There is one function an e-commerce website performs and that is to make people buy. That said, you would be surprised at how many sites are difficult to navigate, have incomplete product information or make you jump through hoops just to place an order. I’m sure you have experienced this? And what did you do? You clicked away. Read more…
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Using Color Psychology On Web Design
Colors are used widely in advertising and entertainment, although not many people really observe them, and this is good to know if you want to learn how to make a website. This is a good thing, because it goes around a person’s logical thinking and before the customer knows it, he or she is buying the product without even knowing why.
The colors are grouped into two: cool and warm.
The colors blue, green and purple are considered cool colors. Positive attributions of these colors include calm, nature, confidence, clarity and relaxation. Negative attributions are stagnation, depression and sadness.
Warm colors are color such as red, orange and yellow. Their positive side includes excitement, happiness, energy, and overall fun. These colors negative side can be excessive force, anger, frustration and irritation.
It was mentioned that colors have effects on the mood of a person that molds his thoughts and decisions. A color combination can be a huge factor whether a person purchases or even notices a product. Getting the attention of potential clients and getting them to purchase are important, and when learning how to make a website, knowing about colors is a critical task.
Backgrounds
Potential customers will notice the background first, and while a good background can attract them, bad choice of background will send them away.
Clients who appreciate cleanliness and order usually prefers colors like blue, green and white. Be wary about using too much that it would seem too robotic or impersonal.
If you want to give a feeling of power and strength, colors such as red, orange and black. But people might get irritated if you have too much red and yellow. Lastly, if you put a lot of black, it can give a feeling of formality, but may also feel gothic.
Text
Black is usually used as text color. But using black text on a white background can feel too formal or even robotic. If you use white text on black background, it gives a gothic feeling.
A mix of blue and white feels peaceful, and so does a mix of green and white.
Red on white background will get some attention, but using too much of red gives the feeling of anger, which is usually bad for business. Red and black, if mixed, will provide a sensual atmosphere,
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but it may also seem informal.
Announcements
Colors like red, orange and yellow will easily attract the attention of potential clients. Use them carefully because too much can give the feeling of danger all over your site instead of giving the idea of a lot of offers. This is due to the fact that the colors seem to represent potential danger, so people almost immediately check them.
Children
Red, yellow and orange usually get the attention of kids. It may be due to the colors giving the feeling of fun, movement and energy. The older age groups, on the other hand, have more than enough excitement already at work and school that they would usually appreciate more calm colors.
As you can see, colors can be used in a wide variety of ways in website design. You will attract more visitors and customers if you use color combinations correctly. If you do not take advantage of this concept, you might lose potential clients. You can benefit from this as you continue to learn how to make a website.
By: Mark Kostner
Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com
Mark Kostner has been building websites for over 5 years and runs www.buildingwebsitesmadesimple.com, an online web design course teaching everday people how to
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In the present situation of market, e-commerce stores have become the necessity and an indispensable part in the course. Since, your e-commerce website is exposed to the millions of people at a single click, thereof, the chances are high that it is able to generate huge profits.
It has been estimated that in the next few years, there would remain almost no physical storefront that does not have a virtual store. Obviously, this is because of the availability of the various application available for developing e-commerce sites.
Here, in the wake of the ongoing success of such e-commerce applications that are giving a new dimension to the businesses, we would like to provide you with a brief on how it has been possible:
1. We have a number of options available where there exists an already prepared e-commerce site, such as Amazon, eBay, and MSN Shopping, where the selling starts by just creating an account and putting your products and services. There is no doubt that it is easy to implement, and easy to put products and services in a minimal amount of time. On the other hand, it offers less flexibility, and your are required to give a percentage of your sales.
2. Another application is the option of the packaged sites, or in other words, template e-commerce application that purchases an e-commerce solution, and customise the website according to the needs and requirements of the project, by the help of the CMS available in the online industry.
And, these CMSs give the liberty to the non-tech savvy the ability to modify, edit and make changes whenever they feel the need. These packaged solutions are easy to implement, with a considerable assistance from the development companies. The advantage that it provides the branding before handed, which is generally no available in the already developed sites as mentioned above.
3. Custom developed solutions are the need of the hour. As the name goes by, all the features that are essential in an e-commerce store such as, user interface, product catalog, the secured checkout and order process, and the multiple payment options, and many such features that are developed keeping in mind your needs and requirements of the business. The company that offers you the custom based solutions would offer you fair enough SEO practices that gives you visibility in the search engines. No doubt, they are comparatively expensive but help your e-commerce site- a sure shot asset to your business in the long run.
