web design
Web Design: Content Procurement
January 4, 2012 | 
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There is a debate among web design experts as to who is responsible for procuring content for the website. Many professionals want the content to be the responsibility of the site owner. The reasoning is simple – the site owner should have a better understanding of the site products or services than the web designer.
The other side to the argument is that the web designer needs to assist the site owner in obtaining original knowledge-based articles to compliment the site. In this scenario the web designer also works with freelance writers to develop all site content. This includes everything from “How To” articles to the “About Us” and “Home Page” sections.
Many web designers are interested in developing the ‘look’ of the website without being responsible for what the content says. However, more and more web design experts are beginning to offer full content services as part of their monthly or annual contracts. Obviously the customer bears all costs related to the content, but many entrepreneurs enjoy less work in site management.
One element to this that you should consider is that the web designer will charge you a content fee. The content request is assigned and purchased from a third party freelance writer at a lesser amount. You could pay 100% more than you might if you had worked with a freelance writer on your own.
From this standpoint it makes sense for web design professionals to provide the service because it provides an added revenue stream for them.
If, as an ecommerce business, you can write or have someone write original content you may actually have greater options you can consider when it comes to web design.
One of the most readily available forms of content is free-to-use article directories. These articles can be used provided you make sure to place all content on your site. This will likely include a brief author biography along with a link to the author’s website. In most cases this is a reasonable exchange for the use of the article.
A secondary source could be adaptable content from a supplier. This information is generally provided at no cost due to your partnership with the supplier.
A third source is to go directly to a freelance writing source to gain your own original articles.
If one or more of these options is workable you may find a template rich web design/host is an alternative that is cost effective and empowering.
You’ll notice I said empowering. This comment was made because of the satisfaction of being able to immediately addressing and altering multiple aspects of the site on your own and without the need for knowledge in html or other coding language can help you take ownership of your own site.
Perhaps it all comes down to your budget and to your willingness and ability to manage the content requirements of your website.
Web Design – Joomla Versus WordPress
Both Joomla and WordPress are established web design applications used by millions of websites across the world. Web Design Companies and web designers have in general supported various open source software for developing websites. Joomla and WordPress are two of the most popular ones and have established communities on the internet. There are hundreds of quality forums and blogs dedicated specifically towards the use of Joomla and WordPress for designing websites. Other web design and content management systems including Drupal and Typo3 have also proved popular and effective. However WordPress and Joomla seem to have an edge over the others in terms of global popularity and use.
Many web design agencies and design professionals are proficient with Joomla and WordPress and are able to customise the software to meet the specific needs of a business. Both these platforms offer the flexibility to extend the core features to meet individual requirements. This article offers an insight into which software is more suitable for developing your website.
WordPress versus Joomla
Usability
WordPress probably scores higher in terms of usability, both from an end user as well as developer’s point of view. Due to its simplicity WordPress is easy to learn and get acclimatised to. However this is also due to the fact that Joomla offers many more features than WordPress and offers more advanced functionality. The new version of Joomla, the 1.5x version has made significant improvements in usability.
SEOMOZ.org, a leading web design and technical blog recently published an article where the author stated that “if you are willing to trade some extra learning time for a more advanced site, go with Joomla.”
Versatility
WordPress is better described as a blog software whereas Joomla is an advanced content management system. WordPress is excellent for publishing content. Joomla on the other hand offers many powerful features. There are Joomla components that target almost every industry and market.
If you have limited time to set up a website or if your requirements are simple then WordPress is probably the better choice. However if you would like to develop or design an advanced website with powerful features then Joomla is more suitable.
Search Engine Optimisation
WordPress is known for its search engine optimisation advantages. By default WordPress is search engine friendly and webpages tend to rank high on Google. On the Joomla needs some customisation in order to target the full benefits from search engines. With the right customisation however, Joomla websites are equally capable of ranking high on search engines like Google. Any expert Joomla developer will design a website to be SEO friendly.
A Joomla websites can be customised a accordingly to overcome any SEO shortcomings.
