Archive for the ‘Web Design’ Category

Why HTML5 Projects Are a Great Fit for Latin America IT

Monday, May 14th, 2012

HTML5 300x300 Why HTML5 Projects Are a Great Fit for Latin America IT The emerging HTML5 standard will make it a lot easier to deliver more graphical and attractive Web pages to more and more devices (especially mobile devices). That makes it a big boon for Web developers, and also a great fit for Nearshore developers with an eye for good design and local tastes.

HTML5 Defined

HTML5, which most browsers already support, is the next step in the evolution of the hypertext markup language that controls how information is presented in Web browsers. It will make it easier for users to access audio and video by integrating audio and video support into the browser, rather than requiring the user to download and install plug-ins. The HTML page essentially becomes a container for other containers, which contains other containers, and so forth; JavaScript can easily access those containers, modifying, updating, and moving them around.

Another capability of HTML5 is that it gives developers greater control over presenting information from different sources on the same Web page. Conceivably, if you have multiple Web apps running on different servers or different sites, you have the capability to select bits of information and then reintegrate and display that information together using HTML5.

Use Cases

Why is that important? On the consumer side, for example, you would have the ability to present a news, entertainment, gaming, shopping or social site to mobile consumers that aggregates content in a new way from multiple sources. On the business side, you could create a Web site for, say, corporate real estate managers that gives them instant updates on demographic, zoning, traffic flow and other information to comparing potential retail sites.

You need graphic designers as well as programmers – two different kinds of skills – that need to work well together when creating a web application.

Such capabilities are especially valuable when they’re available on mobile devices, and this is another area where HTML5 shines. Rather than forcing developers to write a native application for every mobile platform (i.e., Apple vs. Android vs. Blackberry) HTML5 can automatically recognize variables such as screen size and automatically tailor the display to the device. With mobile devices rapidly becoming the “screen of choice” for business users and consumers, that’s a huge benefit.

You need graphic designers as well as programmers – two different kinds of skills – that need to work well together when creating a web application. Good user experience and graphics design requires a cultural component — that is, an awareness of the visual images and metaphors that will be instantly recognizable to the end-user of the web app.

The ability and willingness for a Nearshore developer to assemble a team that has both kinds of talent is critical. The good news is that, if they can create such a team, the Nearshore cultural affinity with the U.S. makes Nearshore developers well-suited to these demands, compared to other places around the world.

source:

http://nearshoreamericas.com/html5-projects-good-fit-latin-america/

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Responsive Web Design Isn’t Meant To Replace Mobile Web Sites

Friday, March 30th, 2012

At the end of his book, Responsive Web Design, Ethan Marcotte says very clearly, “most importantly, responsive web design isn’t intended to serve as a replacement for mobile web sites”. He really leaves it up to the designer to determine whether or not responsive design makes sense for their project.

So why are so many designers, SEOs and search engines so gung-ho about responsive design these days? Whether it’s Angie Schottmuller, John Mueller, Barry Schwartz, iCrossing, Brian Klais, Jill Kocher, Kerry Dean, Bing, or countless yes men, it’s hard to swing a cat on the web these days without running into a gaggle of gurus singing the praises of responsive design.

Design Once, Format For Different Devices

If you’re just joining us, responsive web design is a design philosophy and front end development strategy that makes desktop websites accessible on a number of devices through the use of fluid grids, flexible layouts and media queries. Instead of serving your users multiple URLs depending on the device that they’re accessing your site with, responsive web design allows webmasters to design a site once and format it differently for many devices.

The benefits are obvious to many. Because sites can be designed once and reformatted, responsive web design eliminates the need to maintain multiple sites, which can sometimes decrease dramatically the costs of going mobile. Responsive web design also makes content available on a single URL, which some SEOs cite as a solution to a duplicate content problem.

Though with Google’s skip redirect/Old Possum update in December, it’s a duplicate content problem that doesn’t exist, because relevant mobile sites that are properly redirected will be shown to smartphone searchers now regardless of link equity. And honestly, even before then Google did a decent job of surfacing mobile sites for mobile queries.

