For centuries after the creation of the printing press, the way we received information was dominated by the printed media. We became used to seeing better and bigger visuals – first in black and white, then in glossy color. We became used to turning pages to finish stories and letting our eyes casually roam over a landscape of words at our convenience.
Although the development of the radio and television did change some things, nothing has had the same impact as the Internet when it comes to changing the way we design information to be accessible to readers.
In fact, there’s one golden rule: what looks good in print rarely looks good on the web. And there’s a good reason for that.
Designing for print and for the web are very different things. For example, in printed media – like a newspaper or magazine – the reader’s experience is guided by the publisher. If the publisher wants to continue a story on page ten, then the reader is directed to go to page 10. Plus, most Western readers are going to browsing through the publication in one direction so publishers can easily determine the best placement of stories, ads, and images to maximize the readers experience.
With the web, designing is not so straight forward. Web publishers rely heavily on scrolling instead of page turning in most cases. Plus, site visitors can jump around those pages at random. There is no specific way to look at the pages of a web site. You go to what looks interesting. Take a quick look and then move on. For these reasons, web designers must focus on how to make the pages attention-getting so people who land on those pages won’t just take off again.
These differences affect the way both printed and web-based media are developed. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t some similarities.
We established that there is clearly a difference between designing things for the printed media and for the Internet. The whole idea of navigation, for example, just doesn’t come into the picture with a newspaper but it’s everything on a web site.
Despite those differences, print and web design do share some similarities. The most obvious example are the use of attention-getting headlines. The top Internet marketers in the business will tell you that without an amazing grabber at the top of a page, you’re not likely to keep many of your site visitors. Ask any newspaper person what makes or breaks a story’s readership and they’ll tell you it’s the headline.
Writing and designing headlines is an art form. It requires a knowledge of what your readers want. It means knowing what is going to stand out on the page. Designers for both mediums know this fact.
Another similarity is that readers have to be motivated to keep moving through the medium. Let’s say you’re reading a story in a magazine and come to the end of a page where it tells you to go further in the magazine to finish reading. Are you going to? Not automatically you won’t. First, the story has to be well-written and interesting. You’re not going to waste your energy to finish a bad story, right? Plus, the story has to end at a point where you feel compelled to read more – in the days of serials they called these points cliffhangers.
The same is true for material on the web. Whether you want someone to scroll down or move to a different page, you must keep them a good reason to do so. If you don’t, then they’ll stop in their tracks or – worse – go to a different web site.
to web masters using photoshop and fireworks 2 questions?
I am building my second web site using dreamweaver and I have been study the lynda com dreamweaver 8. The instructor shows how to use a trace image of a web page to speed the web design process up and make all the pages look the same..he said a designer could create a trace image in photoshop or fireworks..he showed how to use it but not how to make it I have no experience in either photoshop or fireworks yet I have both. I also have the lynda com for both programs but the instructors do not show how to create a trace image…So my first question how can I make a trace image in either or better both.
My second question I have seen sites that have images on the top of the page that has words written for example home products and these written words are the nagivation for the web site I know how to make the words links (hot spot) in D.W.8 I just don’t know how to write on the image.. in some site the words look hand written is that done in photo shop ? how? I tried in PS looks bad?
Check this site… There is a free tutorial on creating trace images in Photoshop. Could be helpful…
http://video-tutes.com/Tute_details_1107.htm
Poor navigation makes us think. Better navigation makes us think less. Great navigation is so obvious we don’t have to think at all.
This is such an important concept that Web usability author, Steve Krug, titled his book, Don’t Make Me Think. That is the bottom line answer to every question about Web site navigation.
How much thinking do we not want to do?
If someone who’s been living in a cave since the Web took off, can get online and figure out what a site is all about without help, that is just about the right amount of thinking.
That may be a silly example, but worrying about PageRank and not worrying about usability, is a waste of time, effort and finances. Yes, get visitors to the site, but don’t let them sit staring at the page, trying to figure out what to do next, or where to go, or how to find what they’re looking for. If the back button to the search results is the only thing that’s easy to find and use on the page, guess what. That’s the button that will be used.
Today, in about ten minutes on the Web, I came across two common examples of poor navigation:
- On the site of a major software company a link that goes like this:
Main nav link: PRODUCTS > Sub link: CopyDesk > Sub link: undefined (doesn’t link to anything)
- On the site of a national printing company: three links to “business cards” in three different navigation bars all on the same page. Only after waiting for all three to load do I learn that they all go to the same place: an order form. None of the three gives me more information.
