Category Archives: Webdesign

Decoding Web 3.0

Posted on October 6, 2010 by arra| Leave a comment

 

On Christmas day, 1992, in Geneva, Switzerland, Sir Timothy Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau introduced the world wide web—a system of pages placed on the Internet readable to each other by HTML language—to the Internet.  This introduction revolutionized the Internet,  an otherwise static system only used by academia and government agencies. 

In order to understand the impact of the World Wide Web on the Internet, one must understand their differences.  The Internet refers to a system of interconnected computers that communicate with each other through an Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP).  Computers connected to the Internet consist of an IP address; though, not every computer connected to the Internet connects to the world wide web.  While the Internet depends on the interdependence of TCP/IP language, the world wide web depends on HTTP language.  

Think of the Internet like a library that consists of various annals and collections.  The most popular Internet collection, the world wide web, is accessible to the public.  Certain government and medical records may exist on the Internet, but not all are accessible via the world wide web.  With the invention of the World Wide Web came a plethora of Web sites meant to disseminate pertinent information to various computer all over the world.  Soon, the wrong people discovered ways to use the Berners-Lee’s invention to disseminate malicious information for devious purposes. 

In an attempt to counter hackers’ misuse of the Internet, Berners-Lee, along with the World Wide Web Consortium, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the European Union, and various other forward thinking organizations envisioned the future Internet or what Berners-Lee calls the Semantic Web.  The Semantic Web will allow users to become creators of web content by creating a seamless web that enables everyone to take the web everywhere.  And it will allow people, governments, and other organizations, throughout the world, to create a more user friendly globalized future.  

Today, if a person travel just a few thousand miles from their home, and incurs an injury or illness, that person also incurs hours, perhaps days, of unwinding red tape, developed by archaic medical and insurance systems.  In response to these archaic systems, the W3 Consortium developed the Semantic Web Health Care and Life Sciences (HCLS) Interests Group, which is a partner of the W3C Semantic Web Activity. 

While participation in the HCLS IG remains voluntary, all group communication will remain public for participating medical organizations.  And potential applicants of the HCLS IG must first become members of W3C.   The process of becoming a member of W3C and HCLS IG consists of various applications and fees; though, the reward of hard earned membership will allow participating medical communities, throughout the world to interact with each other in a seamless way intended to eliminate archaic medical systems.

Among other innovative movements that arose from the thoughts of the Semantic Web, the Semantic Web Advancement Development (SWAD) developed the Semantic Web Environmental Directory  (SWED)—a directory of European environmental organizations.  SWAD operated from May of 2002 to October of 2004 to support W3C’s initiatives to bring the Semantic Web to Europe.  Developers no longer maintain the site on a daily basis; however, it remains active and membership remains an option.  Semantic Portals—web servers that act to upload information provided by participating organizations—differentiate SWED and on-line directories.  After participating environmental organizations upload their content to the SWED server, a member will receive an unique code calledRDF, a syntax developed by W3 Consortium specifications, which will identify them and allow them to create clear web-based relationships.  

In response to the misuse of SEO content, the W3 Consortium developed this Resource Description FrameWork (RDF) syntax, which uses Data models to define Data elements—atomic units of information—and relationships among Data elements.  Data Elements contain the data element name, a data element definition, representation terms, Metadata, and Synonym rings, which will allow web spiders and meta crawlers to search and categorize Web sites with more efficiency.   This new syntactical organization of web language will allow Web spiders and Metacrawlers to search Web sites on a micro level, rather than using a macro system that puts the search control in the hands of SEO content writers.

Along with RDF syntax, the Semantic Web will allow organizations to structure themselves into Services Oriented infrastructures (SOI) called Server Grids, database grids, Virtualized Servers and Virtualized Storage.  These new systems will take the chaos of Web 2.0, create a seamless stream of information, and disseminate information from the experts to organizations and people.  

