Archive for the ‘How we work’ Category

Template Design or Professional Website For Your Online Business

Wednesday, May 6th, 2009

 

Whether you choose to design a website from scratch or use a free Web template (such as on The Chicken Ark) to design a website for your online business, there are many things to ask yourself before you get started:

1. Do you plan on selling products on your website? Will you need a shopping cart to collect payments?

2. Do you plan on displaying articles or having a blog?

3. Do you plan on having advertising on your website?

4. Does the website design need to be interactive for site visitors?

5. Do you want to run your website through a content management system (CMS)?

6. Does the website need to include an audio or video player?

7. Would your target market appreciate a flashy design, or something simple?

Once you’ve answered those questions, it’s time to design a website for your online business. There are a few general options to consider when deciding how to design a website:

1. Hire a professional Web designer and/or Web programmer to create a custom Web design and backend system or e-commerce solution, including any necessary tools. Davill Design will give you a complete project plan, and references from previous clients.  You can see our portfolio of work and talk to us about your business needs.

2. Design a website yourself if you already have the Web design and coding skills (or take the time to learn HMTL/XHTML/CSS/PHP etc.). I only recommend this option if you are very technical and very quick. Your time is best spent on building your business not learning the details of web design — unless, of course, you want to get into the business of web design.

3. Use a pre-designed Web template from free Web template providers, or purchase a Website template. You can use Web templates as-is, or customize them to fit your needs.

4. If you don’t have any experience with creating websites and you do not want to hire a designer then there is still an option for you. I like to refer to this option as a Website-In-A-Box or a Store-In-A-Box. Basically the service gives you everything you need to get your website online quickly and easily. Yes, you have to pay a little more for these services and some of them even take a percentage of every sale but your website design will not stand between you and your ultimate goal — making money online. Some examples of these services are Yahoo Small Business (http://store.yahoo.com), http://SiteBuilder.com, and http://Web.com.

No matter how you decide to design a website for your online business, make sure that the website design serves the needs of both your online business and its customers or target visitors.

Darlene Ciarcia
http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/how-to-design-a-website-for-your-online-business-126415.html

 

The Basics of Ecommerce Web Site Design

Sunday, May 3rd, 2009

 

Ecommerce web site design is similar to traditional web design, but requires a few more bells and whistles to handle financial transactions. This doesn’t mean that you should be intimidated by the process and not build web sites that are capable of ecommerce transactions; it simply means that you may need to study this aspect of site development before getting started.

To begin, it is a good idea to read up on ecommerce web site design. This will help you understand how ecommerce site development differs from regular web site development, and will also help you to build web sites that accomplish their desired purpose.

Ecommerce Security

One of the most important aspects of ecommerce web site design is security. You need to make sure that your visitors can safely and securely input their most sensitive information into your payment system. To build web sites that are secure, you will need to protect pages with the encryption of SSL or Secure Socket Layer. Your web site host should be able to help you with this portion of site development and will most likely be able to sell you a digital certificate.

Visual Appeal

Visual appeal is another important aspect of ecommerce web site design. Competition is fierce on the Internet. If you want to build web sites that stand out from the crowd, they must be visually appealing. An attractive site will be more likely to draw customers, and is much more likely to encourage repeat business than a site that has been poorly developed. To get an idea of what looks good and what doesn’t, you should visit competing and non-competing ecommerce sites around the web. You can also look into purchasing a book or another product that focuses on the visual aspect of ecommerce web site design.

Payment Processors

To build web sites that accept online payments, you will need to incorporate payment processors into your ecommerce web site design. You can choose to accept various credit cards, and other online payment methods like PayPal. This is something that should be arranged early in the site development process so that you can begin doing business immediately once your site has launched.

Software and Applications

There are many different software products and ecommerce applications that can be purchased to help you with your ecommerce web site design project. Some of these products will be helpful when you build web sites, and others will be helpful when you have launched the site and want to track orders, monitor your internal database, or enable features like email notification.

Professional Ecommerce Web Site Design Services

If you want to build websites that are ecommerce ready, but don’t have the ecommerce web site design experience needed to accomplish the task, you can hire an ecommerce web site design professional to help you with the trickier portions of site development. With a minimal amount of help from you, a professional designer can build web sites that are visually appealing and then incorporate the features you need to complete ecommerce transactions.

Jazzy
http://www.articlesbase.com/ecommerce-articles/the-basics-of-ecommerce-web-site-design-128349.html

 

Web Design and Quality Assurance

Tuesday, April 21st, 2009

Web design and Web hosting

Present day’s software programming techniques have reached to a new height to cope with the ever-changing scenario of web design and web hosting principles. With the growing security concerns and increasing need of quality assurance, the task of web development has become increasingly challenging for today’s IT community. To ensure highest data security, new tools like PHP programming, .Net programming, etc. have evolved over the years. With rapid development in the e-commerce activity, web hosting has become the new way of existence for the business community. Mere knowledge on software programming is no more enough for achieving success in web development. In a single word, web design and web hosting calls for all the efficiency of software programming coupled with administrative skills, business awareness and a quality expertise on the multimedia art.

