0 Web design with a difference

Anybody looking for a web designer is spoilt for choice. Type in web design in Google and you will come up with millions of websites offering web design around the world. The web design industry is indeed extremely competitive. So how do we go about choosing a web design company that offers websites that are not only well designed but equally important, a website that ranks well on major search engines?

A lot has been written on web design that sell products and services but relatively few web designers know how or are even bothered about developing websites with the basic elements required to give your website a head start on search engines.

Here are a few important web design tips that will set your website apart when it comes to ranking on search engines and selling your products and services.

1. Every web design should include the famous tags. There is no excuse for not including these in a web design from the outset. No matter what they say, tags have their say in the way search engines look at your website and no web design is complete without carefully chosen tags.
There are 3 important tags namely the Title tag, Description tag and the keywords tag. Each web page should have its own set of tags. What are these tags? These are words and phrases that are embedded in the HTML of the website and very easy to include in your web design.
Let us look at each of these tags.

2. The Title tag is an important part of web design for search engine optimisation. This tag is likely to be picked up by search engines and displayed as a result header when a visitor finds your website on a search engine. This tag also appears as the title that in the blue strip at the top of your browser.
A good web design will contain a short Title tag that includes the keywords you think visitors will use to find your site.

3. The Web design should also include the Description tag. This is a short description of what the web page is about and it often appears just below the title in search engine results. Although the importance of the Description tag in search engine ranking is uncertain, the description in a web design acts like a sales pitch. This is your opportunity to tell the visitor what the web page is about and why he or she should click on your website. Remember, web design is not just about building a website and getting it ranked. A good web design should do all this, get the visitor to click on your website when it is found and sell your products and services.

4. Let's look at the Keywords tag. A lot of web designs contain a mass of supposed key words in the Keywords tag. Keywords are the words or phrases that visitors use to search for websites on search engines. A good web design practice is to have focussed and themed web pages. This means that each web page should be focused on one keyword at a time and this keyword should be in the web page Keyword tag. It is very important that the keywords used in the tag also appear in the body of the text.

5. The h1, h2 headers are also important elements of a good web design. Use h1 and h2 headers as these are read by search engines. Use them as high up on your web page as possible and where possible use the keywords in the h1 header. H1 headers are by default large fonts. It is possible to format these so they match the overall look of the web design and retain their header properties.

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0 Best methods to create your outline for your articles

We've done it through junior high, it expanded longer through high school, then on college it became chapters. No matter how many times a person have done it, writing articles has proven to be a task many has continuously avoided. Now at a time when writing articles could help your job or work, facing the job at hand can be still faced with unfriendly behavior.

While there are a great number of people who do not have the same attitude in article writing as others, there are still those who would rather walk in piping hot coals than do some article writing. What set other people apart from other towards article writing is that they are prepared and has some methods and procedures in writing articles.

One of the methods you can use to prepare yourself when tasked to write in article is creating an outline first. Creating an outline for all your articles makes you prepared. You have an idea of what to do first and make a plan for your succeeding steps. Being prepared makes the job easier and faster. Being organized will allow for disorientation to be shunned away.

An outline can act as the design or blueprint for your article. This will guide you in creating the introduction, body and conclusion of your article. Here in this point, you can write down some of the ideas and sentences that you feel will look good in your article. This could be some of the focal point that could help make your article creative, interesting and appealing to a reader.

A carefully planned and fully prepared project would guarantee and ensure a problem and worry free procedure that can virtually go without any hassles. Creating an outline for all your articles will get you ready and breeze through writing an article in no time at all. Here I will provide you with some tips and guidelines in how to create an outline for all of your articles.

Do a couple of brainstorming and jot down your brilliant ideas first. Think of some ways to attract the interest of your reader. Designate a time frame where you can write down all the ideas that you can use for your articles. By this time you should have done all your research and information searching. Review and reread your ideas and notes, gain mastery and sufficient familiarity with your topic so that writing them down later own would be easy for you.

The next step is to discover your sub topic and sub titles. As you would provide a first sentence for your article, one that would immediately grab the attention of your reader, you would need some as well for your sub topics. To be concise, you would need to get all the facts that will support and go against your point.