For visual thinkers, think of Web 2.0 and Google like a garage filled with miscellaneous boxes categorized with miscellaneous names like ‘Junk,’ ‘holidays,’ and ‘memories.’  In Web 2.0, major search engines like Google categorize web sites, according to SEO content, into a Web garage full of boxes.  What Google categorizes within terms like ‘junk’ or ‘holidays’ or ‘memories,’ a researcher may or may not consider pertinent information.  For instance, if a person wants to research elephants, Google will return about 16,400,000 for users to sort through.  The semantic web will consist of many of the same boxes in the same Web garage; though, rather than Web sites categorized under meaningless terms, which will take hours to sort through, experts will categorize and sub-categorize those boxes using RDF.  So, rather than searching for elephants and trying to sort through millions of web sites pertaining to elephants, researchers can sort through organized sub topics of elephants, within Data Elements.

The Future Internet or the Semantic Web or Web 3.0 or any other name Web developers give it will allow people, agencies, and societies to gather and share information in a much more linear way that Web 2.0 does not allow for.  This more steady flow of information, through less unobstructed channels, will in-turn allow  for a more globalized community, as well as for more innovative technologies.  

 

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Webdesign

Tagged

Web Site Design and its Updating

Posted on October 5, 2010 by arra| Leave a comment

For the perfect web design is necessary a perfect combination of creativity and technical expertise. The both are very crucial for the successful web site design. It is important to concentrate equally on the small and the large details of web site designing in other to make it works in the best way. It is much easier to make changes on the web site with database templates and there is no need to newly create a web site just the changes you wish to make.

It is important to always keep in mind the fact that your web site must look attractive, user friendly, with fast downloads. The attractive and user friendly web site will bring you more visitors and fast downloads will keep them from loosing their patient and make them visit your web site again.

Today’s web site designing doesn’t demand to spend lot of time on designing your own templates therefore you can now choose from many templates designs and save your time. The most important steps in web site designing are planning and organizing. The web site form is the main trump of web design and it is needed a lot of time to bring it to its perfection.

Don’t expect that your web site is going to celebrate a great success only just you have spend a lot of time and lost a lot of energy on its designing. This is important but it must be done as it is appropriate to make web site design that brings you a profit. The best way to make a perfect web site design is to follow web site standards. This will protect you from its redesigning as the web site backbone keeps its quality and so there won’t be some extra costs and you will have a less work to accomplish. Read this article carefully as for sure it can help you explaining some key things in your web site designing.

No matter if you are designing a simple web site it still needs a few design tweaks to make it elegant. If you only have basic knowledge in HTML and so on in graphic design work, don’t look for web designer’s help. Only if you are going to build in any way complicated web site design than don’t let yourself so much temptation and look for a professional to do it for you. HTML language is used for every web site building and its creation. Page editor is an extraordinary feature that can help you in your web site updating without need to be subjected to web design company.

Many web designers don’t have a least experience in internet marketing except their knowledge in web design services. Web designers must be informed about search engine optimization (SEO) tips. They must pay attention on SEO tips from the beginning of web site building process because web site ranking is based on these tips.

Every web site design depends and is created toward the client’s own taste and preference.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Webdesign

Tagged , ,

Customized Web Solutions India

Posted on October 5, 2010 by arra| Leave a comment

Logical web solutions add to the functionality of a web based service. Offshore web solutions from India are affordable, reasonable, and practical. Be it either website development or web designing, customized web solutions focuses on delivering services  that are creative, quality, and time tested.  The web solutions outsourcing services from India include robust website design and development, graphic designing, web application development, and e commerce solutions. The corporate web solutions will just go beyond simple website aiming at enhanced user experiences that are technology driven.

 Customized web solutions that are creatively designed attract valuable clients. This enables to meet the end objective of increasing customer base and profit margins. The more catchy and attractive a website is, the easy it is to reach target audience. Web solutions ranging from B2B and B2C Web Portals, Ecommerce solutions, Online Web Stores, Customized Web Applications, etc helps in smooth flow of ideas and information. Web solutions address to in information architecture, design and application integration, e- commerce strategies. Adequate attention is given to development, training, and deployment of solutions developed. With the use of innovative technologies offshore web solutions companies from India provides proper documentation, security, and presentation. They give proper attention to solutions targeting user interface and content for successful endeavors.

