Website Design Techniques for Beginners

If you are new to discovering the potential of creating your own website, you may have found yourself intimidated by website development issues.  People who have never created a website before and who are not overly technically savvy do not have to let their lack of experience prevent them from learning to build and develop an interesting and professional website.  Website design can be learned through various tutorials, EBooks, and by trial and error.

As you know, a website can hold many different options for people.  The options that are available are dependent upon what the hosting company provides.  Some website hosting companies will provide basic options for free, along with a free address.  The address that is free typically uses the company name before the dot com on the address line.  For a fee, the company will offer the individual his own domain name.

Once the domain has been established, you can then begin viewing tutorials to help you to develop your website.  The tutorials will vary because the building basics are different from one hosting company to another.  Although the building basics are different, most hosting companies offer common development options that are standard throughout the Internet.

Depending upon which company you use to build your website through, you may have numerous options when it comes to format and layout.  Basic visuals are provided or you can insert your own photos or digital graphics for cover pages, headings, and side bars.  As technology progresses and more and more people are using websites for a wide variety of reasons, web hosting companies are beginning to offer more free services and basic free programs and options to be competitive.

As you are in the process of designing your website, you will want to consider how many pages it should have, what will the function be for each page, whether you will have a blog or not, if videos and slideshows are needed, and what the focus of your homepage will be.  The homepage is the page that tells the reader what the site will be about.  Time and effort should be spent perfecting this page until you believe it is clear, easy-to-read, and it has the necessary combination of visuals and text to hold the reader’s attention.

Website designing offers you much potential to establish a website that can provide many different functions.  Through using an effective combination of text and visuals, you can attract customer interest, sell your items online, or simply create a hobby website.  Hobby websites are becoming nearly as popular as business professional websites.  Website designs for hobby websites can benefit someone who is passionate about various hobbies such as photography, coin collecting, book and movie reviewing, arts and crafts, and music.

When the homepage is completed, the next step is to add pages to continue to develop your website.  Whether the site is a hobby site, personal family site, or a business professional website, additional pages are often needed for blogs, videos, products, samples, and photos.  Business websites benefit from including customer review pages, contact pages, and by adding business blogs to their site.

Blogs will have an RSS option which will allow readers to subscribe to the blog.  The blog subscriptions send readers emails when there are blog updates.  This makes it easy for website followers to stay current when new information is posted through blogs on a site.  Once the pages have been created, you can take advantage of the analytics that are generally provided by setting up the advance options and inserting Meta descriptions, keyword tags, and page descriptions.  This will help you to keep track of how many visitors your site receives and where the visitors are from.

Options for Web Design

Designing a website can be fun and productive at the same time.  The options for designing a site are nearly limitless.  Vast amounts of texts can be used in combination with stimulating photos, attention-grabbing graphics, and banners to announce specials or new events.  Websites are created for numerous purposes and the purpose of a website should be the ultimate consideration factor when you are designing the site.

If you are designing a website for weddings, you will want to focus on bridal and groom pictures, photos of beautifully-set tables to show possibilities, reception venues, party favors, and portraits.  If you are designing a website for photography, the site should offer a variation of portfolio samples to show your work to the world.  A photography website can feature pages that categorize types of photos such as landscapes, stills, black and whites, and vintage images.

Website designer options for small retail businesses such as bakeries, boutiques, floral shops, cosmetic sales, and furniture stores can showcase their products in a superb fashion through using effective web designer techniques.  Highlighting sales specials of the week or month with photos, discounted price information, and shipping information will encourage browsers to be interested in your products due to the attention that your designing skills has drawn to the products.

If you are new to designing a website, there are many helpful blogs on the topic that can walk you through each step from start to finish.  In addition to informative blogs on the net that address common questions asked about website design, tutorials are also offered for beginners to learn how to build, design, and develop their own websites.  Web hosting companies often offer free tutorials for individuals who want to try their hand at designing their own website.  In addition to tutorials being offered, many web hosting companies will also provide web designing services for a fee if you would rather have a professional and experienced web designer develop your site for you.

If you do decide to choose a professional web designer to create your site, you will want to consider how you want your site to look, what theme it should have, what focus of the site you want primarily highlighted, and what kind of format you want the site to have.  While designing a site can be accomplished by a beginner, the process also involves many steps and has many different options available.  It is important to narrow down the options until you have a clear and direct theme and function in mind before passing the information along to a designer.

A professional website designer can save you many hours from pouring over different formats, styles, and text options for your website.  However, if you make the decision to design the site on your own, you will undoubtedly gain a significant amount of experience through trial and error that will assist you with your next web project.  Most trial and error mistakes and experiences in web design are simply centered on choosing the wrong format.  Many people decide that one format will work well, only to insert it and publish it and then end up being unhappy with the format.