These are the frames or skeleton of your article, now its time to add the flesh and the meat of your article. You will need to connect all your paragraphs and sub topics. This will form the body of your Article. While the introduction will usher in the ideas of your paragraph, you will need a conclusion. The conclusion will wrap up your points and drive in what you are saying in your article.

The outline for your article would also require you to write a draft first. This may take more than one attempt but remember that it is called a draft for a reason. Your outline shall be perfected as each draft is written and this draft is meant for your eyes only so there's no reason to feel ashamed. As you go on, you will clearly see the bigger picture and write an article that will perfectly suit what is demanded of it.

Reread and reread what you have written down. Always refer to your outline so that you wont drift away from what you had first written down. Its not hard to be caught in the moment and get lost in your writing frenzy. Your outline will help you keep in track. All those hours spent in outlining your art

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0 How to Make an Outstanding MySpace Page

It all starts with a MySpace editor. What is a MySpace editor? It is a program to help you edit your MySpace page. There are many MySpace editors online and while they all have more or less the same basic format, they differ in terms of ease-of-use and number of features. Before you start editing your page, you should take a look at a few MySpace editors to see which one feels most user-friendly to you. Our MySpaceMix.com editor has several features that you might not see on other MySpace editors – all of which are designed to make it as easy to use as possible, even for MySpace newbies.

But no matter which of the MySpace editors you decide to use, there are a few simple guidelines to follow to make your page look terrific.

First, let's go through the features that are common to all MySpace editors. They include:

Mode, Background Color, Background Image, Background Music, Font, Main Text, Link Text, Image Borders and Image Effects.

You choose what to enter into each section, generate a MySpace code, and then copy and paste to your MySpace page.

Sounds simple, right?

Then why, do my friends ask, does my page so often come out differently than I imagined it?

Well, there are a few reasons. One is that it is hard to imagine how your page will look when you are clicking on a bunch of little color squares. The other is that lots of people aren't aware of some basic web design rules that can help you avoid all those clashes on your page.

The first rule is color. Make a list of the different elements on your page, and decide what kind of color scheme you want. For example, do you want matching or contrasting colors? Do you want your page to look preppy, cute or bold? Do you like pastels or brights? Once you've made a decision, you can look at the color squares and decide which colors will fit best with the look you want for your page.

The next step is the font. There are too many choices of beautiful fonts out there that would look gorgeous on a party invitation or a billboard but horrible on a MySpace page. You want to choose a font that has character to it, but is very clear on-screen. A good example is Comic Sans Serif. It's easy to read, and since it imitates the handwriting used for comics, it has an informal, friendly character to it. While you wouldn't use it on a business or professional site, it's perfect for your web page. Another good choice is Verdana, which is also very screen-friendly. If you prefer fonts with serifs (those are the fine cross-lines at the edges of the letters), then Georgia is the way to go. It's pretty, and is much easier to read on-screen than Times New Roman.

Now you have to decide if you want a background image or music. If you want an image, keep this in mind: When there's a single picture stuck in the middle of a MySpace page that doesn't go away, it can be very annoying to read the text, especially if the picture is in full color. Try using a black and white or sepia image that stretches across the entire background and is faint enough that it doesn't interfere with the text. Background music is fine, just make sure that it doesn't extend the download time of your page by too long, or nobody will have the patience to wait around.

Finally, the borders. These can be very useful in setting apart the different sections of your page, and giving the whole thing a very neat, organized look. You should select colors that are darker or bolder than the other colors you chose, because that's what will give the borders the contrast you need to make them stand out.

Now that you have these pointers in mind, choose your layout and make your page stand out!

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0 Writing Effective ALT Text For Images

Anyone who knows anything about web accessibility knows that images need alternative, or ALT, text assigned to them. This is because screen readers can't understand images, but rather read aloud the alternative text assigned to them. In Internet Explorer we can see this ALT text, simply by mousing over the image and looking at the yellow tooltip that appears. Other browsers (correctly) don't do this. The HTML for inserting ALT text is:

But surely there can't be a skill to writing ALT text for images? You just pop a description in there and you're good to go, right? Well, kind of. Sure, it's not rocket science, but there are a few guidelines you need to follow...