 Website designing and development services offer the best of support to all internet business needs.  A dynamic website allows its users to interact actively with the website and gain the most relevant information. Through a dynamic web site solution, a user has the liberty of choosing buying things after searching for desired quality products and services. They are also allowed to apply their choice of skin (layout) from the list of templates available. Such facilities integrated in customized web solutions make it user-friendly, adding to its success. Offshore web solutions company India offers bespoke web development services. Businesses and individuals benefit from the services of customized web solutions. Offshore web solutions development company from India adopts a business oriented approach to understand and deliver project requisites as desired by the client. A professional team engaged in customized web solutions delivers scalable solutions.   

Web solutions services India provides a wide range of technology-based business solutions, crucial to any web development project. These are equally imperative for any business needs including KPO’s, BPO’s , and other content management services.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Webdesign

Tagged , ,

Hunting the skilled web developer

Posted on October 5, 2010 by arra| Leave a comment

To prevail better in a business, web presence is mandatory. Website developers are now offering interactive portals for e-commerce and the fact has been true, in this time of recession also web based transactions have been les affected. Sydney web developers are now well aware of the techniques that make a site better. Not only in Australia, but across Asia Pacific the Sydney web development companies have gained high popularity.

The web developers nowadays offer complete design and technical services and as a result it becomes easier to get the get complete solution for e-presence from a single source. Quality of different web sites may be different and these sites are basically customized as per the business requirements. We can consider that site of a sport good seller definitely will vary with that of a cloth merchant. The Sydney web site developers get an edge over the other web developers in terms of aesthetic sense.

While developing a web site it is indeed essential to have a strong aesthetic sense and a feel towards artistry. Look and feel of a site can have a strong impact on businesses. The use of technology at the same go will vary. A site created with just HTML or with the use of Hyper Text Markup Language with varies with other sites developed with the tools like ASP and PHP. So, look and feel of a web portal may depend upon usage of technology.

The web developers of Sydney are skilled and have immense experience. Basically there are different school of multimedia and craft in New South Wales and Southern Cross regions of Australia. Besides recruiting the experienced professionals the web design companies of Sydney recruit the fresh web site developers from the reputed schools of designs. The fresh web developers come up with lots of energy and innovative ideas and clubbing them with the views of the experienced and professional web developers, the clients get the best solution for online presence.

Most of the Sydney web developers emphasize on cheap customer service and support after launch of the web portal. With changing business needs of the clients they even customize and alter the sites at affordable rates. There can be different ways of selecting a web site, the web site design companies may offer ready to use templates and these templates may be tailored as per business needs. Again complete portal can be designed and developed. During the development the clients are repeatedly consulted.

Many web development companies offer online quotes and these quotes can be availed just by providing few of the necessary information online. The enthusiastic professionals and the web developers are well aware of the changing interfaces. In case of any doubts, it is best to get in touch with the Sydney web developers by sending mails to there offices.

Selecting a best web designing company is indeed easy when searched with the use of a popular search engine. The good sites are seared more and ranks better, a better rank in the search engine is an indicator. There are different online resources and different web developers provide opinion in various discussion forums. Self research is advisable as it can safeguard against any wrong step.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Webdesign

Tagged , ,

Do You Really Own Your Web Site? Maybe Not

Posted on October 5, 2010 by arra| Leave a comment

Here are some important tips for you to remember and some questions to ask your web site design or development company. If you don’t understand the ‘ownership’ issues when you are buying a web site design or web based application, this is must read material for you! Don’t get caught paying twice.


I recently interviewed a new client who was looking to add the functionality of a database to their existing web site. Their current webmaster had completed a business logo and designed the initial interface for the site. The clients asked their webmaster for a quote to add the functionality to the site and he returned a price that far exceeded the clients’ budget.


Long story made short, we found a great application that already exists that would meet the clients’ needs for substantially less than custom development. The client advised the previous webmaster that they were moving services. Do you think they got to keep their original web site? Nope. We had to start over again, which unfortunately meant that this customer had to pay for extra design time that they had effectively already paid for.


