Whenever a web designer gets a web design project, he or she will require to take a step back and go through the research process in order to complete the job. The research process is a tedious process, it determines how well, and successful will the result of your web design. Ideas for web design will share with you how to go through that research process smoothly and obtain results.
One fine day, you received a call from some client and he requests you to design a website for his company.
RETREIVING THE DETAILS:
After meeting up with the client, you get a lot of details that will assist you in your design process. This details applies even when you are designing a personal website.
1. Nature of the Company
2. Client Preferences (Example websites?)
3. Target Audiences (kids? Young adults?)
4. Platform (Flash? Html? Php? Asp? )
1. What are you going to design?
2. What style of design are you approaching?
3. Whom you should design for?
4. How will your design work?
DETERMINING THE STYLE:
For a start, you should base on the client’s description of his company, his nature of the company to give a rough gauge on the design style.
Web Hosting business >> High tech web design, sleek and professional design
Example 2:
Dolls and Toys business >> Kiddy, Girly, Colorful, Fun design
COLOR THEMES:
Having a good and suitable color theme on your web design will give users a pleasing experience while surfing through the web site you designed. One of the important techniques is to get a color chart from your local art store or use some color chooser tools to aid in your color selection. Your color theme will affect the mood and feel you want to create.
Colors also have their own meanings. For example, white is clean, blue is cool and corporate, having a white and blue color theme gives you a clean and corporate web design. Orange and yellow are warm and friendly colors, Grey is cool, combining a Orange-Grey theme will give you a friendly and fun mood. Dark colors are also popular among many, because they easily matched other bright colors. Whether your color theme turns out successful depends heavily on the first step “Determining the style” of your website.
PHOTOS & GRAPHICS:
After getting the colors done, its time to think about the graphics and images. Searching in Google for “stock photos” will give you plenty of results on this. Having a mid-range camera should do the trick as images for website are all on low resolution. 3. Creating Graphics Images – A web design will always need custom-made graphics images. You will need some skills in creating the graphics of your needs, or you will feel stuck while designing. Learn about vector graphics tool like Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia Fireworks.
INSPIRATION AND REFERENCES:
Reference sites will give you ideas on usability, color theme, ideas on relevant images, navigation, features and many more guides to work on your web design project. Always consider them as useful references to help you whenever you need inspiration and ideas for your web design.
A. What YOU Should Know Before Getting A Web Site!
Everyday thousands of new businesses make the leap and take their business on line, what about yours?
1. What do I expect my web site to do? There are many types of web sites out there from purely selling products, to purely informational and everything in between. Do you need a one page online resume, portfolio, bio, or online brochure to really get your company’s information in front of the public? No two sites are exactly alike, and because of that, the prices for your web design can fluctuate. This question is one you must ask yourself before you hire a web designer!
2. How much will a web site cost me? What is your budget for your web site? Remember, this is your virtual store front. Honestly, you can find web site design from $35 (if you get this for a quote, and you have any hopes of ending up with a professional site…WALK AWAY!) to $10,000 (good for huge companies that can afford it, but not the best bet for a new business). Realistically, expect to spend from $85-$200 for a one page resume, bio or brochure site and from $300-$1,800 for larger full featured sites, and expect to pay either half or all of it upfront depending on your designer.
Aside from that there are monthly hosting fees that range from $10-$40 per month for a descent sized site. Ask your designer if they offer hosting in addition to designing your site? You will usually get a much better deal, and you already trust them to design your site (I’ll go more into hosting plans and options another time). (example: www.thebestmoms.com) If not, ask your designer if they can get you one? A lot the time, if you are buying a decent sized design job and hosting from them, they will throw in your domain name for free-although, you will have to pay the renewal fee each year which can range from $19-$35 (ask your designer).
3. What’s my web address going to be? People easily forget the hyphens when they remember the address, and you don’t want to be sending business somewhere else. D-using correct spelling; it is fun to play with the spelling of a word, but take in to consideration your audience’s ability to remember the way YOU spelled it as opposed to their natural urge to spell it correctly. It’s your job to get them to your site, not their job to find you, so make it easy. I suggest .com, or .net for selling (ecommerce) sites, but it’s up to you!
4. How long will it take to design my site? If you take longer to get your information (or your words for each page and pictures) it will of course take longer for your site to be up and running. Also, the more complicated your site, the longer it can take-though I’ve not seen a site construction take longer than 8 weeks. Make lists, and write out your ‘blurbs’ (text) for each page. If your designer does not offer writing as a service (ask), you can hire a creative writer online and sometimes you can even barter (trade your products for their services) with creative writers looking to build their portfolio. A lot of work goes into web site design, and so what seems like a minor change in the design plans to you may actually be a major change in the overall design, and some designers will charge you for this because your initial quote is based on their expected design hours. Like any other store, you have to market your site.
