Web Design Elements You Should Avoid Having on Your Site
As a web designer, you should design your websites to give your visitors the greatest ease of use, the best impression and most important of all a welcoming experience. It doesn’t matter if you had the greatest product in the whole world — if your website is poorly done you won’t be able to sell even one copy of it because visitors will be driven off your website by the lousy design.
When I’m talking about a “good design”, I’m not only talking about a good graphical design. A professional web design will be able to point out that there are many components which contribute to a good website design — accessibility design, interface or layout design, user experience design and of course the most straightforward, which is graphic design.
Hence, I have highlighted some features of the worst web designs I’ve come across. Hopefully, you will be able to compare that against your own site as a checklist and if anything on your site fits the criteria, you should know it’s high time to take serious action!
1) Background music
Unless you are running a site which promotes a band, a CD or anything related to music, I would really advise you to stay away from putting looping background music onto your site. It might sound pleasant to you at first, but imagine if you ran a big site with hundreds of pages and everytime a visitor browses to another page on your site, the background music starts playing again. If I were your visitor, I’d just turn off my speakers or leave your site. Moreover, they just add to the visitors burden when viewing your site — users on dial up connections will have to wait longer just to view your site as it is meant to be viewed.
2) Extra large/small text size
As I said, there is more to web design than purely graphics — user accessibility is one big part of it too! You should design the text on your site to be legible and reasonably sized to enable your visitors to read it without straining their eyes. No matter how good the content of your website or your sales copy is, if it’s illegible you won’t be selling anything!
3) Popup windows
Popup windows are so blatantly used to display advertisements that in my mind, 90% of popup windows are not worth my attention so I just close them on instinct everytime each one manages to pass through my popup blocker (yes, I do have one like many users out there!) and, well, pops up on my screen. Imagine if you had a very important message to convey and you put it in a popup window that gets killed most of the time it appears on a visitor’s screen. Your website loses its function immediately!
In concluding this article, let me remind you that as a webmaster your job is to make sure your website does what it’s meant to do effectively. Don’t let some minor mistakes stop your site from functioning optimally!
Posted in Web Design | Tags: Accessibility Design, avoid, Background Music, Browses, design, Design Interface, Dial Up Connections, elements, Graphic Design, Graphical Design, High Time, Interface Design, Layout Design, Lousy Design, Professional Web Design, site, Speakers, User Experience Design, web, Web Design Elements, Web Designer, Web Designs, Web Elements, Web Graphics, Website Accessibility | No Comments
A Man’s Secrets to Successful Online Dating
People have taken to online dating like a duck takes to water…because it works…or, at least, it can work. Women are, in general, terrified of meeting a man that she has been chatting with online. All they have heard about are the scary things that can happen…and, I must say, they have a right to be careful to the extreme. That’s not only wise but vital. So what’s a nice guy to do? You aren’t a pervert, a sexual predator, or a weirdo. You are just a nice guy looking for “the” girl for you.
You must be patient. Don’t press her for personal information like her real name or where she lives. Keep your conversations light and fun until she feels comfortable talking with you online. Don’t try to rush her into meeting face-to-face. She will think you are desperate or a pervert. Patience. Patience. Patience.
Be absolutely honest about your physical appearance and job. A good relationship has never been, and will never be, built on lies and deceit. Eventually she will find out the truth anyway and there you are back at square one.
A picture really is worth a thousand words. Post many pictures of yourself doing your everyday activities and make them full body shots, not just head shots. If you were dating a girl in the real world she wouldn’t just see your head.
Once the discussion has been opened about meeting face-to-face for the first time, suggest that you meet in a very public place, during daylight hours and that she bring a friend with her. After all, you have nothing to hide. You’ve told her the truth about yourself and she has already seen a lot of pictures of you. The only thing left is to make her feel safe meeting you.
Posted in Web Design | Tags: Body Shots, Conversations, dating, Daylight Hours, Deceit, Everyday Activities, Good Relationship, Head Shots, Job, man, Nice Guy, online, Patience, People Dating, People Online, Pervert, Physical Appearance, Real World, Scary Things, secrets, Sexual Predator, successful, Successful People, Truth About, Weirdo | No Comments
Reducing Load Time Through Image Optimization
Even though more and more Internet users switch to broadband every year, a large portion of the web’s population is still running on good old dialup connections. It is therefore unwise to count them out of the equation when you’re designing your website, and a very major consideration we have to make for dialup users is the loading time of your website.
