Website Design Part 1

Dipali · 07-20-2008, 04:09 AM

Hello Everybody

In a previous thread I mentioned that I will share a few things about Site building techniques with you, this should help the people who have a personal
webpage or site. I never went to a college or special school to learn about
web development, All I did was play around with my site which I created 4 years ago and learned everything by trial and error. As I mentioned I am going to write here everything i can from my personal experience.

The design concept -
For many webmasters this is the most important thing of all, When you create a site you should have a concept or idea that you want. Some webmasters / designer go to extra ordinary lengths to prove their creativity. With all the flash things, 3d dimensions , Colours, HD Pictures etc etc.

Now how important is the design for your website ?

In my opinion not very important as long as you keep your site user friendly, You dont need a gimmick to bring visitors to your site, But you need a concept for your site, What sort of visitors you are looking for, and what is your aim to provide them with. I noticed some of the highest visited web sites are actually very simple and plain. its all about the right mix of information and presenting them on the screen in a simple layout.
The following article will explain about simplicity

"Read here"

And to give you an example of how a simple website can
still be attractive and informative some pictures are attached.

Next I will discuss about the SEO and 404 pages.

Reen.Blom · 07-20-2008, 07:47 AM

he he he

Being an art and desing freak.... I would allow myself to put in my 5cent....

I agree as for use of heavy flashy features, that can slow down the loading time and often distract or confuse the visitor, and prevent good navigation.

HOWEVER, (provided good navigation and accesebility) I believe that a site (especially a DANCERS site) must be visually appealing!

Tastefully matching colour, well prepared pictures(Photoshop can do magic :-) ), harmonius layout. After all it could be that its the 1st thing of your potential client will see. And as we know most users spend 5 seconds viewing the site, so the task of appealing design and relevant information is to keep visitor longer, to get him inerested.... and for me (again I am a design freak) poorly presented site makes me wonder why people bothered to make one at all (I am not talking of search engines here like Google, or purely informatives sites( although I do prefer long articles to have illustrations!) I am talking of the sites that say present the dancer, have photo and video gallery and contact info.)

I would think of Salome's store as an example of simple, functional yet visually appealing layout.

Thanks Dipali for starting this topic, it is lots of fun, and I am eagerly expecting the next part of it as I am sure I can learn a lot form you!!

*hug*

Zorba · 07-20-2008, 04:44 PM

I've been doing web design for many years - and that does NOT make me an expert of any kind. Here's a couple of things that I've picked up along the way:

1) If you insist on using flash - be sure to provide a non flash alternative and make the alternative easy to find and select. I don't have time for your 50 megabyte flash applet to load; regardless of how pretty it is.

2) Auto-play music or sounds are DEATH. If you want to provide auto-play music, go back and read that sentence again. Nothing drives users away from your website faster.

3) Avoid white backgrounds. Yea, yea, I know; I know. Research is finally finding out what old computer dinosaurs like myself have known all along - white is glarey and causes considerable eyestrain.

4) Provide good navigation. It took me a long time to figure this out for the simple fact that I don't navigate the web like most people apparently do. Most folks never use the back arrow, and want to click on a link. I use the back arrow all the time personally - its built into my mouse.

Dipali · 07-21-2008, 02:27 AM

Quote:

I would think of Salome's store as an example of simple, functional yet visually appealing layout.

Dear Reen thats exactly what i mean ,It could be visually attractive but yet simple. Thank you very much for all your input, I have a lot to learn from you too. Please share your knowledge.

Dear Zorba, I agree with most of the points you have made,but not with the white space . Its absolutely perfect to use white/off white background as long as you break up the white with other colours. Salomes store is a prime example. Easy , sweet and still atrractive.
Regards

Dipali · 07-21-2008, 02:39 AM

SEO or Search Engines Optimizations.

This is a very important aspect of any web developing project. Seo is the process to make your website search engine friendly also generating traffic from specific keywords and phrases. Now for me this is more important than the website design itself, Because it doesn't matter how good your site looks, if the site doesn't comply with search engines algorithms, it will be never rank higher in searches like Google , Ask and Yahoo.

So how we improve a sites ranking in search engines. Ok there are a few topics I Would like to include which are important in my opinion.

Please note every site has a distinctive taste and its followers. So do only what suits your site.

Keywords - Keywords are like code in terms of searches.

Example - I am looking for Male Belly Dancer, So I go to search engines and type Belly dancer male or male belly dancers or male Belly Dance. Now when the search engines get a request it will look for the most relevant site that is available on the net and position them in a result format.

Now how did you decide which keywords are relavant to your Website content? Because these keywords are vital to ensuring that people find
you when searching the Web for relevant terms or phrases.

Personally I use a few tools which generate keywords and they are free ! My favourite one is
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

After you have made a list of Keywords that you think are relevant to your site , you have to place them in the content, Please do not over use
keywords or put them densely because searches like Google and Ask
could penalize your site for keywords stuffing.

Density - Keywords density depends on how many times you use particular words with other content.