One great tool is search engines. Now, how do you get listed on search engines? You want to give your designer a two sentence description for each category or page, and a list of 20 words you think some one would use to find your site for each category. I suggest you ask your designer if they submit your site to search engines automatically or if there is a small fee for this? Simply submitting will not guarantee you top spot on the search engines; especially if you are in an already crowded field-even if you pay the $300 fees some search engines charge.
You can also market your site by putting the web site address on everything-return address labels, business cards, t-shirts, your car, your email signature; put it in your signature on message boards, etc. Most designers have policies about updates, from a monthly update fee only for the months you require updates, to an hourly fee per update. After answering these questions, you are ready to talk to your designer about the fun stuff-the design.
B. Are You Being Scammed By Your Web Design Company?
Does your web design company own you? This may be possible if you've allowed them to host your web site for you and also register your domain name for your company. Web design companies have a lot of control over their clients. This power is usually exercised when a client of a web design company finds a better deal on hosting for their web site and they simply want to switch their hosting provider, or when the "client" wants to upgrade their web site for a better rate than their current web development provider is offering.
- Current web design company sends their client a hefty bill for switching
- The web design company cancels their client’s account
- They may point the domain name to another place
Too much power is given to the web design company. I truly believe there should be a law against web design companies that can be summarized as such: For any domain name registered by the web design company on behalf of their client, the domain name may not be disputed or need to be disputed, the domain name is automatically owned by the client and is automatically bound by their web development contract.
If you are reading this and are in the process of searching for a web design company, please ENSURE that you have a contract drafted, outlining everything you are entitled to and that you have sole rights to your domain name.
See what most business owners fail to realize is that their domain name is as important as registering their business name itself. The same applies for your domain name. It is as important as owning your own company name. How to avoid this "Power Stricken" disaster:
The best solution is to go out and register your domain name BEFORE you hire a web design company. This ultimately gives you the power over your domain name. At any given time, you can go back and log into your "domain name registrant" in order to switch your web site to any hosting company you choose.
95% of all web design projects don't need a large hosting package that costs between $150-$500 a year. You only need a large hosting package if:
- Your web site is 1000+ pages in size
Ask questions when shopping for a web design company! - If you register my domain name, will it state in my contract that I own the domain name under all circumstances?
The FTP allows you to hire another web design company to go in and update your website at any time. Without the FTP information, no one can update your website besides the original web development company or hosting company that you hired.
In Conclusion:
Be weary of web design companies that don't provide contracts for all of their projects. Be careful with your domain name; make sure that in the end, you own all rights to your domain name, not someone else.
One fine day, you received a call from some client and he requests you to design a website for his company.
RETREIVING THE DETAILS:
After meeting up with the client, you get a lot of details that will assist you in your design process. This details applies even when you are designing a personal website.
1. Nature of the Company
2. Client Preferences (Example websites?)
3. Target Audiences (kids? Young adults?)
4. Platform (Flash? Html? Php? Asp? )
1. What are you going to design?
2. What style of design are you approaching?
3. Whom you should design for?
4. How will your design work?
DETERMINING THE STYLE:
For a start, you should base on the client’s description of his company, his nature of the company to give a rough gauge on the design style.
Web Hosting business >> High tech web design, sleek and professional design
Example 2:
Dolls and Toys business >> Kiddy, Girly, Colorful, Fun design
COLOR THEMES:
Having a good and suitable color theme on your web design will give users a pleasing experience while surfing through the web site you designed. One of the important techniques is to get a color chart from your local art store or use some color chooser tools to aid in your color selection. Your color theme will affect the mood and feel you want to create.
Colors also have their own meanings. For example, white is clean, blue is cool and corporate, having a white and blue color theme gives you a clean and corporate web design. Orange and yellow are warm and friendly colors, Grey is cool, combining a Orange-Grey theme will give you a friendly and fun mood. Dark colors are also popular among many, because they easily matched other bright colors. Whether your color theme turns out successful depends heavily on the first step “Determining the style” of your website.
PHOTOS & GRAPHICS:
After getting the colors done, its time to think about the graphics and images. Searching in Google for “stock photos” will give you plenty of results on this. Having a mid-range camera should do the trick as images for website are all on low resolution. 3. Creating Graphics Images – A web design will always need custom-made graphics images. You will need some skills in creating the graphics of your needs, or you will feel stuck while designing. Learn about vector graphics tool like Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia Fireworks.
INSPIRATION AND REFERENCES:
Reference sites will give you ideas on usability, color theme, ideas on relevant images, navigation, features and many more guides to work on your web design project. Always consider them as useful references to help you whenever you need inspiration and ideas for your web design.
A. What YOU Should Know Before Getting A Web Site!
Everyday thousands of new businesses make the leap and take their business on line, what about yours?