However, a good web designing and development company would provide you with the tailor made solutions to all your business requirements and that would help you in the long run because they provide you with the latest technology and application that are available in the market along a place in the search engines, which is the most difficult to attain.
PixelCrayons, a web design & development company offers E-commerce website development and provides shopping cart solutions with integrated shopping cart software.
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Manish_Rawat
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Jesse Thomas is living the interaction designer’s dream.
He’s been working under his own self-hung shingle (JESS3) longer than he ever worked internally or at an agency, and his client roster includes impressive names such as NASA and Nike.
He works with top tech competitors such as Google and Microsoft, and he’s also the guy that Facebook tapped for their 500-million-user commemorative project, Facebook Stories. He gets to mastermind the design concepts that shape the web apps used by people all around the world, all without ever having to worry about internal politics or site metrics.
So, how do you get to be Jesse Thomas?
“I work 24/7/365,” he told us in a recent chat. “I have no social life. I don’t drink like my friends do.
“I’m also really lucky.”
In addition to that luck, Thomas is a hell of a hustler who counts the newly crowned MySpace president Mike Jones as his mentor. “Did you notice that footer link on Facebook Stories?” He pointed it out. “An agency link on a permanent section of Facebook… That wasn’t an accident.”
Here’s the nearly complete transcript of our interview; enjoy, and let us know your thoughts about Thomas, JESS3 and his work in the comments.
The Interview
Mashable: Excellent job on the Facebook 500-million-users project.
Jesse Thomas: What a great opportunity, right?
M: Have you done work with Facebook before?
JT: Yes, branding work for f8 and confidential projects. We do a ton of work for Mike Jones at MySpace. Mike is my mentor.
[We're] doing a ton with Foursquare; we are getting all our clients badges and pages and then building mini sites with the API.
Microsoft loves us. For years we have been working directly with Microsoft’s public sector groups.
And, my favorite client of all… NIKE! We are redesigning Nike.com. I’m sure you understand how tricky it is for an agency like mine to work with a mega brand like Nike. We are working directly for Nike, and the work we do gets passed to their agencies.
We also work with brands via agencies, so we know how to navigate those waters. AMEX is via their AOR [agency of record]. We get love from Main Street to Madison Avenue.
Mashable: So when you say “we,” who else is working with you? Weren’t you a solo once upon a time?
JT: I have 15 full time employees, 30+ part time and 100+ freelancers. We have a UK office. We are a UX shop, and we also do animation and installations. We are known for data visualization.
At one time, it was just me! But I’m hoping it will be like Ogilvy, the name will live on past me.
And when I say installations, I’m talking about social media-themed art shows and corporate work like our AMEX projects. Typically these walls start as a pimped-out Twitter wall, but we push for Foursquare, Flickr, etc.
One of Thomas’ early concepts for the Facebook Stories project.
M: How long did it take you — roughly how many years — to get to this level?
JT: I’m 28, I was in design school when I was 22.
I was at Aol [from May to December in 2007], and I had this opportunity to go to Asia with AIGA on a lecture tour. So I left Aol and hired two guys, my director of tech and an illustrator, full time.
Everyone loves good work, and social media is tricky. We get the jobs no one thinks they want.
We see all the time agencies that pitch digital strategy, but the CEO or the managers don’t like social media and technology or they are green at using it, which I find lame beyond belief, to the point I set up shop to win work from them.
They are asleep at the wheel! And they outsource the best projects, the most crucial parts.
I was hustling mega new business while at all my jobs, on the side.
M: And you really do get to do all the creative interface design without having to worry about the aftermath/metrics, right?
JT: Exactly. Never ever ever. That’s the client’s problem. We follow directions. We are like the mercenaries; we don’t care who we fight for or why.
M: So, you’ve also worked at agencies a bit in the past — what was that like?
JT: It’s a place to learn, like bootcamp. If your agency doesn’t feel like bootcamp, it’s because they suck, and you probably do too.
Basically, working at an agency is like being a slave or at a frat your first year. You have to have thick skin and learn every minute of the process.
M: How hands-on are you personally with these projects?
JT: I lead every project. Every single one. These are all my babies. I find the talent. I close half the new business.
People tell me I’m a slave driver. I know what I want.
If a client wants something stupid, that’s OK. They are like the guy with a broken arm at the hospital asking for cocaine. You have to, as a doctor, say “No” … It’s very risky the bigger the clients get.