Here are some important tips for you to remember and some questions to ask your web site design or development company.


Web Design Source Code


When you hire a web designer or a developer they are going to produce a web site or web based application that your business is going to be dependant on. In fact, a web application may be your whole business. This is absolutely the case where a business is 100% online and depends on the process built into their web site. E-commerce stores are a perfect example of a whole business online.


Web designers create web pages with a compilation of images and hyper-text markup language (HTML). The HTML is a text based standard language that most every web designer in the world knows. The HTML is what is used to hold the structure of your web site together. It keeps the pretty pictures and text all in the right places. Your web browser interprets that HTML and shows you the web site images and text.


Your web designer will start your design by “drawing” your web site in a graphics program. Macromedia Fireworks and Photoshop are two tools that are very often used by professionals. Your designer will draw the site using shapes, colors, images and fonts that are all piled up in layers to create the final “look and feel” for your new web site design. The designers will then slice up the images and use the resulting smaller images to build your working website using HTML to hold it all together.


Here is the key. You need the original art file that was used to design your web site in Macromedia Fireworks or Photoshop or whatever software your designer uses. If you don’t get the source file, your next web designer will have to start your design from scratch if you want artwork changes. This is no walk in the park if the original images that were used are not available. Macromedia Fireworks source files have the extension .PNG (yourWebsite.PNG). Photoshop files have the extension .PSD (yourWebsite.PSD).


Another design issue that you may run into in the future is fonts. If your designer uses fancy fonts that are not installed by default on your computer or your future designers computer, you will have to substitute different fonts. In some cases, choosing a new font is not a big issue. However, if you could image that the font used in the logo for Coca-Cola® became unavailable because Coke® changed designers it would most likely cause them real damage. They need the font used in their logo or corporate branding and so do you!


Questions to ask your web designer


1) When you are finished designing my web site will you provide me with the source files used in the design of my new web site?


2) Will you transfer the ownership (copyright) of these source files to me or my company? Or at least give me perpetual license to continue using them and to make revisions?


3) Will you provide me with the names and files for all non-windows fonts used in the design of my new web site? At the very least, because there may be real copyright issues with transferring the fonts, you need to know the names of the fonts and where you can buy copies of them for your project archive.


Web Application Source Code


Web developers create programs that work as applications on the internet. They create code that is compiled, usually in real-time, at the web server. The code will, for example, connect to a database and extract a set of data. The data will then be compiled into an HTML table (so that it is readable) and then sent from the web server to your web browser as pure HTML. You will not be able to “view source” and read the scripting language because it never leaves the web server. If you “view source” from the web browser, you will only see the HTML.


Some of the code that your developer writes will be protected by copyright. Your developer may also buy code in the form of server components, use code blocks for functionality from other programmers or purchase complete application in order to finish your program. You need to ensure that the developer tells you that you can continue to use the software that they develop for your business for an unlimited period of time, and that if there are any licensing restrictions or reoccurring licensing costs that they are disclosed to you before you start the project. Find out if you will be bound forever to a hosting or server plan for you application.


Here are some questions you may want to ask your web developer


1) Will you transfer an unlimited a perpetual license to me or my company to use the application that you develop for me?


2) Will you disclose any licensing restrictions to me regarding the application?


3) Will you write code using common standards or languages that I will be able to move to another hosting provider or eventually to my own server?


4) Can I move my application to another server in the future if it is necessary?


Use of Encryption


So your web developer says “yes” to the last four questions and you think, “great, I’m home free, let’s get started”. Then two years later you decide it’s time to move your web application to your own servers because your e-commerce store is screaming busy and the cost of bandwidth and hosting is killing your profits.


You start the process to move your application to your new server and call up your webmaster for help, but he has gone to University in the states and “isn’t doing that anymore”. You think to yourself, “I guess I should have used a more established company…” So you find a new webmaster. Incidentally, I am often told by new clients that I am their second, third and sometimes even fourth web developer. So we go to move the web site, but wait, something is wrong… portions of the source code are encrypted. Even the government couldn’t decrypt it. We have to rewrite those blocks of code and the client has to pay… again.


