Custom Web Site Design
Anyone in the business world knows that when someone asks, “What’s your website address?” you better have a URL to give them. They don’t want to hear “I don’t have one yet” or “I’m working on it”. Having an established, professional looking website, always scores credibility points for the business owner.
Of utmost importance though...it is far better to not have a website than to have a nonprofessional, cheesy looking site. You will do much more damage to your business by portraying your company in a less than top-notch light.
If you don’t have the knowledge, skills or abilities to produce an outstanding design yourself then hire a professional web designer. Web designers aren't cheap, but that’s no reason to cut corners. Rework your budget or possibly try to barter for all or part of the work to build your website.
You can save yourself time and money if you have your website copy written. Provide your web designer with the text and the layout of how you want it to look. Offer color schemes. Send links to other sites that you admire. Of course, you never want to copy someone else’s site, but by giving your designer an idea for the theme you’d like to have, the process will go much more quickly.
The more work you can you do up front yourself, the easier it will be on your pocket book. Many designers work by the hour. If you want to have lots of links in your website, spell that out clearly. Ask your designer if you should submit your text and ideas in a Word document or if they would prefer it some other way. And make sure to forward any photos you want to use to your web designer. Web designers are not mind readers. Most will do as many edits as you like, however you will be charged for each edit.
There are many "quick and easy" web design companies out there, advertising that you can have your website up in an hour. And there are many canned templates that you can use which are very user friendly. But, keep in-mind that most of these tools are for beginners. They will not provide a professional looking site. If it’s your business, the one you’re trying to make profitable, image is everything. Don’t try to cut corners in this area.
Friday, February 9, 2007
Friday, February 2, 2007
Basic Creative Design Principles
Custom web site design.
Some people seem to have been born knowing creative design principles. Others, maybe you included, have to struggle to develop even the tiniest creative skills they do have. One thing is for certain, you can learn to be more creative. And you can discover the creative design ideas that other artists use for inspiration, even if you were not born with a single creative bone in your body.
There are several principles of design you must consider when you begin to learn the creative design process. These principles give an over riding basis on how your design elements will interact with one another, in your artwork and your designs. Each one influences the others in an endless tug-of-war within your mind and on your creative canvas. Your challenge is to learn to create harmony out of all these principles in your artwork, and to give your designs that unique blend that can only come from within you.
The creative design principles are...
Balance
Rhythm
Dominance
Unity
Now, let us look at each principle as it relates to your creativity and your designs.
Balance is the arrangement of different design elements, on any given piece of artwork, so that there is an equal distribution of visual weight to the whole piece. Art that doesn't have balance can leave the viewer uneasy, almost as if there is something wrong with the piece.
Rhythm has to do with repeating elements and patterns in your designs. It also involves variations on those patterns to provide freshness, and to keep your art from becoming boring. Repetition can help to unify a piece, or bring different parts of your artwork together. It can also provide the basic textures for your design work.
Dominance refers to emphasizing certain parts of your design so that they get noticed first. Every piece of artwork needs a focal point which determines where your eyesight goes first, when you look at it. If you do not have a focal point your viewer quickly loses interest. Having too many points of interest will also leave the viewer with no place to focus. There are many ways to emphasize parts of your design, but the most important point is to select your focus based on your main message and, secondly, in consideration of whom your audience will be.
Unity is the final aspect in design, which gives a feeling that all the elements belong together. Unifying a piece can involve using various elements, including matching colors, shapes, textures, groupings, weights, typographies, or sizes. Unity, in your art, is the overall feeling that brings your piece together, and gives it wholeness or variety, whichever you are trying to convey to the viewer.
When you consider each of these design principles, while creating your artwork, they will have an impact on everything you create and do in your piece. No matter where your creativity takes you, if you will try to incorporate balance, rhythm, dominance, and unity into your artwork, you will be building on the solid basics of creative design.
Some people seem to have been born knowing creative design principles. Others, maybe you included, have to struggle to develop even the tiniest creative skills they do have. One thing is for certain, you can learn to be more creative. And you can discover the creative design ideas that other artists use for inspiration, even if you were not born with a single creative bone in your body.
There are several principles of design you must consider when you begin to learn the creative design process. These principles give an over riding basis on how your design elements will interact with one another, in your artwork and your designs. Each one influences the others in an endless tug-of-war within your mind and on your creative canvas. Your challenge is to learn to create harmony out of all these principles in your artwork, and to give your designs that unique blend that can only come from within you.
The creative design principles are...
Balance
Rhythm
Dominance
Unity
Now, let us look at each principle as it relates to your creativity and your designs.
