One common question I get, is how a website job should be planned and executed – what are the steps?




The following is a quick outline of the process that I have been using for years with good success – at least most of the time.

• Figure out what the focus of the website will be.

• What specific features do you want in the website.

• Create a list of sections for your website and give them a hierarchy of importance.

• Write out your content and finalize it.

• Find a style / look that meets your website’s and your industry’s requirements.

• Build the website.

• Evaluate the website and make the required changes / updates.

• Go live – register a domain, find a host, upload the website.

1. THE FOCUS OF THE WEBSITE

This is the first thing you want to define clearly before any other step is taken. You need to decide what the main purpose of the website is - what you want to focus on in terms of a subject.

It is important that you define this step as clearly as possible because a website’s focus has a major impact on the whole project; this is the ‘foundation’ of the site.

For example:

• A web store.

• Information hub for established clients.

• Branding website.

2. SPECIFIC WEBSITE FEATURES

This builds off of the first step, where now you look at actual features that you need to implement. For example:

• A shopping cart for an online store

• A password protected section of the website

Again, the more detail the better.

3. MAP OUT THE MAJOR SECTIONS OF THE WEBSITE

With the first two steps completed, you’re ready to actually start mapping out the major sections of the website; drawing out quick diagrams of the website is a useful way of doing this.

A diagram can easily show the hierarchy of a website and how the various sections are related to each other.

4. WRITE OUT YOUR FINAL CONTENT

This part is usually left to the end … then people wonder why they have to go back and rethink the structure of the site.

All websites are driven by content; it’s the content that makes a site effective and successful. As such, this part of the process is arguably the most important, so you need to pay attention to it.

5. FIND A STYLE / LOOK FOR THE WEBSITE

At this stage of the process, you are ready to start looking at the visual aspect of the site – the design. You have a few options:

• Hire a graphic designer / web designer

• Come up with your own design – I’m assuming you have some artistic and design experience.

• Buy yourself a website template and save time and money.

6. BUILD THE WEBSITE

Yes, I know it seems impossible but you can finally start building the actual site at this point!

With the above questions answered and steps completed, you’ll find the process of building the website (actually writing out the code,) is much easier and you will have reduced the chance of having to go back and redo things.

7. EVALUATE THE WEBSITE, MAKE THE REQUIRED CHANGES / UPDATES

Once you've built the website, you should walk away from it for a day or two. This will allow you to come back and evaluate it with fresh eyes. It might also be a good idea to get someone who has not worked on the site, to take a look as well.

Here are some of the things you should be looking for:

• Clean easy to update design/structure.

• Good usability in the design - and all that implies.

• Fast loading 'light' pages.

• Intelligent use of technology - using Flash when it makes sense not because you want a 'cool' intro!

• The website’s ability to convey the meaning/message of the website quickly if not instantly.

8. GO LIVE – REGISTER A DOMAIN, FIND A HOST, UPLOAD THE WEBSITE.

If you’ve passed steps 1 to 7, you know you're ready to show the world the website. All that is left to do is go live:

• Register a domain

• Find a hosting company

• Upload the website

NOTE: You could actually register the domain and find a hosting company after you’ve completed the first 4 steps. Sometimes it makes sense to register your domain name before you design the website; this is because you may want to integrate the domain name into the design.

CONCLUSION

If you follow these steps, and not let pressures from your clients (or anything else) sway you, you’ll find yourself working more quickly and under less stress, while delivering a better website for your client – everyone wins

Thanks!

Author : Stefan Mischook

Article Source : killersites.com

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Banners have been a major part of the World Wide Web world since its early days. Copywriters burn the midnight oil looking for new designs that will grab the visitor’s attention and compel him to click on their banner.

This article discusses some of the most successful banner designs.

Teasing your curiosity
“Do Not Click Here”. How many of you have seen this slogan in a banner? What did you do when you first saw it? If you are like most people, when you first saw it, you clicked on it. What makes this simple sentence so powerful that it compels the visitor to click on it? The answer is curiosity !!!

Copywriters and web designers are always looking for ways to arouse the website visitor’s curiosity. As banner designers their goal is to attract the visitor to the banner, usually completely ignoring the other elements on the web page that are more important to the website owner. However, because the “Do Not Click Here” slogan tells us nothing about what is on the next page, it arouses the visitor’s curiosity and makes it almost impossible not to click on this banner to see what’s behind it.

Simple integrated design
When Larry Page and Sergey Brin first introduced their product, “Google”, to potential investors, they mentioned Adwords as a backup option in case they didn’t make any money. We all know how lucky they were that they eventually needed to use that backup plan. What made these “boring” ads such a great success?

