First look of premiumGallery
Posted on Tue Jun 08
Tagged: Design | Leave your comments
That's right! It has taken along time but I am pleased to say that premiumGallery is almost complete. All that is being done is the finalisation of the stardard template.
To wet you appitite I thought I would upload the logo which we decided to go with.
This is something that I have been working on for a very long time and I feel it will fill a hole in our product range. It is designed to simplify things for Art Galleries wanting to display artists, exhibitions and other information.
A test site will be uploaded later this week so that you can check out what we have come up with. For those that don't wish to have a custom template created there are standard templates available. We will be releasing new standard templates which are easy to update if you are wanting a fresh look with out having to pay for a custom site. I do feel the need to mention that if you are wanting any sort of indiviuality that you shoudl get a custom site built.
A website is just like a shop front
Posted on Thu Feb 08
Tagged: Design | Leave your comments
I don't know how many times I have said this but a website is never finished. I stead of telling you this over and over again I thought I would relate it to something most people would understand, the good old brick and mortar shop front.
For those of you who haven't changed anything on your site in a few months, you should really read this.
Ok so let's get into it. First of all they say that a shops front window can often be the decider on whether that customer is going to walk through the door or not. For example look at Louis Vuitton, their shop windows around the world change on the same day and look exactly the same whether you are in Perth, Sydney or Switzerland. This shop window gets changed every month, displaying the latest and greatest.
Now not everyone has the same reputation or customer base as Louis Vuitton but with expansion of the Internet into almost every home (in Australia that is) you can have the chance to play with the big boys so to speak, on a much small budget.
For those with a shop front that you use to market your wares, do you change it every month? I know in the fashion industry with it moving as fast as it does they change their window displays on a weekly basis.
Now I assume that you are reading this because you have a website, so I won't go into the pros of having a site to market your business to the wider community.
It is important to think of your homepage as a window display. In most cases this is the main entry point to your site. Most of your traffic is going to come through it so make sure it is appealing.
Of course you are sitting there saying well it is easy for you, you know how to use a computer. Exactly it really isn't a large expense per year to get us as your private design house, where we run the website like it was our own. With a bit of participation from you we can take control of the window display and really get the site going. I mean it is what we do.
I can't stress enough the importance of consistent updates to a website in regards to search engine rankings, however if you have the traffic to your site you may as well convert a few with some clever marketing methods for your front home page.
The foundations need to be right
Posted on Wed Jan 08
Tagged: Design | Leave your comments
I suppose I am writing this post today because I surfed a few sites this morning to see if there were any changes. My surfing is sometimes more involved then the average Internet user simply because I want to know what was used to build the site.
The first page I loaded had obviously been redesigned by someone with design skills. It is much better then the previous site the company had which was great and I was happy with that. Out of curiosity I decided to look at the source to see how it was built.
To my horror the site coding, we can call it the foundations was terrible. First of all it was built in a language that is about 11 years old. Not I don't need to tell you that technology moves at such a fast pace that starting of 11 years ago isn't a smart option.
Now you might be saying "You said the site looks good, so what's the problem". Well it's kind of like buying a house with white ants. It looks fine on the outside, but it is going to cause problems.
Usually this kind of foundation is used by companies that aren't solely web design companies so they don't have the knowledge to research new methods, or it is done by a designer that is cheap, and I mean really cheap. People cheapest isn't always the cheapest option. Think about the amount of money and time it takes to fix something done wrong.
I thought I would delve in a little deeper to see what I can come up with. I decided to run the first step on our Quality Assurance program and things just got worse. Not only was the foundations (coding) 11 years old but it didn't even validate against the standards for that version.
Even if you don't have a search engine optimisation plan in place you don't want to be pushed down the list just for having bad code. So not only is the new site foundations 11 years old but it is harming your online presence.
Now if you can remember at the start of this post I mentioned that I saw two sites. Well the second one is different. It is coded in relatively new foundations yet the layout itself is terrible.
It is the two reasons above that I personally have spent a lot of time developing the Able Net Design process to ensure the highest quality sites are being developed. It may take more time to complete a project but at least I can be assured that the project from my end has been a success.
Remember there is more to a website then what you see.
Top 5 Web Site Elements for 07
Posted on Thu Dec 07
Tagged: Design | Leave your comments
No joke 2007 is over and in the web world we have seen some amazing new web site elements taking off. I thought as a post for today before I leave for the snow, I would run through a few of these elements. Don't worry if you don't have any of them. We can always catch up early next year.
Ok so lets begin.
#5 Social Networking Profiles
This has come in at number 5 because it has more to do with your sites popularity then your actually websites design and layout. The few profiles I have are facebook, virb, flickr, and twitter. These profiles increase my sites visibility on the web and it is an easy way to let people know what you are doing.
Let's face it one of the most important tools in business is communication and reminding people you are still around. These few profiles allow me to actually alert quite a few people about what is going on and I have seen a increase in site statistics which I attribute to these profiles.
#4 Photos & Videos
Basically most new desktop and notebooks come with some kind of web camera. Not to mention the cheap price of physical video cameras that allow most people to purchase one.
It is because of this that there has been a constant rise in the amount of vlogging or video blogging. Really it doesn't take that long and in a time where we are finally putting a face to all of these websites and companies this would have to be one of the most powerful tools for increasing your visibility and creditability.
Also in we can't exclude the use of the digital camera. Web site visitors want to get to know you! So uploading photos from the office Christmas party or some other function is a must do task. Really is it that hard?
#3 Comments
Not only should we be uploading more information to our websites on a constant basis (by constant I mean at least once a week). We should also allow our visitors to open up some dialog with us in a non-email form. That is where comments have come in.
A powerful tool to give quick feed back and allows questions to be asked about services and products. This is slightly modelled on the old FAQ pages that lots of websites used to and still have. Don't get me wrong the FAQ pages are still a good source but the net is all about user participation these days.
#2 RSS
This is what ties everything above together. This isn't new technology to 2007 but by now if you don't have some sort of RSS feed you are really behind the eight ball. With out it I wouldn't be able to sync all my social networking profiles together, nor would I be able to have the reach with my photos, blog posts and video posts.
#1 The Blog
This along with an RSS feed is a must. It is the stepping-stone to make all of the above elements work. You Need One, there is no question about it. They draw massive amounts of traffic, increase you creditability and visibility, and awareness.
I have posted about the importance of blogs on many occasions. If you have one use it. If you don't have on ring me.
I know it is daunting at first but if you keep posting to it and marketing it (if you don't know how to do this we have special blog marketing packages) the visitors will come. Of course the content needs to be good and worthwhile but if you have passion you won't have any problems.
Don't miss out on a great opportunity, the rewards far out weigh the time it takes to blog.
So that rounds out the top5 web elements for 2007. As I said if you don't have any of these or need more information give me a ring and we can work on this together.
Design makes the blog, or does it
Posted on Tue Oct 07
Tagged: Design | Leave your comments
This is true to a certain extent. It would be safer to say that content makes the blog however I personally feel that the design and layout helps for those readers.
It is no secret that the blog world has changed, more and more people are viewing their favourite blogs via RSS. The reasons for this is with the world being a busier place these days the time to load up websites to see if there is something new is just to valuable. With an RSS feed when the update occurs you receive it in either your mail client or feed reader.
In saying that I have not subscribed to any blogs RSS feed if I didn't like the design. The designs of the most popular blogs all have something in common. THEY ARE SIMPLE.
Of course there are some exceptions to the rule but their are very few of them and as the blogosphere grows this sites will have to change their look to win back viewers.
It really is as simple as that!
Get a nice simple design, have some good content, and last but not least never give up.
