Web Site Design

Web Designer Ahemdabad

2008-10-30T22:14:00.000-07:00

There are many web design companies in Ahmedabad in the state of Gujarat. Though IT outsourcing is not as prominent in Ahmedabad nevertheless its presence is being felt. The city is making swift strides in service IT needs of many countries and web design is one of them.

There are both amateur and professional web designers in Ahmedabad who offer service at various rates. The rates depend upon the type of technology implemented and service provided. Most of the companies are comfortable with implementing latest technologiesby retaining those with professionl skills. IT professionals in Ahmedabad are hard to come by as the lucrative salaries paid to them in Bangalore or Hydrabad etc draw them to these towns and Delhi and Mumbai of course.

But web design is growing in Ahmedabad with profesional many web design company attracted by sound infrastructre and affluent base. The companies are successful in making static and dynamic eccommerce and corporate websites. In time ot come Ahmedabad will challange metros in this field and in software programming.

CSS: Changing Font

2008-10-26T08:09:00.000-07:00

The font tag is not supported by HTML anymore but the browsers still support it. Hence It is better to switch over to CSS. Simply put CSS can do more to the tag. Added advantage is that Cascading Style Sheets can change the background color behind the text which traditional HTML font tag cannot do.

text is purple

All web design service should use CSS as it makes much more search engine friendly websites as well as accords much better appearance to the web page design on the browsers.

This is how fant face called family is defined in CSS.

Use this: this font is not sans-serif

Similarly for colors

Use this: Font is purple

While implementing CSS one should know how to change the font attributes - Font color, font size, and font face. Learning is easy and you will be surprised to know how much control CSS gives over fonts.

You can make your pages unique by proper usage of font properties defined in CSS.Change
color, size, and face of the website text using CSS font property.

To change the text color style.

color Syntax:

color: | attr(,color) |inherit

* - a color code
* attr(,color) - use the color value assigned to the attribute identified in this line

Best to use browser safe colors.
this font is colored red
this font is colored blue

While setting the font size define relative sizes or use pixels, cm or inches to make the size specific. But it is better to let the font size be flexible as users have different monitor confugeration and browser types. Best is to implement (em) meant for screen rendering.

Use the following style to change font size:

this font is 1em
this font is .75em this font is 1.25em

Using CSS define any font and specify a list of font faces as well in case the user does not have that specific font face installed in his PC the list will help declare other font face rather than the default setting which may not appealing.

this font is

sans-serif
this font is serif

Web design articles

2008-10-07T08:16:00.000-07:00

Web design Articles

Web Programming Article

.Net

Microsoft F# Programming

Protect SQL Database

Network VoiP

Voip over TCP/IP

Reducing HTTP requests

2008-08-18T04:20:00.001-07:00

One of the key aspect of on page optimization in web design process is to reduce the number of HTTP requests to the server for each page. This is one way to reduce the downloading time of the page.

Packet size and http requests

In order to make fewer requests we need to transmit fewer packets. To achieve this reduce size of the page hence the number of bytes and packets sent are reduced on Net. The number of embedded objects as image must be less and less in size as well. The images sent http request for each image separately hence a web designer should use less images which are properly optimized and their dimensions should be properly coded as well.

The effort is to reduce the number of packets sent and not necessarily their size. One method is putting files together and cutting down a the number of requests into one request. This can be achieved by putting multiple CSS files into one file and suturing images.

Making less http: requests

Web browsers limit the number of concurrent HTTP connections with server as HTTP 1.1 Specification to two. In Internet Explorer version 8 the limit is now six requests. The limit for Mozilla Firefox is eight requests. In this case the speed of server and connection is immaterial.

In case of images CSS sprites are useful.

They are small fragmented images grouped into one image in order to make few http requests.For example in case of website navigation having ten links this will translate to ten http: requests. If you create one image add all the small icons the server requests will come down.
Thus have the same background image for all containers and reposition the background image with fire bug to display the desired part of the whole image.

#link1{
background:url(background_image_sprite.png) -100px -20px;
}
#link2{
background:url(background_image_sprite.png) -100px -30px;
}

The real trick here to is re-position the background image to render the desired image in the whole image. We can use this image as fast rollovers too.

The CSS and Javascript can be grouped by suturing.

Actually there is a way. They call it suturing. Consider this fragment of code for PHP.