Proponents also cite less of a need to take up resources hosting two versions of the same content.

Source: http://marketingland.com/responsive-web-design-isnt-meant-to-replace-mobile-web-sites-7949

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Why Choose Professional Custom Website Design Services?

Friday, March 23rd, 2012

If you have always wondered why your website has not been able to live up to the expectations, it is time for you to have a thorough analysis and most often than not you will find that the design of your website is not up to the standards or expectations of the site visitors.

If you really want your website to do well in search engine results and entice visitors to turn regular customers, it is time that you emphasize on the most important aspect of a website–web design.

In this piece of information, we will be accessing common mistakes that are seen on most sites and find out how these can be corrected by seeking the specialized services of a professional website consultancy firm.

Some of the biggest mistakes seen on most sites are horizontal scrolling, “under construction” pages, pages without navigation, absence of search box, hidden or false links, typos and grammatical errors, images without the alt attribute, and improper image format. If that was not all, some web designers do not pay heed to industry standards and commit mistakes such as confusing content and design, auto-play sounds, cross-browser inconsistencies, and opening too many windows.

Another mistake that can be commonly noticed on most sites is the failure to provide information that described the website. It is worthwhile to remember that a website must be very clear and forthcoming about its purpose and vision. Moreover, some sites display information that has no direct or even indirect relation with purpose of the website.

The list of web design mistakes does not end here. Some sites display busy and crowded pages that can surely drive customers away while some emphasize too much on images and graphics that make the site load slowly or get in way of the text site visitors are accessing, or distract their attention. The point to be conveyed is that only useful images that relate to the site and help in communicating the message of the site page should be used and no image should be strewed over the site to make it look appealing.

If you want to avoid all these and many more mistakes that are generally committed by inexperienced web design companies, the best option before you is to seek the professional and reliable services of a custom website design company that specializes in web design and can make your site friendly to search engines.

If that was not all, you can even opt for database management services offered by a website consultancy firm. These solutions can easily help you reduce operational costs by as much as 40 percent besides reducing downtime and improving productivity. Furthermore, these services leads to superior, proactive, and on-demand customer service along with improving returns on investments by capitalizing on existing information technology infrastructure investment. Database management services can also be highly beneficial for transforming disparate information into a valuable resource besides improving the quality and consistency of information. The best part is that the use of database technology in your business can be customized according to the specific requirements of your business at budget-friendly prices.

Source: http://prwire.com.au/pr/27921/why-choose-professional-custom-website-design-services

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Finding a Great Web Design Company

Wednesday, March 21st, 2012

When setting out to choose a web design company, it’s important to take a variety of things into consideration in order to ensure that things go well. After all, no two web design companies are alike, and some are far higher in quality than others. In order to make sure that things work in your favor, you should have a good idea as of what to look for in a web design company and how to choose one effectively. The following information can be essential, and is more than worth taking into consideration if you have any intention to take this route.

Finding the right web design company is all about surveying your options. Most people who live in large urban areas will admit to having a great deal of web design companies to choose from, in which case it can be difficult to make a decision. You can get a lot of mileage out of reading online reviews, which will give you a great idea as of whether or not a web design company is high in quality.

Pricing is everything when it comes to working with the right web design company, and can make a huge difference in terms of how well things go for you. Finding good pricing isn’t always easy, but there are a variety of things that you can do in order to do so. The more you look, the better off you’ll be.

If you want to succeed, you have to stay ahead of the curve. This isn’t always easy, but is made easier by working with the right web design company. Always look for those who have been on the scene for a very long time.

Tailoring a solution to your needs is very important, and should not be underestimated. A lot of people don’t realize this, however, and don’t take the time to find a company that can do that for them. The more work you put into this aspect of the search, the better off you’ll be in the long run.

