Logical and intuitive navigation

A neat and easy set up of internal links for browsing within the website determine the adhesiveness of your site. In other words, the ease with which a visitor can navigate across all your site’s web pages and come back to the home page, determines how much time he/ she would spend on your site.

Neat Layout Design

This is again critical. Keep the site layout such that it looks neat [hint: may be use white space a lot], maintains main focus on content and uses fonts that are generally available across computers worldwide.

Best website loading time

The shortest it is, the better. You can achieve better results by keeping graphics, flash and scripts to minimum; HTML & script code optimization; using Server Side Include (SSI) files wherever possible.

Pure CSS Programming

A contemporary web design in Sydney has moved beyond tables-based websites. It is in vogue to go for website development in Sydney using pure CSS programming, as it extends greater control over web design, reusability, accessibility and significantly lighter in file size.

Edited By Verecom Team

Another commonly committed blunder takes place during the designing phase. Ideally, it should constitute of many sub-phases, like identifying of a unique concept, building of the prototype, testing and upgrading. Only once a satisfactory and impactful design is finalised, should the development begin.

For designers, you may try designing the website from inside towards outside rather than working at it conventionally. Doing so, you will find it more convenient and fun to design the entire website step by step.

When feeling out of ideas, seek inspiration online or sketch something. Looking up magazines, newspapers and other offline media may also lend a spur of fresh ideas.

Edited By Gary Smith

What is so important about quality?

Quality can improve credibility and reliability of a website, which then gives your users a good first impression, initial trust.

Ordinary users do not understand user experience, nor colour dimensions, even the quality are not their concern, but they evaluate a website through the first impression.

1. What does this website do?

2. Is this website credible?

3. Is this website professional?

It only takes a few seconds to leave the first impression to the users: is this website worth trying?

Within the few seconds, users certainly not have the time to read the long-winded “about us” article, nor do they bother to experience the interaction process through searching, shopping and registration.

So what affect user decision within seconds?

1. Branding and reputation – you may not find the visual attractive, but if you have enough reputation, e.g. “as seen on TV”, that may help to stay longer.

2. Channels – user may enter a particular website through other sites they know well, for example links in eBay or partnership sites, though the website itself lack of reputation, but through its friend sites, it could affect user decision.

3. Content, also the base – a few seconds, user can skim through and get the idea of what this website does and if it fits what they need. Headlines, bold letters, pictures and price, all are helpful for user to make judgement.

Now in some companies, content and brand strategists are recruited to plan columns and contents.

Edited By Dan Li

Users are limited by reality, they tend to find a simple linear solution in real life, and refuse to think innovatively. For instance, if cell phone battery life is short, users only can think of maximizing the capacity, but not through other ways of supplying more battery, such as through walking, or cycling to give more energy.

No matter in what situation, you should first listen to your users’ opinion, then carefully analyse, and find out what they really expect.

Add more value but less interruption to your users

Apps store has a most useless application ever on a highest price, it is called “I’m Rich”, it can do nothing except showing a photo of a precious stone, sells at 999 USD. After 8 boring people bought the app, it was taken down from the Apple’s official website.

My point is not to fool your user, but to sincerely produce something that adds visible value to the users. Otherwise, no matter how great your product is, it may end up in the rubbish bin following Google Wave.

The common way to measure this value is saving time. Cloud solution, mobile solution are increasingly popular among users. Of course they can find alternative method in accomplishing their goals, but…just slower. So less interruptions in using the product saves more time for the users.

Edited By Dan Li

1. Reduce concepts to increase confidence
2. Small things matter, good and bad
3. Be great at “look” and “do”
4. Solve distractions, not discover-ability
5. UX before knobs and questions
6. Personalization, not customization
7. Value the life cycle of the experience
8. Time matters, so build for people on the go

(Source: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd834141.aspx)

iPhone human interface design principles:

Figure 1 http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/userexperience/conceptual/mobilehig/Introduction/Introduction.html

1. Metaphors

When you design applications, please learn about the existing metaphors in iPhone operation system, and do not redefine these metaphors.