Spacer images and missing ALT text

Spacer images should always be assigned null ALT text, or alt="" . This way most screen readers will completely ignore the image and won't even announce its presence. Spacer images are invisible images that pretty most websites use. The purpose of them is, as the name suggests, to create space on the page. Sometimes it's not possible to create the visual display you need, so you can stick an image in (specifying its height and width) and volià, you have the extra space you need.

Not everyone uses this null ALT text for spacer images. Some websites stick in alt="spacer image". Imagine how annoying this can be for a screen reader user, especially when you have ten of them in a row. A screen reader would say, "Image, spacer image" ten times in a row (screen readers usually say the word, "Image", before reading out its ALT text) - now that isn't helpful!

Other web developers simply leave out the ALT attribute for spacer images (and perhaps other images). In this case, most screen readers will read out the filename, which could be 'newsite/images/onepixelspacer.gif'. A screen reader would announce this image as "Image, newsite slash images slash one pixel spacer dot gif". Imagine what this would sound like if there were ten of these in a row!

Bullets and icons

Bullets and icons should be treated in much the same way as spacer images, so should be assigned null alternative text, or alt="". Think about a list of items with a fancy bullet proceeding each item. If the ALT text, 'Bullet' is assigned to each image then, "Image, bullet" will be read aloud by screen readers before each list item, making it take that bit longer to work through the list.

Icons, usually used to complement links, should also be assigned alt="". Many websites, which place the icon next to the link text, use the link text as the ALT text of the icon. Screen readers would first announce this ALT text, and then the link text, so would then say the link twice, which obviously isn't necessary.

(Ideally, bullets and icons should be called up as background images through the CSS document - this would remove them from the HTML document completely and therefore remove the need for any ALT description.

Decorative images

Decorative images too should be assigned null alternative text, or alt="". If an image is pure eye candy then there's no need for a screen reader user to even know it's there and being informed of its presence simply adds to the noise pollution.

Conversely, you could argue that the images on your site create a brand identity and by hiding them from screen reader users you're denying this group of users the same experience. Accessibility experts tend to favour the former argument, but there certainly is a valid case for the latter too.

Navigation & text embedded within images

Navigation menus that require fancy text have no choice but to embed the text within an image. In this situation, the ALT text shouldn't be used to expand on the image. Under no circumstances should the ALT text say, 'Read all about our fantastic services, designed to help you in everything you do'. If the menu item says, 'Services' then the ALT text should also say 'Services'. ALT text should always describe the content of the image and should repeat the text word-for-word. If you want to expand on the navigation, such as in this example, you can use the title attribute.

The same applies for any other text embedded within an image. The ALT text should simply repeat, word-for-word, the text contained within that image.

(Unless the font being used is especially unique it's often unnecessary to embed text within images - advanced navigation and background effects can now be achieved with CSS.)

Company logo

Websites tend to vary in how they apply ALT text to logos. Some say, 'Company name', others 'Company name logo', and other describe the function of the image (usually a link back to the homepage), 'Back to home'. Remember, ALT text should always describe the content of the image so the first example, alt="Company name", is probably the best. If the logo is a link back to the homepage then this can be effectively communicated through the title tag.

Conclusion

Writing effective ALT text isn't too difficult. If it's a decorative image then null alternative text, or alt="" should usually be used - never, ever omit the ALT attribute. If the image contains text then the ALT text should simply repeat this text, word-for-word. Remember, ALT text should describe the content of the image and nothing more.

Do also be sure also to keep ALT text as short and succinct as possible. Listening to a web page with a screen reader takes a lot longer than traditional methods, so don't make the surfing experience painful for screen reader users with bloated and unnecessary ALT text.

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0 Designing your website

'First impression lasts' is very much true for online business. Website content (texts, graphics and animations) must create a 3D picture of product/service in the mind of the consumers, and entice them to buy it. Content can make a business click or sick on internet.

A website is like your online shop, your virtual interactive portfolio. For web design tool, it is important to determine your target audience and then design for speed, quality, and impact.

Speed
Keep the graphics to the minimum. Remember graphics don't entice customers to pay up, the content does. The rule of graphics is use only where necessary.

Quality
A customer cannot see you or touch your product or service. He can only see what is presented to him visually on the website. Your product or service has to make an impact as to be able to make purchase it. Quality here matters a lot. Nothing but the best is the rule when it comes to quality.