If your web sites source HTML or application scripting language is encrypted then it may have to be rewritten or you will have no way to add functionality, or to fix bugs, without involving the original developer who holds the key to the encryption. They are quite clever, aren’t they?


There are some good reasons to encrypt some portions of the source code, even on in a web application. Most web applications will contain, in the source code, the database, username and password within one of the files. This is a great example of a code block that should be encrypted before it is placed into a shared hosting environment.


If your web developer is going to encrypt portions of the source code, make sure you get a copy of the unencrypted source code for your project archive. In this manner you will be able to work with a new developer.


Questions to ask your web developer regarding encryption


1) Will you be encrypting any or all of the source code in the application you are developing for me?


2) Will you provide me with a copy of the original source code prior to being encrypted?


Technologies


There are a number of technologies used in the development of web sites and web applications they include Pre-Hypertext Processor (PHP), Active Server Pages (ASP), Active Sever Pages dot Net (ASP.NET), and Cold Fusion to name a few. All of these scripting languages facilitate connecting web sites to databases and accessing functionality on the web server such as sending mail or uploading files. All of these technologies are widely used, widely available and there is a great number of developers that know these languages. There are some lesser known programming and scripting languages that may be able to do a lot of the same things as the more widely used languages. The pitfall is that you may have a more difficult time finding a programmer that knows the language.


Some web scripting or programming languages like Microsoft’s® Active Server Page or Active Server Page dot Net technologies are developed specifically for use on the Mircrosoft operating systems. These technologies are difficult, if not impossible, to run on a Linux operating system. When your programmer selects a language to develop your web application with, he may be marrying you to a long term relationship with a particular operating systems and software vendor. This is okay as long as you recognize the long term ramifications of these choices, some of which may be greater costs to you in the future.


Questions to ask your web developer regarding programming languages


1) Is the technology you use tied to one particular operating system or can I host my web site on my choice of servers with my choice of operating system? More specifically, can I host my application on a Microsoft web server and a Linux server?


Transferability


Make sure that you are able to move your web site to a server with comparable standards in the future should you wish to do so. Moving a web site to a new server is not necessarily due to a break down in the relationship with your web designer. You may be forced to move if your existing server can no longer handle your traffic bandwidth. If your costs become too high in a shared hosting environment you may find it more economical to setup your own web server and host your own application.


If you do choose to host your own application this is where the cost ramifications of your earlier choices will hit your pocket book. For example if your site was developed using PHP, an open-source scripting language for websites, then the cost of your new server will likely not include any software licensing because the operating system (Linux) is free. If on the other hand your site is developed using .ASP or .ASP.NET, you are going to have to buy expensive server licenses from the big guy.


Can You Use Your Site Into the Future?


If you commission a web designer or developer to complete a project for you make sure that you have an agreement in place that clearly specifies that you can continue to use the project and the related source files when it is completed. Check the service agreement that you have signed with your web company. Of course if there is no documentation then you will not know if you own you web site or web-based application.


In Summary


There are some good reasons for web designers and developers to protect their rights and to ensure their future earning potential. As the client or purchaser of web design services you need to understand where you stand with regard to choices that will be made on your behalf regarding your web site or web based application.


http://www.eKzact.com sign up for our Free newsletter on-line Call 1-866-WEBB-123… or email info@ekzact.com


© eKzact Solutions Inc. 2005

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Webdesign

Tagged , ,

Is FLASH Appropriate in a Business Web Site?

Posted on October 5, 2010 by arra| Leave a comment

The short answer is maybe. The long answer is that the question might be better asked, “Is a 100% FLASH web site appropriate in business?.” The answer to this question, in my humble opinion is, absolutely not. In fact, we have had several clients come to us this year who have 100% Flash web sites that are going to completely remake their web sites because they simply do not work for them. They are having issues with search engines and with clients who can’t see their web sites.


