chicago-web-design http://chicagowebdesigns.yolasite.com/chicago-web-design.php Tue, 09 Jun 2026 13:32:01 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://chicagowebdesigns.yolasite.com/chicago-web-design/chicago-web-design-quality-services <h2><a href="http://webdesign.astonweber.com/category/web-design/" title="Chicago Web Design">Chicago Web Design</a></h2><br> Client Requirements<br> <br> From initial contact, take notes as to what your prospective client's requirements and expectations are as well as the services you agree to provide for him. This is so that when the time comes to draw up a binding agreement, you have all that you need to come up with a bulletproof web design contract. While still in the talking stage, get all the thorny stuff out of the way so that you and your client have realistic expectations of each other. Otherwise, when contract time arrives, a troublesome issue may arise and turn out to be a deal breaker...and this after you've already invested considerable time and energy.<br> <br> Here are some prickly issues that must be dealt with in the contract.<br> <br> Scope of Work<br> <br> The contract should describe clearly what services and products you agree to provide for the client. If the project is a large one, the list of specific tasks and products can go in an attached schedule. Be sure to specify what is not included in the scope of work - e.g. site maintenance. This will prevent misunderstandings and be very helpful later on if the problem of scope creep ever arises.<br> <br> Client Obligations<br> <br> State all the things that the client is required to do for the project to proceed in a timely manner. Include a time frame by which he must accomplish these things.<br> <br> Often a project is delayed by the client's failure to provide content that you need. This problem that can be dealt with in the contract by imposing negative consequences for the client - e.g. loss of deposit or fines - if he fails to deliver at a certain time. In the event that the client still fails to deliver by an extended date, you can put a proviso saying that continued failure to perform this obligation will be considered a breach of contract. Consider similar riders for all situations that require timely client action.<br> <br> Client Revisions and Project Completion<br> <br> Agree with your client on workflow milestones based on progressive phases of the project. Define these clearly in the contract. As each phase of the work is completed, get the client's "OK" and have him sign an approval form. He may want to make revisions. Your contract should specify how many revisions he is allowed to request for each phase. The client should be made to understand that once he has exceeded this number, any additional revision will be subject to extra fees. When you've completed your work, take the client through a final review of the website. Note down any revisions he may require, although at this point there shouldn't be anything major as he's already given his approval for previous phases. Once you've addressed these and the client has approved, the project is considered complete. Define it as such in the contract. Any changes the client may request from this point on should fall under the scope of site maintenance (which may or may not be part of your contract).<br> <br> Ownership and Copyright<br> <br> Establish copyright ownership. Many clients are under the mistaken notion that because they've paid for the work, they automatically own the site and are entitled to the source files. If you are working as an independent contractor, you retain ownership of your creation and thus have copyright. On the other hand, "work for hire" implies an employer-employee relationship, whereby the employer owns the creation and the copyright. If you own the copyright, you may already want to stipulate whether you intend to retain full rights, whether you're going to assign full or partial rights to the client, or whether you're just allowing license to use. This is something that requires some forethought.<br> <br> Limitation of Liability<br> <br> Be sure that the contract limits your liability and excludes consequential damages - i.e. damages that are not a direct result of the initial act of one of the parties. Consequential damages may include loss of time, loss of business revenue, inconvenience, etc. In the event that you do not meet the project deadline, your client might decide to take legal action against you. If you fail to include a clause limiting your liability, your client could sue you for loss of revenue, for the entire cost of his marketing campaign that failed due to your lateness, and a host of other consequences your client wants to blame you for.<br> <br> <h1><a href="http://www.astonweber.com/Custom-Web-Design/3/1068" title="Web Design">Web Design</a></h1><br> Not all websites are created equal. Good web design is not difficult but there are a few things you should avoid if you want to create attractive and user-friendly websites. The 10 most common mistakes inexperienced web designers make are:<br> <br> 1. Technology for technology's sake<br> <br> It's very nice to play with new toys, but your website is not a suitable playing field. Visitors to your website are interested in content, not whether you have Brand X Version N of flashy stuff on your website. Keep things simple. Use tried and trusted technology, not web tools that require the user to download special add-ons just to view your website. They won't.<br> <br> 2. Using frames for page layout<br> <br> Frames are a cop-out. They are easy for the designer, that's why they are used so often. But they have a stack of disadvantages from the user's point of view - and it is the user that we need to cherish, not the designer. The biggest problem is that the back button becomes unpredictable. You can't bookmark the current page and come back to it - you will be returned to another version of the frameset. It's also difficult for the user to know when to scroll, because different bits of the page have their own scroll bars.<br> <br> 3. Scrolling, blinking and animations<br> <br> Moving images are distracting. Don't use them. Visitors want to be able to read and digest what you are saying on your website. They don't want the text to be bouncing around or flashing on and off before their eyes.<br> <br> 4. Colour clashes<br> <br> Yes there are 256 different colours you can use for text and background, but that doesn't mean you have to use all of them. Nor does it mean that you should use colour combinations that give your visitors eye-strain. Choose colour combinations that provide a good contrast - dark on light is easier to read than light on dark.<br> <br> 5. Where am I?<br> <br> All pages must have a clear indication of which website they belong to, either in the browser window or on the web page itself. This is to help users who come to pages directly without coming in via the home page. For the same reason, every page should have a link to the home page as well as some indication of where they fit within the structure of your website.<br> <br> 6. Long scrolling pages<br> <br> It's best to avoid pages that have several screenfuls of content. Users will only scroll if they believe that there is something useful further down the page. If you really can't split the page up, then at least provide content and navigation options on the top part of the page.<br> <br> 7. Lack of signposts<br> <br> Your users won't know their way around your site like you do. Provide a clear idea of structure and place. Use a menu bar or column in the same place on every page. If you have more than two levels of page hierarchy, provide a site map and search function as well.<br> <br> 8. Non-standard link colours<br> <br> It has become conventional for links to pages that have not been visited by the user to be blue, and links to previously seen pages to be purple. Don't invent your own colour codes, you will only confuse visitors to your site.