Phases of Web design

Basic understanding of HTML and Microsoft’s FrontPage, in addition to expertise on .Net programming and PHP programming, are essential in order to establish greater quality assurance in web development and web hosting fields. Following are the different phases of web design, if followed meticulously success can be achieved without much difficulty.

(a) Phase I: Defining Scope. Every web development project should have a defined scope outlining the need of gathering related information, risk and budget analysis, defining constraints, etc. The scope should be defined keeping in mind the business needs and existing technology of software programming.

(b) Phase II: Project Planning. Information gathered is now required to be re-evaluated with complete quality assurance guidelines. Formalities regarding web hosting also require to be conceptualized now.

(c) Phase III: Design and Testing. Now the actual designing should start. Testing also needs to be accomplished along every stages of web development in order to provide a consistent degree of quality assurance. There is a wide spread belief within the IT community that testing can be tasked at a later stage; but that is not fruitful and goes against the ethos of software programming technology.

(d) Phase IV: Production and Implementation. In this phase, content and layout are merged to give a final shape to the web development. Uses of PHP programming and .Net programming techniques are very important in this phase as they are the state-of-the-art tools for such purposes.

(e) Phase V: Maintenance and Updating. Once the web hosting is completed, maintenance and updating at regular intervals are mandatory to keep the website purpose-worthy.

Issues of Quality Assurance

Quality of design and quality of conformance are the two types of quality issues that we generally come across with the web development. Quality of design calls for a sound knowledge on the software programming techniques, especially knowledge of PHP programming and .Net programming are very much essential in order to ensure quality assured web development. Quality of conformance is the degree to which the design specifications are met during the development and implementation stages. Web site quality assurance plan should include the ways and means of design specification evaluation, procedures of audits and reviews, prescribed ways of monitoring defined standards, mechanism for error reporting and error tracking, etc.

Mansi Gupta
http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/web-design-and-quality-assurance-185234.html

Web Site Design and Choosing the Right Web Design Company

Tuesday, April 21st, 2009

It’s been several years since you had someone design your company web site and now it’s outdated. You are losing business to competitors that have quality designed web sites with great layout and navigation. This may be your first company web site and you want to make the most of your money and time.

How do you choose a quality web design company that will understand your companies’ objective for designing or redesigning this web site?

First, you need to answer a few questions.

1. What is your budget and time frame for completing the web design or redesign project?

2. Are you going to be using original content and pictures for building this web site?

3. If this is a website redesign, are you planning on getting updated images and content for this new look and layout or will you need the web design company to supply them for you?

4. Does any one at your company have basic editing skills and will they be able to update the website content or will this be an ongoing job for the web design company you hire?

5. Are you looking for a local web design company?

6. Do you already have an idea of your web design colors, layout, and navigation?

Knowing the answers to these questions, will help you when you locate the right web design company.

Now it’s time to find the right web design company for your needs. Go to Google and search for local web design firms and you will see how many results show. Take “web design orlando” for example: Results 8,860,000. Wow, there are a lot of results for “web design orlando”.

Don’t panic, you will probably find a company that can do the quality web design work you need in the first 50 results. Quality web design firms will have a portfolio of work online that will show an example of their custom web design work. Start at the first web design result on work your way down.

Examine the portfolio to see if there is anything equivalent to the web design layout you are imagining. You will be able to tell immediately if this web design firm is right for your company and its look and feel. Find out how long they have been in the web design industry and compare that to how many quality web sites they have designed in that time.

If this is a redesign, find out how many web site redesigns that have completed and ask to see the web site before and after the redesign.

Find out if they have the staff available to work on your entire web design needs and that they know the programming necessary to complete the job in a timely manner. Ask for references, a top end web design firm will be glad to offer up references on the web design work performed. Most web design references will be glad to talk to you about the quality job your potential web design company did on their web site.

Depending on your web design budget, it may help to several quality web design companies to talk to. You will want to get at least 3 estimates and it never hurts to have more.

Remember, when it comes to your business and your companies exposure on internet, take you time locating a quality web design company. Your future may depend on it.

Shawn Hickman
http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/web-site-design-and-choosing-the-right-web-design-company-98615.html

Small Business Website Design Company

Tuesday, April 21st, 2009

In the ever changing world of globalization, for small business companies to stay profitable, every available option for marketing should be utilized. The easiest and most effective method for small business firms to capture a major share of the local and global markets is to provide their products and services online. To help small business firms to have more business opportunities, a number of website design companies are now offering competitive web design services for their clients.