Of course, they do work in terms of visuals. If you visit a Flash web site you will see it. Just because a visitor can see the web site doesn’t automatically mean that the web site is working for your business.


What is Flash?


Flash is technology developed by Macromedia, a leader in web development tools. Flash movies are a compilation of many images, elements and text that is then compiled into a nice, tight little digital file that then gets put on the internet. Some designers build entire web sites using this technology. Graphic designers quite like the technology because it gives them a great opportunity to show how talented they are by developing interactive, moving, and quite honestly some very entertaining web sites. Remember though that the purpose for your business web site is to communicate with your existing and prospective clients, not to show everyone what a talented designer you hired.


What is Flash Good For?


Flash is great as an add-on element for some graphic components of a business web site. Recently the ability for web masters to compile digital audio and video into flash movies has been simplified and using flash to stream a video is a great example of a perfect use for Flash in a business web site.


Another example of where Flash is well used and well received is on web sites that are about presentation and not information. For example a rock band, kids web sites with little games, a photo gallery, a movie clip are all places where Flash is particularly well suited.


Does Flash have a place on the internet? Absolutely it does, but as a web site purchaser though, you have to ask yourself the question, “does Flash have a place on my business web site?”


Can Everyone See Flash


The short answer is no. Although widely available and a component of most web browsers when they are installed, not everyone has flash installed with their web browser. If a visitor who does not have a flash plug-in on their PC visits a site that requires the Flash plug-in, their web browser will prompt them to install it. PC and web savvy visitors will likely go ahead and do it, but some users (like my mother) panic if a pop-up window asks a question and they walk away, or surf away, thinking they just infected their PC with the latest doomsday virus. All of that said, a large percentage of people can see Flash without too much anxiety.


Things to Consider


The Intro Flash Splash


Flash is commonly used for “splash” pages or “entry pages” into web sites. We have all seen them, the animated movie or commercial that leads us into a more traditional marketing web site. Have you ever wondered why the Flash designer almost always places a “skip intro” link on this page? I believe it’s because they know that if they don’t allow people to skip the Flash splash screen that they are going to lose the visitor. Remember that most internet surfers are impatient and they are usually looking for information, not another commercial. Get people to your main web page and do it fast.


The trend of using ‘splash’ pages has declined in the past couple of years as the internet has matured. It is my belief, and widely shared, that if your web site is about good information, then an entry screen is just a road block to your visitors.


The Search Engine


Search engines send out automated robots called “spiders” that crawl through the internet and create massive databases of web pages. People then search for web pages based on key words that are embedded in to the web page in hidden tags as well as in the text that is on the web page itself. If it is important to you that people find your web site then it is important to you to create well written text and links on your web pages that the search engines can find, read and follow. Search engines can not see the text in a Flash page. Search engines can not see hyper-links on flash pages and therefore can not follow the links. Your web page will not seem very important to most search engines because to a search engine your web site will consist of one page and the only relevant information that the search engine will see is your meta-tags if they exist.


Having said all of that, there are arguably ways to get a Flash site indexed and catalogued by a search engine. It simply is not the easiest thing to do and you will likely require a Search Engine Optimization specialist to assist you.


Reciprocal Linking


If you are kind enough to put links on your web site for other web sites then you are providing them with a “vote of confidence” in terms of search engine rankings. The more web sites that link to a web site, in the eyes of the search engine, makes the linked web site more important. Taking that a step further, the more important the web site that links to you the higher the potential ranking your site will get. Likewise sites that provide you with a reciprocal link are in effect giving you their “vote of confidence” and in turn making your web site more important.


Remember what I said earlier? Search engines can not see hyper-links when they are embedded into flash. So although the links are appreciated they will not contribute to the search engines perception of how valuable your web site may be to the world and as a result all those “votes of confidence” are going to waste.


Make sure that people who provide you with a link from their web site to your is not embedded into a flash page. Links should be in pure HTML or Hyper-Text MarkUp Language. If you provide links to other web sites on your site, the same applies to you, use HTML.