With quality web design as part of your business model, you should be able to bring in new customers without issue. A lot of people don’t realize just how effective this is, and don’t take the time to look into it. That said, the better your web design, the better off you’ll be.

SEO is of the utmost importance when choosing a web design company. If the company doesn?t practice the newest aspects of SEO, you?re going to fall behind. Always ask about SEO before signing on with anyone.

With the above info on your side, you should be able to find a good web design company in no time at all. That said, you should always stay vigilant in order to ensure that the company you work with is truly top of its class. The more research you can do, the happier you’ll be in the end.

Source: http://www.wow-webdesign.com/2012/03/20/finding-a-great-web-design-company/

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5 Free Resources for Beginner Web Designers

Wednesday, March 21st, 2012

Web pattern is typically some-more energetic than striking pattern since it can assistance or impede how your caller navigates your page. For example, a web pattern has to incorporate space for a menu, while this is not an component of striking designs. A page’s demeanour and feel incorporates graphics and designs dictated for perspective in a visitor’s browser, while a website is indeed combined with hypertext markup denunciation (HTML) and other web scripting languages. These languages use calm codes and, as we learn to pattern websites, we will be means to prognosticate a visible outcome of a codes as we form them. These 5 giveaway resources for amateur web designers assist both in a artistic and programming sides of web design.

1. W3Schools.com

Any engineer who is coding a pages of a website will advantage from a extensive HTML, JavaScript and CSS tutorials during W3Schools, a website dedicated to providing formula guides that follow a standards described by a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Designers and developers can also learn about SQL, a customary denunciation for database entrance and PHP, a scripting denunciation that many renouned scripts use. PHP and SQL are a back-end for collection such as Drupal or WordPress, for example.

W3Schools is comprehensive so a engineer usually has to revisit one website for answers. It also has a leg adult over a foe since it offers several singular features, including:

  • Quizzes about languages and collection that assistance a engineer exam her knowledge
  • Complete HTML and CSS anxiety pages
  • A “Do It Yourself” editor that allows designers to cgange and exam formula examples
  • Articles about conceptualizing peculiarity websites p
  • Quick links to formula validators

W3Schools also offers mixed books, that are accessible from Amazon, so designers can anxiety tutorials as hardcopies.

2. Gimp

Gimp is initial module that comes to mind when many designers consider of giveaway picture editors. According to a central website, Gimp can be used to emanate images for web use or to re-touch photographs, while others might suffer Gimp as a elementary paint utility. Designers who use mixed computers can download Gimp to any complement regulating Windows, Mac OS X or Linux.

This modifying module is ideal for any engineer who uses a sketch inscription since a module supports tablets out-of-the-box. The hardware support allows a engineer to customize a duty of buttons and corkscrew wheels on a rodent as well, and these buttons can turn shortcuts to cgange a distance or opacity of a brush.

Photo enhancements are simplified with Gimp’s default improvement collection and filters so even unlawful photos can turn a basement of a web layout. If Gimp doesn’t yield local support for a function, designers can supplement it by installing a plug-in. For instance, a renouned plug-in adds a choice to save an picture for web use.

3. Colour Lovers

Colour Lovers is a community-based website that offers palettes formed on colors and patterns. A engineer can use a website as impulse when building patterns for web projects. They might also review a posts about a latest pattern trends on a Colour Lovers blog, or revisit a forums or blogs to find submit from over 1,500 other designers when impulse fails. When impulse abounds, designers can upload their patterns and palettes to a website for others to use or to save as a anxiety for a future.

4. Smashing Magazine

Smashing Magazine offers a resources of information for any determined designer. Coding tutorials assistance designers to grasp specific HTML, CSS or JavaScript effects, while a editors scour a Internet for inspirational examples and other resources that turn featured on a blog. The blog also discusses whether, and when, practices such as regulating fit calm are suitable in design. Designers can respond and plead in a blog comments. Whether he wants impulse for retard quote styles, a list of giveaway horizon themes for conceptualizing web projects or tutorials to emanate some-more enchanting images in Photoshop, a engineer can find it all on Smashing Magazine.