2. Direct Manipulation

With multi-touch interface, iPhone users can enjoy a high level direct control over the operation system. Using gesture to communicate with the object gives user a feeling of control, as they do not need any media in between, such as mouse.

3. See and Point

Users no longer need to remember the steps of an application, because now the design is more intuitive.

4. Feedback

Besides seeing the result of their operation, users also need to have an immediate feedback from their action, especially in an application that takes long time to take effect.

5. User control

Let users initiate action and control behaviour, but not the application. Keep actions simple and direct, so that users can easily understand and remember them. It is best to adapt standard command or familiar user behaviours.

6. Aesthetic Integrity

Users expect a nice interface appearance, promise interests and encourage discoveries. Make sure your interface design elements are delicate in the application, so that they can provide a unify experience.

Edited By Dan Li

By showing the number of people have purchased the product, you are calling an immediate action, because stocks are running out, and users do not want to miss out on popular bargains.

The same affect you can create by showing the number of fans on your blog or websites. Such as in digg, users tend to look at the most “digg” articles.

Here are some common expressions:
- How many people have “liked”
- The many people have commented
- How many people have “purchased”
- How many users have “subscribed”

and so on…

Of course social proof can receive negative effect when it does meet users expectations.
4. Social network personal space messages

It is inevitable to click when there are new messages sitting in your inbox. Social network such as facebook creates an impulse for user to click whenever there is a new item or comment on their personal space. Same as iPhone users, new messages or new apps are outstanding and often trigger an immediate action. Such reminders can indicate a follow up action.

To sum up, the numbers display such as quantity sold or the amount of fans can not be fake, and it needs to be positioned at an eye catching spot, so that user can make a quick judgement. At last, new item reminder should be designed to attract attention, but not disturbing at the same time.

Edited By Dan Li

You would not be surprised in finding the same technique used on the net, the best example is the B to C (Business to Consumer) online stores, along with social networks such as facebook marketplace. We will discuss the four ways of using numbers to attract online shoppers in greater detail.

1. Create an atmosphere of scarcity and urgency
There is a sense of urgency we see “while stock lasts” and “limited time offer”. In terms of time, it uses a countdown to create a perception “you will be regretful if you don’t buy now”. A generate action usually takes place when time is close to the end. In terms of quantity, you may see on some online stores adding next to the product “finishing soon”, consumers usually cannot stand this kind of stimulation and take immediate action.

2. Create contrast, make buyers feel “bargain”
These days, buyers won’t recklessly make a purchase decision until they feel it is the “cheapest” and the “best”. Usually they like to shop around and compare different offers, ultimately make a judgement on the best “bargain”. You may see this on an online store, sellers will cross out the original price and highlight the discount in red, because buyers may not notice how much savings they can make if they do not compare to the original price, and often they do not care if the sellers are being genuine on the pricing.

Edited By Dan Li

It is helpful to use design principles to screen on all sorts of ideas, but if it gets too adhere to these principles, or even just to design around these principles can destroy creativity. Although it seems secure to brainstore design ideas within the framework of the principles. However, if we are confined by that, it is difficult to come up with surprising ideas.

This kind of idea is bound by specific principles. it is easy to gather different inspirations to enrich it.

The main points of design principles:

1. which is built on the basis of design research
2. it is concise
3. it is memorable
4. it runs through the entire design
5. it should be “easy to use”
6. it results from different sets of ideas
7. it is not self-contradictory

Finally, let’s share some examples of design principles once again:

1. quick, eye-catching, the use of pleasure
2. with a simple way input information into the calendar
3. it is more than just a calendar (memo to reminder and other functions)
4. easy to share, you can easily see your entire life schedule

Edited By Dan Li

Firstly, what is the design principles?

Design principles should reflect the core value of a product or a service, and they ought to be concise and memorable, which to be kept in mind throughout the process. In addition, all principles should not be in conflict with one another, but constantly be refined to become better aid for better product services.