Don’t Break my Back Button


Web-browsers all have a back button. As software users, and more specifically as web surfers, we use the back button as a matter of course. It is a good practice as a web developer to not ‘break the back button’. Unfortunately because of the nature of Flash, the back button doesn’t work for backward navigation in the flash web site.


Create a Bookmark if You Can


People like to bookmark pages on the internet so that they can quickly return to them later on. Web surfers do not always bookmark the index page, or the main page, of a web site. For example if you site has a nifty currency converter or a great mortgage calculator on it, people may simply want to bookmark just that page. You can not bookmark an internal page within a Flash site. You can only bookmark the main page. Try it. Visit a 100% Flash web site, surf around a bit, then try to bookmark the page you are looking at. It doesn’t work, because you literally haven’t changed pages from when you first arrived at the site, you have simply “played the animation” which made it appear as though you went to different pages.


Cost


The cost to develop a traditional marketing web site using standard design graphic, HTML and text is in most cases less expensive than using Flash. If you designer proposes to use Flash, ask the question, “how much would it cost to do the same thing without flash?”.


Making Revisions and Updates


If you have your web site built 100% in Flash, you have subscribed to a certain skill-set in your designer. If you want to make revisions you will always need to use someone who can work within Flash. The same theory applies if your web site is images, HTML and text. The distinct difference is that there are far more web masters that work with the later than in Flash. It also typically will take longer to make revisions to Flash sites and as a result your cost of maintenance can be quite steep.


The Source Files


Flash source files are the heart of a flash movie, element or web site. The file will be names something like mywebsite.FLA. This is the native un-compiled source file for a Flash file. Once the designer is ready to deploy the Flash to the web server the file is compiled into a different format. The compiled file in our example would be called mywebsite.SWF.


So to clarify, the original artwork and design is worked on in the .FLA format and the final file that goes on the web server is .SWF.


I see it time and time again where the designer does not provide the client with the source file for their flash elements or web site. They protect the .FLA files, and guess what, you have to go to them for updates and revisions. It does not matter how talented your new web master or designer is, if you do not have the source file with the .FLA extension for your Flash site you will not be able to update it. You should ask your designer to provide you with this source file if you decide to use Flash elements on your web site.


A Final Note On Flash


Please do not interpret my remarks here as me being “anti-flash” the fact is, it really is a great media technology. If you have the budget and want to develop your web site using 100% pure flash, there are some things you can do to mitigate some of the pitfalls that I have described here.


Use a javascript to detect the browser capabilities of the visitor and ensure that they have Flash plug-in to support the Flash on your site. If the result of this simple test is ‘no they do not support Flash’ then the right thing to do is direct them to an alternative HTML based web site with your content. So, although you can overcome the missing Flash plug-in you have to have two web sites designed (the Flash one and the HTML one).


In Summary


Flash is a great design tool to add elements to your website to ‘spice it up’.


Flash is great for delivering rich media like audio and video.


Use the theory, add flash to your web page, don’t add your web page to flash and you will deliver a great experience to your visitors.


If your web site is about delivering information, make the information first and the design second. Web sites that provide great content do not need to wiggle, giggle, blink, click and buzz.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Webdesign

Tagged , , ,

About Web Templates

Posted on October 4, 2010 by arra| Leave a comment

WEB TEMPLATES


A web template is a tool used to separate content from presentation on the web design, and to the massive production of web documents. It runs in the context of a template system.

Websites often require regular content updates, and standardization of appearance. A news website, for example, needs to be daily updated. Each news item will be contextualized by a standard presentation (page layout, structure, etc.). A typical strategy to automate this standardization is:


1. choose a web template system to maintain the website;

2. specify the “presentation standards” through web templates;

3. specify and update the content on a database.


WEB DESIGN


Web design is the design of web pages, websites and web applications using HTML, CSS, images, and other media.

Web design is part of starting a website (web development) which can include web server configuration, writing web applications and server security.


A website is a collection of information about a particular topic or subject. Designing a website is defined as the arrangement and creation of web pages that in turn make up a website. A web page consists of information for which the website is developed. For example, a website might be compared to a book, where each page of the book is a web page.