1. What do I expect my web site to do? There are many types of web sites out there from purely selling products, to purely informational and everything in between. Do you need a one page online resume, portfolio, bio, or online brochure to really get your company’s information in front of the public? No two sites are exactly alike, and because of that, the prices for your web design can fluctuate. This question is one you must ask yourself before you hire a web designer!
2. How much will a web site cost me? What is your budget for your web site? Remember, this is your virtual store front. Honestly, you can find web site design from $35 (if you get this for a quote, and you have any hopes of ending up with a professional site…WALK AWAY!) to $10,000 (good for huge companies that can afford it, but not the best bet for a new business). Realistically, expect to spend from $85-$200 for a one page resume, bio or brochure site and from $300-$1,800 for larger full featured sites, and expect to pay either half or all of it upfront depending on your designer.
Aside from that there are monthly hosting fees that range from $10-$40 per month for a descent sized site. Ask your designer if they offer hosting in addition to designing your site? You will usually get a much better deal, and you already trust them to design your site (I’ll go more into hosting plans and options another time). (example: www.thebestmoms.com) If not, ask your designer if they can get you one? A lot the time, if you are buying a decent sized design job and hosting from them, they will throw in your domain name for free-although, you will have to pay the renewal fee each year which can range from $19-$35 (ask your designer).
3. What’s my web address going to be? People easily forget the hyphens when they remember the address, and you don’t want to be sending business somewhere else. D-using correct spelling; it is fun to play with the spelling of a word, but take in to consideration your audience’s ability to remember the way YOU spelled it as opposed to their natural urge to spell it correctly. It’s your job to get them to your site, not their job to find you, so make it easy. I suggest .com, or .net for selling (ecommerce) sites, but it’s up to you!
4. How long will it take to design my site? If you take longer to get your information (or your words for each page and pictures) it will of course take longer for your site to be up and running. Also, the more complicated your site, the longer it can take-though I’ve not seen a site construction take longer than 8 weeks. Make lists, and write out your ‘blurbs’ (text) for each page. If your designer does not offer writing as a service (ask), you can hire a creative writer online and sometimes you can even barter (trade your products for their services) with creative writers looking to build their portfolio. A lot of work goes into web site design, and so what seems like a minor change in the design plans to you may actually be a major change in the overall design, and some designers will charge you for this because your initial quote is based on their expected design hours. Like any other store, you have to market your site.
One great tool is search engines. Now, how do you get listed on search engines? You want to give your designer a two sentence description for each category or page, and a list of 20 words you think some one would use to find your site for each category. I suggest you ask your designer if they submit your site to search engines automatically or if there is a small fee for this? Simply submitting will not guarantee you top spot on the search engines; especially if you are in an already crowded field-even if you pay the $300 fees some search engines charge.
You can also market your site by putting the web site address on everything-return address labels, business cards, t-shirts, your car, your email signature; put it in your signature on message boards, etc. Most designers have policies about updates, from a monthly update fee only for the months you require updates, to an hourly fee per update. After answering these questions, you are ready to talk to your designer about the fun stuff-the design.
B. Are You Being Scammed By Your Web Design Company?
Does your web design company own you? This may be possible if you've allowed them to host your web site for you and also register your domain name for your company. Web design companies have a lot of control over their clients. This power is usually exercised when a client of a web design company finds a better deal on hosting for their web site and they simply want to switch their hosting provider, or when the "client" wants to upgrade their web site for a better rate than their current web development provider is offering.
- Current web design company sends their client a hefty bill for switching
- The web design company cancels their client’s account
- They may point the domain name to another place
Too much power is given to the web design company. I truly believe there should be a law against web design companies that can be summarized as such: For any domain name registered by the web design company on behalf of their client, the domain name may not be disputed or need to be disputed, the domain name is automatically owned by the client and is automatically bound by their web development contract.
If you are reading this and are in the process of searching for a web design company, please ENSURE that you have a contract drafted, outlining everything you are entitled to and that you have sole rights to your domain name.
See what most business owners fail to realize is that their domain name is as important as registering their business name itself. The same applies for your domain name. It is as important as owning your own company name. How to avoid this "Power Stricken" disaster:
The best solution is to go out and register your domain name BEFORE you hire a web design company. This ultimately gives you the power over your domain name. At any given time, you can go back and log into your "domain name registrant" in order to switch your web site to any hosting company you choose.
95% of all web design projects don't need a large hosting package that costs between $150-$500 a year. You only need a large hosting package if:
- Your web site is 1000+ pages in size
Ask questions when shopping for a web design company! - If you register my domain name, will it state in my contract that I own the domain name under all circumstances?
The FTP allows you to hire another web design company to go in and update your website at any time. Without the FTP information, no one can update your website besides the original web development company or hosting company that you hired.
In Conclusion:
Be weary of web design companies that don't provide contracts for all of their projects. Be careful with your domain name; make sure that in the end, you own all rights to your domain name, not someone else.
very informative post.All tips and ideas will help in building a better website.Thanks for takeing the time. keep it up.
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