Having a professionally maintained website can greatly help your business reach greater heights. The majority of website design companies aim at cost-effective and reliable website design services. For beginners in online business, these web design companies also provide consultation services to make them aware of the benefits of ecommerce through online business.

Depending on the individual requirements of small business firms, website design companies can design websites in a wide variety of options ranging from simple, basic design modules to advanced website designs using cutting edge web technologies such as Java, PHP, Flash, and Ajax. These web design companies have the services of expert professionals including graphics designers, content developers and web optimizers.

For attracting more traffic to your website, search engine optimization (SEO) services provided by website companies play a key role. The organic optimization technologies being implemented on client web pages greatly help them to achieve top search rankings in global search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Being implemented online, it is also much easier for small business firms to add and extend the range of products and services in the future.

To help small business firms establish their own identity in the online business scenario, most website design companies also have logo design, banner design and template design services. They can give your existing websites a more professional look by redesigning them, suiting the trends of the modern age. Thus with effective optimization of your business website, your small business venture can achieve increased growth by securing more customers internationally.

Bob Kruse
http://www.articlesbase.com/web-design-articles/small-business-website-design-company-657329.html

New York Website Design Company That Aims for Excellence!

Tuesday, April 21st, 2009

 

A company that can offer quality, comprehensive and cost-effective web design and total content control solutions is undoubtedly going to be the top among New York Website Design firms.

If total content control confuses you, here is the simple explanation for this highly in-demand term that professional New York Website Design firms catering to a wide-cross section of industry clients puts it as: Total Content Control refers to the ability to change the images, words and other content of a website. Using any computer connected to the Internet, a business owner can change the descriptions of services or product inventory and even include new pictures so that your website design comes up looking new and attractive each time. This is one major way in which, technology has made life easier for expert New York website design companies that are dedicated to achieving affordable and effective web design ideas for varied clientele.

In a bid to widen their network and reach out to more and wider customer base, market-attuned new York website design companies, such as Davill Design and others that are client-centric, are looking to expand on services offered lists. This has now grown to include related and additional services like Email Marketing Solutions; informing and providing clients with one-to-one consultancy and newsletters that give detailed information about the company’s newest plans into relevant services like Internet marketing strategy research and customized report planning to create just the right website design based on target audience needs for the client, and other such. Much of these additional services have a lot to do with New York website design firm owners realizing that e-mail is a great way to stay in touch with their own clients and keep them coming back; thus, they are sharing the secret for great web communication with their own clients looking for effective and immediate solutions to re-connect with their ideal website visitors and generate sales or enhance web presence!

The professionally managed New York Website Design firm, Davill Design, is helpful enough to reveal a trade secret to the rest of the world looking for the ideal web communication tool and that is a perfectly designed and wisely-worded newsletter promoting their website. The firm designs beautiful HTML email newsletters and promotions and creates the sign-up form on their client’s website so they can opt-in. What works for them is the universal truth that doing good for others within ethical boundaries of e-commerce and personal profitability is sure to win results and customer satisfaction. Therefore, it comes as no surprise then that this Sacramento website design firm has thought one step further to accommodate client’s need for effective e-mail marketing after ensuring excellent quality of website design, then following it up with management services that track the results and ensure the clients are in compliance with the SPAM laws.

 

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Best Web Site Design Software for a VW Camper Site?

Tuesday, April 21st, 2009

 

There are many different ways to build a web site, some are easy and some a little more complicated but one thing for sure it’s a lot easier if we can find the best web site design software.A shortcut is to use template systems like blog software (see VW Camper for an example) such as blogger or typrepad.

But no matter which web site design software we use there are a number of mistakes we should avoid:

Mistake #1: Using too large of a graphic header on the top of your page.
Mistake #2: Using “washed out” colors that make your web site feel drab and lifeless. Or
using colors that are WAY too bright.
Mistake #3: Using more than four colors (one of those being black!) on your web site.
Mistake #4: Using more than four different TYPES of fonts on the same page.
Mistake #5: Displaying your sales “message” on a dark colored background!
Mistake #6: Using too many “tricked out” scripts at once which causes browser “freeze”
Mistake #7: Cramming way too much content into too small of a space. (Not enough white space.)
Mistake #8: Using “busy” or “watermarked” background patterns.
Mistake #9: Specifying fonts that are TOO SMALL!
(This isn’t so much a design mistake as it is one related to the overall process…)
Mistake #10: Not clearly identifying your offer.

It doesn’t matter if you have the best web site design software on the planet if you make these mistakes your web site is doomed to fail. So which web site design software should we use? That really depends on a number of factors, level of experience, the product you’re promoting, how detailed you want you site.