< ?php // Tell the browser we are outputting a css document type header('Content-type: text/css'); //and we can cached them too header('Cache-control: must-revalidate'); header('Expires: ' . gmdate('D, d M Y H:i:s', time() + 10800) . ' GMT'); // group the css CSS files and output them as one include("css1.css"); include("css2.css"); include("css3.css"); ?>

For ASP/ASP.NET pages we can open them as stream and output them in the browser.

Response.ContentType = "text/css";
Response.Cache.SetExpires(DateTime.Now.AddDays(1));

Response.WriteFile ("css1.css");
Response.WriteFile ("css2.css");
Response.WriteFile ("css1.css");

We can also do that with javascript files. The idea is just the same.

Knowing the client server communication and the limitations is beneficial in web development.

The tips have been taken from this article here: Optimization Article

Website design articles

2008-08-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

I am adding link to some very useful web design articles that cover a long range of subjects and are useful for on page optimization as well.

Web design articles

Declaring Character Sets

2008-08-02T10:21:00.000-07:00

Compliance to W3C recommendation means following guidelines set by the organization. One such guidelines is document text declaration or DTD in short. For optimum website design it is best to follow the recommendation made by the World wide web consortium.

The effort is create properly structured pages that speak to International audience uniformly and in cases to specific linguistic audience. The effort to standardize web site development technology is what W3C is aiming at.

When making DTD the < meta > tag should be placed just after the as this is to override default browser setting for character sets. Not many web designers know about this fact. Correctly placing the DTD helps the the latest version of browsers and earlier versions as well to properly render the page on the users web browser.

A website that does not contain the DTD tag does not conform to W3C recommendations. When you implement the tag correctly on the web pages it leads to compliance of W3C standards. Web designers should make a detailed study of W3C recommendation for declaring character sets on web pages as per the language used on the web page. Example for web page with mixed language structure should use UTF-8 as follows:

Thus character set enabled on webpage will render the text correctly on the users browsers.

Web Design:Creating Navigation

2008-05-15T23:35:00.001-07:00

Most people leave if the navigation of the website is fuzzy and confusing. Creating a good navigation architecture for a web site is a must to help users easily find a way around your site. Users must fine the information they are looking for in one or two clicks.

The best web design technology is one that keeps the navigational ease into account.

Basics

Define your information architecture and define a hierarchy of importance based on the taxonomy of your site. Example: Products, Support, Technical Information, Brochure, About, Organization etc. Once you have determined your site's architecture implement it properly organized depending upon how the user would serf through the site. There should always be a link to major pages on the front page.

If the site hierarchy is complex than add a resource page to link pages and link this resource page from the home page and all other pages of your website. This web design process starts right from the story board which helps create an effective flow chart.

Design

Once you have fixed the architecture move to design. Make it accessible to the user and search engine spiders as well. Avoid complex technologies as Flash, Java, Java Script and Ajax which are not search engine friendly. Make the links clear and use anchor text to create links. The users should know where the link is leading them. Highlight links which are very important use tag lines as well. Use alt text or captions to link your images.

Your navigation should appear on every page of your site such that the basic structure is same on each page of the website.

Using color on a website

2008-05-15T23:32:00.001-07:00

Color is an important element of a website which few designers understand. There is a harmony in color which is very important for a web site's appeal. There are colors which gel well together while others can be a strain to the eyes. A web designer must understand the theory of colors to effectively combine them for best results.

Color Wheel Analogous Colors these are colors that are next to echo other on the color wheel. Adjusting saturation and hues of these colors result in harmony an are quite appealing on the website.

Complementary colors are those colors that are opposite one another on the color wheel. Opposite colors give results in high contrast and bright color schemes.

Color Triads by sketching an equilateral triangle on the color wheel, a web designer can create lively color schemes. For effective color schemes one should emulate the nature where the color schemes are natural and harmonious...pleasing to our eyes.

Color schemes on websites are vital to the repertoire of a web designer with tremendous effect on the end result Vis a Vis user acceptance. Colors can be soothing, exciting and sobering in their effects. A web designer should keep this in mind so that a suitable color combination is used on the websites meant for a particular purpose. Suitable color schemes as per the audience means success online.