<br> <br> 9. Long download times<br> <br> In our increasingly "time poor" society, people are getting more and more impatient, and when websites take too long to load, they will go somewhere else and probably won't come back to you. So do everything you can to reduce download times. When designing your website, consider reducing the number of images on each page, and definitely reduce the size of the image files.<br> <br> 10. Outdated information<br> <br> Nothing is worse than a website that advertises an event that has already passed its date, or a product that has already sold out. Have a plan to review and modify your site on a regular basis. When designing your website, identify pages that are date sensitive and remove or amend them as soon as that date has been reached.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Read more about Aston Weber Group: <br><br> <a href="http://chicagowebdesigns.wordpress.com/" title="Web Design">Web Design</a>, <a href="http://chicagowebde.insanejournal.com/397.html" title="Chicago Web Design">Chicago Web Design</a>, <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/chicago-web-designs" title="Web Design">Web Design</a>, <a href="http://chicagowebdesigns.weebly.com/" title="Chicago Web Design">Chicago Web Design</a><br> Thu, 21 Jun 2012 09:18:51 +0100 http://chicagowebdesigns.yolasite.com/chicago-web-design/chicago-web-design-and-mobile-applications <h2><a class="" href="http://webdesign.astonweber.com/2011/07/how-to-hide-files-and-folders-from-google/" title="Chicago Web Design">Chicago Web Design</a></h2><br> Building a site with a website creator is fun and easy to do. It takes very little time and effort to build a website in this manner. However, there are some pitfalls that are easy to fall into when you use a website creator. This is because they are so easy to use it can be difficult to remember that your site needs to be professional and unique, as well as easy to navigate. Here are the top five website creator mistakes that you should avoid at all costs.<br> <br> 1. Not making the site unique. A website builder offers hundreds of templates for you to choose from. Unfortunately, these same templates are being used by thousands of people every day. In order to keep your site professional and unique, you need to change the template slightly. Choose a different color scheme. If possible, make a unique color scheme by choosing individual colors for your font and backgrounds. This way your site is somewhat unique from the thousands of others using the templates.<br> <br> 2. Not using keyword rich titles for your pages. Some site builders will automatically name a page "Page 2" or something similar. Other website creators name the page after the heading you put in the title. The name or title of the page in the navigational tools and buttons should be keyword rich and descriptive. This is necessary both for your site to be professional as well as for your site to be found in search engines.<br> <br> 3. Not changing graphics. You might choose a template that you like because the graphics match your business or website goals. However, this is detrimental to the professionalism of your site because thousands of other people will have the same graphic. Instead, change the graphics in the template to original graphics that you create yourself or purchase from the internet. This way your site is professional and unique. Title the graphics with keywords to further optimize your site for search engines.<br> <br> 4. Not giving enough information. It is easy to build a website with a website creator in a matter of minutes, but you won't be providing much information in the process. Information is important to keep your visitors long enough to buy something from your site. Keyword rich content is also important for getting higher placement in the search engines.<br> <br> 5. Not keeping it simple. Too many graphics, colors in the fonts, hard to read font styles, and similar design mistakes are not as easy to make when you use a site builder, but they still crop up. You want your site to look cool, but you also want to make sure that the design doesn't take away from the goal of the website. If something is too flashy, many visitors will not stick around long enough to buy something.<br> <br> <h1><a class="" href="http://www.astonweber.com/#webdesign" title="Web Design">Web Design</a></h1><br> Photoshop's Pen Tool is one of the best creative tools in their arsenal. But most designers avoid using it as they simply do not understand the concept of what it can do. I use the Pen Tool for many different purposes, and in this tutorial I will be showing you a few ways to use it to your advantage.<br> <br> Basics<br> The basic mechanics of the Pen Tool is simply that you create two points (called anchor points), and Photoshop will draw a Path between them. The Path can then be used for drawing, or, if the Path is a loop (a series of anchors that start at end at the same point) it can be used to create entire shapes.<br> <br> Anchor Point: The anchor points are what decides where each Path begins and ends. Think of them of a dot-to-dot picture you used to do when you were a child. To create a Path you must lay down anchor points at various positions, connecting them together in turn.<br> <br> Path: The Path is the line between the two anchor points that draws out the shape or line you are trying to create. The Paths shape depends on the position of its two anchor points and the position of its handle.<br> <br> Handle: The handle is used to bend Paths. Photoshop will always draw a perfectly straight Path between two anchor points, so if you wish to bend the Path you must move its handle accordingly. Think of it like a lever. The further away and more of an angle you put on the handle the more it effects the bend of the Path.<br> <br> If you hold down the mouse on the Pen Tool we have a variety of Sub Tools.<br> <br> The Pen Tool is the really the only selection I ever make off this selection. If you are careful when drawing your Paths and take your time you probably wont need the other ones.<br> <br> The Freeform Pen Tool simply acts like the Lasso Tool and creates a Path wherever the Mouse Pointer goes.<br> <br> As you will see this creates messy inaccurate Paths, and for as long as I have been using Photoshop I have never used this Tool.<br> <br> The Add Anchor Point Tool does exactly what it says on the tin. You can use it to add extra Anchor Points along any Path you have drawn.<br> <br> The Subtract Anchor Point Tool simply deletes any Anchor Point you click on.<br> <br> The Convert Point Tool simply adds handles to existing Anchor Points by clicking and dragging.<br> <br> Using Paths To Create Lines<br> <br> Draw a simple Path, such as a letter S. You would simple make an anchor point to start with. Then place a second anchor point, but on doing so hold the mouse button down and drag the bend into it. Then, place the third anchor point and drag in the opposite direction.<br> <br> This is simply a Path. It is not something that will be visual on our final image. To make it into something solid we must Stroke the Path. To do this we must first choose something to stroke it with. Choose the Brush Tool and set your brush to a 5px Hard Brush and set the color to Red.<br> <br> Next, choose the Pen Tool again, Ctrl-Click/Right-Click the image and choose Stroke Path.<br> <br> In the Stroke Path Window you will see two options. A drop down box for the tool you wish to use on the selected Path, and the Simulate Pressure Check Box. The Simulate Pressure option will add tapers to the beginning and end of your Path. By choosing Brush from the drop down menu you are telling Photoshop to fill in the Path with the 5px Hard Brush we just set. Obviously if you are using another tool other than the brush, you would simply set the options for that particular tool prior to running the Stroke Path function.<br> <br> Creating Shapes Using The Pen Tool<br> <br> To create a shape we must draw out some Anchor Points like we did before, only this time we must finish on the same point we started with.<br> <br> Now we have our shape we must make it a Selection, for if we were to try and fill this now we would simply fill the entire background. Choose Window &gt; Paths and choose the Load Path As A Selection button.