database or a form. The information is normally populated when the static site is created. However, for dynamic websites, it is populated when the individual page is requested. The design has to be such that it adapts and maintains a professional appearance even when there is a large amount of information on the page.
More On PNG Images And Your Web Design
This is due to the fact that every time the image changes, the background for the logo has to be edited. On the other hand, in the case of the PNG format, the image will float with a faded drop of shadow. This will help make your web fast, simple and dynamic.
The PNG format has the distinct advantage of displaying full colour photographic images and supports a managed color palette. It never degrades in quality and saves the original file information. This quality makes for brighter and crisper images.
Making Your Website Look Professional
A professional looking website can be very instrumental to your success. Especially in the case of a corporate website or in the case of an e-commerce website, having a professional looking website is absolutely essential. Don’t forget that most people will judge you by their first impressions of your website. Hence, if your website is able to capture the attention of your audience and if it is also able to impress them with its professional outlook; then chances are that these visitors will also become your loyal customers.
Making Your Website Look Professional 2
For your website to look professional, it is important for you to choose a color scheme that is in concurrence with your company or organization themes. By choosing soft and “eye friendly” colours, you will be able to capture the attention of your visitors more easily. In addition, by incorporating your company logo and your company colours into the website, you will be able to convey your ideas more professionally.
More Great Tips For Web Designers
• Always prepare site navigation before designing. This will avoid clutter due to including forgotten links later. Use drop-down menus in you have many links. Use fly-outs for your primary topics. Make efficient use of your navigation space by using clear and precise words in your links to let the visitor know of the contents of a corresponding page.
Why Should You Care – Browser Specific Web Designs
Having a great looking website can make you feel proud, as it will represent you and your company the best way. Especially with the millions of website around the Internet, having a website that is professionally designed and that is presentable is an important feat. In fact, many people may choose to look at your website due to a good design, instead of your competitor’s website.
How To Design Your Website For The Average User
Gone are the days when computers were only used by experts for scientific researches and other specialized or technical jobs. Today there is a personal computer with Internet connection in almost every home. It is no longer restricted to tech savvy people. Both the young and the old make use of computers and the Internet to find various kinds of information. However not everyone is well versed in its use and thus it is important for you to come up with a website that can be easily accessed and liked by the average user. A complicated website can result in traffic losses for your business.