What does a web designer do?
Web design is hard to sum up in a few words. It is a highly skilled and undervalued profession that brings a client's requirements and target audience's needs together in a beautiful and effective way. So what do we do?
We know a fair bit.
A web designer doesn't just throw together a bunch of colours, images, and text willy nilly to make a rocking website.
Behind each little design decision there is hours of study and practice with eons old design principles and constantly evolving trends and fashions.
0 Comment(s)Back to Basics - Domains, Hosting, DNS
These three terms - Domains, Hosting, DNS - are all essential parts of any website. Together they form the basis of how your website is labeled, stored and located.
Sometimes the combination of terms can be confusing, so today we will look at each one in detail and explain how they work together.
Domain
A domain (e.g. www.yourcompany.com.au) is the ‘label’ for your website. It’s a ‘shortcut’ similar to the ones you find on your computer (an icon representing a program that will launch the correct files when clicked).
The importance of Information Architecture
Most of the time when I tell people what I do, I’m met with either blank stares or questions about house extensions. The role of the information architect is often misunderstood but just as crucial to the website creation process as either a web designer or developer.
Information architects are responsible for organising and planning out where and how the information on your site will fit. This is often planned in conjunction with an investigation of your site functionality and is also strongly influenced by the technical complexity of a given site.
0 Comment(s)Does your website appeal to its intended audience?
Generating traffic to your website is largely based on marketing and SEO, but an often overlooked avenue is word of mouth. If the design of a website hits the target audience right between the eyes, then chances are they will go forth and tell their friends, colleagues, and family, all of which have a good chance of falling into the target audience too.
0 Comment(s)How to tell if your website needs a facelift
Just as the months seem to whizz by at warp speed, so the internet evolves and it's users change their tastes and how they choose to engage with a website. This is the reason why I have outlined some key ways that you can assess whether your website is behind the times.
Design with the user in mind
Perhaps the most important aspect of web design evolution has been the ever growing importance and focus placed on user centric design (or designing a website so that its effectiveness is maximised for its tagert audience).
0 Comment(s)How to keep your website on the ball
Your website communicates your professional standing to customers. Out of date information, especially those detailing specific dates such as in online vouchers, warn potential customers that your business does not respect deadlines; that they may be too busy to take time to deal with you; and that the business may not know what is going on within their own business.
What your customers expect
0 Comment(s)What are you missing out on?
This week the Feedia team have been discussing the lifespan of a website, and why it's good to always keep your site up-to-date.
On Wednesday, Ismail wrote about changing design trends and why it’s important to stay up to date. Thursday, Letitia presented some strategies for determining if your company site is in need of a refresh.
2 Comment(s)How to tell when a business's website needs a redesign
Just like fashion, websites date. What was the rage a year ago in website design and functionality is now seen as so last century.
Having a website doesn't come cheap and continually keeping up with these trends can be seen as not necessary for some businesses.
A few questions to ask yourself to identify whether it's time for a redesign:
Is your website hard to update and maintain?
0 Comment(s)Web Design Trends Come and Go
Just as in clothing, cars, television, and a myriad of other things in our day to day lives, web design also lends itself to trends. Designers are constantly learning new ways and methods of doing things, and introducing new inspirations, which changes the face of the web very rapidly. What's cool and funky in 2009 might be severely dated in 2010.
0 Comment(s)A new fortnight, a new focus.
Sitting down this morning, all recovering from the weekend, preparing for the day ahead and tomorrow's Australia Day celebrations we came up with a topic for this fortnight's blog entries; the lifespan of a website.
Day in day out we come across the mullets, shoulder pads and 80s hairdos of websites. We're all too familiar with identifying how dated a business's website is through it's design, functionality and overall performance.
So now it's our time to share with you the ways to tell if a business's website is dated and how this can impact a business's online performance.
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