<br> <br> This will convert the Path into a Selection. You will see this by the visibility of the so called "walking ants".<br> <br> Now this is a selection you can fill it with a color or gradient and can then start to apply Layer Styles as it is now a solid object in our document and no longer merely a Path or selection.<br> <br> Drawing Complex Shapes<br> <br> In order to draw complex shapes it is important to learn how to edit the handles of your Paths. If we draw a curve Photoshop automatically adds a handle to the second Anchor Point so that the curve can be continued smoothly into the third point. However sometimes we do not want to continue the curve. To edit the handles we hold down the Alt Key and either reposition the handle, or click the Anchor Point to remove it completely.<br> <br> 1. This shows the route the Path will take between the three points if we simply do nothing to the handle.<br> 2. This shows the route when we hold down Alt and move the handle.<br> 3. This shows the route when we hold down Alt and click the middle Anchor Point to remove the handle.<br> <br> This allows us to draw much more complex shapes.<br> <br> Using The Pen Tool To Add / To Subtract From A Selection<br> <br> When doing complex selections we can use the Pen Tool to accurately tweak the edges.<br> <br> With the Pen Tool selected draw your Path over the remaining leg. Choose Window &gt; Paths.<br> <br> Now when we choose the Load Path As A Selection button we hold down the Alt Key first to bring up the Make Selection Options.<br> <br> Make sure you have the Add to Selection Box selected and click OK. This will convert the Path and add it onto our selection.<br> <br> To subtract from selection we do everything exactly the same but obviously we check Subtract from Selection instead of Add.<br> <br> Now you have the knowledge, embrace the Pen Tool. Make cleaner selections, and therefor cleaner work.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Read more about Aston Weber Group: <br><br> <a class="" href="http://www.squidoo.com/chicago-web-designs" title="Chicago Web Design">Chicago Web Design</a>, <a class="" href="http://chicagowebdesigns.weebly.com/" title="Web Design">Web Design</a>, <a class="" href="http://chicagowebde.insanejournal.com/397.html" title="Web Design">Web Design</a>, <a class="" href="http://chicago-webdesign.blogspot.com/" title="Chicago Web Design">Chicago Web Design</a><br> Thu, 24 May 2012 07:56:06 +0100 http://chicagowebdesigns.yolasite.com/chicago-web-design/chicago-web-design-improve-your-online-visibility <h2><a href="http://webdesign.astonweber.com/2011/07/how-to-hide-files-and-folders-from-google/" title="Chicago Web Design">Chicago Web Design</a></h2><br> Your web design is the face of your website and business to the Internet world. Millions of websites abound in the crowded World Wide Web and if you want your website to stand out, it should be impressive and unique, both in form and function. As a beginner, it is advisable to ask the help of a web developer or trusted colleagues in the industry.<br> <br> Whether you are creating your own design or having a web agency do it for you, it is necessary to prepare and plan for it by remembering the following basic tips:<br> <br> Try several design outlines.<br> <br> When creating your design, try to sketch or draw on paper a rough draft or model of the web design you have in mind instead of directly coding it. This way, you give yourself the chance to improve or change it entirely if need be. Ask your friends or experts to give suggestions and inputs on current trends and tools for easy web designing. After making several drafts, make a wise choice for final coding.<br> <br> Make your content readable and pleasing to users.<br> <br> Remember that you are designing your website not for yourself but for your users. Knowing what your users want and what will please them should inspire you to put content into your web design that is readable as well as attractive. This includes a good color scheme, ideal font sizes, catchy animation, pleasing sound effects and quality text.<br> <br> Use as much CSS as needed.<br> <br> Cascading Style Sheets or CSS offers many techniques that are not available in table layouts. One good feature is the complete separation between design or layout of a page and the information on the same page. Thus, when corrections or updates need to be made on the layout for instance, all you need to do is replace the CSS file for the information with the design or layout remaining intact.<br> <br> Apply the right formats.<br> <br> Before exporting graphics from graphics design tools to be imported to your website editor, make sure that your design has the right format. JPEG and GIF file formats are ideal for images and photos while PNG and GIF are great for screenshots, logos and other graphical features. The PNG offers 'alpha transparency' which the GIF format does not. Alpha Transparency allows you to use the PNG format over the top of any background image, colour or gradient, without 'jagged edges' showing.<br> <br> There are many tools that beginners can find on the Internet to help them create their own web design, like graphics design tools and web design software. Making your own niche web design can be fun with these tools plus your own creativity and resourcefulness.<br> <br> <h1><a href="http://www.astonweber.com/Custom-Web-Design/3/1068" title="Web Design">Web Design</a></h1><br> ECommerce websites have their own unique character that is designed to lead the visitor to one simple task – make an online purchase. A web designer needs to consider a variety of online selling principles while designing an eCommerce website. In this article we will try to take a look at some of the major design aspects that you must have in an eCommerce website.<br> <br> Many of you are probably already asking why eCommerce website design is different from any other website design. They all need to be attractive, well organized and use the right colors that fits the website spirit and so on. Your instincts are good. However a close look at some successful eCommerce websites will reveal the conceptual differences that are typical in a successful eCommerce website.<br> <br> An eCommerce website needs to follow certain selling principles:<br> <br> 1. Give the user a pleasant experience during his online shopping.<br> 2. Make certain you provide sufficient information on who owns the website and why they should be trusted.<br> 3. The website must be easy to use. If it isn’t, the visitor will go to your competitor.<br> <br> <br> Those principles are not new. We all know those basics from our day to day experiences in the mall, shopping center and every other market place that is waiting for us to open up our wallets. The big challenge for a web designer is how to translate those conventional marketing techniques to the virtual world of the internet. I’m sure you’ve all noticed that in most supermarkets the bread stand is placed at the far end of the building, yet you can smell the fresh bread at the entrance (sometimes they even use a special air duct to carry the smells). That has been done deliberately. Marketers use our sense of smell to draw us through the store where we are exposed to all sorts of tempting goodies as we go to get our loaf of bread.<br> <br> How do you draw an imaginarily path in a web page? A path designed to lead the visitor to do what you want him to do…make an online purchase. Unlike the supermarket our website has no smell. In a website the distance from one point to the other is pretty much the same, so the exit is always right there. In a website you can try to order the “shelf” in the way you think will best expose the visitor to many of your products, but there is always a chance that he will find a short cut to another page that can also be the way off your site.<br> <br> As can be see, although putting your products on the web is much easier then renting space and opening a supermarket. However, selling your products on the web can be difficult.