Design Philosophy Characteristics of a Professional Web Site Optimize usability and accessibility through navigation, readability and compartibility. Strengthen corporate image and promote professionism. Ultimate Goals of a professional web site Gain exposure and increase visitor's traffic. Increase sales of a product and/or service. Build up trust and reputation. Provide Useful Information. Principles for a professional web design Content Organization: Information must be presented in a userful manner. Layouts should be consistent with highly readable text. Users must be able to quickly find what they need. Nevertheless, different display logic is used depending upon the audiences and the goal of the site. Naturally, the site's content should be informative and quick to the point. In addition, positioning of text is important to be optimized for Internet search engines. Site Navigation: Good flow of information is controlled by successfully linking pages. Navigation elements must be concise and easy-to-use, to quickly guide users to their needs. Accessibility: Site must be accessible to the greatest possible number & types of audiences. Applying universal web design standards & practices is the key. Graphics & Theme: Proper usage of colours and graphics layout is a must to attract the right audiences. A creative approach combined with standard internet practices can promote professionism, and encourage more visitors. E-Commerce: The need a simple and ease-of-use ecommerce integrated environment adds strength to a commercial site. Such site must allows a proper balance between security and on-site support Loading Speed: The right use of images will efficiently improve loading time of a web page, without trading off presentation quality. Web Graphics Web Graphics refer to images suitable for the internet to achieve a balance between visual attractiveness and downloading speed. A proper combination of image formats and sizes will contribute to a better user's experience. For instance, GIF images are good for creating image-transparencies and animations, while JPEGs are good for displaying photographs and faded images. Smaller cuts of images will appear to a faster downloading of a page; pre-loadeded images is a technique widely used for roll-over navigations. In addition, the usage of web-safe colours is often a good practice for a universal design, capturing the largest number of audiences worldwide. Web Usability Usability means Clarity, Simplicity and Functionality. An overuse of graphics and web technologies usually disminishes real usability of a site. Text readability, content organization and site navigation are important concepts for the design of a usable site. A complex site should be divided into small usable units with attention on real user needs. Web Accessibility Accessibility means making a site accessible to the widest types and largest numbers of audiences. A site designed with universal accessibility standards in mind will capture users that uses different internet browsers & client side technologies. Applying universal web design standards also have other advantages, such as attracting the market of people with disabilities (ie. coloured-blind, blind, weak-sight) and elders people. In fact, it is considered good practice to accomodate disabilities design issues for both internet users and a company's intranet users. Suggested readings: The Disability Statistics Center How People with Disabilities Use the Web (WAI - 1/4/01). Analysis: Web sites are locking out the disabled (CNN - 8/7/00). Beyond Accessibility: Treating Users with Disabilities as People (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox - 11/11/2001). To ensure that a web site remains competitive for government contracts, specific guidelines and standards must be met.It is mandatory for Federal agencies and companies that receive Federal monies, to comply with Section 508.Other information can be found at: Business Benefits of Accessible Web Design, Section 508 Improving the accessibility and usability of a site results in reduced in-house training and support, while enhancing end-user productivity and customer satisfaction, ultimately, decrease costs and increase sales. Keep in mind that, making a site better accessiblity and usable will generally encourage millions of new visitors. Anetdata also offers recommendations for improving an existing site that will make your products easier to use.User-friendly products result in increased visibility, sales, and customer satisfaction. We employs usability assessment techniques and knowledge of human cognition and perception to: Simplify regularly performed tasks. Streamline your search and data collection. Identify concerns of your target audience and address them. Enhance your search ranking by exposing more data to search engines. Comply with design for disabilities and government. Suggest alternatives for more accessible designs. If your users cannot quickly find information they were looking for, often have technical problems accessing the site, or could not identify your product line after a quick glance at your home page, then we can provide you professional guidelines and suggestions for a better design. A user-centered designs satisfy your users and keep them coming back.    Services > Web Design > Our Design Philosophy To learn and request a web design, click here Why choose Anetdata for web design? click here to learn. To learn and order a website package, click here To get a personalized email address, click here For a list and description of our services, click here For any questions and comments, click here to contact us

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