Impact
The rule of website usability is that your website has just 20 seconds. You either make an impact on your customer or you don't in these 20 seconds. To make an impact on your customer you need to get the right mix of graphics, colors, content and layout.

Impact of Content
Content is king, it is said. It either converts a visitor into your customer or it doesn't. Content can make or break a website. The power of the written word has been witnessed many a time. Products have become success stories, resumes transformed into high profile jobs, a 10-cent brochure into millions of dollars just because of the right word. Content should always be professionally managed by people who understand how it will impact your customers.

Impact of Colors
Pink is so feminine, ouch! Cute and light.
Blue defines power and professionalism. It's also for space and networking.
Red is associated with love, passion, warning, excitement and action.
Green is for money, nature, animals, health, healing, life and harmony.
Grey is associated with neutrality. A sense of being reserved.

Website design tools
Serverplex.com features an excellent web design tool. No coding knowledge required. No HTML tags or any complicated code. A simple interface where you type in what you want. Add pictures. And you have your webpage ready. The icing on the pudding is yet to come. This tool is free!

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0 Increase Sales and Make Money Using Google's Adwords

Most Internet users use Google and other search engines on a regular basis to find information, products, services and more. Most website owners will find that Google directs 2 to 3 times as much traffic to their website than Yahoo and MSN combined. Therefore, it may be a good idea to pay Google to send focused traffic to your website. This can be accomplished by registering for Google's advertising service – Adwords.

You may already be familiar with this service and don't even know it. Adwords are the paid advertisements that show up on the right side of Google's search results under "Sponsored Links.". Adwords also appear on many commercial and personal pages as a way for the website owner to make a little money from their website. These advertisements usually carry the caption, "Ads by Goooooogle" at the top. The service is termed a pay-for-click service because Google will charge you each time an Internet User clicks on your advertisement and visits your website.

Adwords is a terrific complement to any existing advertising campaign, but probably should not be used as the sole marketing channel for your website. This program allows you to control your advertising budget by giving you the ability to set the maximum price that you're willing to pay, per click, and also a maximum allowable daily advertising budget. You choose the keywords that you would like to target, bid on the maximum per click price you'd like to pay, and Google will send focused traffic to your website. According to Google, Adwords text advertisements boast a standard click-through rate four to five times higher than traditional banner ads.

Because you are paying Google per click, you need to ensure that your traffic is highly targeted for your website. It doesn't make sense to pay a lot of money for a lot of click-troughs and not generate any revenue for your business. It is important that you follow a few guidelines to ensure that you don't waste your precious advertising dollars:

Choose Specific Keywords

It is smart to avoid choosing keywords that are too vague or general. To generate highly qualified prospects you have to choose very specific keywords. This way, competition for the keyword will be lower, and it will cost less per click, and you won't be throwing money away on expensive, unqualified leads. For example, if you only sell Green Widgets, don't bid on the term "Widgets" it is too broad and you'll pay for clicks from people searching for "Red Widgets"

Use Geographical Targeting

It is smart to start small by limiting your advertisement's reach to a selected area. This way you can see the effect it will have on sales without spending a lot of money. Later on, you can expand to other regions; go national, or even global. If your business only caters to the local community, then you should only advertise in your city and surrounding localities.

Use Proper Grammar and Spelling

This tip may sound like a no-brainer, but it sometimes goes neglected. Whether they want to admit it or not, a lot of people are terrible spellers and possess poor writing skills. But, a text advertisement that has misspelled words or doesn't read clearly is not going to get clicked, and it reflects poorly upon your company. Make sure that you check your ads for both spelling and grammar errors. Have a friend, co-worker or employee proof read your ad before submitting it.

Look at the Competition

No matter what kind of product or service you are promoting, chances are, someone else is doing something similar using Adwords. Search for the terms you are likely to use in order to size-up the competition. Pay attention to their ad's wording, titles, or incentives they use. You don't won't to make your ad exactly like the competition, but it's smart to know what their doing to ensure that your advertisement is going to be effective.

Stick to Your Budget

Create a budget and stick to it. In marketing, there is a saying, "I waste half my advertising dollars, but, the problem is, I don't know which half". It's difficult to know how effective the Adwords program will be if you're also utilizing other marketing channels (as you should be). When checking out, give your customers the option to let you know how they found your website. If you find Adwords is paying off, then it may be smart to increase your budget. It also may not be very cost efficient to bid for the #1 spot for every keyword. The #2 position may be almost as effective, but cost only half as much.