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Read more about Aston Weber Group: <br><br> <a href="http://chicago-webdesign.blogspot.com/" title="Web Design">Web Design</a>, <a href="http://chicagowebdesigns.weebly.com/" title="Chicago Web Design">Chicago Web Design</a>, <a href="http://journals.fotki.com/chicagowebdesign/" title="Web Design">Web Design</a>, <a href="http://chicagowebdesigns.yolasite.com/" title="Chicago Web Design">Chicago Web Design</a><br> Fri, 30 Mar 2012 13:53:17 +0100 http://chicagowebdesigns.yolasite.com/chicago-web-design/chicago-web-design-services-that-exceed <h2><a href="http://webdesign.astonweber.com/2011/07/how-to-backup-your-computer-and-why/" title="Web Design">Web Design</a></h2><br> When it comes to starting a project, some have no idea where to start. You need to think about how the navigation is going to be laid out, how text will be styled and how the design will look once its all put together. Here I'm going to explain where to get those mad ideas for the website your clients will just love. There's no looking in just one place, you need to have a look at a variety of media before you can get some ideas for your design and hopefully get it transferred to paper or your favourite editor.<br> <br> Web Designer Mag<br> <br> Get a cup of tea ready and relax, you're a web designer for heavens sake! Now I believe this magazine is only available in the UK, if you're somewhere else in the world where you don't have the privilege to read this magazine you should perhaps go for the next best thing available. I invest in a subscription for this magazine because I just love it. It is packed with amazing websites, reviews, tutorials and the latest web trends. All the best content from the web packed into a little booklet, it's just great and worth it too.<br> <br> Dribbble<br> <br> "Dribbble is show and tell for creatives. Designers, developers and other creatives share shots-small screenshots of the designs and applications they are working on."<br> <br> This is what Dribbble is in short. It's a great websites where other designers come together (I believe you need to be invited to actually dribbble pixels) so its got some great quality content for you to get some ideas.<br> <br> Pattern Tap<br> <br> This is one of my favourites and it's a great one for UI designers too. They have chosen some of the best interface designs for the following categories: forms, signup, lists, borders, thumbnails, buttons, backgrounds, login, web application, articles search, navigation, layout, icons, typography, images, distinction, ecommerce and to be honest the list goes on for a couple of pages so they definitely have a bit of everything and personally I think the quality of work on the site is very inspirational indeed.<br> <br> Quick Google Searches<br> <br> Google is your friend. I have definitely learnt a lot over the years using this powerful search engine, in fact I learn almost everything from Google, I use it to my advantage because it is a quick way to access the world's information, it's all yours and very easy to use so don't ever under-estimate Google, it has answers to all your questions (and whoever said if you type Google into Google the internet will break is just plain stupid; private joke for viewers of the IT Crowd, a funny TV series about an IT support team, definitely worth a watch).<br> <br> Competitors<br> <br> Working as a freelancer is just like any other business, you have competitors so if you were designing a website for a Chinese restaurant for example; view the top Chinese restaurant websites and see what ideas you can take from each one then use your own ideas as well as the clients' thoughts to come up with something better. Knowing the standards in an industry helps you go a long way so make sure you do you research and think like any other business or agency would, keep your professionalism to a top level.<br> <br> Use Your Third Eye<br> <br> It's all about staying focused so make sure you don't get distracted by social networking sites, mobile phones and people around you. It can be very easy to lose track so having a good self-esteem will definitely help, I usually keep my phone turned off, keep away from distractions and set a couple of hours to strictly stick to the work I should be doing (or finding), just because you have the most flexible timetable doesn't mean you shouldn't be working hard, manage your time wisely and plan breaks too. Oh, and don't forget to drink plenty of water, very important!<br> <br> <h1><a href="http://www.astonweber.com/Custom-Web-Design/3/1068" title="Chicago Web Design">Chicago Web Design</a></h1><br> Everyone seems to be scuttled up to stay on the top of the search engine results now days. Some succeed in their task but some fail in this area. The reason is very simple, that the higher the rank of your web design on the search engine, the more chances you have for your site to be visited. Here I am telling you some tips in designing your website that will work better for great ranking perspectives. First, you need to aim for a simple and clear navigation, keeping the internal pages within 2-3 clicks from the home page. Making use of right keywords and phrases in your website would make it easy for the visitors to remember and recognise. Do not route to splash pages, this will make your internal pages to appear in the search results. The home page should include the target keywords and links to the important pages. Avoid duplicate content, as it would give bad impression over the visitors. Every page should have unique content without any spelling or grammatical errors. The content has to be updated regularly; it will help the search engine and users both. New and updated content grabs the attention of the visitors, they find it interesting to visit the website again.<br> <br> Do not use frames on your website, as it causes difficulty in navigation and also some software cannot read it. Do not represent any information in flash movie or a graphic image, as the web spiders cannot read the text embedded in graphics or flash. Add Meta tags, title tags, and various other tags to each and every page of your website design. Make use of CSS instead of HTML tags, they are more effective. You need to make sure that the URL of your site is search engine friendly. The web design having clean URL can make it easy for the crawlers to distinguish the folder names and establish real links to the keywords. The search engine optimisation is a highly effective means by which you can reach up to a prominent position of the website on the search engines like Google, yahoo and MSN. There are various other activities of SEO including article submission, link building, press releases, blog commenting, forum posting, directory submission and many more. High ranks on the search engines would lead to increased traffic on the website and thus more and more customers. By having high ranks you cannot get leads, your website has to be very attractive, functional and unique.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Read more about Aston Weber Group: <br><br> <a href="http://chicagowebdesigns.yolasite.com/" title="Chicago Web Design">Chicago Web Design</a>, <a href="http://journals.fotki.com/chicagowebdesign/" title="Web Design">Web Design</a>, <a href="http://chicago-webdesign.blogspot.com/" title="Web Design">Web Design</a>, <a href="http://chicagowebdesigns.wordpress.com/" title="Chicago Web Design">Chicago Web Design</a><br> Wed, 29 Feb 2012 12:48:15 +0100 http://chicagowebdesigns.yolasite.com/chicago-web-design/chicago-web-design-redesign-current-content <h2><a href="http://webdesign.astonweber.com/2011/07/how-to-hide-files-and-folders-from-google/" title="Web Design">Web Design</a></h2><br> So you're ready to go into online marketing or set up a website for your home-based business. You must ask yourself if you are ready to take on the daunting task of setting up your own website. If you're not already familiar with website design, graphics design and writing sales copy you may be overwhelmed with what it takes to set up a website.