Weblink India.Net – Blogs

Ideas & Inspiration for web design and web development

Archive for September, 2009

Tips to create a user friendly website

Posted by weblinkindia on September 29, 2009

Every website has a purpose behind it. In addition, with every purpose there are a lot of dreams, objectives and vision attached to web design. Every page and every section carries some amount of hope in it. Designing a website is not just a software development, it is also an art that cannot be achieved easily, until and unless the person is creative, has the right blend of ideas and knows basics to keep the visitors engrossed. However, many a times when the self-taught web designers design the web pages they tend work in their own peripheries and they do not try to widen their horizons. As a result, they may deliver an appealing website but the website fails on retaining users and on parameters of best website designing. If few basic things are ignored during designing, the ready structure may irate the user and enforce him to logout. Let’s not create only a website, let’s create a user friendly website with creative web design.

Maximise the Ease of Navigation

  • Hyperlinks should always take a user to the desired information, so ensure smooth navigation.
  • Logo should be linked to the home page i.e. a click on Logo should lead the visitors to the home page.
  • The main navigators (links) should also be on footer with few additional links (as per requirement)
  • Maintain consistency of navigation on each webpage.
  • Current location of user should be highlighted on navigation bar.
  • The information given on the page can be provided with the link(s) where the same information can be browsed in detail.
  • Do not ignore Breadcrumb navigation, its indispensible for a user-friendly website.
  • Provide a link right there, In case information available on the current page has more detail on other page.
  • If any link is given with the content (anywhere apart from navigation bar), it should always be underlined.
  • Follow right kinds of strategy to bring a user back on the desired page.
  • Title attribute on a link increases the cognizance of users.

Presentation of Text

  • Presentation of Text
  • Presentation of text plays an important role in good website designing.
  • Keep the text font large enough (not less than 12px)so that the visitor does not face problems while reading it.
  • The font sizes should be flexible.
  • Spacing between lines should be justified.
  • One line should have maximum 45 to 60 characters in order to ensure to get compatible with eye span.
  • Say is loud with colors, styles, font selection and font size; prioritize the important text using these tools.
    Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Web Design | Tagged: , | 4 Comments »

How to write web Application

Posted by weblinkindia on September 23, 2009

A web application programmer must understand concepts related to distributed applications and services, the HTTP protocol, Common Gateway Interface (CGI) programming, HTML/JavaScript programming, user authentication and authorization, session management, data exchange from disparate sources and so on. This column explains the concepts you need to know to write a web application and outlines the steps for writing a simple web application. A typical web application starts when a user clicks a link in an HTML page and causes the browser to instigate an HTTP request transaction with a web server, CGI program and web application server. The targeted server must perform other functions as following:

  • Execute business logic
  • Retrieve data according to query parameters
  • Authenticate and authorize users
  • Exchange data with legacy systems
  • Build the HTML response page dynamically to be passed back to the server

    A web application has an accompanying configuration called web.xml. This file contains all the configuration information of the application that web container needs to know in order to deploy and run the application properly. Understanding the web.xml file is important since you are going to have to construct web.xml file as a part of development of your web application. A web application is defined as a series of directories and files in a standard layout. Such a hierarchy can be accessed in its unpacked form, where each directory and file exists in the file system separately, or in a packed form known as a Web Application Archive or WAR file. The former format is more useful during development while the latter is used when you distribute your application to the target platform.

    COMMON TOOLS USED IN WEB APPLICATION
    ASP.NET
    CSS
    JavaScript
    CGI
    Django
    WebSphere Administrative Console
    WebSphere Studio
    VisualAge for Java

    Developing a web application is a meticulous and a methodical process. Techniques and process of web application development constantly change with advancement of technologies. Apart from this, diversified demands also influence the style and tools to be used in development of web application. Discussion on this topic can’t be wrapped in a single post. Shortly we will map a series of posts on “Writing a web application”

  • Posted in Website Development | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

    Essential web Design Principles

    Posted by weblinkindia on September 23, 2009

    Each website designed, carries the few objectives, vision and dreams. Each page, even each section of a website has an innate purpose, as the home page is preordained to convey the consolidated insight about the website or the company or basic logics of owner. However, many a times when self-taught web designers design the web pages they tend to work on things within their own peripheries. At times, they seem to be incapable to widen their horizons.  As result even after best tries to give a website, they often fail to do, and leave their clients dejected. There are few basic principles of web designing that seek attention of designers in order to shape out a perfect we structure. Some of the main aspects of web designing which have to be strictly looked at are :-

    Prioritize
    In order to make your website more attractive prioritize your requirements and must focus on:
    Position — where everything is on a page clearly influences in what order the user perceives it.
    Color — using bold and subtle colors is a simple way to tell your user where to look.
    Contrast —   being different makes things stand out, while being the same makes them secondary.
    Size — big takes precedence over little.
    Design Elements — if there is a gigantic arrow pointing at something, guess where the user will look.

    Maintain a Regular Flow
    Consistency means making everything match. Header sizes, font choices, coloring, button styles, spacing, design elements, illustration styles, photo choices etc. everything should be themed to make your design coherent between pages. While working if the person is mysteriously taken to another page then the faith is broken and he will question your experience.

    Provide ample space between lines and paragraphs
    Allow limited spaces between the lines. Keep your points reader friendly so that they may not lose track. Apart from this, it is important to develop a professional look and feel.

    Design
    This is used to give balance, proportion and contrast to a page. Lot of white space tends to make things seem more elegant and up market. Do not ignore.

    Transparency
    In order to win your client’s trust it is always advisable that you put up a photograph on the “About Us” page. This way the client will get an idea about the people and the motive behind this website. Keeping your website updated with recent photographs will help you to win the faith of clients.

    Text Body
    Keep the text font large enough (readable) so that the visitor does not face any difficulty while reading it. It might further more strain his eyes forcing him to give up midway.

    Navigate (plot an easy route)
     In direct connection with consistency, when a user comes to your page, article or site they are coming in from all the other pages, articles or sites out there. Guide them by display buttons around the site, which should be easy to locate, preferably towards the top of the page and easy to identify. Ensure that visitor should gets the desired page on minimum clicks and time.

    Usability
    With myriad information and interaction to be affected on a website it is important that a web designer provides for it all.

    Comply with the basic rules
     There are certain things people expect, and not giving them causes confusion. For example, if text has an underline, you expect it to be a link. Doing otherwise is not good usability practice.

    User Friendly
    The possibilities of the site should be available and accessible by all. Not all visitors have the same easiness and some may prefer icons. Nevertheless, whatever visual mode is chosen the access to content should be simple, through and quick.

    These principles are based on basic logics and visitor’s comfort. After all they are the one for whom it is destined for, so next time consider these principles while initiating a web-designing project.

    Posted in Web Design | Tagged: | 2 Comments »