Generally, all the text on your website will be loaded in a very short time even on a dialup connection. The culprit of slow-loading sites is mainly large images on your website, and it is very important to strike a delicate balance between using just enough images to attract your users and not to bog down the overall loading time of your site.
You should also go to a greater length and optimize every image on your site to make sure it loads in the least time possible. What I really mean is to use image editing software to remove unnecessary information on your images, and thereby effectively reducing the file size of your image without affecting its appearance.
If you own Photoshop, it will be obvious to you that when you save an image as a JPEG file, a dialog box appears and lets you choose the “quality” of the JPEG image — normally a setting of 8 to 10 is good enough as it will preserve the quality of your image while saving it at a small file size. If you do not have Photoshop, there are many free image compressors online that you can download and use to reduce your image’s file size.
On the other hand, you can opt to save your images in PNG format to get the best quality at the least file size. You can also save your images in GIF format — the image editing software clips away all the color information not used in your image, hence giving you the smallest file size possible. However, saving in GIF format will often compromise the appearance of your image, so make your choice wisely!
Posted in Web Design | Tags: Appearance, Best Quality, Compressors, Culprit, Delicate Balance, Dialog Box, Dialup Connection, Dialup Connections, Dialup Users, Free Image, image, Image Editing Software, Image Optimization, Internet Users, Jpeg Image, Large Portion, load, Load Time, Loading Time, optimization, Png Format, reducing, Short Time, Slow Loading, time | No Comments
Here’s To Looking at CDs
Preferences for the outer design of CDs is seen in more than just the package. Depending on your style, graphics and the way that you want your CD presented, you can also find other standards that will fit your needs better. With the right CD duplication company, you can find the best way to customize your graphics from the inside out.
When you are putting a graphic on a CD, you have more than one option for the printing. This will depend on what you want to say on the CD as well as how you want the graphics to look. The option for graphics on a CD is divided into sectors on the CD. Each of these will allow you to put on the proper graphics and divide the CD according to your best fit.
Typically, a graphic will take up either half of the CD face or the entire one. If you are taking up half, you can expect to have white space with the graphic being on one side of the CD. If you want to put wording or have a smaller graphic this is an option. You can also fade out your graphic so that it only takes up half the space in order to have a different appearance on the inside CD part from the outer cover.
You also have the ability to take up to three-fourths of the CD or the entire CD. With these options there will be more color, even expanding to covering up to the edges of the CD. The three-fourths option will work similar to only covering half of the CD with a little less white space that covers the CD. With the full cover option, you will have more color with the graphics but will not be able to create a fade or put extra information on the side. These particular options are also a slightly higher cost because there is more use of ink.
Within these options are also approaches that you can take with the coloring of your graphic. A lot of this will depend on the type of equipment that the CD duplication service has, specifically relating to whether they use silk screening, laser printing or thermal printing. If you want a particular color resonance, make sure that you know which option is best. You can also consider black and white options for the graphics in order to change the look and feel of the graphic with the CD.
With these options is the typical standard of the CDs keeping a particular look and feel that fits the entire package. The graphic that is on the inside of the CD will also be on the outside, mostly for graphic costs as well as a professional look that will allow consumers to keep your CD in place. However, there are also options for the CDs to cut out the graphic from being on the inside, only to have the name and general information of the CD.
While you are thinking about the graphics and look for your entire package, you should also be thinking about this same concept for the inside CD. You can easily combine format preferences with a look that is professional and cost effective. You should always consider what works best and what will keep you with the right look both inside and out.
Posted in Gadget Reviews | Tags: Appearance, Best Fit, Cd Duplication Service, Cd Face, Cds, Customize, Duplication Company, Laser Printing, Proper Graphics, Resonance, Sectors, Silk Screening, Style Graphics, Thermal Printing, White Space | No Comments
3 Online Dating Mistakes to Avoid
While you search the internet for that special lady…the one of your dreams…your soul-mate…the other half of yourself, you can do a lot of things right. Sadly, you can, also, do a lot of things wrong….things that will guarantee failure and a broken heart. Out in the “real” world, being aggressive, demanding perfection and even little white lies are all ingredients for success. However, those same qualities are killers when you are dating online and off line, too, for that matter.
