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Wednesday, January 7, 2009

KirkOutsourcing expanding their services into Web Development

KirkOutsourcing Inc. is a growing company, a Danish outsourcing company that provides varied outsourcing solutions. The most top earning service they have is the LazyMask: Clipping Path Service, Photo Restoration and Image Manipulation its because they deliver premium quality and volume clipping path services at a lower cost. Their other services are the LazyMovie: Visucal Effects in Chroma Key and Rotoscoping, LazyAnimation: 3D Architectural Renderings and More.

From the remarkable success of LazyMask and the success of the other services, KirkOutsourcing is now expanding their service into Web Development. Web Development is in demand service in outsourcing industry today. Companies now are wanting to have website; a website is an online identity of a company or even individuals that involves online marketing. This advanced technology of e-commerce would help you generate more business leads, advertise or promote your products and services, and attract more clients. Those things would help you gain higher return on investment.

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Thursday, December 4, 2008

Website Navigation Tips

Website navigation is the most important aspect to consider while designing a website. The primary aim for effective navigation is get your visitors to stay in your site and also for visitors to easily find what they are looking for easily and quickly. Designing effective navigation can also entice your visitors to try out the other things you offer on your site. In this article we will look at some of the basic guidelines you need to follow while designing the navigation of a website.

Effective Navigation Guidelines

While designing the navigation for your site keep the following points in mind:

Organized Links - Make sure your links are well organized according to the order of importance. Visitors should be easily able to find what they are looking for under different categories.
E.g. All our main links are found on the top i.e. our services, products,portfolio, resources etc.Other interesting links are found on the right of the page. These are common and consistent throughout the site.
Finally if the web page belongs to a guide E.g web design guide you will find the related links below the right menu and also at the bottom of the page.

Note: Related links are very important as visitors coming to a particular page will probably be interested in more information you have under the same topic.

Clear and Prominent - Once you have decided on your navigation links, you need to think of the best place to put them. Navigation should be clear and consistent. Try to design your navigation on the top or on the left as these are the first places our eyes go to. Also locate the primary links high enough on the page so that they are visible without scrolling. Navigation images should be seamlessly integrated into the site design. Avoid putting navigation links at the bottom of the page as visitors will need to scroll right down to see the links. If you like you could put the important links at the top AND bottom of the page just to make sure your visitors don't miss the link.

Consistent - Navigation should be clear and consistent. The important links of your website should be on every page, in the same location, and in the same sequence. Don't confuse your visitors by putting your navigation links in different places in different pages.

Easy to understand - Make your links easy to understand and to the point. Usually you won't have enough place to have long links so make use of the space wisely. Visitors need to know where they will go on clicking on a particular link, so make sure your links are understandable or nobody is going to click on your links, which will defeat the purpose of designing a good navigation system.

DHTML Menus - If you have a large number of links under categories and sub-categories you could use navigation menus to organize your links. There are many cut 'n' paste scripts available on the Net that you could use to create great navigation systems. A favorite resource center is SimplyTheBest.net, you'll find tons of useful navigation menus that are very easy to install on your site.


Source: http://www.entheosweb.com/website_design/website_navigation_tips.asp

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10 Tips on designing a fast loading web site

Tips and tricks on effective web design

The Number 1 rule that every web designer should follow is to create a fast loading web site. You might have a great design but very few people are going to see it if it takes a long time to load. While designing a web site always think about how long it will take to load. Try out our tips to build a great looking web site that also loads fast.

Minimize the use of images - The key to a fast loading web site is to minimize the use of images. Images do enhance a page but don't make 80% of your web site only images. Instead break it down as much as possible to simple HTML. Notice the popular sites like Yahoo, Google, Ebay, Amazon etc., they have very few images because the load time is more important. Very often simple designs are the best.

Optimize images for the web - Once you have decided on the images that you need on your site, make sure that it is optimized for the web. They should be in the gif or jpeg format. You can also minimize the size of the image by choosing the number of colors you need, from the color palette. The less the colors you choose, the less the size of the image. You can also use online tools like Gif Wizard to optimize your images or to get a recommendation on how to cut down the size of an image.

Use Tables creatively - You can get some great looking designs by using tables creatively . Tables load very fast because it is just HTML code. Tables can be used in the homepage, menus or anywhere you like. Check out our homepage and our menus to see how we have used tables in our site.

Cut down the use of animated gifs - Don't use animated gifs unless it is necessary. Animated gifs take a long time to load and can also be very irritating. But since they catch your attention you could use small animated gifs to draw a visitor's attention to a particular section of your site.

Design simple icons - Instead of using big, bulky images use simple and small icons that add a little color and draw the attention of a visitor.

Use background images instead of big images whenever possible - Use background images whenever possible. This is usually a very useful tip for headers and footers. Instead of using an image of width 580 which is a uniform design you can use just a part of that as a background fill. This reduces the size of the web page as the image is small. The code will look like this :

Try out CSS Styles - Have fun with CSS styles to get some cool text effects. Again, a CSS Style is simple HTML code so it loads very fast. You can create cool rollovers using CSS Styles.