If your website doesn't sell or promote anything, then it doesn't make sense to pay for traffic. If this is the case, Google will actually pay you to display Adwords advertisements on their websites. To find out more information regarding the Adwords program, Visit Google's Advertising Programs.

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0 10 Step Web Design and Development Contract Agreement

This is not written by a professional lawyer or anyone close to one. It is written by a typically business owner of a successful web development company who has no law degree or the budget to hire a lawyer to write a web development contract. However, they are in need of a contract agreement that will assure a project will be well outlined for both the client and the developer as to what the expectations are of the entire project.

I must write a disclaimer that this proven web development agreement is purely based on experience and knowledge of the web design and development industry. Others may write these contracts and agreements differently. This article is written to help others who wish to know how to begin to write a 10 step web design and development agreement. So enough said, let's get down to the 10 steps:

1. Scope of Services:
Start off with the most important aspect of the entire project. What exactly are you as the developer going to do for the client? Present a general 3-5 sentence summary of the scope of service. Will you be responsible for the design and programming? How will the website be updated? Who will be responsible for the marketing at the end of the proejct? Who will host the website when the project is done?

2. Price and Payments
This is the area where you are upfront and state the exact price payment and terms of the payment is split up into installments. Is the project quoted at a fixed rate? Is it an hourly rate and how is this documented and tracked? Will the payments be made with a certain percentage up front as a down payment and then a monthly billing cycle, or is it a milestone related payment system?

3. Term and Termination
How long will this agreement contract be enforceable? If the client does not want to persue the project ¾ of the way through the project how can he get out? What are the penalties and timeframe they can exit the contract? This is crucial especially to web development agreements with entreprenuers and startups who many times have a great idea, some type of outline or business plan for what they wish to do, but for some reason never finish through with the project. Then as the developer you must have certain rights. Do you keep all of the code that has been developed? Can you finish it and retain intellectual property to it? Many factors can go in this area, but it protects both the client and the developer in the case a developer never is able to complete a project or continues to be late on deliverables and the client wishes to terminate the relationship.

4. Ownership of Intellectual Property
One aspect that needs to be addressed is who will retain the intellectual property to the project? Typically the client retains all intellectual property. This area highlights all of the intellectual property covered such as the source code, all digital files, documentation, etc. Intellectual property is very important to any and all web design and development projects.
5. Confidential Information
Many clients wish to keep all information that is exchanged within a project to the developer as highly confidential and cannot be disclosed whatsoever. This must be addressed in any agreement as to the extent that information can be disclosed. Can the developer mention that they are working for the client during the course of the project to other prospects or potential clients? Many developers use their portfolio of clients as sales tools for other clients. This area must represent exactly what is disclosed and for how long. What period of time is the information kept confidential and so on.

6. Warranty and Disclaimer
Having a warranty on the work that is developed is standard in most web projects. Typically a 30-90 day warranty is given on all work to be functional and bug free. Now this is the area that small details such as the client having access to the server and by mistake entering the files and making changes on mistake that affect the functionality within the terms. Think of the label on products that you purchase such as furniture and mattresses. It says that the warranty is void if you tear the label off. This is what you can address in this area. You will provide warranty on certain terms and conditions with specific disclaimers as well.

7. Limitation of Liability
This is the area in which the developer discloses that they are not liable for any losses of money for the developer or other economic losses directly or indirectly associated with the development of the website. Some less experiences clients will turn around to the developer as the source of their website not succeeding online. Avoid issues in the future if something does not succeed that the client thought would, especially things that the developer cannot control once the website is launched. Also, during the project itself, if for whatever reason there is a financial loss, it protects you as a developer.

8. Relation of Parties
Make sure that the client and developer understand what their relationship is. Is the relationship a development partnership? Is it strictly a work-for-hire type relationship? Is it a client and vendor relationship. This is the area where this needs to be highlighted to make sure the business relationship is understood.