Unlike other ads, Adwords neither arouse the visitor’s curiosity nor disturb the main flow of the web page. In fact, the opposite is true. Adwords are meant to look like part of the search results giving the user the feeling that those ads are there because he asked for them. No one has any doubt that this simple design helps Google to promote both their search engine and the Adwords advertising program.

Take part in the action
Banner designers wisely used interactive technologies like Flash to develop type of banners that invite the user to take part in the action. Drawing the user into the action can be accomplished in many creative ways. Some web designers use popular old games elements as part of the scene. You all know the famous game pacman. One of the banners that I like the most is the one where the user is allowed to let pacman “eat” few dollar signs. At the successful completion of this mission, a nice slogan is revealed asking him to open a saving account that will earn money with a fixed interest rate. The idea behind those interactive banners is simple: Let the user take part in the action and then at the right moment when his mind is less resistant, show him the sales message. Those interactive banners proved to be very efficient. Their biggest disadvantage is that most webmasters will not allow that kind of banner because it distracts too much from the web page content.

Back to Black and White
Website designers are always seeking to be different with their design ideas. One banner fashion trend that can be found lately is Black and White banners. Although research shows that blue and yellow are the most efficient color to use in a banner, Black and White banners have been seen a lot lately. It’s probably something that will eventually vanish, but the idea behind it is to be different and to make the user wonder what’s up and hopefully click on the banner to find out.

Get Out of the box
Have you heard about the milliondollarhomepage.com? If not, check out this website before continuing to read this article. This website has proven that creative thinking not only can bring you money but also create a whole new trend. Right after the milliondollarhomepage.com got the internet community’s attention, many designers used this idea to deign a banner on which they sell a 10x10 pixel area. Like the original concept, this banner design had its impact. Advertisers are investing money on these ad spaces while at the same time visitors are curious enough time after time looking at those unorganized pixel banners to click on them.

What about the next trends
What the next trends of banner design will be is something that probably no one can accurately predict. It’s up to some web designer to come up with a new concept that proves to be efficient. There is no doubt that in the future we will see new ways of designing banners, especially when more and more advertising budgets are being spent on the internet instead of commercial TV and other types of advertising media. I guess we will just need to be patient.

About the Author:
Warren Baker is an Internet business consultant for WebDesigners123.
WebDesigners123 connects the Web Designers with Webmasters who need their services.

Source : articles.webdesigners123.com

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Logo design requires the most amount of inspiration, designs that will hopefully inspire you. Why are these logos so excellent because it is professionally made by creative logo designer in the industry?

Magnificent creative logo designs would leave an unforgettable impression on your consumer and present you to them in a professional manner.

Besides creating waves amongst your customers, creative logo designing services would develop a logo that would make speak volumes about your business and its values. The logo design that will captured the message of my business and the industry it serves.

The logo design company will create free logo design revisions of the concept you choose. Using the initial concept that you pick as a starting point and logo designers would know what you do and don?t. You then will pick one of these concepts as the logo you wish the logo designers to move forward with. A logo revision is considered to be minor changes to the logo concept that you chose from the original logo concepts you were initially presented with. These revision changes include things such as different color, font, use of shadow, minor graphic tweaks, etc

The logo designers will create at least three creative logo design concepts based on information you provide on the order form. The more detailed information you give, the closer the custom logo design concepts will be to your vision.

Logo design in Australia has a stationery design services for developing complete corporate identity package such as creating creative logo design.The comprehensive services cover all business stationery-letterhead, business card, envelope and. The design of stationery giving it a very professional look incorporating your logo design and your company details

The logo designer will help you design any kind of logo for your requirements, corporate logo design, business logo design and corporate identity brand name designing.

Creative Logo design is a bit more complicate than just adding shadow and gradient to a random shape on a textured background.

By Expert Author: Guinanie Almonte

Source : articlesphere.com

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A website is a set of webpages hosted on the internet by way of which you can communicate your information to citizens across the planet. A website needs to be planned and designed in such a means that it leaves a lengthy permanent effect on citizens and can draw additional and more people to visit it for the essential information.

For example, if you consider of a search engine you visit google.com, or if you would like to check some email you go to yahoo mail. All of these websites and web portals were able to be thriving since of there adaptability and had successful web designing.

Web designing is like an art which assists you state your information and present it to citizens in the best probable way. Every time you consider constructing a latest website or work on the web designs at hand are some basic things you should keep in mind so that you can avoid some frequent fault of web design. Some of the ordinary mistake we might build in webdesign is the front end support. All websites created should be browser independent and should be available from any browser.

It is imperative to use the up-to-date equipment to make the website although one should moreover consider all the good and bad via theexact tools. Any website that is reachable taking place the IE does not represent its the top if it is not capable to carry out on any other internet web browser.