<br> <br> A Few Things You Need Too know:<br> <br> Domain Name<br> <br> You need to find a domain name something interesting there will remind people of you, your website and your product or service. Don't forget when you choosing your domain name your branding yourself so be sure to be creative.<br> <br> Web Hosting<br> <br> There are many different types of web hosting companies and web hosting plans across the Internet take time out and evaluate the ones that you think will be a good fit for your business model.<br> <br> Hyper Text Markup Language or HTML<br> <br> This is a language used to format web pages. HTML is not a programming language, it's a markup language used to describe with markup tags used to describe content on web pages. Don't let this scare you, then many of HTML WYSIWYG - what you see is what you get - programs out there to choose from. So you don't have to be an HTML professional to get this part of the job done<br> <br> Web Page Design<br> <br> You need to know how to properly layout and format web pages for your new site. Web design is very similar to print design in that it uses the same elements. You need to look at space and layout, handle fonts and colors and combine it all in a neat package that conveys your message.<br> <br> Writing Copy<br> <br> This is a part of website design that is very difficult for many. Writing copy involves skill, creativity, imagination and sometimes hard work. For some people writing comes easily and for others it can stop them in their tracks. Sometimes writers block can be overcome with practice and study, however I would suggest taking a look at websites which are similar to the one you intend to develop.<br> <br> When you think of all the work that really has to go into the development of a website, you might consider outsourcing a good choice, of course outsourcing will cost money. However, if you can afford it, outsourcing will save you a lot of time and grief because even after your site is done you still have to optimize it and that's a whole other story.<br> <br> Always consider the immense knowledge that truly goes into building a good website. And if you're going to be on the web anyways you should always look as good as your competition if not better.<br> <br> <h1><a href="http://webdesign.astonweber.com/" title="Chicago Web Design">Chicago Web Design</a></h1><br> When it comes to creating a high quality website, web designing plays a major role. A good web design can considerably draw the traffic to the website. However, many inexperienced web designers fail to realize the importance of design and conceptualize it as a website decoration tool. There are few important things that a professional website designer must keep in mind. Prioritizing the website user's need is one of them. Often, designers do not focus on usability, accessibility and user interaction. Consequently, they lose people's interest. While designing it is important to think from users' perspective. Let us find, what can make a website more effective.<br> <br> * Using Clear and Easy Navigation System: The navigation structure of the website is one factor that determines the stability of the visitors on your site. Hence, it must be neat, consistent and effortlessly accessible for an optimal as well as undistracted users' experience. Besides, your website must be enough flexible to fit any number of required surplus links.<br> <br> * Use White Space: Using white spaces make your web design look neat. Besides, it catches the attention of users to the content part. For better readability and to prevent your site looking goofed up use fonts that will be available in all computers.<br> <br> * Avoid Cluttering Page with Images and Graphics: Web design with bulky images and excessive graphics takes time to load. These extra effects may look good on your site, but it is better to avoid them, rather watching users leaving your page to save their time.<br> <br> * Check for Cross Browser Compatibility: Website design tested in a particular browser may not necessarily support all browsers. Hence, test your website is all mostly used browsers, including Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Netscape and Safari.<br> <br> * Shun Pop-Up Windows: No one likes pop-up windows. If you think as a user, you will never like to click the pop-up window, rather would prefer moving out of the page. It irritates users, as they hinder their navigation to desire page.<br> <br> * Avoid Blinking and Scrolling Texts: If you want your visitors read the content in your website, do not use animated GIF, blinking or scrolling texts and auto-loading sound tracks. These features distract the users from the main content.<br> <br> * Never Use Background Images: Placing a background image in a web design is simply a bad idea. Never use this in your web design if you want a high quality website. It represents your site as cheap, loud and low quality site. Not only this, background images also slow down the process of loading.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Read more about Aston Weber Group: <br><br> <a href="http://chicagowebdesigns.weebly.com/" title="Web Design">Web Design</a>, <a href="http://chicagowebdesigns.wordpress.com/" title="Chicago Web Design">Chicago Web Design</a>, <a href="http://journals.fotki.com/chicagowebdesign/" title="Web Design">Web Design</a>, <a href="http://chicagowebdesigns.yolasite.com/" title="Chicago Web Design">Chicago Web Design</a><br> Fri, 24 Feb 2012 11:01:14 +0100 http://chicagowebdesigns.yolasite.com/chicago-web-design/chicago-web-design-viable-web-presence <h2><a href="http://www.astonweber.com/Custom-Web-Design/3/1068" title="Chicago Web Design">Chicago Web Design</a></h2><br> You may have heard that using a dynamic website to promote your company is likely to lead to many problems. However, in truth, it can be much easier for you to keep a dynamic website updated and current. There are many different advantages to using a dynamic website as opposed to a static website design. Here are a few advantages that you need to consider when deciding whether or not a dynamic website is the right kind of website for your company.<br> <br> It is easier for you to update your data feed<br> <br> Many websites rely heavily on data feeds. The information on a data feed needs to be populated fairly regularly in order to make sure that it is up to date. While you can overcome data feed issues that plague static websites by using specific software programs, it may be much more simple to update a data feed if you are using a dynamic website design. The reason for this is that the information that populates a dynamic website is actually stored in a database and can be pulled out and utilized on an as-needed basis.<br> <br> It is easier to update a larger website if that site is dynamic in structure<br> <br> Updating a dynamic website is much easier than updating a static website can be. Again, this is because the information is stored on a database and is used to automatically populate the website's pages. Instead of you needing to expend time and energy to populate your pages, a server-wide script such as PERL, ASP or PHP will perform this task for you instead.<br> <br> This goes for the layout as well as the content of your website. Instead of changing the content, the template will need to be altered in order to change the layout but this can be done quite easily by a competent and experienced website design company.<br> <br> You can keep the attention of potential customers much more easily with a dynamic website<br> <br> Because the content (and, in some cases, layout) of the site is changing from visit to visit, both potential and existing customers are not bored by your website. Depending on the content, it may be much easier for you to attract, and keep, their attention on your site. Each second or minute that you can keep a person looking at your page, the better chance you will have of interesting them in what your company has to offer.<br> <br> Are there any drawbacks to dynamic website design?<br> <br> While it easier for you to use a dynamic structure for your website, the fact is that this kind of hosting can cause you some problems. One issue is that some hosting services are unable to support the programming language that the site uses. Another is that they do take longer to develop than a static website would be. However, the many benefits that they offer you can.