Colors can be related to cultures where in the people perceive colors differently. Younger audience prefer brighter, more solid colors, while seniors prefer a sobering color effect. Working class prefer colors like blue, red, green, etc. which can be easily identified. Highly educated classes prefer colors which are obscure like taupe, azure, mauve, etc.

Color preference may change over a period of time like fashion trends but the effect of color schemes remain stable upon the audience.

Web design what to use?

2008-04-21T05:41:00.000-07:00

Simply put

Use external CSS the obvious benefits of cascading style sheets for formatting font, color, text and tags are well known and if you do not here are the summary.

Css accords better control over page elements as mentioned above. With a single master CSS link one can command the whole web site design and it becomes easier to edit as web designer has to make changes in one place only.

CSS accord uniformity to the whole web site or portal. CSS substitutes effectively for frame and tables.

Use optimized image with alt text mention height and width. Use gif, jpeg and png formats.

Use a good content writer and publish unique relevant content on the site. Provide good title and description.

Use accessibility features for the disabled.

Use only those technologies that are web browser and search engine compatible. Minimize usage of Flash, Java Scripting and Ajax etc. Or else use server side scripts.

Use compatible colors that which suits the products and services. Do not go for al flashy design always go for aesthetics. Flashy designs may be suitable for online games site for example.

Use content management system or CMS for large websites.

Use a good programmer. There should be no coding error and dead links on the web site.

- Linear structure for users to move in a fixed progression.
- Hierarchical structure or Tree Design offer more than one path for visitors to reach their destination;
- Branch Structure for lots of interconnections between the pages and hyperlinks within content.

Articles on web site design

2008-04-18T10:38:00.000-07:00

Web Design Article

Website Design Article

Web design Seo Elements

2008-04-07T10:43:00.000-07:00

When you design a website you must understand that the only medium it will interact on is the Internet and that also through the search engines...very less through directories and other referral sources. So what do you do since you are a professional web designers fully involved in the field of unending magnitude..that means no time to learn seo? Yet your client may expect online performance out of your design...yes it is true.

Well first explain seo to your client and get hold of one for him, then listen to the search engine optimizer who understands web design from the search engine point of view and tells you what changes, edition or addition to be made and you execute...as simple? Yep but I have found at many times web designers not taking my instructions seriously and timely. Here my reputation suffers and the client looses overall.

Well I may sound pompous but yes admittedly there elements that good web designers embed in a website naturally that are search engine friendly. But there are technologies that still are not search engine friendly..try convincing an obstinate web designer not to use them...I hope you are getting my point now.

Many amateur web designers do not understand something as basic as tag lines or creating a resource page or take into consideration the web page download speed..he..he.

Many web designers scoff at your seo efforts or take it as challenge where in both the fields are entirely different..but unfortunately the client is the same.

As of today a very very large number of business website owners do not take content writing and search engine optimization seriously...try convincing one owner and you will realize that I am speaking the truth. This is particularly true in cities with less economic buzz (In India I mean).

Most of the content on the websites are through some manageable source or by non seo content writers (latter is okay to some extent). In many cases the contents are whacked from other websites..turned and twisted here and there and bingo the site is ready.

Most of the websites lack proper title and meta tags...check for your self. Images are not optimized...internal architecture is not user friendly...no usability work has been done. At most I have noticed some web designers going in for directory submissions that which is a weak efforts like what the cheap seo service do .

Web designers do not propagate pros and cons of technology...search engine optimizers do but..he he...only among themselves or else through some magical seo technology or softwares.

If the community both the web designers and professional Internet marketeers have to survive then educate the clients.

Web Design Blog on Technocrati

2007-12-22T22:51:00.000-08:00

Technorati Profile

Web development guidelines

2007-12-20T07:33:00.000-08:00

Web sites are electronic media for disbursement of information, business to consumer (B2C) and business to business (B2B) activity.

Making a custom website i.e. web development requires professionalism, an approach wherein skilled programmers and web designers play an important role. The role of content writers is no less. The first stage is that of conception derived by accurate analysis Vis a Vis the objective or the purpose of site. The keyword analysis plays key role on which the visibility or website traffic de pends. The visibility of the site should be on effective search terms which are targeted for finding the right users for an impressive conversion ratio.

The coding should be accurate without flaws and thoroughly tested. The website should have server side scripts. The client side scripting such as Java and Ajax are not spider friendly hence hinder search engine optimization to some extent. The graphic should be light and of high resolution, the height and width should be properly defined for faster downloading.

