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Why
do you need a Web design consultant? After all, can't you just buy some
software for a couple hundred dollars, use one of its templates, and do
it yourself...or have someone on your staff who knows something about
graphics or computers do it for you?
Sure
you can...and it'll look like it, and function like it.
Consider
your business or organization. Could anyone buy an off-the-shelf
software package and set up business overnight doing what you're doing,
as effectively as you're doing it? Of course not, because there's a lot
more to doing your business than just the outward appearances.
Well,
it's the same with Web development. Creating a Web page is only the tip
of the iceberg.
There's
a story of a computer technician who was called to a business late at
night, because their whole system was down. It was costing them many
dollars a minute, so the heat was on. The technician looked over the
situation, opened a panel, turned one screw, and the system began
operating properly.
The
next day the business owner got a bill for $300. He heatedly called the
technician complaining about the bill. "After all," he said.
"You were only here for five minutes!"
The
technician was firm, so the business owner demanded an itemized bill.
The next day it came: "$1 for turning the screw. $299 for know
which screw to turn."
Here
are just a few of the screws a Web site designer/developer needs to know how and when to turn:
- Content
Content is
King. Content is why people come to the Web. With the exception of
browsers looking for entertainment products or services,
they're generally not interested in whirling widgets, mini-movies, or
hearing the 1812
Overture. They want information, written as clearly and concisely as
possible.
Our name, Content and Design, speaks for itself. Content is our
specialty. The words set the tone and make the sale. Design flows
from the copy concept, not the other way around. Writing and editing
sales-oriented copy has been our award-winning specialty for two decades,
and when writing for the Web, editing may be the more important
skill.
Research shows that people read 25% slower on a computer monitor,
and their eyes fatigue twice as fast as when reading print. So we
write tight copy. It also helps to keep lines short, no more than about 500 pixels wide.
These and many other Web content considerations aren't dealt
with by those out-of-the-box software packages. But they are dealt
with when earning the Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW) Master
Designer certification. And we apply them all to your Web project.- Download
Speed
At what
speed are your primary prospects and customers accessing the Web? If
you're a business-to-business (B2B) operation, you may be able to
assume most of your site visitors will be running 56k modems or
What difference does that make? It makes an incredible difference in
how fast or slowly your pages load across the Web into your site
visitor's browser. To appear continuous, you want pages that
download in 1 (that's right...one) second. To hold a visitor's
unbroken attention, your pages must load in about 10 seconds.
After that, their mind begins to wander. And it may wander to
another site.
Creating an effective page that can download in anything like 10
seconds takes a solid understanding of graphic content and compression, efficient HTML coding,
image caching, and more.
- Monitors
Some
monitors can display an image 1,024 or more pixels wide, with more
than 16 million colors. Other monitors can display images no larger
than 640 pixels wide, with no more than 256 colors. Understanding your target market's dominant monitor
capabilities is essential to designing Web pages that will work for
them.
If you design a page wider than 640 (actually more like 600), and
your predominant site visitors have 640 x 480 monitors, you'll be
forcing them to scroll horizontally to view your page. This is the
kiss of death. Most visitors will bail out as soon as they see the
horizontal scroll bar.
- Search Engines
A
significant percentage of your site
visitors can come
It used to be that all you had to do was add your product's or service's
key descriptive words into what are called "meta tags,"
and the search engines would find you and list your site in the results of searches based on those words. It's not
nearly so easy any more.
Some of the search engines (an increasing number) require payment to be
seriously considered for listing in their index. Others use
what are called "spiders" or "robots," programs
that automatically crawl around the Web finding and indexing new
pages.
Instead of just meta tags, each of these robot programs now look at different aspects of your
page, and score various content sections differently. Some consider
your page's title, some ignore it. Some check the keywords and
description in the meta tags, some ignore them. Some look at your
page's body content, some don't.
In other words, you may have to devise specific page content to address the requirements of
each of the major search engines, in order to score high enough to
be found by people searching on words or phrases important to your
site.
- Information
Architecture/Navigation
These two
considerations are addressed together, because they're
interconnected.
When you attract a visitor to your site, they want information -
but you want them to take some desired action. To provide them
information, while moving them toward that desired action requires
crisp copywriting and intuitive navigation.
Wherever your visitor happens to be on your site, their next step must be
obvious and convenient. Navigation bars and in-copy links must be
positioned precisely where the visitor is likely to reach the
emotional need for that next step in the process.
Mixing your site's content with strategically positioned links is information
architecture, and it's really a copywriting skill. It comes with
years of knowing what the words are doing to the reader, and when
they're likely to take action.
It's based on the marketing acronym AIDA, which stands for
Awareness, Interest, Desire, and Action. These are the steps any
prospect goes through, from first becoming aware of your offering,
to taking the action of buying it. Even if it's a free offer, they
still go through variations of these stages.
And the skill to effectively move them through these stages does not
come in a software box.
- Hosting
Hosting
means, where
That decision must be based on many factors, such as your technical
staff's capabilities, the traffic load you expect your
site to experience, your computer budget, your
local phone company's capabilities, and more. Essentially it's a Return on
Investment issue.
It costs thousands of dollars, plus staffing costs, to host your own
site. There are times and situations where it is the best option,
but an analysis should be done to be sure it's the right choice for
your business at this time in its growth cycle.
Even if the choice is to use an outside hosting service, all such
service providers are not created equal. So an analysis of your
needs versus their capabilities should be undertaken to find the
best match.
- Technologies
-
- HTML
- DHTML
- XML
- WML
- ASP
- Cascading
Style Sheets (CSS)
- FrontPage
Extensions
- Javascript
- Java Applets
- Flash
- Shockwave
- Database
Connectivity
- Plug-ins
- Server-side
Includes
- Secure
Sockets Layer encryption
- Payment
gateways
- Storefronts
-
This
list could continue out the bottom of your browser. These are just some
of the major players in the World Wide Web technology lexicon. And, once
again, an understanding of how these technologies interact, affect download
speed, and respond to viewer system capabilities...doesn't come in an
off-the-shelf software box.
-
For
instance, we did not use many of these technologies in this site, either
because they were not necessary for the site's purpose, or because of
inconsistencies in how many older browsers or different brand browsers
interpret them.
-
At
Content and Design, your Web development project will be in the hands of
design professionals, who will balance technology capabilities with the
purpose of your site. You have a desired action you want a
visitor to your Web site to take. Only technologies required to support and encourage
that action will be used.
-
Our
purpose is to help you achieve your purpose.
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