<br> <br> <h1><a href="http://webdesign.astonweber.com/" title="Web Design">Web Design</a></h1><br> Your website is the first thing that people will see if you are trying to sell on the web, blogging, or affiliate marketing through content. So it is very important to make sure your site is A+ grade without paying tons for it. So what I want to do is show you a few simple ways to keep cost down yet not having your site looking like it is second-rate and lacking credibility.<br> <br> One thing you can do for a cheap price and have a nice site coming from it is to hire someone off elance.com guru.com or any other freelance site. This will offer you an inexpensive way for you to get a great site template or a site completely coded for relatively cheap. It still is more costly than doing it by yourself but if you have no wish to learn any HTML or any coding this is great. This will run you 0-0 for a simple site that is functional and attractive.<br> <br> Second tip is to get a template learn some simple coding and upload that code to your FTP. How do I learn this you may ask? Well just Google HTML tips and Basic CSS and this should at least get you being able to tweak your template. Where do I get templates? Again Google is great free resource for all. It will help you understand some basics better. Although it will still take time and if time is something you don't have try our next tip.<br> <br> Third you can simply get a simple WYSIWYG software and drag and click to a great looking site. This is very easy and usually requires no real coding or knowing code except maybe putting in affiliate code which if you don't know how to do that you may need to read a little on just simple copy, paste how to's. Some hosting companies, I actually think most hosting companies, will have a free WYSIWYG site builder for you to use with templates that can be used.<br> <br> In conclusion you can find the help out there and make a great site that will look attractive and great. So you will have a site that you are proud of and make money get your point out there with a blog or anything you want . You will know though that your site will be grade A and not a cheesy site that people will run from it will give you the credibility you need. Now go out and make that site and get your business up and running.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Read more about Aston Weber Group: <br><br> <a href="http://chicago-webdesign.blogspot.com/" title="Web Design">Web Design</a>, <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/chicago-web-designs" title="Chicago Web Design">Chicago Web Design</a>, <a href="http://journals.fotki.com/chicagowebdesign/" title="Chicago Web Design">Chicago Web Design</a>, <a href="http://chicagowebde.insanejournal.com/397.html" title="Web Design">Web Design</a><br> Mon, 20 Feb 2012 09:08:22 +0100 http://chicagowebdesigns.yolasite.com/chicago-web-design/chicago-web-design-e-commerce-development <h2><a href="http://www.astonweber.com/#webdesign" title="Chicago Web Design">Chicago Web Design</a></h2><br> Will my website be on a content management system?<br> <br> A content management system (CMS) means that any content or SEO updates you need to make can be done immediately, easily and usually by yourself - with a little training. If you don't have the resources to do it yourself, ask the website company to tell you how much they charge. Most will charge a monthly fee even if you don't make any changes.<br> <br> A CMS website will cost a little more to build but if your business is one where you'll need to update the website regularly then that initial extra outlay will soon pay for itself.<br> <br> Not having a CMS website means that if you need to make any changes whatsoever, then the website developers will need to do it for you and they will charge according to the time it takes and your cheap web design just got more expensive.<br> <br> Will the URLs of my website be both user and search engine friendly?<br> <br> URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) are the addresses of the pages of your website on the World Wide Web.<br> <br> If they are user friendly, they will be easier to remember. The following are called dynamic URLs meaning the website is built on a database. If your URLs look anything like these, you'll have a problem from the outset:<br> <br> page.aspx?PageID=00<br> page_id=brand&amp;brandid=00&amp;desc=mywebsite<br> index.php?option=com_content&amp;view=article&amp;id=00<br> product.php?categoryid=00&amp;productid=00<br> <br> Search engines are known to index the content of dynamic pages a lot slower than those of static pages but, more importantly, could you remember those? Dynamic URLs can easily be rewritten to static but most website designers simply don't bother.<br> <br> Capitalisation of text in the URL is not considered good practice - users shouldn't have to guess or remember whether or not a URL is in a particular case. Nor should web developers leave spaces in the URL so they end up looking like this:<br> <br> this%20is%20my%20website<br> <br> Will every page of my website be search engine optimised?<br> <br> Most developers pay scant regard to search engine optimisation. Most e-commerce websites fail simply because the owners fail to include SEO in their marketing plan.<br> <br> How many times have you seen the company name followed by the word 'Homepage' when you've beeen searching the web? Those websites have not been professionally search engine optimised.<br> <br> A lot of web designers simply have the same Title and Description on every page. This is basically telling the search engines that every page has the same content.<br> <br> Web pages that are properly structured to make it obvious what they are about, and the keywords and phrases associated with them, will rank better than those that are not. H tags are an important element on the list of things to help your website rank higher in the search engines and they need to be properly implemented.<br> <br> How much control will I have of the Meta Titles and Meta Descriptions of my website?<br> <br> You need total control.<br> <br> It's the combination of the Title and Description Meta tags that most people see in the search engine results (SERPs) pages. Combined, they are a free advertisement for your website.<br> <br> The Meta Title tag is crucial for search engines and remains one of the most important elements of search engine optimisation. It not only determines how a search engine may rank the web page but most display it as the headline in their listings. So it's important to spend a good deal of time perfecting this element. And search patterns change so you need to change your tags accordingly and not pay through the nose every time.<br> <br> You could end up paying dearly for a cheap website design both in lost business and putting things right.<br> <br> <h1><a href="http://webdesign.astonweber.com/2011/07/how-to-backup-your-computer-and-why/" title="Web Design">Web Design</a></h1><br> The world today believes in showbiz, and one needs to display whatever positives one has, in order to grab the attention of the audiences or clients. As more and more people spend time on the internet, the best way to lure them is via your website. One way to attract the interest of the viewer or the visitor is by placing a flash design on your site or some of the popular sites on the web. You can make use of a flash intro creator to design flash intro, banner, menu, slideshow or more. There is no dearth of software available in the market, and you need to understand their features to put them to use.