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Posts Tagged ‘design’

Our Web Design Process

If you know nothing about web design, then the whole process can seem a little daunting. At ASANT Media, we have put focus on making the process as straightforward as possible, and not just because it will help you, but it will also help make the whole process run smoother and faster on our end too.

Below is an example of an itinerary of our design process that includes design creation and CMS integration.

1. The Idea

First and foremost, you have an idea. It may be vague or a very detailed idea. Either way, we will take your idea and create a strategic plan that will best execute your idea.

Generally, we give clients a simple questionnaire that will help us get to the bottom of what you are looking to get out of your website. Once we know this, we can construct a plan around it.

2. Wireframes

Now that we have all your needs and wants down, it is time for us to get to the drawing boards, while you go back to work on making your business bigger and better. We will craft together what we call wireframes. These are simply blueprints of how the website will look and highlight any features that may be used.

We will continue to go back to the drawing board until you see something you like.

3. Coding

Once we get the okay on all the wireframes, it is time to get under the hood. Based on your needs, we will implement the right content management system (CMS) within the selected design. A CMS is basically the admin panel for the content of your website.

Through the CMS you will be able to add and edit content without having to dig into any web coding, which will save you money from having to take on some technical guru to do that work.

4. Walkthrough

When all the coding is complete, your website is basically done. We will walk you through all the features, teach you how to manage the site yourself, and shares some tips on how to market your new website. If everything is to your liking, then we release the website into your hands and let you do what you best – make money.

5. Follow-up

We like to maintain a working relationship with our clients, so at anytime should you have questions, you are always welcome to contact our support team.

Is Your Flash Site Hindering Your Business?

Being an owner of an online media business, obviously I always need to be on top of what design and marketing practices are being implemented. While things come and go, it still always makes me cringe every time I land on a 100% flash created website.

Whether it looks good or not, coding your site 100% in flash basically does more harm than good.

For those unfamiliar with how web coding and design works, there are basically two form of sites: flash and non-flash. Take the following example to help distinguish the difference:

Compare two identical parks: Park 1 is trapped within a glass box (flash site); Park 2 is not (non-flash site).

Which park do you think people will go to? Obviously the one not in a glass box because people can go into the park and interact with all the amenities it has to offer. Nobody just wants to look at the park just from the outside. This is exactly the effect flash has on a site.

  1. Search engine spiders can’t read it.
  2. Usability for readers is just horrendous.
  3. There are no back buttons and no right click options.

Overall, the functionality and usability of flash sites are completely pointless and not solving our main problems.

Moreover, the overall design appeal of flash sites tend to be annoying to most users as well. In today’s internet world we have trained our head to think flashy, animated objects are spam. If we add all these things in our flash site, then what good does it do?

When flash is good to use. While I never believe flash is good except for some game or unique marketing campaign, there are coding techniques that allow flash to take on characteristics of non-flash sites; however, that requires some deep pockets, which is never really good on our bottom line.

When To Spend Money On Your Site

With tools like WordPress and extremely cheap hosting, getting your site up and running really requires no money; however, when do you know it is time to spend more money?

The allure of starting something like a blog is enticing to most because they can make money without have to expense really any of their own. While you can relatively build and grow your site without have to spend to much extra, how do you know when and what to spend money on?

We need to first look at the essentials that we have to spend money on: Hosting and domain. These are annual payments and combined can cost you somewhere between $80-$100. Not bad especially when you consider of starting an actual brick-and-mortar store. Check out a bunch of cheap hosting companies that offer free domains with web hosting plans.

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Test The Usability Of Your Site

Where People Are Looking

When it comes to designing your site and choosing the best layout, everybody has their own opinion of what looks good. Obviously if we have created the design or selected a theme to use, then we have placed in our minds the reason for creating our choice.

The problem is that what gets filtered through our mind, might not necessarily get passed onto other viewers. There are several ways to test the usability and flow of your site. There are various premium solutions that conduct some research or formulate some plan to determine where eyes lead to, but is there really any way to determine if its right?

The easiest way to test the usability and flow of your site is to simply monitor people actually using your site. Find friends, family, co-workers, or just somebody you can sit in front of a computer screen and let them freely peruse through your site.

  • Take note of the first thing they notice or pay attention to when the site first loads.
  • Are they able to effectively navigate to where they want to go? Can they find what they are looking for?
  • Are they able to understand the point of the site?
  • Are they clicking on ads? If you have some sort of pop-up or obtrusive ad, then are they just closing the window and moving on?

Create a list of questions you may want answers to:

  • Does the color scheme match?
  • Does the site look like spam? Is there definition between content and advertisement?
  • Do they know what the site is about?

Regardless of what your site is about, you are ultimately trying to funnel readers somewhere. Whether you want them to comments, sign-up for newsletter, or purchase your product? The idea is to see if whatever you are highlighting is being focused on by the tester you are using and not just if your site looks good.