5. Web Design Library

This is another website that breaks down tutorials and calm by subject and includes topics that might be ignored elsewhere. One singular inclusion is tutorials and resources for designers who use Adobe’s Flash, an interactive record for website. There are also series of tutorials for picture modifying in a several versions of Photoshop, a industry-leading striking modifying program. In further to this, Web Design Library offers giveaway downloads of 3D graphics, that can be used in web design.

Designers who also assistance clients emanate their web participation can check out an whole territory dedicated to formulating and progressing a website, with articles about web hosting and induction a domain name.

For inspiration, new designers can check out a Showcase on Web Design Library, that facilities over 2,500 layouts and themes for web use. Designers can even download some of these themes for free. The website facilities a site of a day and site of a month, in further to a showcase.

Source: http://www.joomvision.com/resources-for-beginner-web-designers/

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Learning Responsive Web Design in Three Steps

Thursday, March 15th, 2012

For a new starter, responsive web design may seem a little complicated, but in fact it is easier than what you thought. To help you get a basic knowledge about the responsive web design, I drafted a quick tutorial. You can learn basic principles about responsive web design and media queries in three steps. (I assume you know the basic knowledge about CSS)

Step 1: Meta Tag

Most mobile browsers magnify the HTML page into a wide viewport so as to fit on screen. You can reset it using the meta tag of viewport. The tags will inform the browser that it should use the width of the device as the width of the viewport and disable the initial scale. Add the meta tag in the tag.

1. <meta name= “viewport” content= “width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0”>

IE8 and earlier browsers do not support Media Query. You can use media-queries.js or respond.js to make IE to support Media Query.

1. <! – - [if lt IE9]>

2. <script src= http://css3-mediaqueries-js.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/css3-mediaqueries.js></script>

3. <! [endif] – - >

Step 2: HTML Structure

In this example, I have a basic page layout containing a header, content, sidebar and footer. The head has a fixed height, 108px, and the content container is 600px wide and sidebar 300px wide.

clip_image002

Step 3: Media Queries

CSS3 Media Query is the core of responsive design. It informs the browser how to determine the width of a viewport to render the page.

When the width of the viewport is 980px or less, the following rules will come into effect. Usually, I will set all the container width to percentage value so the containers will become fluid.

clip_image003

When the width is 700px or less, set the width of #content and #sidebar to auto width and remove the float, so that they will display at full width.

clip_image004

If the width is 480px or less, set the height of the #head element to auto, change the character size of h1 to 24px and hide the sidebar.

clip_image005

You can add media queries as many as you like. I just demonstrated 3 kinds of media queries. The purpose of media queries is to apply different CSS rules to achieve different layouts for specified viewport width. Media queries can be put in the same style-sheet or in a separate one.

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Life after iWeb: The state of Web design on the Mac

Wednesday, December 28th, 2011

It hasn’t been a great year for iWeb users. Apple’s lone Web design app wasn’t updated with the release of iLife ’11, and future versions—much less a successor—are in doubt. Even if iWeb’s prospects are as bad as they seem, there’s more to creating websites on the Mac than just one program. Whether you’re looking for an easy-to-use iWeb replacement or a more sophisticated program with more powerful features for you and your site’s visitors, a host of applications is available for every skill level and budget. Here are some of the highlights and how current iWeb users could find them useful.

The iWeb problem

While iWeb may be unavailable on the Mac App Store, it’s still currently sold in boxed editions of the iLife ’11 suite. This summer, the app was updated to version 3.0.4, and will presumably keep working even after Apple ends MobileMe Web hosting on June 30, 2012. After that date, many iWeb users will have to find new hosts for their sites, but iWeb will still export to FTP and Finder folders.

Professional and prosumer options

If you’re ready to take your skills and sites to the next level, professional Web design software can help. These applications offer sophisticated WYSIWYG features, rich code editing tools, or both, and are aimed at building and maintaining complex sites. Dreamweaver CS5.5 ($400) is the choice of many Web design pros for designing cutting-edge sites using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, or PHP.