<br> <br> The flash technology is highly beneficial in captivating the viewers, and you can use this as a medium of communication. You can insert text messages for the viewers or visitors in your flash design, or add a callout to make it more interactive and viewer-centric. Apart from this, you can add images, graphics, symbols and more to your flash design, so that it looks appealing. To make it even more luring, you can superimpose sound effects in your flash design. All this might sound like a cumbersome task, but is extremely easy if you make use of a flash software. Such a software will help you to upload images, graphics and more to your flash design without any hassles. You will not require any prior knowledge of flash to be able to use such software, as they are easy to install and use, and do not need any specialized skills.<br> <br> With the use of this technology, you can create amazing photo albums, slideshows and much more to place on prominent places on popular websites and your own site. This will make your site interactive, and if placed on some other site, will attract viewers and direct them to your site. With the use of a flash creating software, you can come up with wonderful flash intros, that can again revamp the entire visual appeal of your website. Another important thing to keep in mind while creating a flash design is that you definitely have to insert your company logo in the flash design. This will help the new viewers to relate with your organization, and the older ones to recognize your brand. Hence, flash can act as a great means to enhance your brand value in the marketplace. Therefore, choose the appropriate software to create flash designs for your site.<br> <br> The world today believes in showbiz, and one needs to display whatever positives one has, in order to grab the attention of the audiences or clients. As more and more people spend time on the internet, the best way to lure them is via your website. One way to attract the interest of the viewer or the visitor is by placing a flash design on your site or some of the popular sites on the web.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Read more about Aston Weber Group: <br><br> <a href="http://chicagowebdesigns.blog.com/" title="Web Design">Web Design</a>, <a href="http://chicagowebdesign.multiply.com/journal/" title="Chicago Web Design">Chicago Web Design</a>, <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/chicago-web-designs" title="Chicago Web Design">Chicago Web Design</a>, <a href="http://chicagowebdesigns.yolasite.com/" title="Web Design">Web Design</a><br> Fri, 10 Feb 2012 08:48:34 +0100 http://chicagowebdesigns.yolasite.com/chicago-web-design/chicago-web-design-make-your-mark-on-the-web <h2><a href="http://webdesign.astonweber.com/2011/07/how-to-backup-your-computer-and-why/" title="Chicago Web Design">Chicago Web Design</a></h2><br> Everyone is online today. Whether they are selling small items or services, your business needs to have an effective website presence. Good solid web design can do more for your business than any other kind of marketing you can do.<br> <br> A good business website is the best way to promote the visibility of your business. In fact, statistics from PC World and other in-print and online magazines tell us that today, people are far more likely to search online than to seek out a business by looking in magazines, in telephone books or any other directories.<br> <br> Everyone, from teenagers to older ages 60-75 is looking for services and products they want online rather than using other methods. Surprising as you may find this, statistics show that the most rapidly growing group of web users today, using websites to buy as well as to sell, are the over 65 age group. This group of people statistically also are unaccustomed to website use. That makes simplicity and ease of use of your website more important than it has ever been.<br> <br> What are the most important elements of your online business presence?<br> Typically the five most important elements of your website will be:<br> <br> *The content<br> *The Advertising<br> *The layout<br> *The Theme<br> *The navigation<br> <br> Of those elements, the one which is most important to get right is your website navigation. The reason why website navigation is thought to be the most important part of the site, is that without good navigation, the rest of the site simply doesn't matter. Give people a confusing website navigational structure, and they will click away in droves.<br> <br> Consider how many times you've arrived at a website and found that the navigation was circuitous and difficult to use. When you're confronted with that sort of handicap on a website, it can become too much bother to find the products or services that you are interested in. In many cases, those who don't offer good website navigation that is clear, succinct, and easy to use will lose customers for that reason alone.<br> <br> When the over 65 age group are browsing your site to find a product or service they are interested in, your website navigation will make or break your sales. While younger people are more accustomed to website use for researching or purchasing services and products, the older demographic are typically less patient when it comes to finding what they want.<br> <br> This means that when you create your website, your first consideration should be on laying out the content in a way that makes sense to the consumer where everything can be easily found. In short, your website navigation should be laid out in such a way that anything they are interested in will be at their fingertips.<br> <br> Literally, your website navigation should make it possible for your site customers to find precisely what they want at a click of the mouse button. Take an objective look at what your site is offering and how easily it is found. Or better still, ask friends or acquaintances to have an objective look at your site, specifically at the website navigation. If you believe there is room for improvement, perhaps it is time to update your site with a new website design.<br> <br> <h1><a href="http://webdesign.astonweber.com/2011/07/how-to-hide-files-and-folders-from-google/" title="Web Design">Web Design</a></h1><br> The needs of businesses have changed from a simple website to a large and complex website which would generate a good return on investment. While designing an effective and professional web design, you should keep the target audience in mind. The website should be customer oriented and directed towards the target audience. There are some of the features of quality website design; one of them are to check the downloading speed and making sure that the images are chosen carefully. High quality, but low size images are best suited for the website to load faster. The use of high graphic images can make the website loading slow which affects the website's conversion ratio.<br> <br> The next is to look for the website's resolution, as the website should be compatible in all the resolutions and monitor sizes. After that you need to check the browser capability, as there are numbers of browsers which are used for surfing like internet explorer, Firefox, chrome, opera, Netscape, etc. It is necessary that the website should be compatible for all the browsers; you cannot compromise in the quality of the website in any of the browser. Once you are done with designing the website, you need to submit the website on top search engines like Google, yahoo, msn etc. It is considered that high ranking on the search engine results in immense business opportunities to your website and huge return on investment. For submitting the website, you need to follow various steps for optimizing your website design for major search engines.<br> <br> E-commerce website has emerged as a payment mode like PayPal and other credit card payment options. Mostly large business people incorporate payment gateway functionality in their website where they are able to sell their products and generate sales for the business. To fulfill the objectives of the businesses, a standard website package is ideal for small business. To design an affordable website, gives a long lasting impression in the online market. Also, the content matters a lot in driving the interest of the visitors. It has to be precise and should not be filled with huge text and information; otherwise you would lose the interest of the readers. The content of the web design will fail to convince the visitors if it's not clear-cut and of high quality, it will ruin the whole effort and image of the company. The content has to be impressive, but in a compressed form to highlight the benefits of your products. Addition of the captivating lines in the content strengthens the value of the website design.