Normally I don’t promote a product in my articles but since we’re here to talk about the best web site design software, I’ll mention a couple of them. The first is CoffeeCup HTML editor, this is the first web site design software I ever used, I found it bulky and hard to use, the next was a web site design software called Dreamweaver. Dreamweaver is a decent program but it’s pretty tuff for the beginner to use.

The Best Web Site Design Software I’ve found is called:
Design Dashboard: http://www.jbvh.com/DesignDashboard.html.

As far as I’m concerned this is the best web site design software there is. It walks you step-by-step through what to do and how to do it. Every step is clearly laid out and labeled with big, blue numbers and step-by-step screen caps (with support by video as needed).

Saves you tons of time. All you do is click and follow the instructions. You don’t have to try to figure out what’s next. You just click the next icon and follow the steps. The step-by-step screen caps make it much faster and easier to use and follow than programs that are all videos.

Something for you if you’re a beginner or advanced student. Design Dashboard was created for beginners. But there are a few steps for advanced students as well. For example, you get EXCLUSIVE patterns that beat the heck out of the defaults in Photoshop or Elements. Those alone are worth the price.

I hope I’ve made your search for the best web site design software a little easier.

Victoria
http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/best-web-site-design-software-95039.html

 

Creating a Website like The Chicken Ark Using Web Design Templates

Tuesday, April 21st, 2009

 

It is common knowledge that designing a website for either personal or business use can take a substantial toll on anindividual’s time and wallet. But, that same website, regardless of price or effort, can be critical to the
success of an individual or a company.

Web design templatesoffer an economical solution.  by providing.a design with a professional appearance for a bargain price.

Once the decision to avoid the high-priced expert has been made, the hardest part of designing a website can be selecting the perfect web design template. There are many things to consider when selecting a web design template. The most important is the purpose of the future website as well as the knowledge of the amateur designer.

Areas to consider include: Website Purpose There are many reasons to design a website. Individuals may create a website to showcase family pictures, while small business owners might create a site to begin an online marketing campaign. The vast number of web design templates available supports any designpurpose. It is important to find the appropriate design thatsuits the needs of the designer. A website devoted to family updates will not need the same features as an online catalog.

Individual Expertise While web design templates are intended to simplify the process of creating a new website, there is still a prerequisite of computer and internet knowledge required. Some templates additionally require some knowledge of programming or coding to obtain the maximum results. By carefully selecting a template, a user should be able to find one that fits his specific knowledge base. If he requiresadditional help, almost all web template providers have support and customization features available at no or low rates.

Nature of Business If a web design template is being used to create a business website, it is important to decide the image the website will convey. Bright bold colors with Flash animation might be perfect for one business line, while subdued colors with subtle designs could be crucial to the success of another. The large variety of templates available online easily facilitates this decision. Need for Updating If a website will require constant updating to reflect changes or new information,a web design template should be chosen to accommodate this need.Quality web design templates will be simple to update and upload.Template Design One of the most crucial aspects of website success is the ability for patrons to easily navigate the website. When selecting a web design template, follow all basic design principals to aid usability by searchers and potential customers. Area to consider includes:

* Background and foreground colors * Size and location of links * Monitor display principals * Icons * Logos * Animation * Depth or number of pages

Article written by Ashwin Kumar.

Selina
http://www.articlesbase.com/internet-articles/creating-a-website-using-web-design-templates-58482.html

 

How can a VW Campervan help a growing business?

Wednesday, March 18th, 2009

Dynamic content avaiable through blog platforms can be used to share personal enthusiasms such your VW Camper Van, or can be used by businesses to build stonger links with both their customers and their suppliers - by sharing your personal enthusiasms.

Businesses are beginning to realise the power of using dynamic content formats to share some of their enthusiasms with their customers. It helps everyone to cross the business boundary in a safe way, building more rounded relationships. businesses can provide helpful information, point customers towards new information, trends or research topics that add value.

Slightly more personal interest material does need to be handled carefully, must be written and presented professionally and within the overall brand values - but can be hugely powerful. Achievements, charity work, particular expertise and knowledge outside the business field can be presented in a more dynamic and appealing way than the old company newsletter approach, with links through to personal blogs, other websites etc and by including picture shows and video.

We can help your company develop a highly effective blog strategy and methodology that will complement your core company web presence.

Design for hobby web sites

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009

Davill Design is a consortium of talented designers, and we’re a mixed bunch, when it comes to leisure interests. Jason has a strong leaning towards lost causes and mechanical rescue - and heading off in the summer and fall in his VW camper. The two activities are of course, related.

He’s been looking at VW Camper sites and found an interesting article on the VW Camper on a site built on a wordpress theme. Yes it could do with some design tweaking but demonstrates what can be set up simply.

it’s the sort of approach we pursue with Our clients - we can refine themes and develop new ones, so the design integrates with and complement the client’s main branding.

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