Low Price Web Design – Advertising and Marketing

Surfing the web always brings up a swath of different problems all based on the different settings implemented by the web designers in their signature web designs. Among these problems is a major one that has to do with the screen resolution settings of all the different visitors who may visit any given web design. When it comes to screen resolution, it doesn’t matter how perfect and beautiful the web design may be, it is very frustrating when a viewer either cannot see the images or text properly, or the viewers have to scroll to the side to see the rest of what the site has to offer. It is truly annoying when the width of the site doesn’t fit within the width of a visitor’s monitor’s screen size.

The reason for this is that many older monitors – frequently VGA monitors – have a maximum of 640×480 pixels that they will support. There area also many visitors to your website who have older video cards. This means that no matter how good their monitor and your website, they simply will not be able to handle higher resolutions. You will need to keep this in mind when you are creating a web design for a large target audience. After all, you will want the maximum number of people possible to be able to easily and clearly read and view your website.

So why is it that web designers continue to write for such large screen resolutions – such as 800×600 and 1024×768 when it means that they’ll be sending so many people away from their sites due to the inability to read them or being frustrated from having to scroll sideways all the time? Actually, there are quite a few reasons to explain this web design pattern. For one, there are likely quite a number of web designers who don’t even realize the issue that they are creating. Similarly, there are those web designers who don’t care that some people will not be able to enjoy their websites. Also, we must consider that some web masters have recognized that their target audience are typically equipped with high screen resolution capabilities, and therefore are simply catering to their desired market.

It is indeed hard to believe that there are some web designers out there who can call themselves professionals and not understand the way that the different technologies used by their viewers will be impacted by the web designs that they create. It is hard to believe that a supposed “expert” may not recognize that their web designs won’t look the same on every computer. Of course, web designers can’t always be blamed, since they often have the latest technologies to make their work more pleasant and professional. However, it is up to them to understand that the majority of the internet using world is not using state-of-the-art technologies. These web designers are only trying to put out the most impressive looking visuals for a website.

When it comes to those web designers who know that not everyone will be able to see their website properly, but they just don’t care are the most likely to lose the highest number of visitors. Any graphic larger than 600 by 620 pixels will definitely create a horizontal scroll bar for several website visitors. This is frustrating to visitors who have to scroll in order to read each line of text. Navigation also becomes a struggle because menus may become partially or entirely hidden as the rest of the content is viewed. Furthermore, if the viewer doesn’t realize that the horizontal scrollbar has appeared, they may simply assume that the site is not finished, that it has errors, or that there is nothing additional to see. If the webmaster simply doesn’t care, they’re turning away an awfully large number of people who could be potential clients, part of a potential network, or even contributors.

When the webmaster has recognized that the primary audience of the site has higher screen resolutions, it is quite natural to create a website design that caters to that resolution. While they will usually meet the standard, making certain that a viewer of 640×480 can still see the vital information on the site, the entire itself will have been optimized for their main target audience. This is an extremely professional way to function because it avoids creating problems of viewing the site no matter what the client, and it still gives the most accurate settings for the equipment used by the main visitors.

Copyright 2006 Mark Nenadic

Mark Nenadic
Mark is the director and face behind FifteenDegrees-North http://www.15dn.com, where you will find articles and resources to help with SEO, marketing and Web design.

The concept of web designing based on the nature and rapid growth of the Internet is nothing to boast of any more. This is because of the large number of web sites published to the Internet everyday, so as to showcase one’s presence and dominance on the World Wide Web. You may ask why this is so, well, the so simple answer is the rate at which technology is evolving.