There is a big difference between being aggressive or confident and being too aggressive, over-confident, or just plain sleazy or slimy from a woman’s point of view. If you push too hard for a face-to-face, you will come across as too aggressive…maybe even, scary. Try to remember that you are not trying to close a business deal and keep the relationship progressing at a slow but steady pace. Patience is the key.
Nobody is perfect. We are all flawed in some way or another…and that includes you, as well. If you expect the woman to be absolutely perfect and demand that, you will always be disappointed. Demanding perfectionism in your work is one thing. Demanding perfectionism from a friend, co-worker or a lady you are interested in is not just fine. It won’t happen. Expect flaws and just deal with them. Decide the ones you can live with and those you can’t.
Little white lies and false fronts won’t work. Be honest from the beginning of a relationship. Write your profile. Make it interesting but don’t make false statements. The truth will come out eventually anyway. If you say you are a lawyer who makes a million bucks a year and you are really an electrician that makes $75,000, you have set yourself up for failure.
Remember…don’t be too aggressive, expect to ever find perfection or put on a false front.
Posted in Web Design | Tags: 3, avoid, Broken Heart, Business Deal, Co Worker, dating, Dreams, Electrician, Failure, False Fronts, False Statements, Killers, Lawyer, Little White Lies, Million Bucks, mistakes, online, Patience, Perfectionism, Point Of View, Real World, Relationship, Soul Mate, Special Lady, Steady Pace | No Comments
How To Have Websites Built For You The Cheap Way
Normally, if you want to have professional designers custom build your site, you must be prepared to dish out at least a few hundred dollars. All this can change if you know where to find the best deals, the best designs for the lowest price. Here’s a rough guide:
First, you must understand that it is a rip off to get companies to design websites for you. Have you ever seen those advertisements in newspaper classified ad sections that offer a 5-page website at $500? These companies are established companies with physical locations, therefore they have to increase the amount they charge to pay off some overheads: office rent, designer’s wages, advertising costs and so on.
Therefore, it would be wise to find freelance designers who work from home. These people are often working from home so they do not have a high operation cost like that of a company. On the other hand, they will be able to design images with quality similar to those of designers from big companies, so it’s a “no-brainer” choice.
However, choose freelancers with care. The best way to do this would be to go to elance.com. There, you can post the abstract of your project and get thousands of freelancers to bid on your project, so you will surely get the best deal. On top of that, you will be able to choose the designers based on their experience, past transactions and ratings, so your value for money is secured.
Another route you can take is to design your website yourself. Think about it, if you only need 5 simple pages to present some simple information, why waste hundreds of dollars for it? Just spend a little time to sit down and do it yourself. You’ll be able to design your own sites even if you do not know a single line of HTML code with the help of WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) programs such as Microsoft Frontpage, Macromedia Dreamweaver and so on.
Posted in Web Design | Tags: Abstract, Advertisements, Advertising Costs, Best Deals, Brainer, built, cheap, Classified Ad, Design Images, Dish, Freelance Designers, Little Time, Macromedia Dreamweaver, Microsoft, Microsoft Frontpage, Office Rent, Professional Designers, Rough Guide, Single Line, Wages, Waste Hundreds, websites, Working From Home | No Comments
Nice Guys Do It, Too!
I’m talking about online dating, of course. When the phenomenon of online dating sites started several years ago, they were a haven for perverts, sexual predators, nerds, and weirdoes of assorted varieties.
That is just no longer the case. All the stigma of online dating is gone. Online dating has gone main stream and is, not only acceptable, but expected. Online dating has become the primary tool of single people of all ages to generate an interesting and rewarding social life.
Let’s face it…we are busy guys. We just simply do not have the time, the energy, or the financial where-with-all to date several nights each week while we look for the “one”. You can sort through hundreds of profiles in a month for less money than you would spend on one evening out, thus, saving time and money. We use the internet to save ourselves time and money for a lot of things like investments, shopping, medical information, and communications.
Why not make use of such a useful tool for our social and personal lives as well? You could find the love of your life. At the very least, you will meet some interesting people and possibly make some lasting friendships. It’s easy to get started. All you need is a computer and an internet connection. You’ll need to search for online dating services that meet your specific needs. They are many and varied.
Join one or two. Then you’ll need to write a great profile, upload a recent picture of yourself and start making and answering contacts. That really is all there is to it…that and patience.