The solution.
Solutions to navigation problems are not always easy. Large, complex sites may have no choice but to offer multiple navigation. Sites with lots of pages and lots of links may need additional work to address these challenges. And then there’s all the juggling to include search engine optimization. Some compromises may have to be made. Yet, keeping the user in mind, clarifying choices and eliminating confusion whenever possible, not only makes for happier site visitors, it offers the bonus of also helping search engines.
Navigation that makes us think:
- Multiple navigation with duplicate or conflicting links.
- Vague links or links that don’t go anywhere.
- Current page is not indicated.
- No navigation on page, forcing use of back button to get out.
- Active links to the current page.
- Not linking directly to the item named.
- Navigation that reflects the company’s structure rather than division or classification meaningful to content and user goals.
Navigation that doesn’t make us think:
- All pages have at least basic site navigation.
- The navigation indicates the current page.
- Meaning of link text is clear and each is unique.
- All links go somewhere specific and unique.
- Categories related to product or service offered, not company organization.
- Repetitive links, if absolutely necessary, are clearly indicated as repetitive.
If something is hard to use it doesn’t get used very much.
Ever wondered where did the high-rise buildings, expansive shopping malls and sprawling residential projects get their designing? Though it seems so strange, it is quite true that most of these buildings have been designed with the help of computer technologies. The use of computer for this purpose is called Computer Aided Design or CAD. It is this use of CAD designs services that is the basis of such wonderful buildings.
With the help of CAD design services, the world has created designs of buildings as beautiful as Sydney’s Opera House and as stunning as the Buraj Al Dubai in UAE. Some other examples can be found in many cities of USA like that of the skyline of financial district of California, downtown and Fifth Avenue in New York, the beautiful San Francisco Airport in California and Chicago skyline.
There are various ways in which this CAD design service can be used. The most common is to use it in the architectural sector. As the architectural sector is so vast, many categories have sprung out off the main category of CAD services. They are used to help meet almost every type of designing, drafting or planning need in an efficient way.
The process of designing may involve many different methodologies. Some of the most important are: CAD design services, CAD drafting services and CAD conversion services. The first one allows to create designs using any of the following two methods or using the CAD softwares like AutoCAD to create designs entirely from the scratch.
The second category of CAD drafting services allows creating or drafting digital designs based on the designs already present on the paper like the hand drawn sketches or manual drawings of a building. It offers the unique opportunity to create multilayered CAD designs in order to make them fully editable. These designs can then be customized later on whenever there is a need.
The third category of CAD conversion services is of particular use. It is very useful in cases where old paper based designs are to be converted to the digital computerized designs. They are also widely used to convert designs found ion one image format to another for better designing and planning. They have found a greater role in today’s world where everything is going digital.
The wonderful and magical world of CAD services does not just end with these three services. There are countless other services. Among them are the 3D CAD services, architectural CAD services, CAD drawing services and various conversion services.
The main advantage of using CAD design services is the multilayered structure which allows saving much more information on the file than can be saved on the paper format. It also makes it easier to change the design when there is a need as only the relevant layer is needed to be changed rather than the whole design.
Web design cost depends on many different quality parameters, so as a rule of thumb Web design costs an amount money proportional to design quality, so in order to get a good web page design with good quality parameters including a good website content written by an expert technical writer and a good theme design by an expert theme designer, you have to expect paying expensive fees in return, typically best web designers have more than just one web design certificate, some of them can even design a theme or create web design backgrounds, and please remember that theme design is a big science which is much more than buying a book to teach you how to design theme, besides theme design needs a long practice and experience, such an experience avoids bad web design resulting from bad theme designs, please note that theme design is not a single design branch where it is divided into other sub branches, so in order to find an expert themes designer, you have to search in the right places or you may get an interior design theme designer instead.
Web site design companies normally take expensive fees much more than the fees you may give to individual web designers; and they usually look for the rich customers willing to pay those expensive fees, so typically you will find that more than 90% of their website projects are corporate web site design projects.
We have to remember that those expensive fees paid to website design companies are worthy, they give you facilities that you can never have if you give your design job to an individual designer, for example they give you the chance to make web design navigation where you can find a wide variety of website designs which will be more satisfactory to a customer than finding himself forced to accept the single design offered to him by an individual designer, instead, you choose the design you like among hundreds of designs, they also offer you themes designs, where the themed design is the most popular website design nowadays, besides a good web design theme gives a good impression to the user.