An example is illustrated with the popular Microsoft FrontPage and Macromedia’s Flash. They are two different web designing software which have the same basic function (to create an interactive website). However, a person who has used both programs would observe that Microsoft FrontPage, which has been existing over quite a long period of time, deals basically with HTML codes. No programming language or knowledge is involved; that is why I choose to term its use in the category of web designing. Almost everybody, who owns a computer with the Windows Operating System along side MS FrontPage installed in it, knows how to design a simple website. This is because of it’s format which does not require programming skills, but only requires the user to type the text, copy and paste even drag and drop a picture to the potential website. However, Macromedia’s Flash, which was released years after Microsoft’s first release of it’s FrontPage, shows it’s advancement in effects, animations and even graphics. This powerful also shows an advancement in web designing technology. You’re probably thinking, “how incorrect”. Well, I like you to know the programming and designing are entirely two different things. While designing as been discussed about using Microsoft FrontPage as an example let us look into programming on the web.

Now, unlike Microsoft FrontPage, Macromedia’s Flash creates a more animated and effects-filled website that Microsoft FrontPage. However it require programming skills to maximize its use and put it to work. So as a person with ground knowledge of Microsoft FrontPage would call himself a web designer, the other with Macromedia’s Flash would call himself a web programmer so as to differentiate himself to a so called ‘novice’, who may have learnt web designing through the widely believed ‘easy-to-use’ Microsoft FrontPage. But whichever way a website is created, it is important to note that its primary function is to supply information about services, products and other functionaries. So, whether a web programmer or a web designer; if the same work given to them is to create a website, they symbolize oneness, in the sense that however way the site may be created, or how more interactive one’s work may be, compared to the other, they still pass the same information to the website visitors, thus making them both creative in the aspect of ‘web designing’, which almost every high school kid can do.

Yet as one, who is a programmer, I do not see much of a difference between the web designer and programmer, unless a far more advanced form of web programming than we (web programmers) have now, is created. But till then the so-called web programmers would continue to stretch on their differences from the web designer, irrespective to their similarities.

About The Author

As a student I studied the basic and intermediate concepts of Web designing and Web programming. I am also into webdesigning and webprogramming

onaefe@active.ws

This is our top 10 list of things you shouldn’t do on your website:

1. Do not underline words unless they are a link. It is a design standard to underline links. If you underline other words on your web page that are not links, viewers will click them. When they don’t go anywhere, it will lead to confusion. Make it obvious what is a link and what isn’t.
2. Use a font without serifs. Serifs are the little lines at the end of letters that make them easier to read in print. On a computer screen, however, sans serif fonts like Arial and Verdana are actually easier to read and lead to greater comprehension of your message. For example, this is serif and this is sans serif.
3. Optimize your graphics for the web. If the file size of your pictures is too large, they will take too long to load and most users won’t stick around to see them. Pictures can be optimized with only slight changes in overall quality.
4. Put the navigation for your web pages on the top or left hand side. This is where most users automatically look to find them. Don’t stick it on the right just to be different. This is not where people’s eyes go to look for navigation. Be consistent with your navigation placement; it should be in the same spot on every page.
5. Don’t use more than three or four colors on your web page. Any more, and the user will be overwhelmed and not know where to look first. If your message is competing for attention with color, your site will not be as effective as it could be.
6. If you are selling on-line, put the prices of your products or services where people can easily find them. Don’t make them look too long, or else they will give up, leave your site, and spend their money elsewhere.
7. Avoid horizontal scrolling on your web pages. Ensure your site fits on a screen resolution of 800 by 600 so that viewers don’t have to scroll left to right. Vertical scrolling is okay, but horizontal scrolling is annoying and unnecessary.
8. Do not collect email addresses without a privacy policy. In Canada, there is a privacy law that states that every site should have a privacy policy, even if they don’t collect any information. Read more at the government of Canada web site.
9. Avoid unnecessary animated images. The flashing and movement on the screen will distract the eye from the main message. Don’t get me wrong, flash and animation is cool, but only when they support the main message.
10. Remember to give each of your pages a unique title. Search engines use titles to help rank your pages. Bookmarks use page titles, too.

When designing your site remember what visitors to your site want

• Text they can read
• Text that answers their questions
• Simple navigation
• Fresh, up-to-date content

Happy Designing!

Colleen Happ designs effective and affordable websites. View her portfolio at http://www.happconsulting.com. Colleen offers free one hour consultations to show how an effective website can benefit your business. She can be reached at 403-807-8225.