Don’t wait any longer to start your new and interesting social life. Miss or Ms. “Right” could be only a few clicks of the mouse away.
Posted in Web Design | Tags: Assorted Varieties, Face, Friendships, guys, Internet Connection, Investments, Main Stream, Medical Information, Nerds, nice, Nice Guys, Online Dating Services, Online Dating Sites, Patience, Personal Lives, Phenomenon, Profiles, Saving Time, Sexual Predators, Stigma, That Meet Your Specific Needs, Time And Money | No Comments
Combating Computer Espionage
In some cases, spies and covert operations are found in war grounds or politically tense regions. Now however, you can find spies and covert operations running undetected within your personal computer system as you use your computer and the Internet.
Have you noticed a suspicious slow down of your computer’s processing without any particular reason? Are you bombarded by unsolicited pop up ads that indiscriminately appear whether you are running a program or not? These symptoms may continue to happen despite checking your system and running your recently updated anti virus program to run diagnostics on your computer.
Unless you run the correct program, you will not be able to detect the real problem in your system: spyware and adware.
Adware are unsolicited programs that usually come bundled with freeware or shareware. Yes, sometimes things that seem to be good to be true usually come with unwanted invisible strings attached. Companies usually pay freeware or shareware creators to be able to capitalize and prey on unsuspecting individuals who download these programs. Adware cause unsolicited pop up advertisements in your computer and in severe cases, adware causes pop up advertisements to pop up soon as you boot your system.
Spyware on the other hand is more covert and usually undetected in your system until you run an anti spyware program. Spyware is used exactly to spy on you. In relatively mild cases, spyware is used to track your Internet browsing habits so that the spyware can report your preferences to build a marketing profile. This means that as you go about your Internet business, you are under surveillance and your basic right to privacy is impinged upon.
In severe cases though, certain spyware better labeled as malware, are used for criminal purposes and can steal keywords and other sensitive information based on your computer and Internet usage.
For instance, malware can take note of your keystrokes or take note of your credit card number and other vital information that can be used to steal your identity and generally put your security at risk.It is said that 9 out 10 computers are infected with spyware and to make sure that you are not part of statistical majority, you need run an adware and spyware cleaner to detect unwanted security and privacy breach within your system.
There are a lot of reliable adware and spyware cleaners in available to remove these unwanted programs in your computer. You must note however that some adware and spyware are intricately bundled within their parent programs that cleaning them out from your computer will inadvertently disable the legitimate programs they infect. This consequence is a necessary evil to clean your computer of unwanted adware and spyware. You should choose an adware and spyware cleaner that can also work proactively by preventing future accidental installation of these nuisances.
Adware and spyware cleaners work like your anti virus programs except that these particular cleaners target adware and spyware.Considering the trouble adware and spyware creators take to ensure that extracting installed adware and spyware from your computer system will be difficult, the adage about an ounce of prevention being worth more than a pound of cure applies in this situation. Be sure to install a reliable and secure adware and spyware cleaner in your system to remove existing security and privacy risks as well as preventing future hassle.
Posted in Technology News | Tags: Advertisements, Anti Spyware, Anti Virus, combating, computer, Computer Espionage, Covert Operations, Creators, Criminal Purposes, Espionage, Internet Business, Internet Usage, Invisible Strings, Keystrokes, Malware, Mild Cases, Personal Computer System, Pop Up Ads, Right To Privacy, spies, Spyware And Adware, Unsuspecting Individuals, Virus Program | No Comments
More Popular Online Dating Activities
A couple of popular online activities are sharing recipes and bidding at auctions. And both of these easily fit well into online dating opportunities, one of the most popular online activities for singles today.
To help many dates get better acquainted online, here’s what potential cyber-dates do.
Sharing Recipes – People get tired talking about the weather. So a popular subject to turn to is food. Sharing favorite foods and recipes helps break the ice and even forms friendships over culinary skills – or lack of – and tastes. Search your favorite search engine for “free recipes” to share. Take photos of your culinary creations and share them with your date, too.
Bidding at Auctions – Ebay auctions sell nearly anything and everything! So surf around and enter searches like the dates you were in middle school. Share cool memorabilia photos of old games and toys from when you were a child or when your parents or grandparents were little; The Dating Game, Oscar Mayer wiener whistles, The Partridge Family Album, Bobby Sherman’s Album, 45′s and more.