If you plan to have your own business online then you have to have your own website. It will be an advantage if you know how to design your own website. You can express your ideas well and you can create web design backgrounds according to your business theme.
If you think that you can’t make your own website then you can hire services of best web designers from web site design companies. You can meet with these top web designers and discuss your project with them. Most of the corporate companies have asks the best web design company to make their corporate web site design.
Remember that a good web page design even if simple is important because it conveys effectively to your audience. So lets take a look and take the difference between a well design website and not.
Unless you are an expert in web designing then I guess there is no need for you to hire web designer but if you are still novice in this field then I suggest you leave it to the hands of the experts. You can experiment or do your own if it’s just a personal web site but if it’s for business purposes then you definitely hire the best for this service.
In today’s wired world, having a great looking website is a prerequisite for improving your business turnover. A well designed website that clearly brings out the merits of your services or your products helps you sell your product better. Marketing and packaging electronically, is very much a part of modern business strategy. Therefore, any website design is an involved process which requires both the website owner and the designer to remain in close contact. That process is greatly helped if the website designer and the owner can meet face to face during the design process. Interaction is also required thereafter as hosting a website is not enough and maintenance of the website can also become an issue. Such can only happen if the website designer and the owner reside in the same place. It therefore helps to hire a local website designer.
The advantages accrue in having face to face interactions which ensure that all requirements of the owner are understood clearly by the website designer and nothing is ‘Lost in Translation’ which usually is the case when outsourcing overseas. Having a local website designer also helps the owner and the designer to build a harmonious working relationship that is mutually beneficial. A rapport once built translates into quicker results as no website design remains a constant.
After a few months of operation, the owner may require further refinements to the web site design. Such iterations are best carried out if the website designer is available at short notice. If you are a business or an entrepreneur looking for a website designer, then you may consider hiring the services of an advanced web designing service. You can count on a team of top notch website designers who will attend to all your requirements and make recommendations to better improve your site rating. And at affordable prices too! As an example, Florida Website Design is a local company in the state Florida that has served its state clients with quality and top-notch service. The secret to all their success is excellent communication and quality work. So check out the service and you won’t be disappointed.
Best way to create a successful website?
I have a business idea that requires me to build a website. I just don’t know what company to use to host, and that has built in web design tools that will suffice. I don’t want to hire a professional to design this website cause I don’t trust to many people, I have had bad experiences. I don’t have experience and most sites that offer the mentioned tools promises it will be easy and don’t require experience, here’s an example http://www.infoservemedia.com/design/DIY/. The website I want to build will require the same capabilities as say www.fathead.com. Please Help!!!!
Before even considering hiring someone to build you a custom website, make sure that you have an SEO consultant to ensure that your website has a high PR (Page Rank) on Google, Yahoo and MSN. We are reminded of the fact that search engines are the Yellow Pages of the Internet. Unfortunately, there are far too many websites that rely on “branding” of a domain name instead of simple effective SEO metatag placement.
Good luck!
Pizza Capers Example of bad web navigation from Web Pages That Suck
How to pass a DataSet across projects to a GridView in ASP.NET 2.0?
I am using the new Visual Studio 2005 and ASP.NET 2.0 (C#) to create a 3-tier web application with the middle tier (business logic and database access) in a DLL file created in a separate project in VS2005 from the web site. How do I pass data back and forth between the DLL and the web site to populate a GridView component and still be able to do the standard Update, Insert, Deletes on the data? All the examples in books and on the web assume that your data source objects are located in the same project as the web site (2-tier design and a bad practice).
I can create and pass a standard DataSet object and then link it to a GridView using DataSource/DataBind. This displays data, but when I click the built in Edit/Delete links, nothing happens (screen just reposts, no errors). I assume that I have to add some code in the update/delete event handlers, but what? And how do I pass the modified data back to update the database? Books, websites, examples? Help!
You would have to create a custom Update and delete button when working with a data set. create a template column and have your update and delete buttons there.
In your Gridview databound event make sure you specify the row of the grid to the command attribute of the buttons. That way you know which row you are clicking. Then when you click update or delete in the appropriate event just update the database. then make sure you databind your dataset again before you display your grid so that the changes will reflect on the screen.