Scalability
Joomla is easily scalable. Joomla can be used to design small websites as well for developing complex functionality on websites. WordPress is great out of the box and will work excellent if the only purpose of the website was to publish informational content. WordPress is great out of the box but limited somewhat for developing complicated web applications.
Joomla can be scaled as required. Almost any custom feature or application can be developed in Joomla. Joomla has been designed for extending and modifying to meet specific needs. WordPress is fairly limited. There are add-on features available for WordPress as well in the form of WordPress plug-ins but they do not compare to the advanced features that can be developed as add on Joomla modules or components.
Integration
Joomla has clear advantages with regards to extending and integrating the website with other third party applications of software. Joomla has a well formed and powerful API that developers can use to extend the software or integrate with other systems as required. Joomla websites can be easily integrated with other sources or websites.
Development of bespoke features
Joomla is the clear winner here. Customised development can be done in WordPress as well as Joomla. However Joomla’s development framework is more suitable for developing bespoke features for the website. There are many powerful add-on components that can be easily installed on a Joomla website.
Web designers and developers are able to develop additional customised features with ease using Joomla’s powerful development API. WordPress can also be easily extended however development API is not as powerful as Joomla’s.
Administration Features
WordPress has an easy to use, light weight administration panel. It is excellent if the main purpose of the website is solely to publish information. The administration panel is limited to updating or adding new content or media. Joomla has a powerful administration panel that offers a range of features such as e-commerce (Shopping cart), order management, enquiry management, User management, document management, multi-lingual content, etc. Joomla offers endless possibilities are and the administration panel is fully customisable for specific requirements.
Posted in web design | 
Tags: Content Management System, Global Popularity, Web Design Companies | 
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Web Design – Project Lifecycle
The process of designing and developing a website can be quite overwhelming and challenging. A lot of thought, effort and discussions lead to the launch of a ‘perfect website’. Knowing how hard the entire process is, it will be a good idea to divide the website development process into different stages. This will also lead to effective team management and proper control to achieve maximum quality. Following are the steps of a web design project lifecycle:
1. Analysis
Why do you need a website? Make sure you have an answer to that one before even thinking of going further. It is particularly important in the case of Business Websites. A business must analyze why it wants a website (a business model) – to promote the business, generate revenue or offer support to customers. The website is going to a part of the system. How the web based application or website will help the existing system or the business should be basis of the analysis.
After analyzing requirements from a business perspective, it is then time to focus on user needs. Make sure you can clearly classify your target audience and establish functionalities the user will require. Never assume that you know what a customer wants. In fact it will be a good idea for a business to consult actual or potential users and discuss key factors that might affect the website (from a client’s perspective).
Input: Interviews with clients, supporting documents and mails, discussion notes, model sites etc.
Output: Cost, Size of Team, Hardware-Software requirements, supporting documents, approval, work plan
2. Specification
A ‘functional’ specification is a blueprint or a detailed plan of the website. After carefully considering business and user requirements, the next stage will be to form a website specification. What should be included in the menu, how content will be structured, how tasks should be generated etc. are some of the questions to be answered at this stage. A designer gets information on what should be presented and the programmer concentrates on functionality. Prototypes, mocked up web pages or illustrations of how a website will work are also prepared at this step.
3. Design and Development
Drawing from the information gathered in the above two stages, it’s time to determine the look and feel of your site. The web designer will create one or more prototype designs for your web site. A lot of suggestions and changes to be made are exchanged between the client and designer at this stage. Design is concerned with how the website looks and if it fits the client requirement. User Experience (UX) and Usability both come into play here. And once the layout/design is finalized, it will be safe to move to the next step of developing. The developmental stage is the point where the website itself is created. The developer takes all graphic elements from the designer and uses them to create an actual functional site. Developing requires a lot of technical knowledge and programming. Content writing for the website is also done in this stage. You can hire professional content writers or write the content yourself.
Close interaction between the design and development team is necessary at this stage. A well designed functional website should be the ideal output at this stage.
4. Testing and Delivery
At this stage, the entire web development team comes together to have a close look at minute details and test the website. Following is a checklist of things to test on your website before launching/delivery: (there are various tools and testers available online)