Use Flash sparingly - There seems to be a lot of hype about Flash but I recommend that you minimize the use of Flash on a site. Don't make entire sites using Flash. It may look great but it takes hours to load and can really put off visitors. If you do want to use Flash use it within an HTML site and make sure it loads fast.

Design most of your site in HTML - As much as possible try to design your site using HTML. You can create great designs by just using HTML code. Use tables, CSS Styles and simple fonts to design your site. Minimize the use of animated gifs, Flash, bulky images etc.


Keep checking your load time
- Last but not least, before you decide on the final design of your web site, check its load time on NetMechanic. This site gives you a free analysis of your web site which is extremely useful. We kept using it to improve our site till we got a report that said good loading time!


Source: http://www.entheosweb.com/website_design/fast_loading_websites.asp

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Expandable Website Design

Designing Websites For All Screen Resolutions

Tutorial on Designing for 800 x 600, 1024 x 768, 1280 x 1024 and higher

Designing web sites to fit all resolutions is a very important web design principle. Try out the Entheos site in all resolutions higher than 800 x 600 and you will find that it is designed to fit the page exactly. Therefore, visitors who have higher resolution can see more content in one page which reduces scrolling. Most web sites are designed for only one resolution. They may look perfect in a 800 x 600 resolution but if viewed in a 1024 x 768 resolution look a little empty. You'll find a lot of wasted space around it making the web site look quite small.

From our research we have found that majority of our viewers are on the 1024x768 resolutions and higher. As time goes by more and more people are going to switch to higher resolutions as seen by our site statistics. It is therefore very important to design web sites for all resolutions. That is one of the principles we follow while designing web sites for our clients. With that bit of background information, lets get started on how to design a web site for all screen resolutions.

Step 1: Decide on the lowest Screen Resolution

Before you start you need to decide on your lowest screen resolution. Your web site will have to be designed keeping the lowest resolution in mind. Through our research we have found that less than 0.5% are on the 640 x 480 resolution So we ignore that completely. The next important resolution is the 800 x 600 resolution. Some of our visitors are on this resolution so we use this as our lowest screen resolution. This means that our web site has to fit all resolutions equal to or higher than 800 x 600.


Step 2: Design Your Web Site On This Resolution


Once you decide on your lowest screen resolution you need to design your web site for that resolution This means that all your graphics will be designed for this resolution. Design your web site and export the images as you would normally do.

Step 3: While converting your design to HTML make sure all your tables are measured in terms of percentages

Important: This is the trick to developing web sites for all resolutions. You need to work in terms of percentages and not pixels. If you work in pixels you are giving an absolute measurement to a table, whereas working in percentages gives a relative measurement. The table will be a given percentage of the screen resolution.

I hope you have understood this clearly. I'd like to explain this with an example. If you were to design a site for a 800 x 600 resolution, you would probably make a table with width 800 px and height 600 px. Now if you were to design a web site for all resolutions you need to make a table with width and height 100%, so that whatever the screen resolution may be the web page will scale to fit the page. It will be 100% of the screen resolution or whatever percentage you choose to give it.

The first step is to make a table with 100% height and 100% width. You could make it 95% if you want some white space around it.

Step 4: Within the table measure cells in terms of pixels except for the cell for the content

This a another very important step. You need to give a fixed measurement to all your cells except for the content cell. You can leave this cell blank.


Source: http://www.entheosweb.com/website_design/advanced_web_design.asp

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Web Design Tips

Useful Tips for Effective Web Design

Here are some essential web design tips that every web site should follow. Design your web site by following these tips and I guarantee that visitors will have a great first impression of your site.

Fast Loading web site designs - This is the number 1 tip that every web designer should follow. You might design a web site that looks fantastic but few people are going to see it if it takes a long time to load. Your designs should be optimized for the web and should not take more than 15 seconds to load. Remember, you might have a great design but very few people are going to see it if it takes a long time to load.


Clear Navigation
- Once a visitor has come to your site you need to make them go through your site. To do this you need to have clear navigation. Make sure all your important links are at prominent places. Preferably right on top - that's usually where a visitor first looks. Make use of menus on the right and the left. Try to link to as many pages of your site. Let your information be accessible from all parts of the site. You never know what a visitor may be interested in. Try to also use the footer for your important links.

All Resolutions - Today, there are computers with all kinds of resolution. They range from 640 x 480 to 1024 x 768 and go even higher. Your job is to design your site for all these resolutions. The best way to do this is to design your site in terms of percentage and not pixels.

Browser Compatibility - Make sure your site is browser compatible. Your web site should look good in Netscape as well as in Internet Explorer. Don't stop designing your site as soon as you find that it looks great on IE. Usually Netscape gives some problems, especially when you try doing complicated HTML designs. But don't give up too soon, usually with patience these problems can be easily fixed.

