The 7 Deadly Sins Of Web Design

Sin 1 - Starfield backgrounds

You know the sort – zillions of tiny white pixels glinting back at you from behind the text. Beautiful. Not! In a galaxy far, far away, in a time long, long ago people thought this was cool. It’s not. It sucks and people who use it should be shot.


Sin 2 - Anything that moves.

Okay, that’s maybe a little bit harsh – let me zero in on something more specific - animated cursors. I know 12 year-old kids that think they’re crap. Wise up and lose the Homer Simpson cursor that leaves a wake of donut crumbs behind it as it moves across the screen. Please, I beg you, destroy them all!

Sin 3 - Fading Page Changes.

You’ve not seen these? Oh honestly – they’re wonderful. You click on a link to get to your chosen section and then suddenly the whole ass of the website morphs up into itself before re-appearing like a re-constituting Captain Kirk being beamed back into existence. Supreme. Whoever invented this deserves a medal. Ideally a medal that is extremely heavy, irremovable and is presented during a mid-ocean ceremony..

Sin 4 - Wide Load Websites.

You know the ones. You’re just getting into a sentence and then suddenly you realise that the last quarter of the sentence is not on your monitor – it’s extended into your kitchen somewhere and you need scrollbar shenanigans of Herculean proportions just to get to it. Wide load websites? Give them a wide berth.

Sin 5 - Designed By The Criminally Insane.

Words escape me:
http://www.chipotle.com

Sin 6 - Reflective Ripple Effects.

Absolute classic this one, I would be doing the Internet world a disservice if I left it out. You must have seen these in action – you come across a website (usually a personal one on free webspace) and there’s a picture depicting a tranquil scene, normally, though not always, containing a river or lake in it. And then the really tacky bit – the owner has lifted a bit of code from somewhere that makes the lower portion of the image appear as if it is rippling. The effect makes you feel like you’re having a water cannon loaded with chocolate ice-cream fired down your throat – it’s quite amusing and good fun for the first 2 seconds but you soon start to feel sick and dizzy wondering if there’s an off-button within reach…

Sin 7 - “Catch-Me-If-You-Can” Navigation.

Truly an invention of the devil this one. You can’t make head nor tail of what the little blobs on the navigation bar are supposed to be so you hover your mouse over them. But oh no – getting a description or hover-over clue now would be too easy. So instead the whole navigation bar starts scrolling past your mouse.
The more you move your cursor to catch up with the section you wanted to click on the faster everything starts spinning. Before you know it you’ve got a migraine, a sore wrist from moving your mouse too much and one less hour of your life left. If you’ve never witnessed scrolling, moving, “Catch-Me-If-You-Can” navigation just thank your lucky starfield backgrounds..

So remember people – don’t have nightmares and don’t commit any of the above cardinal sins!

Author : Matt Frenk
Source : http://www.e-articles.info/e/a/title/The-7-Deadly-Sins-Of-Web-Design/

Affordable Website Design

How do we know if a web design is affordable? Affordable website design is when there will be an obvious return on investment, over a set term. But the costs do not just stop at the website build itself. One has to look at whole expected life cycle of the website. Here are some ways that you can have a more affordable web site design development at the initial purchase stage.

The initial meetings usually get drafted into the cost of the website. Traveling to a client takes time and money so preparation is the key here. Find someone local, and get a minimum of three quotes. It may take more than one meeting to decide who to choose so here is where your preparation pays off. Know what you want, know how it should be achieved and reduce the number of meetings needed.

The actual design of a website can be very costly or very affordable, if you know what you want then it is more affordable. There are plenty of templates out there and even more websites, so if you leave it to a designer to build from scratch it will cost. The current trend is for simplistic design and since you have your own logo it should not be too hard to sketch together a style of your liking, simplistic design should not cost a lot of money. The important part for us is the content of the website so make sure that the design does not crowd this content.

The website has to be hosted somewhere and web hosting comes in various forms. Make sure that it suits what you need. If you have a ten page website which you aim to grow to a hundred page website, and one page averages at 110KB, then you should be looking at a web space of around 11MB. Take into account additional or larger images so triple it to be safe to start with at around 35MB. ? Do not pay for a 500MB website hosting when you only need 35MB.

Are they building the site from scratch or are they using open source software. If they build it from scratch, it is highly likely that the costs will be very high due to testing and development. Also, the support costs will be high as it is bespoke. Open source software is developed by the community and supported by the community. More than one web Design Company can take over a website built from open source software and support it without problem. If you use open source then there will probably also be pre built training packages on how to use it. Again reducing the cost and making the website more affordable.

Open source software is free software which web design companies can use and manipulate to suit their needs. The web designers still put in a lot of effort to make it look and behave as you like it but the engine of the website is normally already been and can be adapted to various situations.

So, as a starting point to a more affordable website design, have a good idea of the design you want. Try and opt for open source software. Have a guess at your web hosting needs and question if you think it is too much.

Neil MacLeod runs http://www.web-studio.co.uk providing web site and web marketing services in Buckinghamshire, UK.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Neil_MacLeod

Web Site Design - Easy Steps to Web Site Designing

One of the widely used ways to advertise a business or a product is through a personalized web site that tells all the stories about their product. It is indeed a powerful form of advertisement but a lot of web site owners fail in this aspect. What can be wrong? Its design. Yes, the site design can also bring horrifying failures to your business. So what are the key components that you must remember in web site designing ?

• Do not overload your site with information. Remember, the reason why online users go into the net is because they do not have the luxury of time. Now if you drown them with a novel-like advertisement on a site, then your site design is ruined.

• Go direct. In consonance with the short information, make sure that even when they are short, it gives what consumers want. Place information that answers the questions of consumers. In short, make your information relevant and direct.

• When you put information, make sure that it gives answers to the 4w’s and 1 H’s. The what, when, who, where, and how are all questions that most consumers have in mind. Make sure that the site concisely answers all.

• Follow coherence. It is not good to be reading about an article that does not show logical sequence. Make sure that your paragraphs are coherently done.

• Make a solid format. Learn what you are writing. Do not incorporate things that are out of bound.

• If your site is a menu based one, come up with detailed menu headings. Make sure that menu title is not too generalized. It makes it difficult for consumers to actually determine what choices it gives.

• Lastly, when a visitor logs in, make a follow up. This gives an air of importance to consumers. Knowing that their visit is given an importance makes a lot of difference.

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Raymond Nesa is an experienced web marketer specializing in article marketing, traffic generation, and list building.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Raymond_Nesa