Example - Suppose Belly Dance is the Keywords, Now just that word in your site density would be 100 percent. But if you add "lets celebrate World Belly Dance day all over the Globe " then the density will be 11- 12 percent. The best density of Keywords are between 12 and 20 percent.

Frequency - Keywords frequency means how many times keywords are
appearing in your content. the More the frequency of keywords ,the more
relevant it become in Searches. Many Webmasters try to use Keywords
frequency by stuffing keywords also hidden text , text which is hardly visible etc etc. In my personal opinion do not do that .That's called keywords spamming, And yes Google could punish you for that by bringing your page rank down. Instead use keywords frequency in different pages in your site.

Proximity - I don't know how to explain this bit. In my words it's the
distance between two keywords or phrases. Seo experts usually think
this is very very important, I am not so sure . Please use the following tool to measure proximity of Keywords and phrases used in your site.

Keyword Proximity Analyzer v1.03.

Tips - " The best approach to keyword research is to select keywords
with high efficiency i.e. selecting keywords that are popular yet less competitive "

Next I will discuss Meta tags , Title tag , Alt tags , body text , links and Directory listing (Dmoz etc)

Please note - I am not a professional expert of SEO , and all the suggestions I make could differ from others. Please seek professional help.

Zorba · 07-21-2008, 03:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dipali

Dear Zorba, I agree with most of the points you have made,but not with the white space . Its absolutely perfect to use white/off white background as long as you break up the white with other colours. Salomes store is a prime example. Easy , sweet and still attractive.
Regards

Attractive? Perhaps. Easy on the eyes - NO.

I'm a fanatic about it - white backgrounds are hard on the eyes. New research is *finally* confirming this. The advent of LCD computer monitors has helped the situation a lot - back in the bad old CRT days, white backgrounds on webpages and application programs would quite literally give me a pounding headache after about 30 minutes (which is the *why* I harp on this subject). LCD monitors are MUCH better - but I still experience eyestrain with white (such as the white in this edit window).

jenc · 07-22-2008, 06:34 AM

very old fashioned computers used white type on blue to avoid eyestrain

Ankebuzz · 07-22-2008, 08:14 AM

Yay! thanks for starting this thread!

maylynn · 07-22-2008, 10:34 AM

A handy website design tip that I learnt while designing my own website:
If you're going to post your email address in contact info, post it as an image so that spambots (or whatever you want to call the applications that trawl the web for any ___@___.___ format text to send vast amounts of spam to) don't recognize it. Saves a lot of hassle.

Dipali · 07-22-2008, 03:40 PM

Thank you ladies and gentlemen , Its nice to share tips and tricks.

Regards to all.

Zorba I never really thought about the eyestrain bit. Thanks.

07-20-2008, 04:09 AM	#1 (permalink)
Dipali Moderator Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Sunshine coast,Australia Posts: 765	Website Design Part 1 Hello Everybody In a previous thread I mentioned that I will share a few things about Site building techniques with you, this should help the people who have a personal webpage or site. I never went to a college or special school to learn about web development, All I did was play around with my site which I created 4 years ago and learned everything by trial and error. As I mentioned I am going to write here everything i can from my personal experience. The design concept - For many webmasters this is the most important thing of all, When you create a site you should have a concept or idea that you want. Some webmasters / designer go to extra ordinary lengths to prove their creativity. With all the flash things, 3d dimensions , Colours, HD Pictures etc etc. Now how important is the design for your website ? In my opinion not very important as long as you keep your site user friendly, You dont need a gimmick to bring visitors to your site, But you need a concept for your site, What sort of visitors you are looking for, and what is your aim to provide them with. I noticed some of the highest visited web sites are actually very simple and plain. its all about the right mix of information and presenting them on the screen in a simple layout. The following article will explain about simplicity "Read here" And to give you an example of how a simple website can still be attractive and informative some pictures are attached. Next I will discuss about the SEO and 404 pages. __________________ Australian Belly dance store - Belly Dance Costumes, Bollywood & Tribal outfits.

07-20-2008, 07:47 AM	#2 (permalink)
Reen.Blom V.I.P. Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: SA now UK(Newmarket) Posts: 2,258	he he he Being an art and desing freak.... I would allow myself to put in my 5cent.... I agree as for use of heavy flashy features, that can slow down the loading time and often distract or confuse the visitor, and prevent good navigation. HOWEVER, (provided good navigation and accesebility) I believe that a site (especially a DANCERS site) must be visually appealing! Tastefully matching colour, well prepared pictures(Photoshop can do magic :-) ), harmonius layout. After all it could be that its the 1st thing of your potential client will see. And as we know most users spend 5 seconds viewing the site, so the task of appealing design and relevant information is to keep visitor longer, to get him inerested.... and for me (again I am a design freak) poorly presented site makes me wonder why people bothered to make one at all (I am not talking of search engines here like Google, or purely informatives sites( although I do prefer long articles to have illustrations!) I am talking of the sites that say present the dancer, have photo and video gallery and contact info.) I would think of Salome's store as an example of simple, functional yet visually appealing layout. Thanks Dipali for starting this topic, it is lots of fun, and I am eagerly expecting the next part of it as I am sure I can learn a lot form you!! hug __________________ Join WORLD BELLY DANCE DAY! www.worldbellydanceday.com Last edited by Reen.Blom; 07-20-2008 at 07:51 AM.

