Archive for October, 2008
How Important is the Web Design on Your Site?
Friday, October 31st, 2008 | Design Inspiration | No Comments
Have you been to a site that was difficult to navigate and hence hard for you to find what you were looking for; broken links and the site difficult to understand? Think about the amount of time you spent on that site. Most people will click away from a site very quickly if they are unable to find what they want. Web surfers are notoriously impatient people and the web design plays a significant role in whether you keep those surfers interested or you lose them for good.
The choice of your web designer is one of the most important business decisions that you will make. Take a look around the web and look at what is working on other sites. Use your own experiences on websites to help you determine what it is that has kept you interested. The content on the site and easy navigation are the most important elements that you should keep an eye on.
Information is key on the Internet; if you can deliver clear and concise information for the people who visit your site, you are more likely to keep them on the site for a longer period of time. Most people who are surfing the Internet are looking for valuable information. Provide that to them and you will keep them on your site - give them difficult to read information and poor navigation and you risk losing them forever. Web design is the key to creating an interesting and highly visited website.
The Importance of Using a Professional Web Design Firm
Tuesday, October 21st, 2008 | Web Design | No Comments
The Internet has given a lot of people the chance to finally realise their dream of creating their own business. The development of a website is the most important function of getting your business up and running. While you may be an expert at the business you plan to run online, it is best to leave the website design and SEO aspects of it to a professional.
If you were starting your business in the real world, you would not be out there laying the bricks for your brand new store or office, so this is how you should look at the creation of your website. The site that you present to customers is the window into your business or store. You must have everything working perfectly so that you can keep and attract new customers. Creating websites can be a lot of fun if you plan to build a site for personal reasons, but when your business depends on it, you should stick with the pros.
SEO for your site is another aspect that is better off handled by a professional. There are theories upon theories on the best way to attract traffic to your website. You will need the expert advice of someone who is experienced in this field to guide your business in the right direction. The bottom line on an Internet business is that it will not survive without traffic and you will not get traffic without an expert in SEO.
Take some time and use a web design firm that has the experience to get your business off the ground and running. This allows you to concentrate on running your business and puts the web design aspects of your company in the hands of a professional.
Illustrator Basic 01 - Handy Tips
Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 | Art, Design Inspiration, Web Design | No Comments
For all those people out there who have up until now been afraid of using Illustrator for their web design and logo designing needs, now is the time to get stuck in and start using Illustrator to help you. There’s no need to be afraid of Illustrator, in fact, once you pick it up and get some good practice in, you’ll like it more than PSP. Naturally you will need both PSP and Illustrator for your web development needs but there are some things only Illustrator can provide and that’s why you need to buckle down and start learning.
To help you make your first baby steps with Illustrator, here’s a quick tutorial on some handy keyboard shortcuts and how to use the pen tool.
• “Ctrl” & “-“
Zoom out of picture
• “Ctrl” & “+“
Zoom into picture
• “Spacebar” & “Left mouse click”
Hold click and drag to move the paper around
• “V”
Return to selection tool (Handy when you use the pen and want to stop making lines!)
• “P”
Return to pen tool
• “Ctrl” & “Left mouse click”
Press control and then left mouse click outside of the selected box to stop what you are doing and deselect the object.
The Pen Tool
Open up a blank new document in Illustrator and select the pen tool (Or press P), now click anywhere on your page a couple of times. You will notice all these lines are straight.
Now click and hold on another location and drag away from where you clicked. Now you will notice your line starts to curve and you have two blue lines extending from your point. Try testing out these curves in your document and getting used to the way they work. When you think you are used to it, try tracing the contours of a simple image. You may find it harder than you first think but you will get used to it with practice.
Try making a curve and then holding “Alt” down as you click the last point you created. Now make a second point and see how the line reacts differently. “Alt” turns any point into an angle point so you can navigate corners and still create curves.
If you extend the two lines from your point too far your curve will develop an opposite curve as well and may even cross over and loop in areas. It is recommended you keep these lines within one third of your line length and do not extend them beyond your points. Once you have mastered this, you will have got the foundations of illustrator and be ready to start making some pictures!
Competitor Research
Wednesday, October 1st, 2008 | Art, Design Inspiration, Web Design | No Comments
Following on from our stock art related articles, web design enthusiasts can help create their own unique and well balanced web designs with a varied use of unique stock art pictures. However, if you are unsure about how to start off with this, or how your project is developing with its imagery, look and feel you may wish to try checking out your competitors. Having a sneak peak at what other people are up to in the world of web design and development can help inspire you and give you ideas for your own unique imagery. Have a look at other web developers and see what kind of pictures they typically use for certain concepts. What kind of image are they representing? What idea of the business do you get from the overall design of the website as a whole?
When designing any concept for web design you need to think about your target audience and at the same time, how the client wishes their business to appear. They can choose to be bold, exciting and innovative which will require bright, artistic illustrations and innovative design features. They may want professionalism to be a high priority in which case smooth website transitions, professional sleek and simple logo designs and simple toned down colour combinations work well. Your website design may have the younger generations in mind which will need funky colour schemes, interesting imagery and probably lots of pictures of rebellious teens, graffiti and other features to keep them entertained. If the business wants to be cute and fun and is aimed at kids primarily you need bold simple cartoon imagery with simple bold colours, lots of interactivity and above all an extremely user friendly interface.
All of these should be bringing up different images and pictures in your mind to suit the situation. Even if you envision a woman with a head set for the help page, a ten year old user isn’t going to be impressed with it. Instead a cartoon figure, bubbly question mark or the website “mascot” would be much more entertaining.
Do some thorough research on your client’s business, the website target audience and what kinds of imagery other competitors are using. Never copy another web developers work, but you can use it for ideas and inspiration to get you on the right track.