Balance is the arrangement of different design elements, on any given piece of artwork, so that there is an equal distribution of visual weight to the whole piece. Art that doesn't have balance can leave the viewer uneasy, almost as if there is something wrong with the piece.
Rhythm has to do with repeating elements and patterns in your designs. It also involves variations on those patterns to provide freshness, and to keep your art from becoming boring. Repetition can help to unify a piece, or bring different parts of your artwork together. It can also provide the basic textures for your design work.
Dominance refers to emphasizing certain parts of your design so that they get noticed first. Every piece of artwork needs a focal point which determines where your eyesight goes first, when you look at it. If you do not have a focal point your viewer quickly loses interest. Having too many points of interest will also leave the viewer with no place to focus. There are many ways to emphasize parts of your design, but the most important point is to select your focus based on your main message and, secondly, in consideration of whom your audience will be.
Unity is the final aspect in design, which gives a feeling that all the elements belong together. Unifying a piece can involve using various elements, including matching colors, shapes, textures, groupings, weights, typographies, or sizes. Unity, in your art, is the overall feeling that brings your piece together, and gives it wholeness or variety, whichever you are trying to convey to the viewer.
When you consider each of these design principles, while creating your artwork, they will have an impact on everything you create and do in your piece. No matter where your creativity takes you, if you will try to incorporate balance, rhythm, dominance, and unity into your artwork, you will be building on the solid basics of creative design.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Flash Offers Unique Advantages in Web Design
Custom Web Site Design
One of the most useful programs that Macromedia offers is Flash. Some people use it to create highly professional animations and some use it for web design. In the area of web design, it is already taking the place of Javascript. While web designers were creating cool drop-down menus with lines and lines of Javascript some years ago, now it is as easy as a click in Flash.
The biggest advantage of Flash is the great user friendly interface that solves the most complicated issues with either using the modules that are included in the package or the simple programming language that it uses. Together with Macromedia Fireworks and Dreamweaver, it takes less than a day for an average coder to create professional looking web pages.
The fact that one can use Flash in many different areas, from creating movies to write action scripts, makes it different from its competitors. You can easily use video files or in-framed animations and also dynamic content to create a Flash web page. All you have to do is to include some “movie clip” objects and connect and control these objects using the scripting function of Flash.
Flash can be used to prepare web pages for various contents. The most common usage is to build pages for multimedia content. Art pages generally consist of Flash animations and photo galleries that are built with Flash. Music pages are generally enveloped in Flash pages. Navigation bars are created with the advance options of dynamic objects in Flash. Basically, Flash is becoming the foundation of dynamic web pages on the Internet.
Flash not only is used to design pages but can be also used in different platforms. It allows the user to easily develop content for a wide range of platforms including mobile phones and PDAs. Two of the innovative features are the built-in templates for mobile devices and the ability to embed sounds such as MIDI ring tones into the content. You can quickly create custom applications that will work on various mobile platforms because of the ubiquity of the Flash Player.
Overall, if you are looking for a design solution for your web site or PDA, Flash is the right choice with its highly professional but at the same time user-friendly features. It seems that Internet users will be seeing more and more Flash content. Flash brings the colorful breeze that the dynamic web pages are missing and turns the active scripting into an average job for coders.
Don't forget to check out Marlon Sanders' Design Dashboard. It can help you install those Flash scripts quite easily.
One of the most useful programs that Macromedia offers is Flash. Some people use it to create highly professional animations and some use it for web design. In the area of web design, it is already taking the place of Javascript. While web designers were creating cool drop-down menus with lines and lines of Javascript some years ago, now it is as easy as a click in Flash.
The biggest advantage of Flash is the great user friendly interface that solves the most complicated issues with either using the modules that are included in the package or the simple programming language that it uses. Together with Macromedia Fireworks and Dreamweaver, it takes less than a day for an average coder to create professional looking web pages.
The fact that one can use Flash in many different areas, from creating movies to write action scripts, makes it different from its competitors. You can easily use video files or in-framed animations and also dynamic content to create a Flash web page. All you have to do is to include some “movie clip” objects and connect and control these objects using the scripting function of Flash.
Flash can be used to prepare web pages for various contents. The most common usage is to build pages for multimedia content. Art pages generally consist of Flash animations and photo galleries that are built with Flash. Music pages are generally enveloped in Flash pages. Navigation bars are created with the advance options of dynamic objects in Flash. Basically, Flash is becoming the foundation of dynamic web pages on the Internet.