Web designers should use a text editors like the Macromedia Dreamweaver and test site on compatible browsers like Internet explorer, Fire fox and Lynx. The navigational architecture of the portal should be user friendly. In online shopping e-commerce websites content management systems, messaging and online shopping cart are incorporated which requires skilled web designers and programmers.

Web Design and W3C

2007-12-11T06:49:00.000-08:00

W3C develops inter-operable technologies it sets standards as regards to specifications, guidelines, software, and tools to lead the Website to its full potential on the Internet. Following W3C standards help deliver accurate web design with all the functionalities and utilities. W3C or World Wide Web consortium is a forum for information, commerce, communication, and collective understanding.

Here are some tools for validation:

HTML Validator

It help validitate formats like HTML and XHTML, SVG or MathML applied to a website.

Line Checker

Helps check broken links as wellas check anchors in Html/Xhtml documents.

CSS Validator

Validates style sheets on the website.

These validators are easy to use since all you have to do is insert the URL.

Search Engine Optimizer and Web designer

2007-11-13T00:48:00.000-08:00

Email: Seo professional for service...Uday Patel

Site Diagram

2007-11-12T07:07:00.000-08:00

Creating a site diagram is easier if you have a master plan shared by the whole web development team. The site diagram is fundamental to website design as the web development process proceeds there are changes that evolve as well. The site diagram is basis of the core planning that is a must for initiating and carrying henceforth the web page design. Site diagram which begins as a broad scope of the webs site to be enters much finer and detailed elements that are proposed and ingrained into the website. The internal architecture Vis a Vis navigation, content and interactive capabilities of the web page emerge as the developmental work of the web pages proceed. Accurate implementation is also vital for web promotion for ultimate representation on Internet and high visiblity. Designing elements are an important factor in optimization of web pages.

The site diagram is the basis of the core planning and implementation of the whole project where in the team can discuss and project their ideas and creative elements that make a web design effective on the internet. Research, analysis and planning are key to a successful website design rather than hasty implementation of ideas.

Search engine friendly website

2007-10-15T10:52:00.000-07:00

There are many companies and individuals that promise high search engine ranking to a prospective client. Believe me I am into web promotion and seo content writing since a long time...there is no quick fire solution to web promotions as promised by these experts. One must take the service of a good web design company for success in online business, ecommerce or online shopping site.

Search engine optimization or web promotion is hard work and experience which one gains by working day and night to learn and deliver.

The first step is always on site optimization of the website. The following points will be useful for this activity.

No doorway pages please and avoid flash and jave scripts...use scripts that run on the server side. Manage session ids well.

Title tag ....write properly using correct keywords and phrases. Do not make it very long or confusing since the user will also read it.It should deliver to search engine for indexing and to the visitor for higher convertion.

Meta descriptions should be as descriptive as possible. Describing the web site accurately....do not spam.

Meta keywords here you should substitute keywords present in the content and in the above two. Use plural or singular for or both depending upon how you have used them in the content or title and meta description. Use mis-spelling only if it is being typed often.

Unique content which accurate and descriptive. Write in your own language if you can write well, else hire a good seo content writer. The website content should be well written since again both the search engine and the web user is going to go through it. It is of no use to bring the site in a top rank when the visitor finds it uninteresting.

Web Design

2007-10-03T06:18:00.000-07:00

What is web design?

A web page is a document available on the Internet in various formats notable the html format or website as it is known. Other formats though less popular are .doc typ and pdf type to name a few. The html pages uses number of technologies to make a web page including sound and graphics. The languages used most popularly are Html or the mark up language as it is known and php which are contemporary website buildling tools.

The images or graphics that are very much a part of web design are assimilated on the web page in "jpeg" or "gif" format which are most widely used format in web designing and development. The sound files and video files may be incorporated on the web site but these ususally increase the weight of the web page and hence the download time which is not good for ranking high on the search engine result page.

The web pages are delivered electronically via the medium of the Internet and are compatibly for viewing on the web browsers such as the Internet explorer and fire fox. The viewer sees the web page in graphic user interface display or GUI. The popularity of the wordl wide web on the Internet is due to availability of millions of websites containing web pages loaded with information and utilities which attract user traffic from all over the world.