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Read more about Aston Weber Group: <br><br> <a href="http://chicagowebdesigns.blog.com/" title="Web Design">Web Design</a>, <a href="http://chicagowebdesigns.wordpress.com/" title="Chicago Web Design">Chicago Web Design</a>, <a href="http://chicago-webdesign.blogspot.com/" title="Web Design">Web Design</a>, <a href="http://chicagowebde.livejournal.com/" title="Chicago Web Design">Chicago Web Design</a><br> Fri, 27 Jan 2012 08:41:52 +0100 http://chicagowebdesigns.yolasite.com/chicago-web-design/chicago-web-design-top-web-presence <h2><a href="http://webdesign.astonweber.com/2011/07/how-to-hide-files-and-folders-from-google/" title="Chicago Web Design">Chicago Web Design</a></h2><br> The main idea behind the concept of separating the content from its presentation is to allow website developers a useful framework to develop their website giving them the ability to change the website’s appearance whenever they like without needing to redo the content structure. This article will explain the rationale behind separating content from presentation.<br> <br> Don’t get me wrong, there isn’t just one method for implementing this concept. More than that, since the introduction of technologies such as CGI, ASP, and PHP that allow web developers to generate dynamic web pages, a lot of companies have found creative ways to develop their website applications using this concept as their foundation.<br> <br> Over the past few years, the internet community has been trying to create a set of standards for creating web sites. A new technology called CSS or Cascading Style Sheets has been introduced. There is nothing actually new in the way CSS handles a web page’s presentation. CSS allows the developer to define a style for each html tag element. This is similar to the method developers (programmers) used in the old days when they attached a variable to each html tag defining its style. The major difference is that CSS style definitions can be interpreted by most of the existing browsers available while in the older method the dynamic web page engine performs the interpretation.<br> <br> The internet standards organization W3C has encouraged the use of CSS by enhancing its ability to control the web page’s look and feel. New style options have been added to the CSS specifications that have not been added to the HTML description language. There’s no doubt that this was a smart move. It’s forced web developers to use CSS to achieve an attractive web page that also supports the principle of content separation. Unfortunately CSS did not find its way into the internet mainstream easily because of compatibility issues with most web browsers. These days CSS is widely supported by most of the major web browsers, while CSS2, an enhanced version of CSS still has serious compatibility issues.<br> <br> Obviously, the separation of content from its presentation deals not only with the styling aspects, but also with browser compatibility issues. The styling aspects were the first to be handled by web developers and web designers. As the complexity of information technology (IT) systems become increasingly more difficult to maintain, the internet community is looking for a solution that will become a standard so that content can be easily be managed. One goal for this standard is to define a “language” that IT systems can “talk” with each other and exchange information. Large corporations have historically used many different software platforms in their networks to conduct business. Internet based applications can provide a single platform that can act as an intermediary between all of these different systems and allow communication between them.<br> <br> XML (Extensible Markup Language) has been adopted as a standard to present the content itself. OFX (Open Financial Exchange) is a close relative of XML that has been widely used by financial institutions who have been using Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) systems to transmit orders and invoices over private networks, intranets and the internet for several years.<br> <br> The need to present the content in a standard way that separates it from any design elements was so urgent that for the first time in software development history all the three major players (SUN, IBM, and Microsoft) actually agreed with each other and XML become a standard almost overnight and was adopted by many content providers and news agencies.<br> <br> <h1><a href="http://www.astonweber.com/Custom-Web-Design/3/1068" title="Web Design">Web Design</a></h1><br> For a year or two web professionals raved about social media and how it would change the face of online advertising. It became an essential element for every website design. Now the hype has died down it is time to assess whether it is worth all the effort when you're designing your website.<br> <br> The basics: Social media is a category of practices, technology, tools, and online sites which utilize social relationships, participation and user-generated content. It is focused on using internet technologies to connect with audiences and draw them into an on-gong conversation. About making a more personal connection through your website and the supporting internet media you choose to utilize. If conducted successfully that helps to keep audiences engaged and committed to a company.<br> <br> A very basic social media network may allow a user to search for a company website, follow a link from the website to the company blog, then click on an application which allows them to 'like' the company on their Facebook account, leave a link and a message for their friends, who, in turn, can follow the link back to the company website. Social media creates a network of sites, all directing traffic to your website, where companies can generate content, have a certain level of control over the messages but also actively engage users.<br> <br> Types of social media include social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Hi-5, and Bebo. Twitter, the video sharing site, blog platforms such as WordPress and Blogger and any internet forum is a type of social media. They can all be used with your website to form a relationship and encourage repeat business.<br> <br> Do you need it on your company website? This all depends on what you do.<br> <br> If your company is used by one time customers or customers who are not accessing it then there will not be a great benefit in creating a social media presence. If your company targets young people, say you own a nightclub which caters to a university aged crowd, there would be a huge benefit in creating a social media network for your website.<br> <br> A company which is not technology based, for example a carpet cleaning company or a refrigeration repair company, with one time customers may not need social media. People do not form an attachment to the carpet cleaner nor they expect to need to call the refrigerator repair man more than once so there is no benefit. A website design company without it, the network seems a bit behind the game.<br> <br> Building a social media network to accompany your website can be very time consuming, as is any relationship building activity. It needs regular updates and takes time to generate new content and takes creativity. A company also needs staff with the time and skills to update the network.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Read more about Aston Weber Group: <br><br> <a href="http://miamiwebdesigns.weebly.com/" title="Web Design">Web Design</a>, <a href="http://chicagowebdesigns.weebly.com/" title="Chicago Web Design">Chicago Web Design</a>, <a href="http://www.squidoo.com/miami-websitedesigns" title="Web Design">Web Design</a>, <a href="http://miamiwebdesign.blogspirit.com/" title="Chicago Web Design">Chicago Web Design</a><br> Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:55:18 +0100