Let’s take a look at 10 google user design principles. (For more detail, please go to http://www.google.com/corporate/ux.html)

1. Focus on people their lives, their work, their dreams.
2. Every millisecond counts.
3. Simplicity is powerful.
4. Engage beginners and attract experts.
5. Dare to innovate.
6. Design for the world.
7. Plan for today‘s and tomorrow‘s business.
8. Delight the eye without distracting the mind.
9. Be worthy of people‘s trust.
10. Add a human touch.

Edited By Dan Li

Well, you are looking in the right direction, for the answer lies in the clouds. Not literally, though. I am referring to Cloud Computing, a concept analogous to the electricity system.

Cloud Computing is the framework in which software and other services are provided by a hosting company over the internet. It’s just like sharing getting the power supply. Consumers pay for only the softwares they use through the cloud network. Users need not pay any attention to upgrading or maintenance, as that is looked after by the service providers. Scalability and the freedom to utilize the services across several devices and locations contribute significantly to the cost effectiveness of such services.

A novel concept, it has recently found its biggest admirer in Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer who sees a paradigm shift in the way businesses manage their assets pertaining to hardware and software. So I say, let the clouds come in and bring with the rain of fresh perspective to all!

Edited By Henry Lu

CMS allows to create a high quality websites without having great technical difficulties. Also they are great source for making websites that will have multiple users or large amount of contents. Apart from these benefits, one can easily change the site structure as per there will, therefore any modifications or redesigning would not cause many problems.

The most beneficial thing about CMS is that you are always in Control, as they are so easy to operate and update, you can make the desired changes as per your requirement, which directly improves the security of the content on the website. For those websites, which requires daily interactions with there customers, CMS allows a direct interaction, adding a personnel touch to a client-customer relationship.

Not so long ago, some features in CMS were very expensive and were reserved only for big dynamic websites, but those days are over now everything on the internet is going interactive, as the open source software is getting more and more available therefore it makes sense to use CMS for your website.

Edited By Henry Lu

One such language which is most preferred in the programming world by the web developers is Asp.Net. It is a web application framework developed and introduced in market by Giants Microsoft to allow programmers to build dynamic web sites, web applications and most importantly web services.

Web services mean that you can have several pieces of your application on different servers all around the world and the entire application will work without any glitches. Now these can even work with normal .NET Windows applications.

Version 1.0 of the .Net framework was released in January 2001. It was built in a Common language runtime, which allows the programmers to write Asp.Net code using any supported .Net Language. Ever since its first version was released, it has been a proven, well-established technology for building up anything from shopping cart system for E-commerce project, to create personal, web based photo gallery to a complete catalogue. This among many other features makes this language among the most preferred programming
language present in programming world today.

Edited By Henry Lu

It was in August 1991, when Tim Berners-Lee came up with what is considered as a first website. He was first to combine Internet communication with hypertext. It was a very basic and simple form of a website which over the years has developed into an artistic phenomenon.

Earlier Websites were made with simple HTML, which was a very basic mark-up language, it allowed websites to have headings and even link to other sites. But when, just as HTML was making its way into a really well rounded computer language capable of all kinds of things new languages like CSS, or cascading style sheets, became available.

HTML offered users limited involvement on the website. But, today things are different and Internet users can become very involved on a particular site thanks to other improvements like Adobe Flash and more. Websites today, have become more of a brand statement for an enterprise, as it popularly quoted, “What appeals to the eyes, soothes the heart as well”.

Edited By Henry Lu

Generally while looking for a service or a product on the web, client search it in Google using keywords and open the first few links which comes in the search results. If client like the designing and placement of information i.e. if client gets what he want he will stick to the website and look for the more information available otherwise he will shift to another website .

Most important thing website owners should take care while designing a website are graphic used, information available for the visitors and last but not the least usage of keywords on the content which help in optimizing the website and make website visible in the first page of the search results of Google, yahoo and others.

At Verecom Australia we take special care to make your web presence successful and useful by providing you with best website designing and development solutions in country.

