Posts Tagged ‘design’

Website Design and Development for Universal Access

Posted on: March 24th, 2011 by admin

Most web designers underline links as this is commonly known amongst internet users. Some web designers and web developers do show the links in a contrasting colour to the sites colour theme and although this method can look quite attractive it is not practical to visitors who suffer from colour blindness.

Records show that about 10% on internet users have some difficulty when it comes to identifying colours.

This is a reminder to always use colour carefully. Don’t use colours that are almost the same shade too close together. The most common colour blindness is for the colours red and green so try to avoid using these colours together.

Using mystery links in your web design and web development is another problem for new visitors and also people with motion impairment.

Always try to stick to using web safe colours as visitors with older screen readers have real problems with colours that aren’t web safe. The web safe colours used in web design are easy to identify as the only digits you will see are 00,33,99,CC and FF.

If your web design and web development uses scrips, applets, plug-ins or frames to access information or for navigation, you need to provide another way for your visitors to access the same information.

You can provide audio clips that are accompanied by a transcript for the visitors who have hearing impairment or the totally deaf.

Animated presentations in your web design and web development should include an explanatory ALT description as this will benefit people who are visually impaired. Some speech synthesizers are limited in size so keep this text content short and precise.

Website Design and Development for Universal Access – Part 2

Posted on: March 18th, 2011 by admin

Website Design and Development for Universal Access, Website design companies have had to re design their websites to accommodate users with special needs such as visual impairment including blind and colour blind, deafness, motion impairment etc…

Fortunately the website design that is compatible to disabilities has been a relatively easy passage and the results have often proved to be a cleaner site with excellent usability. It only requires a few simple changes to the website design and website development and you have created a website that can be used by people with disabilities.

Web site creators will need to rethink their designs to accommodate them. By making a few simple changes to the site web site designers will be able to enjoy visits from people from all walks of life.

Website designers need to have an understanding of how people with different disabilities can access the web and any professional website design company will automatically create a site that can accommodate visitors with special needs.

Designing a website that is accessible to special needs can often be done by offering two different methods that both achieve the same result. Clearly specifying the content and purpose of each page and clearly indicating the navigation in your web design and web development is one way to make sure all your visitors can use the site. Also using alt tags for images as some visitors may want to access your site but have their graphics turned off.

Website Development

Posted on: February 22nd, 2011 by admin

If you are fairly new to the wonderful world of internet businesses it can be all so overwhelming. If you are contemplating the idea of starting a business online whether using a professional web design and web development company or building it yourself certain aspects of this proceedure need to be clear.

One of these apects are the difference between web design and web development. Each of these have an entirely different role in the creation of your online business. But you cannot have one without the other and they have to work together in harmony throughout your website.

The web development is responsible for the structure of the website. Like watching a play in the theatre you see the actors on the stage performing (web design) but you don’t see what goes on behind the scenes.(web development)

Web development puts in place all the applications that are essential for the websites visitors to be able to navigate through the site with ease. All the codes are put in place to make the whole site work consistently. The web development’s role is to put in place system that enables you to update your site as and when needed.

Once the web design team has put in place the the business ideas and the products display pages, web development then puts in place payment methods that will allow the customers to use once they have gone through the process of choosing their purchase.

With all the latest online application development soft ware it has never been easier to create and maintain your online business. In the future, you will only need a good internet connection to master your online business.

When Should you use Web Safe Fonts in your Web Design

Posted on: December 16th, 2010 by beverley

Every website designer should use web safe fonts. There are some cases where you will want to use a special, non-web-safe font, but these cases are rare. You want to make sure your fonts are always easily read by your users. By keeping your fonts readable with web safe fonts, you retain readership and make your website design more accessible to a wider range of people.

As explained above, if you use a font on your page that your visitor doesn’t have installed, their browser will pick a fallback font that you may not intend to appear on your page. Often, the result is ugly text that is not at all pleasing to read. If at all readable!