9. Employee Solicitation / Hiring
Many developers never think twice about this, but there have been cases where clients have lured employees or freelancers of the developer during or after the project was completed. Of course this has huge negative aspects associated to it if this happens. That is why this area is also extremely crucial to lay out the fact that the client can not solicite the developers employees in any way when it comes to potential hiring or additional perks. Specify a certain amount of time for this as well. Typically this time from is between 2-5 years.

10. Entire Agreement
This is the ending of the document that basically should say that the entire document and its attributes fall under the entire contract and that nothing will supersede it. Also, this is the area the will have the client and developers key representative who will sign it, date it, and post their roles within the company. Make sure that any and all modifications after signature are signed with initials of both parties next to the change.

These 10 steps to writing a successful web design and development contract and agreement will give a peace of mind to both the client and developer and will pave the way to a trusting business relationship.

Some clients may be surprised when presented with what could be a 2-4 page document to read and sign. Don't be afraid to walk them through each point and reaffirm the fact that such a document is needed to protect them as a client and you as a developer in any unwanted circumstances, at the same time highlights exactly what everyone's obligations are. With that said, there should be no issues and the client should be willing to sign the document. Of course if they are not willing to sign the document perhaps it is a financial loss to you as the developer but in the long run it will avoid headaches and even more substancial financial losses.

Good luck on writing your first web design and development agreement. As all things the more you practice writing these the easier they become.

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0 Color Theory - Choosing Your Website Colors

Is the choice of colors for your website and print materials more than just a matter of personal preference? Does it really matter what color choices you make? Will your audience really feel differently because of the color combinations? The answer to all these questions is Yes, Yes, and Yes!

Color is considered emotional, because variations evoke different emotions in people. We all know that green is the color of money, but did you also know that green can symbolize greed, envy, and jealousy? The colors you choose will have a direct effect on how the public perceives your company or product. This can be complicated by the fact that our use of color on the web is now limitless: technology allows us to create millions of color combinations. So how do you choose? This brief article will make it simple to understand the basics of choosing colors.

It's important to understand that every color has a positive and negative set of emotions associated with it, what I call the "color meaning". It's this meaning that will affect your customer's emotional response to your company, brand or product. So when choosing color schemes for your website, or any other media type, you need to make sure you're presenting your company or product with a color that will most likely entice the audience to choose your company or product.

Take a quick break, and go look in your lunch room, refrigerator, or kitchen cabinets at the products we purchase from the grocery store. What color do you see the most of? Chances are, you're seeing red, and lots of it. Just glimpsing into my cabinets, now that I know I'm looking for it, I seem to be thrown in to a world of red products. Chef Boyardee, Kellogg's, Lipton, Carnation, Ragu, Aunt Jemima, Nestle, Betty Crocker, Orville Redenbacher's, Heinz, Pam, all of these brands are jumping out at me with red in their labels. Why? Red is a very "hot" color, and very emotional as well. In studies, red actually has a physical effect on people, increasing their heart rate and causing blood pressure to rise. Red grabs our attention, stirs us to action, and thus is a very powerful color for product packaging.

All colors fit into three categories; cool, warm and neutral. While you can select all of your colors from the same category, it is often possible to achieve a more powerful effect by introducing a color from one of the other groups. Let's take a look now at how colors work together, and what each color may mean to the viewer.

Cool Colors
Blue, green, purple, turquoise and silver are cool colors. Cool colors tend to have a calming effect on the viewer. Used alone however, these colors can have a cold or impersonal feel, so when choosing cool colors, it may be wise to add a color from another group to avoid this.

Blue Color Meaning.
Positive: tranquility, love, loyalty, security, trust, intelligence
Negative: coldness, fear, masculinity

Green Color Meaning.
Positive: money, growth, fertility, freshness, healing
Negative: envy, jealousy, guilt, disorder

Purple Color Meaning. (purple is a combination of blue and red, so it is found in both the warm and cool categories)
Positive: royalty, nobility, spirituality, luxury, ambition
Negative: mystery, moodiness

Turquoise Color Meaning.
Positive: spiritual, healing, protection, sophisticated
Negative: envy, femininity

Silver Color Meaning.
Positive: glamorous, high tech, graceful, sleek
Negative: dreamer, insincere

Warm Colors
Red, pink, yellow, orange, purple, and gold are warm colors. Warm colors tend to have an exciting effect on the viewer. However when these colors are used alone they can over-stimulate, generating emotions of anger and violence. When choosing warm tones, adding colors from another group will help to balance this.