Changing formats in web design can be frustrating but the format changes are simple, though sometimes just time consuming because information and text needs to be altered to fit the new format chosen.  If you are new to web designer options, you may want to consider experimenting, using self-help design tutorials, and try your hand at it before making a decision to pay for web designer professional services.  You may find that you surprise yourself and that you are able to design a beautiful, comprehensive, and effective website.

Tags: blog, website design

WordPress Development Allows Users to Create Blogs

Blogging has existed for many years and still today it continues to be a popular way to share information, opinions, and ideas. Creating a blog at one time was limited to website developers who had the programming knowledge to create and publish a blog. Today, programs exist that allows some of the most inexperienced person to quickly and easily develop a blog. One such program that is popular among bloggers is WordPress. Since its first initial release in May of 2003, WordPress development has advanced giving users more options when creating a blog.

What makes WordPress easy to use is the use of blog templates or themes. Blog templates are pre-developed blogs that users can select, publish, and begin posting content to a blog. The use of templates eliminates the need for complex coding or programming which makes it the preferred method for amateur bloggers. Although blog templates are pre-developed, it still gives users some flexibility in the customization and personalization of their blog to fit their blogging needs.

Users can not only manipulate the appearance of their blog with templates or themes but they can also add advance features. One feature that is popular among those who create blogs using WordPress development is the ability to add plug-ins. A plug-in allows users to expand their blog’s functionality beyond what the blog templates allow.  Plug-ins allows for features such as search engine optimization, weather, link posting, and much more. New plug-ins are constantly being developed for use in WordPress development.

WordPress development can be accomplished by downloading and installing the WordPress program onto a user’s computer or by using a blog hosting website that features WordPress. Tutorials on how to use WordPress are available to aid new users in how to properly use WordPress development to create a blog. There is even a support forum that users can easily post to and get answers to nearly any issue or question they may have concerning the use of WordPress.

WordPress development makes it easy for users of any skill level to create and publish a blog. In a matter of minutes, a basic blog can easily be created. With different templates and plug-ins available, users can customize and personalize their blog to fit their personal needs. Furthermore, whether someone is new to WordPress development or he or she needs a helping hand, there are tutorials available as well as a support forum.

Tags: blog, cms, wordpress

Hiring a Web Designer? Some Questions You Need To Ask

If you are in the process of selecting a website designer, there are a few essential questions that you must ask each potential hire. Being prepared with the right information will ensure that your web design project will turn out a success.

Do you follow a specific design methodology? If so, please describe it.
There are many design processes that a web designer may use. The important thing here is that they do at least use one. Find out how much time they dedicate to each phase of the process, and see how that might impact your schedule and timeframe.

What projects have you worked on in the past?
While you may have viewed the web design company’s portfolio of work, their involvement in each of these projects can easily be exaggerated (or completely fabricated). By asking some more detailed questions about specific projects in their portfolio, you will be able to get an idea of how involved they were in each project. For example, while they may have created the final design mockups, they may not have been involved in the coding, CMS development, and search engine optimization strategy for the project.

As a bonus, it would be wise to ask for some references to some of the projects in their portfolio that closely match what you are looking to hire them for. Their portfolio will show their quality of the end product, but references will show the quality of their design process and professionalism as a company.

How much will my website cost?
This is really a tough question to answer down to the penny, but a good quality web designer will be able to provide an accurate estimate. The more detailed the statement of work they provide you, the more you can rest assured that you will receive the work that you are paying for. Make sure that their quote includes some of the following add-ons that are not necessarily included in the base web design price: web hosting and domain registration, copywriting, product photography, stock image licenses, and search engine optimization (SEO). Some of these fee may be recurring, so make sure to confirm.

When and how can we make changes?
The web design process will generally require some changes throughout the course of a project. Some changes will be trivial, while others can change the entire scope of the project (even if you as a client do not realize it). So it is always best to find out how many revisions are allowed during the design process, and what additional charges are involved when making large-scale changes. Most web developers will be accommodating and simple charge their standard hourly rate. But be aware that making certain changes at specific points in the project schedule may result in work being re-done, costing you more than anticipated.

What amount of time will be involved in completing the website?
Like the question about price, there is no definitive answer here. But the key is to make sure it work with your schedule. Be wary though of a firm who promises that everything will be done in a few days or weeks. Normally the web design process for most corporate websites is approximately 1 – 3 months. It can be much longer for larger organizations and more complex projects. If you have a hard deadline, make sure you let the web developers know, and ensure that their timeline is well in advance of your “go live” date. That will provide some buffer in case anything should incur delays.

In Summary
The key, however, is to make sure that you feel comfortable with their answers, even if you don’t fully understand all of the web design jargon that is involved. After all, it is the people that you will dealing with on a daily basis, and having a good rapport with them is essential.

Tags: clients, development, process, website design