Flash not only is used to design pages but can be also used in different platforms. It allows the user to easily develop content for a wide range of platforms including mobile phones and PDAs. Two of the innovative features are the built-in templates for mobile devices and the ability to embed sounds such as MIDI ring tones into the content. You can quickly create custom applications that will work on various mobile platforms because of the ubiquity of the Flash Player.
Overall, if you are looking for a design solution for your web site or PDA, Flash is the right choice with its highly professional but at the same time user-friendly features. It seems that Internet users will be seeing more and more Flash content. Flash brings the colorful breeze that the dynamic web pages are missing and turns the active scripting into an average job for coders.
Don't forget to check out Marlon Sanders' Design Dashboard. It can help you install those Flash scripts quite easily.
Monday, January 29, 2007
New Design Dashboard
Custom Web Site Design
Hello,
Ron Kaiser here again.
Yesterday I mentioned Marlon Sander’s new product called Design Dashboard. Here is the email that I sent out to my subscriber’s for you. I hope that you find the product as interesting as I did.
Do you need to design:
* Web sites?
* Sales pages?
* Mini sites?
* Blog graphics?
* Affiliate pre-sell pages?
* Landing pages?
You point. You click. You follow the big blue numbers. What could be simpler?
It's A to Z. All step-by-step screen caps supported by videos where needed. It's a MASSIVE time saver and literally takes the pain out of the learning curve.
Here's what it does for you:
End Result:
a. Your own custom web site graphics that are a cut above
b. You will do your own header graphics faster than you may imagine
c. You will know how to do special effects like scanlines and handwritten notes
d. You will be able to trick out templates you buy or create your own
e. You save costs (No Photoshop CS or Dreamweaver needed)
f. You will get step-be-step instructions on ftp, getting your shopping cart up, hooking up your autoresponders, stick letters, fly ins, and every other detail we could think of.
g. Saves you the costs of design fees. At $150-$300 per header, just ONE and you've paid for this product.
h. Even if you still use a designer, there are times when you need it NOW, not later. You 100% can do it yourself and be surprised at how good a job you DID!
i. You can create your OWN templates just as good as many of 'em you buy -- and do it fast, once you learn the steps.
j. Most templates are NOT designed for "our type" of sites. So they're never quite right. You can do it yourself, get a better result AND save.
SHOULDN'T I OUTSOURCE?
I disagree with the "outsource everything" view. YES, you build a business. But in the beginning, there are times to outsource and times to do it yourself.
I did most everything myself early on. And as the money came in, I hired people to help out.
If you've got the bucks to hire everything out, fine. But you STILL will end up waiting and waiting for designs when you could do it yourself in 10 to 30 minutes if you had a little basic knowledge.
Anyway, check it out: Design Dashboard.
If you're nterested, there's an stick figure video of Design Dashbord. Click here to see it.
Best wishes,
Ron
Hello,
Ron Kaiser here again.
Yesterday I mentioned Marlon Sander’s new product called Design Dashboard. Here is the email that I sent out to my subscriber’s for you. I hope that you find the product as interesting as I did.
Do you need to design:
* Web sites?
* Sales pages?
* Mini sites?
* Blog graphics?
* Affiliate pre-sell pages?
* Landing pages?
You point. You click. You follow the big blue numbers. What could be simpler?
It's A to Z. All step-by-step screen caps supported by videos where needed. It's a MASSIVE time saver and literally takes the pain out of the learning curve.
Here's what it does for you:
End Result:
a. Your own custom web site graphics that are a cut above
b. You will do your own header graphics faster than you may imagine
c. You will know how to do special effects like scanlines and handwritten notes
d. You will be able to trick out templates you buy or create your own
e. You save costs (No Photoshop CS or Dreamweaver needed)
f. You will get step-be-step instructions on ftp, getting your shopping cart up, hooking up your autoresponders, stick letters, fly ins, and every other detail we could think of.
g. Saves you the costs of design fees. At $150-$300 per header, just ONE and you've paid for this product.
h. Even if you still use a designer, there are times when you need it NOW, not later. You 100% can do it yourself and be surprised at how good a job you DID!
i. You can create your OWN templates just as good as many of 'em you buy -- and do it fast, once you learn the steps.
j. Most templates are NOT designed for "our type" of sites. So they're never quite right. You can do it yourself, get a better result AND save.
SHOULDN'T I OUTSOURCE?
I disagree with the "outsource everything" view. YES, you build a business. But in the beginning, there are times to outsource and times to do it yourself.
I did most everything myself early on. And as the money came in, I hired people to help out.