Edited By Henry Lu

The world is shrinking and so are its devices. Gone are the days when you could get on the internet only through a computer. Internet-enabled devices are all the rage now and smart phones and tablet PC’s have only raised the bar. As access gets cheaper and cheaper, even basic mobile phones now offer internet capabilities. Already more people check their e-mails and surf the World Wide Web on their hand-held device than their desktop or laptop. And this trend is only going to increase.

All this propels website development in Sydney for content optimized for a mobile user. It makes sense to design websites that offer equally rich visual and interactive features on internet-enabled mobile phones and tablets, as they would on a conventional laptop or PC. After all, more people worldwide have access to a mobile phone than a PC; which means more eyes to view the web content you’ve worked so hard to create and a bigger market for your products!

Edited By Gary Smith

A client asks a website development company in Sydney, “What if following standards made my website appear boring?”

The service provider replies that adhering to standards is an ideal practice. For instance, XHTML, CSS, SVG and SMIL are interoperable technologies that when used in an integrated manner render websites friendlier to lot more browsers/ platforms/ interfaces than had been possible otherwise.

Another client query questions the feasibility of having standards in place in his website. “Will it cost high?”

Company rep divulges that standards adherence simplifies code maintenance and scalability to a large extent; and that only increases shelf life of your website without ever inviting total renovation. Hence, it in fact, costs less in the long run.

Third voice interrupts, “What about creativity?”

A smiling voice responds, “Which artistic medium does not have a structure to follow?”

Edited By Gary Smith

Since everyone into website development in Sydney already knows about it, so should you to stay abreast and even exceed expectations. Information architecture is an inclusive term that manifests the entire detour it undertakes to describe and classify information on a website in an easy to read and understand manner.

It is one universally acknowledged fact that information and navigation are key features of any website that make it a good (read user-friendly) or a bad (difficult) web site. And there lies the catch. A good information infrastructure emphasises on simplicity in categorization of information. So, website development in modern times engages information architects to aid planning and maintenance of the structure of their website for optimal taxonomy.

Accordingly, a standard website may have four types of web pages, predominantly, information, navigation, product and content pages. Each type of page represents the purpose it solves. You may find many templates of each page type online, just in case, you need one.

Edited By Gary Smith

1.Using HTML elements alone invariably results into lengthier coding and larger file sizes. Consequently, a website takes longer to download, which is less favourable user browsing experience. All styling information in a separate CSS file, on the other hand, helps keep coding to minimum and lightest.

2.It is definitely way easier to maintain a single file with style information than updating a site throughout to update its appearance once in a while.

3.Using CSS for formatting a website renders it friendlier for visually handicapped and mobility impaired internet surfers. CSS ensures organized and proper construction of semantics, which in turn allows easy and effective integration of software like “screen reader” or software for voice input, respectively.

4.Plain XHTML pages can be easily formatted for different devices and varying screen resolutions by applying different CSS format files for respective settings/ presentation methods/ media.

5.With proper separation between HTML and CSS, it is easier for search engine ‘crawlers’ to spot your site and read it throughout without misinterpretations in a hassle free manner.

In the end, it is also a good web design practice across Sydney and else where. You would find it a popular website development practice in Sydney to use XHTML and CSS for formatting.

Edited By Henry Lu

-Logical and Intuitive navigation
-Neat Layout Design
-Best possible website loading time
-Pure CSS Programming

In addition, a web designer may also consider the following during website development for Sydney based company:

Design in preparation of all screen resolutions:

Indeed, you cannot ensure the exact screen resolution your visitors might be using. You must, however, make sure that your website is able to retain them at reading the web content. So, it is advisable to design stretch layouts that would fit every screen resolution.

Design Scalable websites

It is critical to design and develop your website to be scalable. This will make it easier for you to upgrade and enhance the site designs to suit changing configurations and surrounding Internet based technologies.

Cross-browser compatible designs

If not all, you must check it for all leading Internet browsers used prevalently on World Wide Web. You may check the web design across Internet Explorer version 5 and beyond, Netscape Navigator 6+, Mozilla Firefox 1+, Opera 7+, Safari 3+ and Google Chrome, as these are used by almost 95% of Internet surfers worldwide.

Edited By Gary Smith