Red Color Meaning.
Positive: love, energy, power, strength, passion, heat
Negative: anger, danger, warning, impatience

Pink Color Meaning.
Positive: healthy, happy, feminine, compassion, sweet, playful
Negative: weakness, femininity, immaturity

Yellow Color Meaning.
Positive: bright, energy, sun, creativity, intellect, happy
Negative: coward, irresponsible, unstable

Orange Color Meaning.
Positive: courage, confidence, warmth, friendliness, success
Negative: ignorance, sluggishness, superiority

Purple Color Meaning. (purple is found in both warm and cool colors)
Positive: royalty, nobility, spirituality, luxury, ambition
Negative: mystery, moodiness

Gold Color Meaning.
Positive: wealth, prosperity, valuable, traditional
Negative: greed, dreamer

Neutral Colors
Brown, tan, ivory, gray, black and white are neutral colors. Neutral colors are a great selection to mix with a cool or warm palette. They are good for backgrounds in a design, and also tend to tone down the use of other more overpowering colors. Black is added to create a darker "shade" of a primary color, while white is added to create a lighter "tint".

Black Color Meaning.
Positive: protection, dramatic, serious, classy, formality
Negative: secrecy, death, evil, mystery
Gray Color Meaning.
Positive: security, reliability, intelligence, solid, conservative
Negative: gloomy, sad, conservative

Brown Color Meaning.
Positive: friendly, earth, outdoors, longevity, conservative
Negative: dogmatic, conservative

Tan (beige) Color Meaning.
Positive: dependable, flexible, crisp, conservative
Negative: dull, boring, conservative

Ivory Color Meaning.
Positive: quiet, pleasantness, pureness, warmness
Negative: weak, unstable

White Color Meaning.
Positive: goodness, innocence, purity, fresh, easy, clean
Negative: winter, cold, distant

You may be asking, "What is the right color combination for my business website?" While there is no absolute "right" color for your website, you need to understand your target audience, and consider their response to colors, not your own. If your end goal is for them to choose your company or product, then your color palette must appeal to them. There are overall factors that indicate what your audience may or may not like.

The basic target audience factors to consider are age differences, class differences, gender differences and overall color trends.

Age difference is a key factor that should not be ignored. If children and adolescents are your target audience, then they prefer bright, primary colors like red, blue, green and yellow. However, if your target is older adults, they would prefer more muted or darker colors, along with colors from the neutral color group.

Class difference is another key factor in choosing colors. United States research has shown those in the working class prefer colors they can name like blue, red, green, etc. Those that are more educated tend to prefer more obscure colors like taupe, azure, celadon, salmon, etc.

Gender preference is an obvious factor in choosing your colors. Men tend to prefer cool tones like blues and greens, where women prefer warmer tones, reds and oranges. If you have an audience of both men and women, consider mixing some colors from the warm and cool palettes that would appeal to both men and women.

Last but not least are color trends. By definition, a trend means "current style". Choosing currently popular colors may work well for some types of websites and products, but if you want to present longevity and stability, then popular colors may not be the best direction for you. Instead, you may want to consider more traditional colors that stand up over time.

Choosing color is more than just picking what feels good to you, it is about creating a response from the viewer. By knowing your target audience and the effect that different colors can have, you gain a greater ability to determine what colors will work best for your audience.

One final note on color. Viewers on the web can use different monitors, different browsers, and different operating systems. It is nearly impossible to ensure that your colors come across the same on every computer as well as in print. Don't be overly concerned with the differences on varying computers, but do try to be consistent. Whether you're creating a color palette for your company, a brand identity, or product colors, consistency is key. Use the same colors throughout all your marketing efforts to create familiarity with your company or product. Consistency will help instill trust with your viewer.

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0 Web Accessibility: What You Should Know

Overview

There is a lot of talk these days with regard to proper development practices and accessible web design. If you don't think any of this applies to you or your website, you probably don't understand exactly what this is all about. Web Accessibility refers to the practice of creating websites that will be useable for people of any ability or disability. Many things come into play when accounting for a person's eye sight, mobility, auditory and logic skills.

