Seven Design Avenue - Website Design - Fern Poyser - Houston, Texas

Images

admin — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 00:42:15 +0000

Make sure to optimize your images so they are compressed to a minimum file size so that they enjoy a quick loading. Images on your website should be under 10kb. A good image optimization program can reduce the size of most images to acceptable size. Extremely large images can be sliced into multiple pieces which also helps. Remember to specify height and width attributes in your images because this will allow your images to load much more quickly and efficiently because they let the browser how much space to leave for each image. For search engine optimization purposes, make sure to specify a name for the image in the “alt” tag. This provides a description for search engines indexing your site.

Technical Considerations

admin — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 00:41:32 +0000

What type of web site management platform are you running? Does it have web based adminstration so you can change your web page content easily? Does it have a mailing list database with a subscription based newsletter system with automatic unsubscribe functionality?

Copywriting

admin — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 00:40:55 +0000

Web page copywriting should inspire action; to click, or subscribe, or join, or buy. Just putting text on a page is not going to produce a sale. If you can handle the metaphor it helps to think of this as the flasher versus stripper modality. A flasher is like a web page without sex appeal. You have all the content there but it isn’t very exciting. With a stripper you get the visitor motivated to do something. This is why a clever mix of content and images produces higher conversions.

Browser Compatibility

admin — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 00:40:08 +0000

Internet Explorer / Firefox / Safari / Mozilla / Netscape / AOL / Compatibility is an important consideration. Not all html and css code is compatible with all browsers. You will want your website to load properly in all the main web browsers. What you need to do is to load the different browsers on your desktop and run them to see how your site displays. One other alternative is to use a couple of web sites that will take your URL and show you alternative views of your site inside the different browsers. If you use html validation tools, do not rely on them to verify your website’s appearance. You need to eyeball your site in each browser to see what the customers will see.

Windows vs. MAC Compatibility

admin — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 00:39:46 +0000

You will also want to make sure your web site works properly on both Mac and PC platforms. It is highly suggested to use browser safe colors, not a windows safe palette (many colors may not display properly on a Mac). The text/font output on a Mac is smaller than on a PC so that is another obstacle to avoid (a size 12(pixel) font, on a Mac, will look much smaller on a MAC than on a PC. Visitors to your site will most likely not know how to adjust the font sizes in their browsers. If you are designing on a Mac, don’t make your fonts too large or they will end up looking even larger on a PC.

Conversion & Site Goals

admin — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 00:34:19 +0000

When you embark on a web site design project you have to start with a few essential groundrules type of questions.

◊ What is the intent of the site.

◊ What do you and/or your clients expect to achieve by having a Web site on the Internet?

◊ Establish specific goals for the site.

Website Content

admin — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 00:33:48 +0000

It’s important to consider the flow of data within your web site. If you are building a site loaded with tons of content (ie. lots of pages) then you have to chunk up your site – divide the long streams of data into what are called bite-sized chunks or sections that will become categories (or “main links” within your site). Then you can create like an online filing cabinet of content.

Competitive Analysis

admin — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 00:32:00 +0000

Check out the competition. In order to know what to sell to your audience it helps to see how your competitors are positioning their web sites. First of all you get a sense of what the visitors expectations will be. Secondly, if you want your site to perform then you can learn from your competition what to do right and what to avoid. What does the competition have to offer? What are they doing wrong? How can your site do it better? In what ways will your site have be more competitive and give you an edge?

Target Audience

admin — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 00:31:26 +0000

Who is your intended audience? Try to isolate the target demographic as much as possible, so that you know what type of flavor of web site you will need to appeal to the most specific intended audience. If your web site designer does not have a lot of experience with marketing, conversion, usability and compatibility issues, then you run the risk of ending up with a website that looks great, at least to you, but doesn’t do much to help your bottom line. No one plans to build a new online business that fails, but if you don’t strategize properly and take into account many dynamic factors you could be facing an outcome you did not expect. Here’s what you need to know:

◊ Who are your potential customers

◊ Look at demographics and something called psychographics

◊ How you intend to reach them

◊ How you intend to lead visitors on the road to becoming buyers.

◊ Don’t forget that you want to also turn buyers into repeat buyers.

◊ Plus turn buyers into referring partners so they send other people to your site. This is called word of mouth endorsement

Screen Resolution

admin — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 00:30:51 +0000

Ensure that your web site displays properly across any screen resolution so it will fit onto any monitor size. There is nothing quite so disturbing as a web site with a background that is choppy and text that is not aligned properly on a large monitor. You can check your website by changing the resolution of your monitor, using your desktop settings properties.