Important Design Considerations for Your Business Site

Posted on November 1st, 2009 in Uncategorized by iptools  Tagged , , , ,

In business, even the smallest details can make a big difference. Your company’s website design is your presentation of your enterprise to the world. Here are five urgent guidelines to check to assure that your business website will perform in the way that it should.

1) Avoid splash pages

Splash pages are the first pages you see when you arrive at a website. They normally have a very beautiful image with words like “welcome” or “click here to enter”. In fact, they are just that — pretty vases with no real purpose. Do not let your visitors have a reason to click on the “back” button! Give them the value of your site up front without the splash page.

2) Do not use excessive banner advertisements

Eye tracking studies indicate that, while such banners might distract visitors to a website, modern visitors are accomplished at not noticing the content that the banners contain. Unless your business plan is advertising, the last thing you want to do with your visitors’ time on your site is to direct their attention away from your content (and the action that the content is designed to achieve).

3) Make sure your site navigation is intuitive

Your navigation menu should mimic what your site visitors have used many times before. Make it evident that your links to other pages are just that; they should be like directional sign posts on a highway. If you insist upon an animated, dynamic menu or a multi-level dropdown, also provide a tradition, text-based static menu in one of the traditional menu locations, such as along the left panel of the site. Besides, the static menu will contribute toward your search engine optimization efforts.

4) Let your visitors see where they are on the site

If your site is well designed, users will easily flow from one page to another. However, along the way, they may feel like returning to a previously visited page to read it more carefully, to remind themselves of details or to compare one set of features to another. Provide a way for them to retrace their steps or to know how to get from “point g” back to “point c.” Using a breadcrumb trail serves this purpose very nicely.

5) Avoid using audio on your site

If you are determined to have sound automatically load, be sure that it a) makes a genuine contribution toward meeting your objectives, b) allows the site’s visitors to control and volume levels and c) is not on a page on which all of their attention needs to be focused upon reading the exquisite copy. If your audio does not meet all of these criteria, err on the side of caution and disable it.

Your http://www.99sites.us/>web business will benefit from attention to details such as these.

Get flashy with The Many Applications Of Flash Website Design

Posted on August 22nd, 2009 in Uncategorized by iptools  Tagged , , , , ,

If you have ever viewed a website where you could listen to some type of music or watch a video then you have undoubtedly visited a site that utilizes a popular form of multimedia interaction known as flash. These types of sites are growing more and more popular. Website builders and creators are starting to realize that a more interactive undertone must be used in order to keep website traffic up. However, interactive sites are not the sole websites benefiting from this type of design.

While it was somewhat problematic in the beginning due to broadcast regulations, radio stations have now begun to break free of the legal entanglements and are now permitted to stream their broadcast over the Internet at their station’s website. In almost all of these applications a flash plug in is necessary to hear the streaming audio.

The flash website design found its way onto television websites as well. These have created a real boom for the networks. Not only can they make many of their television programs available for viewing online, but they also add what is known as a bumper commercial to the show. This bumper commercial is separate from the television broadcast and helps to not only cover the expense of posting shows for viewing online but it also helps the network to earn a profit as well.

Online movie rental companies have also benefited from aspects of website design using flash. One particular company’s website allows members to watch a selected group of movies for free. This feature has been the deciding factor in many people selecting this online movie rental company instead of the others.

In retrospect, it is very hard to imagine a website that could not benefit from a flash design. No longer is interactive audio and video solely for the MySpace and YouTube’s of the world. The simple fact is that it really does not mater what type of website it is, the benefits of flash can make any site more compelling and capable of generating increased traffic. As long as traffic remains the driving force of any website, then it is a beneficial thing indeed. If your business relies on the internet, you may want to think about contracting a website design company and get onboard with flash applications.

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