Source: http://www.macworld.com/article/163747/2011/12/life_after_iweb_the_state_of_web_design_on_the_mac.html

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Web design basics: How to create snazzy tables and when to use them

Wednesday, December 7th, 2011

When are tables most effective in presenting data on web pages? The debate on proper use of tables typically focuses on the use of table column and row attributes for page layout and using them to align or position text, graphics, or gradients. Divisions, spans, and, more recently with HTML5, the use of articles, sections, headers, footers, nav, hgroup, and aside are more appropriate for providing sectional and structural elements for web page presentation.

However, while tables aren’t appropriate for laying out content, they are a useful tool for presenting important data on web pages, in particular for scientific reports, tabular data, and data which is represented well in a standard spreadsheet format. Examples of data sources and types which lend themselves well to table formatting include comma delimited lists, tabular data, databases, and other sources, which can be queried. Like a comma separated value file or .csv in Oracle, MySQL, SQL Server, MS Access, and MS Excel. Tabular data can also be imported from other sources such as word processing applications such as MS Word and WordPerfect.

One of the regular uses for tables — especially for websites which support teams of scientists — is updating data on a regular basis, sometimes weekly or daily; of course this can be done automatically with database driven web sites, but on occasion, the data is not readily available in the proper backend database format.

Source: http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/webmaster/web-design-basics-how-to-create-snazzy-tables-and-when-to-use-them/947

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10 Things I Know About Good Web Design

Tuesday, December 6th, 2011

10. KEEP IT SIMPLE

Life’s complicated enough without trying to figure out how to use a website. Keep the design simple, straightforward and easy to use.

9. KEEP PAGE NAMES SIMPLE

People are used to looking for familiar page names on a site, such as About Us, Products and Services. Trying to be clever or cute can frustrate visitors looking for specific information.

8. BE REASONABLE ABOUT SEO

But if you insist on packing your content with keywords as often as possible for the sake of search engine optimization (SEO), it can result in less valuable content and an unsatisfactory visitor experience.

7. USE HYPERLINKS PROPERLY

Hyperlinks are a great way to build value and search ranking. Use them to help visitors access parts of your site easier and to build linking relationships with appropriate websites

6. USE INTUITIVE NAVIGATION

Structure your site so there is a natural progression to the pages. Start with general pages and enable visitors to drill down to get more specific information.

5. SPEAK CLEARLY

Content is still king, so make sure yours is easy to read and understand. Avoid jargon and acronyms.

4. THINK MOBILE

Within the next year or two, most people will access the web with mobile devices. Make sure your site provides a good visitor experience using limited bandwidth and a small screen.

3. GIVE A CALL TO ACTION

If you want people to take the next step and contact you, include a call to action, such as “Sign up for our free newsletter.

2. UPDATE FREQUENTLY

To give people a reason to return, and to improve your search rankings, be sure to update your site regularly. Even a seasonal message can help.

1. RESPECT YOUR VISITORS

Nothing will hurt your site or reputation more than a lousy website experience. Be helpful, courteous and generous.

Source: http://www.wbjournal.com/article.php?RF_ITEM[]=Article$0@50243;Article

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Modern SEO friendly web design

Thursday, October 20th, 2011

Web design involves the term such as layout, colour, fonts and shapes, which make a good plan and design the website efficiently. Website is an art for presenting business information in most attractive manner, having the basic motto as to increase the number of visitors. Moreover, website is also a useful asset for communicating with the audience indirectly.

HTML, XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP and Flash are widely used in web design. Web design companies analyze the website and then make it precise targeting the right crowd. Web designers strive to make best suitable website as per the client’s business and so its requirements. Modern web designs are search engine friendly and keep the customer in constant communication loop with the business.

Source: http://www.promotionworld.com/articles/internet/webdesign/111019-seo-friendly-web-design-a-way-to-increase-traffic

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