Too many web development companies overlook the importance of coding a website in meaningful HTML. Utilities for blind users, such as text-to-speech software, make use of alternate text for images and properly named links. Another downside to overlooking proper HTML lies with the robots search engines send out to read your website. These computers that browse the internet by themselves can learn a lot more about your website, and get a lot deeper into your site when they aren't confused by poor coding practices.

Many people have difficulty controlling a mouse with precision, and can become frustrated while attempting to select a small link. Web designers need to allow for enlargeable text sizes and create larger clickable areas whenever possible. Links should always be styled and colored different than body text so that even color blind users can quickly locate the links on any web page. Pages can even be coded in a fashion that allows them to be navigated without a mouse or keyboard should your audience be likely to require this.

No website should ever rely solely on a video or audio component to convey information. Problems here extend farther than those who are hard of hearing or have poor eyesight. You are relying on certain hardware and or software to be installed on the visitor's computer. If a user has no speakers, or if they are turned off, they could miss your important message or even be annoyed if they were listening to something else. Visitors are valuable and you should never do anything to encourage them to leave your site quickly.

Aside from looking tacky, flashing effects are to be avoided to ensure those sensitive to seizures are not at risk. Content is both more effective and better understood by those with developmental and learning disabilities when it is written in plain text.

The Web Accessibility Initiative

The WAI started in 1999 by the World Wide Web Consortium and is viewed as the standard set of guidelines for creating accessible websites. Although there has been some criticism of their guidelines they have been working since 2003 to release the second edition of accessibility standards which will be much more technology-neutral. This will leave more room for interpretation and adaptability.

The guide goes into great depth on how to create accessible web content and includes a checkpoint summary by topic and priority. They discuss important issues and provide design solutions for a number of scenarios that cause conflicts.

The Future of Accessibility

We are at a point now where there is no doubt accessibility is important, in fact it is already a legal requirement in certain countries. Try searching Google for anything along the lines of 'web accessibility' and you'll see the vast amounts of information available. There's still a lot of work to be done, but we've come a long way over the last few years.

With more and more websites being populated with user generated content, a simple set of guidelines for web designers is becoming less useful. It is impossible to monitor this content for accessibility as it is being created at such a rapid rate. We are also seeing new assistive technologies that support elements like JavaScript, PDF's and Flash which will create many new options for websites that remain fully accessible.

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0 Developing a User Friendly Website

One of the most important aspects of a successful business in Denver these days is a good website. And of all the aspects of a website that Denver web development teams address, the perspective of the user is the most important to your success online. If a user has trouble on your site in any number of ways, chances are they will not be back. Why should they bother with a website that does not take their comfort and needs into consideration? And what does that say about the business itself?

The truth is that while you may think of your website as a relatively static representation of your business, the user thinks of your site as an interactive tool. So it is vital that you approach web development, Denver related or otherwise, with the user in mind. The consumer wants to feel like they have made a connection with you rather than just viewing a static page of information.

So how do you accomplish this when planning Denver web development? First of all, take into consideration the different type of user you will attract. Some people may simply want to browse the pages with little or no action on their part. They may not be there to purchase anything, but instead to research an interest. So you need to provide a user friendly atmosphere for these visitors. This comes in the form of high quality content. If these people return time and again to do research on your site, they are more likely to make a purchase in the future.

The other type of use is online to take some sort of action, either by purchasing an item or enlisting a company to provide services. For this visitor, not only do you need to provide a smooth and error-free check out procedure, customizable search feature, and easy site navigation, but you also need to provide them with a way to interact with you.

This interaction goes beyond the standard contact page. The people who are purchasing your goods or services, or even the people who return time and again for your expertise, are your best sources of feedback. You wan their opinions on everything from the quality of goods sold to the preferences of navigation bar styles. They can help you discern new trends and to identify out of date offerings on your site.

For this kind of feedback, you need to bring the user into your website in a very interactive manner. This can be accomplished through message boards, forums, and surveys. You can also compile an email list of visitors to receive regular newsletters that allow for feedback. Other good ways to get customers involved in the site is by holding contests for free items or services.

Above all, always respond to email you get from users. Do not let the time and effort they invested in interaction with your company be in vain. Thank them whether their comments are positive or negative. A negative comment can actually help you more than a positive one can by showing where change is needed.

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