Agencies call that reckless. I call it shooting from the hip
M: Do you envision going on like this, at this rate, indefinitely?
JT: So we are building a number of products in our labs, silly things like oil.jess3.com and much more serious money making products. We do 10% of our work in labs, 90% for clients.
I’d like to flip that… more like a company that begins to be known for products, and that would hopefully trump the brand itself… It’s all about patents. We have a few patents pending, and if I had more money, I’d be buying up patents relating to our stealth products, one of which is in the online advertising space.
So we would becomes the next GE or IBM. We are talking about world domination here!
Thomas and crew are working on a feature-length documentary film on the state of the Internet; the above is just a teaser.
M: Do you think end users’ misunderstanding of online privacy has set location services back at all? We know it did at Facebook, at least for a while…
JT: I think we have more super users now, and once we get past this hump, it will be a slippery slope. Facebook has a great system — tiered privacy.
But that’s the boring stuff. What’s interesting is, what if everyone in your phone book was a user of this service. How could that experience get cooler?
I don’t worry about the haters or the fools. They will catch up. Build for the nerds, not the dropouts.
M: What are you going to test next year? A new passive checkin app? And if it goes over well, would you ever roll it out yourself? Or give the product to a company like Facebook or MySpace?
JT: All of the above. We are fine with building for others; it finances everything else.
M: What’s one application/site you yourself didn’t design that you thought was brilliant?
JT: FarmVille. I don’t play it, but the idea is genius … It’s an evolution of Sim City — a smart evolution.
M: Would you ever make a game?
JT: YES. Lots of ideas, UX, etc. We’ve done quizes and such that were games, but a true game is on our list.
And social games have been quietly clocking ridiculous session times under the radar. People will spend eight hours on a Zynga game, these crazy amounts of time to the point they have tiers of ad sales because they are so saturated. It’s a gold rush.
Disclosure: JESS3 has previously done design work for Mashable.
More Dev & Design Resources from Mashable:
- 10 Tools for Distributed Developer Teams
- HOW TO: Develop iPhone Apps With Staying Power
- 11 Ways to Speed Up WordPress
- 10 Tools for Getting Web Design Feedback
- 40+ Web Design and Development Resources for Beginners
As part of the redesign of the University website, the CRC site has also changed. Most information has been moved over to the new pages but some is being redesigned to work better within the new design. If you can't find something …
USA (Maryland) Website Redesign | Web Development RFP
Web Design & Development RFP, RFQ, PQQ, Tenders, Solicitations & Contracts.
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Need a quote on redesign of our current website. New site will have drop down menus along top with side menu. Middle content area will be a mix of text and images. Developer will design the new site and populate it with text and images …
Hope you enjoy the read as much as I did and please if you have something to say, use the comments form below to let everyone know your thoughts.
Have a great day!
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Learn To Change How Dates Are Displayed On Your Joomla Site
When you first install Joomla on your server, you may notice that the date is in a European format, meaning that the the day of the month precedes the name of the month like this – 03 December. In the U.S. the date formats are generally displayed with the the Read more…
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E-commerce websites have emerged as an effective tool for selling your products on the internet without actually meeting your customer as well as without showing him the real products. In such case, the design of an E-commerce website becomes very important. The E-commerce websites are designed to lead the visitor to one simple Read more…
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Does anybody need me to do online graphic design(or know where i can find one)?
im 17 i need to help my handicap mother pay her rent and its hard to find an actual job where i live. i've been trying to find someone that will let me do odd jobs in the neighborhood (unsuccessful & family has no car to go far). But i am very good Read more…
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I want to make money online with my skills…Graphic Design and Blogging any ideas..for starting website?
what was or ideas(topics ) do you think would be interesting im a college student and ii have free time so is there any ideas for putting the two together i was thinking of creating children website as well as somethiing for Read more…
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Every website requires optimization. Ecommerce websites are no exception just because they happen to be commercial ventures. As a matter of fact, practical wisdom says that ecommerce websites need the finest form of website optimization as they are meant to sell the products that get placed on them and are also meant to project the products and services in a very professional manner.
The fact of the matter is that the SEO Services that are used and deployed on a website increase its rankings on the search engines. If an ecommerce website has to do business, it ought to gain such momentum that contemporaries selling the same products find it very tough to compete with it. This momentum is provided to the website through effective and content rich SEO Services that ensure that the surge towards the highest echelons of the search rankings does not lose out on velocity. A good SEO Services firm that has been providing these services to enterprises for many years will know all the connotations involved in optimizing the website and will incorporate the same in these ecommerce portals that it handled and ensure that they do well over the search engines.
