|
|
Converting Print Advertising For Use On The Web - A How-To
Contrary to the beliefs of some, advertising for web and print are very different. Converting print ads for use on the web is very tricky. What has been very successful on paper may have no impact at all on the screen. When I am asked "How do I convert my print ads to web?" my answer is simple: don't! Web and print are so vastly different that I believe you should never build your web pages based on a print ad.
There are certain rules that web design must follow that simply don't apply to print. One of my colleagues, Tim Pattison, broke these rules down very concisely recently:
- Usability
- Browser compatibility
- Designing within the constraints of (X)HTML
- Accessibility
The four rules exclusive to web design: usability, browser compatibility, design within the constraints of (x)html, and accessibility, are the four horsemen of doom for the uneducated, inexperienced designer. They are some of the most overlooked aspects of web design, and yet some of the most important.
- Usability: Unlike print ads, web sites are interactive. Users must be able to easily find their way around, and they need a clear path to the information they are trying to find. If you are selling a product, there needs to be a clear, concise, distraction free path from the home page all the way to the check out page.
- Browser compatibility: In a perfect world you could design your web site once and it would look perfect and stay perfect in all browsers. Unfortunately, we live in the real world where some browsers support a set of standards and others simply don't. Actually, the most popular browser in the world has for years lived by their own rules. While MS Internet Explorer still holds the majority of the market share, Mozzilla, Netscape, and Opera have acquired a considerable percentage of the browser market. In fact, it's high enough of a percentage to make Microsoft revise their plans to release IE 7.0. While competition is healthy, it makes for headaches for web designers. It is not uncommon to have your site looking perfect in one browser only to find that your entire design explodes when viewed with another.
- Designing within the constraints of (x)html: When you lay out a print ad, you place the images where they belong on the page, draw out any shapes, lay out the colors, and place the text. Then you print it out and make copies. Every copy you hand out looks exactly the same, and there's nothing magic about the way things stay on the page. In web design, everything is held in place by code. You could easily have a four to one ratio of code to content. If you are not familiar with the coding involved in keeping your site looking like it's supposed to, it can be very frustrating laying out your design.
- Accessibility: Back to our perfect world ? not only would browsers be perfect, but all our viewers would look through the same eyes. Unfortunately, some people aren't blessed with good eyesight or motor skills like you and I. We need to consider that for those who have disabilities, a poorly laid out website can be completely useless. You could ignore that audience, but you would be doing yourself a disservice. And let's not forget, our biggest and most important group of users is completely blind: search engine spiders. They read your website the same way a blind person does. If the layout of your site isn't logical, a spider may leave and not bother coming back for a long time.
Jon Hancock is the president and founder of HighTide Web Services. We are proud to be a fast growing, California based web services firm, offering high quality web site templates from some of the best designers out there, as well as excellent and affordable web hösting.
HighTideTemplates.com
HighTideHosting.com
How To Boost Your Chances at Having a Successful Web Site
New Web sites are springing up online by the millions. However, when they don't reach a level of success, the Web site owners assume that they can't make money off the Internet.
Website Re-Design?
My site is working fine. The links work. Content is added regularly. We have new features. Why does my company need a re-design?
Creating Personal Web Sites
This is a two-part article about creating a web site on the web and the tools that you need to do that.
Building Your First Web Site?
Before doing anything on the technical side, you need some kind of basic idea to work with. I suggest first getting some paper and a pencil. Start by sketching a layout of how you would like your web page to appear. For example, a simple title at the top, the area in which you would like any content, pictures and so on. Now its time to do some programing!
Be Friendly to Search Engines
The object of search engines is to give their visitors a list of web pages relevant to the search words, in the order of relevance to the search words. So what do they want from websites?
Why Dot-Coms Fail - a Webmasters Perspective
Everyday we hear that another company goes out of business.
The Monster Garage of eLearning
Understanding How HTML Color Codes Work
Ever wonder how HTML color codes are put together? For the beginner, it can look like lots of numbers and letters that make no sense. In reality, HTML color codes are written that way for a specific reason that we'll look at in this article.
Website Design Basic Concepts
So, what's in a website design anyway? And, how do you get a design that is appealing to the broad and varied tastes of all those Internet surfers out there?
Technology vs. Usability
When JV Media Design was formed, the year was 1995 and the Internet was a very different place than it is today.
How to Build Your Own Website - More Steps
To build a website, there are four methods to choose from:
Cascading Style Sheets for Better Web Design
In cascading style sheets you can specify how your web pages will be presented on the screen by simply predefining page elements such as fonts, headers and links.
Design Matters in our Visual Culture
FIRST IMPRESSIONS.
So You?re Hiring a Web Designer?You Have the Right to Demand these 7 Perks
Whether you're hiring a designer who has created 10 sites or 1000 sites for other businesses, there are 10 things every website should do for you.
Website promotion Ideas: 10 Web Site Add-Ons To Increase Your Traffic
If you're not getting a lot of traffic to your website anymore, must implement these Website promotion ideas immediately.
Are You A Bill Clinton Webmaster?
One of the most frequent questions I get asked about my ebook, Don't Get Banned BY The Search Engines, is whether I amended it to include post-Florida Google. "Florida" is the code name that search engine optimizer wizards gave to a November, 2003, shakeup at Google that left many webmasters covering themselves up with makeshift fig leaves while dangling upside down above the proverbial crocodile moat.
Why Stock Photography is a Great Resource for Web Business
A picture is worth a thousand words.
Increase Your Credibility With Web Site Awards
Web Site Awards are given from other sites to reward your site for a specific reason. They will usually give you an award graphic or text link to include on your site if you win. Awards are great to display on your Web site because they will give your business more credibility to your visitors and customers.
Free Website Design Tips
In this article I will give a few tips of where to find a low cost web design company and also about the best ways of producing a quality website.
Website Design: 10 Smart Tips To Improve Your Ad Copy
Your website design may be affecting your sales in ways that you may not believe.