Online dating can be an educational and fun experience. So learn more about each other and have fun while you’re at it. Take a cyber-stroll down memory lane together and see what’s cookin’.
Posted in Web Design | Tags: activities, Bobby Sherman, Cookin, Culinary Creations, Culinary Skills, Cyber Dates, dating, Dating Game, Ebay, Ebay Auctions, Favorite Foods, Free Recipes, Friendships, Grandparents, Old Games, online, Oscar Mayer Wiener, Partridge Family, popular, School Share, Stroll Down Memory, Stroll Down Memory Lane, Weather, Whistles | No Comments
Is It Easy to Create our own Website? What is HTML?
Creating a website is not so much a feat, if we compare it to the education of other technical skills. Most people tend to give up and pack their bags as soon as they hear the word “programming” and “technical”. They think it`s too much of a hassle to actually learn a whole computer “language”. HTML, the most basic computer language in building websites, is actually pretty simple to understand, as long as we have the interest in learning new things.
What is HTML?
HTML is the acronym for Hyper Text Markup Language. For learning purposes, just think of it as a language that the computer understands. For example, as humans, we were taught different languages; i.e. HTML as a language, is mostly and specifically used to create a website. The web browser, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox, will then decipher and interpret the code or rather, language(HTML), and display it in a way we can understand it, just like in a basic webpage.
Coding.
Coding the HTML language might be a bit tough for some people, so we can actually purchase programmes, such as Macromedia Dreamweaver, or even Microsoft Frontpage. These programmes are solely created to help individuals in designing professional webpages/websites.
Furthermore, one could also gain access to online web-builders, website builders that are inbuilt and can be directly controlled from the net. There are many different and specific builders online.
Books and magazines contain guides that can help in offering tutorials and ways to put up our own websites. Even online tutorials are credible, as in the modern world, information technology is the best and most cost efficient way in retaining knowledge, especially in this particular field.
So, you could start and build one right away. If you enjoy coding, it might even become a favourable past-time.
Posted in Web Design | Tags: Acronym, Basic Computer Language, Building Websites, create, Creating A Website, Different Languages, easy, Hassle, html, Html Language, Hyper Text Markup, Hyper Text Markup Language, Internet Explorer, Language Html, Learning Html, Magazines, Mozilla Firefox, Own Website, Professional Webpages, Text Markup Language, Web Builders, website, Word Programming, World Information Technology | No Comments
Online Dating For the Single 30 Something Woman
Life isn’t fair. Men get all the breaks. You’ve devoted all of your 20′s to getting your career off the ground. Not that you haven’t been dating…you have, but not seriously. Now here you are…30 something and there is no long term relationship in sight. You can actually hear your biological clock ticking. You have a precious few years to find a man to fall in love with, make him fall in love with you, get married, and have a baby or its lights out. You already know all of the men in your social circle. Not that they aren’t nice guys…some of them…but none of them are your soul mate. What’s a girl to do?
Consider online dating. You have the opportunity to read hundreds of profiles and look at hundreds of pictures in search of that “someone” that will be right for you. Maybe he will live in the same city you do…maybe he will live across the country or even in another country altogether. You aren’t limited to only those men that you come in contact with personally. The possibilities are almost endless.
“Is online dating safe”, you ask. “Aren’t the online dating sites made up entirely of perverts, sexual predators and weirdoes in assorted shapes and sizes?” the answer is, no they aren’t. Not anymore anyway. That was true when online dating first came on the scene but now it is mainstream. It’s as safe as you make it using common sense and sound judgment. Use the same caution that you would when meeting any stranger. Don’t give your real name, address or phone number until you feel safe doing so. Don’t rush into a face-to-face meeting until you are confident and then make the first meeting in a public place and during daylight hours. Give it a try…Mr. Right might be a few mouse clicks away.
Posted in Web Design | Tags: 30, Ask Online, Assorted Shapes, Biological Clock, Caution, Common Sense, dating, Dating Woman, Daylight Hours, First Meeting, Long Term Relationship, Nice Guys, online, Online Dating Sites, Phone Number, Possibilities, Profiles, Sexual Predators, Shapes And Sizes, single, Soul Mate, Sound Judgment, Stranger, T Rush, woman | No Comments