Readable and professional looking fonts - Don't ask me how many times I've clicked out of a site just because the font is in Comic Sans and the color is a bright pink or green. Just by looking at the font you feel that the site is not a professional site. Don't use Comic Sans and other fancy fonts that may not be available on most computers. If the font you use is not available in a visitors computer the web site will use the default font of your computer which is much worse. So try to keep to common and professional web fonts. The fonts that I always stick to are Arial and Verdana.

Minimize the use of images - I believe that sometimes simple designs are the most effective for the web. Keep your site simple but neat. Don't clutter your page with big, bulky images that take ages to load. Instead use tables creatively and design eye - catching icons that will draw a visitor's attention to a particular section of your site. Tip - Visitors are usually more interested in content than in design.

Use of white space - Try not to clutter up your page with too many images, backgrounds and colorful fonts. Again use the Keep It Simple principle by minimizing the use of graphics and using a lot of white space. White space gives a sense of spaciousness and overall neatness to a site. Notice the white space in our site.

Check for broken links - Always check for broken links within a site before uploading it to your web server. In Dreamweaver you can check for broken links by right clicking on any file in the Site Files Window and then clicking on Check links - Entire Site. If you don't have this facility you need to upload your site and then check it using online tools like Net Mechanic.

Source: http://www.entheosweb.com/website_design/webdesign_tips.asp

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Thursday, November 20, 2008

Why Filipino Web Designers

Why you should go for Filipino web designers?

Today we find a massive number of web sites on the web and this number is ever increasing at an exponential rate. This is why it is so important to make your website standout, especially if you are looking to build a new one. The best way to do this - is to get it done by some one who can make it interesting and unique. This is where Filipino web designers can serve you. Filipinos are well known for their unique, individualistic and out of world approach to web designing.
Filipino web designers are not only skillful in website designing but are also more affordable. One of the main reasons for you to go for Filipino designers is they can get the job done with the same quality but at much lesser cost. This is why Filipino web designers and freelancers are preferred across the globe.
Also, Filipino freelancers are a committed lot when it comes to finishing a project. They are known to persevere until your project is completed on time and within the deadline. This commitment also shows in other aspects of your web design like its appeal, functionality, usability etc. Filipino designers also have great talent which can be put to good use by web design companies. The good thing about these designers is that they continuously strive to strengthen their skills for different areas of web site design. This ensures that your web site gets designed by specialist web designers, not newbies.
There are a lot of freelance web designers out there who claim that they can do this and they can do that. Yes, they do have past records, achievements, great samples and what not; but when it comes to meeting the target or meeting what was promised, you will always find that there is something missing, especially with a freelancer. This is not the case with Filipino web designers, who are highly adaptable to meet varied specifications and complete the project as promised..
What makes a website tick is its ability to capture the imagination of visitors and make them come back for more. This can only be achieved by websites that have the best design and great usability. Filipino designers are known to achieve these parameters time and again through their relentless determination to provide the best.

Source: http://www.juricks2web.com/articles.html?articles_id=16

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Advantages of Outsourcing to Filipino Web Designers

A lot of IT related work is being outsourced from around the world to Filipino Companies and freelancers. Philippines, having earned respect and trust has served a variety of industries through outsourced projects. But the most prominent of the projects handled by Filipino companies is web designing. This area has acquired a major presence in the Philippine IT industry, as the building of unique websites is highly in demand considering its ability to create the all important online presence for businesses world wide.

Philippines enjoys a global spotlight when it comes to web designing. This can be attributed to its highly talented and skilled work force. Filipino freelancers are known for providing high quality websites at a cost effective price. There are quite a lot of advantages of outsourcing Web Design and Development to Filipino web designers and companies. Let us have a review.

The first and foremost advantage is the cost effectiveness in project completion. Filipino web designers have high proficiency in web design and related skills and can create eye catching and highly usable web designs. These are much cheaper than websites designed by freelancers from other parts of the world. You don't have to pay a high price to get a great website that can be customized to all your business needs. Nevertheless, cheap doesn't mean poor quality when you get it done by Filipino web designers. Most of the Filipino IT companies follow major IT quality standards like CMM, ISO etc to give you quality products at affordable prices.

Some of the highlights of Filipino web design companies are:

1. The high quality of human resource attributed to improved literacy rates and abundance of skilled knowledge workers.

2. Filipino freelancers like western culture and hence have great language skills in English.

3. Philippines has a highly developed communication infrastructure with low cost Internet networks connecting all parts of the region to the world


Apart from these feature, Filipino web design companies are known to have the ability to provide a variety of web services like icon design, Logo designing, website development services, website maintenance, web application development, ecommerce website development, flash website design, graphic designing, brochure designing etc. all under the same roof.

Source: http://www.juricks2web.com/articles.html?articles_id=15

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