07-20-2008, 04:44 PM	#3 (permalink)
Zorba Moderator Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 742	I've been doing web design for many years - and that does NOT make me an expert of any kind. Here's a couple of things that I've picked up along the way: 1) If you insist on using flash - be sure to provide a non flash alternative and make the alternative easy to find and select. I don't have time for your 50 megabyte flash applet to load; regardless of how pretty it is. 2) Auto-play music or sounds are DEATH. If you want to provide auto-play music, go back and read that sentence again. Nothing drives users away from your website faster. 3) Avoid white backgrounds. Yea, yea, I know; I know. Research is finally finding out what old computer dinosaurs like myself have known all along - white is glarey and causes considerable eyestrain. 4) Provide good navigation. It took me a long time to figure this out for the simple fact that I don't navigate the web like most people apparently do. Most folks never use the back arrow, and want to click on a link. I use the back arrow all the time personally - its built into my mouse. __________________ -Zorba "The Veiled Male" http://www.doubleveil.net

07-21-2008, 02:39 AM	#5 (permalink)
Dipali Moderator Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Sunshine coast,Australia Posts: 765	Website Design Part 2- Keywords SEO or Search Engines Optimizations. This is a very important aspect of any web developing project. Seo is the process to make your website search engine friendly also generating traffic from specific keywords and phrases. Now for me this is more important than the website design itself, Because it doesn't matter how good your site looks, if the site doesn't comply with search engines algorithms, it will be never rank higher in searches like Google , Ask and Yahoo. So how we improve a sites ranking in search engines. Ok there are a few topics I Would like to include which are important in my opinion. Please note every site has a distinctive taste and its followers. So do only what suits your site. Keywords - Keywords are like code in terms of searches. Example - I am looking for Male Belly Dancer, So I go to search engines and type Belly dancer male or male belly dancers or male Belly Dance. Now when the search engines get a request it will look for the most relevant site that is available on the net and position them in a result format. Now how did you decide which keywords are relavant to your Website content? Because these keywords are vital to ensuring that people find you when searching the Web for relevant terms or phrases. Personally I use a few tools which generate keywords and they are free ! My favourite one is https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal After you have made a list of Keywords that you think are relevant to your site , you have to place them in the content, Please do not over use keywords or put them densely because searches like Google and Ask could penalize your site for keywords stuffing. Density - Keywords density depends on how many times you use particular words with other content. Example - Suppose Belly Dance is the Keywords, Now just that word in your site density would be 100 percent. But if you add "lets celebrate World Belly Dance day all over the Globe " then the density will be 11- 12 percent. The best density of Keywords are between 12 and 20 percent. Frequency - Keywords frequency means how many times keywords are appearing in your content. the More the frequency of keywords ,the more relevant it become in Searches. Many Webmasters try to use Keywords frequency by stuffing keywords also hidden text , text which is hardly visible etc etc. In my personal opinion do not do that .That's called keywords spamming, And yes Google could punish you for that by bringing your page rank down. Instead use keywords frequency in different pages in your site. Proximity - I don't know how to explain this bit. In my words it's the distance between two keywords or phrases. Seo experts usually think this is very very important, I am not so sure . Please use the following tool to measure proximity of Keywords and phrases used in your site. Keyword Proximity Analyzer v1.03. Tips - " The best approach to keyword research is to select keywords with high efficiency i.e. selecting keywords that are popular yet less competitive " Next I will discuss Meta tags , Title tag , Alt tags , body text , links and Directory listing (Dmoz etc) Please note - I am not a professional expert of SEO , and all the suggestions I make could differ from others. Please seek professional help. __________________ Australian Belly dance store - Belly Dance Costumes, Bollywood & Tribal outfits. Last edited by Dipali; 07-21-2008 at 02:51 AM. Reason: typo

07-22-2008, 08:14 AM	#8 (permalink)
Ankebuzz Junior Member Join Date: May 2008 Location: I live in Johannesburg in South Africa Posts: 41	Yay! thanks for starting this thread! __________________ Ankebuzzzzzzzzzz

07-22-2008, 06:34 AM	#7 (permalink)
jenc Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Colchester UK Posts: 727	very old fashioned computers used white type on blue to avoid eyestrain

07-22-2008, 10:34 AM	#9 (permalink)
maylynn Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: London Posts: 155	A handy website design tip that I learnt while designing my own website: If you're going to post your email address in contact info, post it as an image so that spambots (or whatever you want to call the applications that trawl the web for any ___@___.___ format text to send vast amounts of spam to) don't recognize it. Saves a lot of hassle. __________________ http://www.urbanamazon.co.uk

07-22-2008, 03:40 PM	#10 (permalink)
Dipali Moderator Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Sunshine coast,Australia Posts: 765	Thank you ladies and gentlemen , Its nice to share tips and tricks. Regards to all. Zorba I never really thought about the eyestrain bit. Thanks. __________________ Australian Belly dance store - Belly Dance Costumes, Bollywood & Tribal outfits.