There is humongous pressure on ecommerce portals to perform and attract potential buyers. This can only happen when they get proper optimization services which put them on a growth track and ensure that their name is well heard amongst all strata of web users looking for the products sold by these portals.
Ecommerce websites are the most happening portals on the block and are always attracting headlines for the huge sales they make. Consumers find it easy to shop o them for all the shopping options available at them. This becomes impossible if the website is not a well known entity and if people have not heard about it very highly. The services ensure that whatever the website sells is heard loudly and the entity is able to create a splash on top of the rankings. The services take the website up on the rankings and create a cohesive environment where the website is able to thrive well and perform up to the expectations levied on it.
The website comes up as a mysterious entity that was not known earlier but is now known very well. Its services get highlighted very well and it is made into a recognizable brand which people find easy to identify with and which they feel like associating with. Hiring SEO Services India is one of the best things that can ever happen to an ecommerce portal with the services ensuring that the website does well over the search engines.
About The Author
IDS logic a brand name in India for its Outsourcing Company India which provides top class search engine optimization and web design services at affordable prices. For more details visit our SEO India website.
Sources For Quality Web Design Advice
Learning web design can be quite confusing as there is such a myriad of different tutorials and learning hubs on the net. Many of the top web designers have learnt their trade not through formal education and degree courses, but because they are autodidacts, that is, they are self-taught.
Even at this stage in the 21st century, universities and higher education facilities are not geared up to teaching the new media, so those wanting to learn the necessary skills have had to find their own sources of education. If you are just starting down the web design road you too may not have the option of attending a course and so are looking for alternative sources of information.
Web design classes aren’t a possibility for everybody as many out there work full-time and have neither the money nor the time to attend college.
However, many learning institutions run part-time evening courses and only charge a minimal fee so it is worth ringing them up and asking for a brochure. They are not the type of courses that will give you an in-depth understanding of web design, but they will at least give you a basic grounding.
Several years ago I attended an evening course that was teaching Dreamweaver and Flash basics, and I came away with at the least the fundamentals of how these pieces of software work.
Most web designers will advise learners to stay clear of Dreamweaver because it is a WYSIWYG editor (WYSIWYG is an acronym for What You See Is What You Get). This means it writes the code for you, whereas learners really need to know how to write the code themselves.
However, by using the WYSIWYG features of Dreamweaver it really is possible to quickly build a basic but visually stimulating website. It’s the quickest way for the novice to create something complete rather than just writing lines of code.
Today, I still use Dreamweaver because I like its layout although I don’t use its WYSIWYG features – I write the code myself; and the code you need to learn in order to be a efficient web designer is Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).
HTML was created by the creator of the World Wide Web, Tim Burners-Lee, at the turn of the 90s, with CSS following a few years later. The idea behind CSS was the separation of style and
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content. Today, aspects of a web page such as layout, fonts and colour are controlled by CSS and not by HTML as they used to be.
After my brief evening course I sought out other sources of information on the net and in the bookshops. In particular, there are two series of books I would recommend. The first is Hands-On Training, produced by Lynda.com. Their guides are written by the world’s top web designers and often come with an accompanying DVD-ROM. Lynda.com also has a whole host of online video tutorials too that are well worth purchasing. The second recommendation is O’Reilly Media who have been producing technology learning resources since 1978, although perhaps it is best to tackle their books after you have a little knowledge of HTML and CSS under your belt.
As for the net, because of what you are studying, you’ll find an abundance of quality material on the web!
There are many, many different sites and online communities that pump out good, solid tutorials and advice for free. Google, truly, is your friend here and will help you uncover those illuminating design and code hubs.
One place in particular, Sitepoint, has proven to be an invaluable resource to me over the years, both as a novice and still today as a professional.
You will always find a polite and genuinely helpful response to any question that you ask on the Sitepoint forums; and, because it has existed since 1999, there is a huge reservoir of old threads for you to swim through.
Other sites are w3schools.com which is a good reference source with detailed sections on HTML and CSS and alistapart.com which is the best place to learn about web standards.
When you start to learn HTML and CSS it can all seem a bit daunting, but if you have the time to spare and the determination to apply yourself I can guarantee that you will succeed.
By: Andy W
Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com
Andy Walpole is a web designer and developer: Suburban Glory Web Design
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