You may think that there is a clear cut line between web designers and web developers but in reality there is plenty of cross over. In fact, if there isn’t then the web design process can be unnecessarily hampered.
A good understanding of each others role is essential for and efficient web site production service.
Why developers cannot afford to ignore design
Sign ups and registrations are the goals of many web sites. ‘Sign up to this service now’, ‘register today’ – you see it all over the web and getting users to complete ‘sign up’ can be harder then you think.
Here are some helpful pointers from offering free trials, simplified design and A/B testing.
Getting Users to Sign Up: Factors in Design and Content.
Despite what you might thing web designers are human and has such are prone to making a mistake from time to time. Whether it’s the odd typo, browser incompatibility issue or just rushing to meet a deadline – sometimes it just goes wrong.
What makes for a good web designer where mistakes are concerned are two things, one avoid making them in the first place and two how you react when faced with a mistake.
How Designers Can Avoid Making Mistakes
As a web designer you’ll sooner or later be asked by a client to set up a blog. Fortunately there is a free, ready made solution out there – WordPress. The WordPress blogging platform has been the bloggers platform of choice since 2003.
The really great thing about WordPress from a web designers perspective is that it is fully customizable and well suited to converting to a companies corporate branding. To do this you’ll first need to read through a few tutorials.
Tutorials For Creating WordPress Themes | Top Design Magazine – Web Design and Digital Content.
Wordpress Themes
It’s not enough these days just to design a web site, launch it and then be done with it. Any sensible client will soon be asking how many visitors am I getting? what’s my most popular page? where is the traffic coming from?
This is where you need your tracking set up and running. Google Analytics have the market share here but there are some good alternatives if you need them.
Google Analytics
11 Leading Tools for Free Website Analytics | Vandelay Design Blog.
The footer of your website can be easy to forget and sometimes neglected. It quietly sits at the bottom of every page serving a very important function. The best examples contain a mini site map of the most important pages, contact information and any legal requirements that may be needed.
Rather than hiding it away some designers go large and embrace the website footer in their layout.
Website footers
20 Fresh Examples Of Large Website Footers
If you don’t already design web sites with mobile devices in mind then chances are you’re missing out on an increasing market place. To take the headache out of shrinking sites Design Shack show us here the power of ‘skeleton’.
designshack | skeleton
Build a Responsive, Mobile-Friendly Web Page With Skeleton
You see them on almost every site so how do you make your ‘about me’ page stand out? Some great examples here from individual web designers to the more traditional corporate.
sixrevisions.com | toby-powell.co.uk
When you read ‘online relationship’ you’ll probably first think of the many dating sites out there. But those clever people over at Smashing Magazine have just posted a beautiful read all about the relationship of elements in design online, offline and in business.
Smashing Magazine
Relationship Engineering: Designing The Happily Ever After