One more widespread blunder is the set sound of the website, while creating the website one should always reflect on the fact that the website music is not set to usual although must be manual as majority of the population would not choose the music to initiate on the instant the website is loaded. If you want to have a sound or a video in your website you must at all times set it off by default and provide an effortless way to switch it on/off at the viewer option.

The User interface plays a huge role in the success of your website. A bad UI or a confusing website will never attract people. It should be extremely light, to the point and lucid website. The messages you would like to communicate must be crisp and also be easy to find things.

Tools such as Flash are terrific seeing that they construct a grand presentation and formulate website beautiful, although a completely flash driven website is furthermore not valued while it can not be text driven at all consequently functions resembling back button will not work and which might call for a little added effort in browsing the webpages. So at all times remember to think that the website is not completely a Flash driven website.Moreover try to steer clear of Flash splash screens while they do not attract loads of people because of unattractive content/information or they tend to be dull otherwise distracting.

One of the nearly all universal fault is made when the website is totally image based, even when it is not a photo gallery. The images makes the website heavy and it takes forever to load as well as to at the same moment it is not simple to read and not much user friendly as well. Also avoid using the text images, The text should not be posted as an image but should feel like a paragraph or a test which is easy to read, scroll, select, steer and searching words inside the text.

One of the mistake designers make is in using Ajax technology, a good quality web designer should at all times use Ajax designed for the content on the website which changes regularly and not for the static content that do not chance fairly often.

Another significant point to consider is the browser window resizing and come up based website. If a certain website loads itself as a pop-up website or a pop-up window, it should be able to resize to the viewer choice and also to the size of the other open windows.

It is good to encompass a component rich website, but component that adds value to the website and make it easier to use. A part that does not work for what it is meant, it will annoy the user plus they will resist in using the website.

So if you would like happy readers and want people to visit your website, value it and consider revisiting it you should have an valueable website and not make the above mention mistakes.Steve Kim, aka Dr. SEO, is an Expert Internet Marketer who works in Las Vegas, NV. He specializes in Search Engine Optimization, as well as Video and Local Search Optimization. See more of him at Media One Pro : http://www.mediaonepro.com/

Author: Robert Bell

Source : http://www.a1articles.com/article_1216636_4.html

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No matter what content your process of Denver web design page holds-the fishing season calendar, driving direction to the nearest IKEA, or pictures from your kid's last birthday party it's the page's design that makes it look like either a professional enterprise or a part-timer's hobby. Good design enhances the message of your site,

helps visitors find what they're looking for and determines how the rest of the world sees your web site. That's why web designers went through the contortion described in the previous section to force HTML to look good. By taking on those design duties, css lets HTML go back to doing what it does best-structure content.

Using HTML to control the look of text and other web page elements is obsolete. Don't worry if html's tag is too big for your taste or bulleted lists aren't spaced just right. you can take care of take care of that later using css. Instead,think of html as a method of adding structure to the content you want up on web . Use html to organize your content, and css to make that content look great.

Writing HTML for CSS
If you're Colorado web design, you may need some helpful to guide your for days into HTML . And if you've been building web pages for a while, then you may have picked up a few bad html. Writing habits that you're better off forgetting . The rest of this introduces you to some html writing habits that will make your mother proud-and help you get the most out of css.

Think structure
HTML adds meaning to text by logically dividing it and identifying the role that text plays on the page: the tag's the most important introduction to a page's content. Other headers let you divide upon the content into other, less important, but related sections. Just like the book you're holding, a web page should have a logical structure.

HTML provides many other tags besides headers for marking up content to identify its role on the page. Among the most popular are the tag for paragraphs of text, and the tag for creating bulleted lists. Lesser-known tags can indicate very specific types of content, like for abbreviations and for computer code.

When writing HTML for css, use a tag that comes close top matching the role the content plays in the page, not the way it looks bunch of links in a navigation bar isn't really a headline and it isn't a regular paragraph of text. It's most like a bulleted list of options, so the tag is a good choice. If you're saying "but items in a bulleted list are stacked vertically one on top of the other, and I want a horizontal navigation bar where each link sits next to the previous link," don't worry. Eith css magic you can convert a vertical list of links into a stylish horizontal navigation bar as described.

About The Author :
This article was written by Steve Morris. Mr. Morris runs New Media, a
href="http://www.newmediadenver.com/">web design Colorado Company
located in downtown Denver, Colorado (http://www.NewMediaDenver.com).
Newmediadenver offers Web
design denver, SEO services, Web development, Internet marketing.
http://www.newmediadenver.com/

Source : selfseo.com

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