If you've got the bucks to hire everything out, fine. But you STILL will end up waiting and waiting for designs when you could do it yourself in 10 to 30 minutes if you had a little basic knowledge.
Anyway, check it out: Design Dashboard.
If you're nterested, there's an stick figure video of Design Dashbord. Click here to see it.
Best wishes,
Ron
Sunday, January 28, 2007
7 Tips to Improve Your Website Design
Custom Web Site Design
No matter if your website is a personal site with a few pages or a huge corporation website, having a good design is one of the most important things. It matters a lot to visitors and can make the difference between leaving a site or bookmarking it. Here are a few tips to help improve your design:
1. Pages should load fast. Most people will leave your site if it's not done loading in ten or 15 seconds. And even if you have a fast internet connection, not everyone does and 56k modems still exist.
2. Text should be easy to read. The text size should be big enough, and the background should not obscure your text. If you want to be safe, use black text on a white background. If you want more color, choose very carefully to make sure it's still easy to read.
3. Your website should be easy to navigate. Each link should be clearly identified as such and graphic navigation elements like buttons and tabs should be easy to read and use. You do not want people leaving because they could not figure out how your Flash menu works.
4. Your layout and design should be consistent. If you switch between styles too much, you will confuse your visitors. If the design is too different, people will believe that they are now on a different website since the layout changed.
5. Avoid music and sounds. Very few people like to have music forced on them while they navigate, especially if they are already listening to music or surfing at their job! If you really cannot do without music, turn it off by default and ask visitors to start it themselves.
6. Design for browser compatibility. Many people do not use Internet Explorer on Windows. Make sure your site is at least viewable in Mozilla Firefox and Opera (if possible, you could even try testing on a Mac). Sites that target markets like technology should be more careful, since readers are more likely to use the newest browsers and gadgets like PDAs.
7. Design for all screen resolutions. You may like to surf in 1240x1080 with your new screen, but some people still use 800x600, or even 640x768! A site that looks perfect in high resolution may turn out to be impossible to view correctly in 800x600.
And, if you have a doubt, test, test and test! You can also ask your family and friends for help. Being less familiar with the website, they can help find a lot of things you overlooked.
There are basically three ways to custom design your web-site. You can do it yourself if you know html, hire someone to do it for you, or get a third party program to do it all for you. This is usually the less stressful and least expensive way to go.
One of the best programs for custom web site design that I've come across is from Marlon Sanders. You can pick it up by clicking here.
No matter if your website is a personal site with a few pages or a huge corporation website, having a good design is one of the most important things. It matters a lot to visitors and can make the difference between leaving a site or bookmarking it. Here are a few tips to help improve your design:
1. Pages should load fast. Most people will leave your site if it's not done loading in ten or 15 seconds. And even if you have a fast internet connection, not everyone does and 56k modems still exist.
2. Text should be easy to read. The text size should be big enough, and the background should not obscure your text. If you want to be safe, use black text on a white background. If you want more color, choose very carefully to make sure it's still easy to read.
3. Your website should be easy to navigate. Each link should be clearly identified as such and graphic navigation elements like buttons and tabs should be easy to read and use. You do not want people leaving because they could not figure out how your Flash menu works.
4. Your layout and design should be consistent. If you switch between styles too much, you will confuse your visitors. If the design is too different, people will believe that they are now on a different website since the layout changed.
5. Avoid music and sounds. Very few people like to have music forced on them while they navigate, especially if they are already listening to music or surfing at their job! If you really cannot do without music, turn it off by default and ask visitors to start it themselves.
6. Design for browser compatibility. Many people do not use Internet Explorer on Windows. Make sure your site is at least viewable in Mozilla Firefox and Opera (if possible, you could even try testing on a Mac). Sites that target markets like technology should be more careful, since readers are more likely to use the newest browsers and gadgets like PDAs.
7. Design for all screen resolutions. You may like to surf in 1240x1080 with your new screen, but some people still use 800x600, or even 640x768! A site that looks perfect in high resolution may turn out to be impossible to view correctly in 800x600.
And, if you have a doubt, test, test and test! You can also ask your family and friends for help. Being less familiar with the website, they can help find a lot of things you overlooked.
There are basically three ways to custom design your web-site. You can do it yourself if you know html, hire someone to do it for you, or get a third party program to do it all for you. This is usually the less stressful and least expensive way to go.
One of the best programs for custom web site design that I've come across is from Marlon Sanders. You can pick it up by clicking here.
Custon Web Site Design
Welcome to my custom web site design blog. Here you will learn about custom web site design and tips on how make your custom web site design sell.
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