If a visitor can’t fluidly read your site, then he or she can’t get the information you provided, and this is the whole reason your visitors are at your site! Even if the text on your site is ugly and someone decides to trudge through it for your content, it will still look displeasing and you will retain fewer readers. And if you create your website design and website development using non safe web fonts you will loose more and more of your visitors as they won’t return.

Using web safe fonts is just one part of a larger set of web design practices that keep your site user friendly. Don’t strain a reader’s eyes, don’t make information difficult to find, and make sure they can progress through your site and content without having to think about it. If at any point someone looks at your site and takes even a millisecond to think, “Ugh, that’s some ugly text,” you’ve jarred the experience. Ideally, the entire encounter that your visitors experience should be pleasant and easy, and using a web safe font is a big part of attaining that goal.

Every website designer should use web safe fonts. There are some cases where you will want to use a special, non-web-safe font, but these cases are rare. You want to make sure your fonts are always easily read by your users. By keeping your fonts readable with web safe fonts, you retain readership and make your website design more accessible to a wider range of people.

As explained above, if you use a font on your page that your visitor doesn’t have installed, their browser will pick a fallback font that you may not intend to appear on your page. Often, the result is ugly text that is not at all pleasing to read. If at all readable!

If a visitor can’t fluidly read your site, then he or she can’t get the information you provided, and this is the whole reason your visitors are at your site! Even if the text on your site is ugly and someone decides to trudge through it for your content, it will still look displeasing and you will retain fewer readers. And if you create your website design and website development using non safe web fonts you will loose more and more of your visitors as they won’t return.

Using web safe fonts is just one part of a larger set of web design practices that keep your site user friendly. Don’t strain a reader’s eyes, don’t make information difficult to find, and make sure they can progress through your site and content without having to think about it. If at any point someone looks at your site and takes even a millisecond to think, “Ugh, that’s some ugly text,” you’ve jarred the experience. Ideally, the entire encounter that your visitors experience should be pleasant and easy, and using a web safe font is a big part of attaining that goal.

Website Design-Excellent Design Practices

Posted on: August 19th, 2010 by admin

Be sure to have crystal clear instructions within the course-plotting of your site. The routing menu needs to be clean and concise to ensure that website visitors know how to find their way around your website without becoming lost or confused.

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Choosing Web Hosting

Posted on: August 19th, 2010 by admin

For a novice business owner or a person who is trying to start an online business it is important to note that there are several processes that one must undertake. (more…)

3 Classic Website Design Debates

Posted on: August 19th, 2010 by admin

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Make your Website Stand Out

Posted on: August 17th, 2010 by admin

In this article, I will list important website design elements that will make your website stand out.

Domain Name

Make sure the domain name you choose to register is short and related to your website. Choosing a domain name that it is not difficult to remember or spell is a must.

Keywords

Be sure to use your main keyword in all the important areas of your website page. Make sure your main keyword phrase is located at the top and bottom of your web page and repeated throughout the content body area. Also try not to repeat keywords to often as search engines don’t like this.

Home Page

Make sure your home page is easy to read , busy and overly contented pages can be confusing.

Menus

Navigation is the key to your website make, sure you provide simple and clean menus to help your visitors find their way around your website.

Fonts

Make sure your home page has a decent font size. * Make your selling points stand out. Bold header, add bullet points and short, easy to read sentences.

Links

Entice your visitors to stay on your website. Keep them interested by having them click on links that will take the visitor deeper into your site. Your site can link to a menu, more web page content, products/services, or images. You don’t want your visitor to leave your site.

Logos

Having a professionally designed logo will help to build name recognition and branding to your website.

Colours

Make sure the colours on your site are easy on the eyes but stand out enough to look good. Use web safe colours.

CSS in Your Website

Posted on: August 17th, 2010 by admin

Cascading style sheets, what are they?

A cascading style sheet is a separate file that contains all the style rules that tell a browser how to display a website page.

You can use a style sheet to define the attributes that are common to all pages, for example, the background, the link colours, the font type and size, the width and borders of your tables, the size and colour of your headings, etc. You can also use them to create specific attributes (called “classes”) that you can refer to from any of your website pages at any moment.

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