A website typically consists of text and images. The first page of a website is known as the Home page or Index. Some websites use what is commonly called an Enter Page. Enter pages might include a welcome message, language/region selection, or disclaimer. Each web page within a website is an HTML file which has its own URL. After each web page is created, they are typically linked together using a navigation menu composed of hyperlinks.

Once a website is completed, it must be published or uploaded in order to be viewable to the public over the internet. This is done using an FTP client. Once published, the webmaster may use a variety of techniques to increase the traffic, or hits, that the website receives. This may include submitting the website to a search engine such as Google or Yahoo, exchanging links with other websites, creating affiliations with similar websites, etc.

A relatively new technique for creating websites called Remote Scripting has allowed more dynamic use of the web without the use of Flash or other specialized plug-ins. Leading the various techniques is Ajax, although other methods are still common, as Ajax is not a fully developed standard.


WEB PAGES


A web page or webpage is a resource of information that is suitable for the World Wide Web and can be accessed through a web browser. This information is usually in HTML or XHTML format, and may provide navigation to other web pages via hypertext links.

Web pages may be retrieved from a local computer or from a remote web server. The web server may restrict pages to a private network, e.g. a corporate intranet, or it may publish pages on the World Wide Web. Web pages are requested and served from web servers using Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP).

Web pages may consist of files of static text within the web server’s file system (static web pages), or the web server may read files of computer code that instruct it how to construct the (X)HTML for each web page when it is requested by a browser (dynamic web pages).

Web page is the main type of (and a referential for) web document.


WEB TEMPLATES SYSTEM


A web template system is a kind of “View subsystem” in a Model-View-Controller (MVC or similar) design pattern, to separate presentation from content, on web document production. A web template system is characterized by:


1. Template engine: the software, it processes input, transforming into web document. It have two typical entities on input:

a) Web template: a recipe with web document fragments, to transform content into web documents.

b) Content resource: a input supplier, like a SQL database or a XML file.

2. Template language standards: the language of the recipe.


Websites often require regular content updates, and standardization of appearance.

A news website, for example, needs to be daily updated. Each news item will be contextualized by a standard presentation (page layout, structure, etc.). A typical strategy to automate this standardization is:


1. choose a web template system to maintain the website;

2. group news items into sets, with different presentation needs;

3. specify the “presentation standards” through web templates, for each set of news;

4. specify a content resource to generate or update the content of each news item.


The idea behind the “template method” is to separate content (data) from presentation (data representation), and to separate business-logic from presentation-logic. It have many advantages in using:


1. Ease of design change

2. Ease of interface localization

3. Possibility to work separately on design and code by different people at one and the same time

4. Etc.


PAGE LAYOUT


Page layout is the part of graphic design that deals in the arrangement and style treatment of elements (content) on a page. Beginning from early illuminated pages in hand-copied books of the Middle Ages and proceeding down to intricate modern magazine and catalog layouts, proper page design has long been a consideration in printed material. With print media, elements usually consist of type (text), images (pictures), and occasionally place-holder graphics for elements that are not printed with ink such as die/laser cutting, foil stamping or blind embossing.


Since the advent of personal computing, page layout skills have expanded to electronic media as well as print media. The electronic page is better known as a (GUI) graphical user interface. Page layout for interactive media overlaps with (and is often called) interface design. This usually includes GUI elements and multimedia in addition to text and still images. Interactivity takes page layout skills from planning attraction and eye flow to the next level of planning user experience in collaboration with software engineers and creative directors.


A page layout can be designed in a rough paper and pencil sketch before producing, or produced during the design process to the final form. Both design and production can be achieved using hand tools or page layout software. Producing the most popular electronic page (the web page) may require knowledge of markup languages along with WYSIWYG editors to compensate for incompatibility between platforms. Special considerations must be made for how the layout of an HTML page will change (reflow) when resized by the end-user. cascading style sheets are often required to keep the page layout consistent between web browsers.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in Webdesign

Tagged ,