I have collated some articles about website design, web development and other things relating to the industry aimed mainly at people hoping to start out in the industry and also people who are looking for their website designer with whom to start a web project.
With many years of designing, building and advising on websites for a large variety of businesses and organisations under my belt, I’ve made some alarming observations about the misguided understanding of what a website is, held by many, that can have a detrimental effect on the success of a web project and ultimately the satisfaction of your client.
Posted in Business, Web Advice, Web Design
Read the restWhat will improve business for our client?" may seem like a normal question to ask but you would be surprised. A vast majority of the web development world tends to favor a "Features-oriented" business model; in other words, they try to sell you as many nifty gadgets and widgets as they possibly can. And sometimes you need nifty gadgets and widgets. But if you fail to ask that crucial question, then it is all gloss
Posted in Business, Web Advice, Web Design, Web Strategy
Read the restSo in order to determine if our websites are effective we have to be able to measure stuff. Fortunately we have access to all the tools we need to do this. Analytics software is available in many guises, both free and paid for depending on your requirements. (a quick search on 'analytics', 'metrics' or 'usablitiy software' should put you on the right track, with options like google analytics, clicktale, crazyegg, clicky, mint and piwik all getting a nod from this author)
Posted in Web Advice, Web Design, Web Strategy
Read the restWe all face challenging times ahead. The industry continues to surge ahead with new innovations, more competition and changing customer expectations. On the whole customers are becoming more educated about what is available and I for one welcome this. Increasingly opportunities arise for experienced, professional hybrid designer/developers to position themselves as online solution providers. I believe that this is the direction all web design businesses must take in order to remain sustainable in 2010. I want to talk briefly about how to go about this.
Posted in Business, Web Advice, Web Design
Read the restWhen I build websites, I must always decide whether or not to implement a Content Management System (CMS). There are advantages and disadvantage, both for you the client and for me your website designer or web developer, so I want to adopt the role of educator if I may and identify some of these issues. A CMS (specifically a web CMS), for those who don’t know, is a system to simplify the publication of web content to web sites, in particular allowing content creators to submit content without requiring technical knowledge of HTML or the uploading of files.
Posted in CMS, Web Advice
Read the restIf you’re thinking about starting an eCommerce site, one of the first questions you’ll probably want to ask me is “how much will it cost?”. Any honest web designer/developer will find it difficult to answer that question until they know your objectives and how much functionality your eCommerce site needs to have.
Posted in eCommerce
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