Here are some key points that why graphic design does play an important role in web designing.

Professionalism – It’s the main reason why web designers need to have the knowledge of graphic design. I have seen a lot of great sites that are coded properly, with fancy javascript functions, but yet failed to grasp the visual side of the website. When it comes to selling a product, business or yourself, using the right graphics can provide an added touch of professionalism.

Visual Connection – Everyone has heard the saying ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’, well the same can be said about the visual aspects of your site. You can usually connect with a person viewing the site much better with simple graphical designs. I’ve been to pages where I can feel an emotional state created by seeing this amazing design. People like to see nice things and they typically return again to see it some more. Graphic design will help you make an extra connection, which is vital in this business.

Usability – A lot of web designers miss out on the most important aspect of a website – usability. The person viewing the site needs to be able to use it in the way it was intended to be used. That means they have to be able to navigate and find the contents they are looking for. Having good visual communication knowledge will make this a lot simpler than what regular coding will do. It’s important to note that you can sometimes go overboard with graphics, but if you keep it within a specific range, graphics can enhance the usability of a website.

As you can see there are many benefits of having good graphic design knowledge if you are a web designer, or planning to become one.

There are many things you need to know before approaching any web designers or web design companies. Read this short article to help you gain a better understanding of the web design industry.

There is no such thing as cheap website design. Be wary of designers who offer their service at a significantly lower cost than most designers. It is very likely that they have only just started out. Always ask to see work examples.

A good website design is created with usability and targeted audience in mind. Building a good website takes considerable time and cannot be delivered in a day or two.

As there are numerous browsers that users can readily download, web designers may not want you to know that each of the browsers has their own way of handling things. What this means is that your website may work perfectly well with one browser but not with the other. So you have to make sure that the website is at least functional on all browsers.

Another thing that most web designers do not want you to know is that your website does not have an identical look on all computers and screens. The website that you see on your own screen may appear differently on another screen depending on resolution or monitor.

Talk to your web designer, and make sure that your website looks decent on every monitor and resolution as possible.

Another example of the classic ‘beauty is in the eyes of the beholder’ is the font of your website. Not all computers display the exact appearance of the fonts. Personal computers may handle the fonts differently as compared to Mac computers. Your web designer should be able to carefully choose fonts applicable to all computers.

Many web designers do not also want you to know that site visitors will not automatically visit your website even if it’s already up and running. In order for your website to be popular, or to bringing in businesses, you will need to promote your website and make it search engine friendly.

Many web designers will not want to tell you that your website won’t be fully optimised for the search engines, which means that it’s not part of the website designing. Before the project starts, ask your web designer to optimise the website for you as part of the project. This way you will not only save time but also cost, because the optimisation work takes less time if done during the coding process. Having said that, not every web designer have the knowledge for this, but it’s always good to ask.

These are just a few common things that many web designers won’t normally tell you before starting a project. So do your homework before picking up the phone.

Here are the 10 things you need to know before designing your own website:

1. Get to know more about the traffic that you are planning to drive to your website. Find out what will make them visit your website.
2. Determine the functionality of your website. How do you like your website to function- as contact point for customers? Or perhaps like a gallery where you can display your featured products or services?
3. Decide what components you would like your website to have and what tools and technology you are going to use to build your website.
4. Find the appropriate software tools that you will use to design your website. You can find several online with most of them offering trial versions. These software tools are usually user-friendly that even if you don’t have any prior experience in web designing, you will be able to learn the basics almost instantaneously.
5. Come up with a mock-up version or a draft of your website. When you are using the trial version of the software tools, you will find the draft useful as it can be saved in your hard drive.
6. Review the draft of your website and see if it conforms to the purpose/s and goal/s of your website as well as if the design is appropriate to respond to the needs of your targeted traffic. Do some tweak and adjustments to enhance the website.
7. Find a good web hosting provider. The provider shall be able to offer you the appropriate space for your website. Depending on the purpose and traffic of your website, you may choose between free web hosting and paid subscription to store the files from your site.
8. Take note that in a free web hosting service, advertisements may be placed in your website to cover for the free hosting.
9. Understand the goals of the your business.
10. Think about how your website will be structured. And the best way to do this is to use post it notes.

Many people don’t understand the important of having a good website for their business. Getting this part right will help to get your visitors to stay on the website longer and do business with you. You need to know that they don’t know or care about you and your website, they just want to get what they want and leave. If your website cannot provide the information or products they looking for, they will simply go elsewhere. You must you are NOT the only one that providing your services or products.

If you want a good website, first you would need to know what to look for. There’s a simple way to find this out – visit your competitors’ website. Make a list of all the common things they all have, for example – logo on the top left, font size is 14 pixel, white background…etc. So you start with the layout and then the copy, images, colors and so on. Having these information will be help you or your web designer or design company in making a better website for your business.

If you are planning to outsource the website work to a freelancer or company you should first check to see if they are familiar with your industry, and if not, ask them if they will research your industry and how much time they will spend on that. The better the freelancer/company understands your industry and customers, the better your website will be. If you want to be sure that they fully understands your industry, you can always provide them with the information upfront. This could actually cut down the overall cost of your website.

Now there are a lot of good web design companies you find on Google. Some of these can be good and cheap but majority of the time, you will get what you pay for. So talk to them on the phone, look at their portfolio, maybe call a few of their clients up to get some feedbacks from them. You can also do a search for their company name in Google or Yahoo and see if there’s any blog and forum comments about their service.

What you need to consider before creating a website, are things such the cost, maintenance, use, web host and more importantly the purpose of the website. You’ll need to ask questions like, what I do want the visitor to do when they’re on your website? Do you want to just provide the information about your business or do you want to them make a purchase, or maybe you’re looking for their contact details.

Firstly, you’ll need to register a domain name which is roughly around $8 for one year. Ideally you should purchase at least two years or more because that will benefit on search engines. Next would be a “cheap” hosting solution, getting this step right can save you from hours, even days of stress. The key here is RESEARCH, read people’s posts in forums and blogs and see what’s good and bad out there. I would spend half of day if not more doing this. Companies that have been around for 5+ years are usually pretty safe, but never pay for one full year the first time, and if they don’t the monthly option then I would look elsewhere, unless it’s recommendation from your friend.

So now you have all the technical things sorted out and you wonder what’s next. Your website! Depending on your level of interest and knowledge in web design, you could buy a software package like Dreamweaver and try to do it yourself. That can be fairly time-consuming and could end up costing you more in the long run. The alternative option is to find a professional freelance web designer to do this for you. A professional designed website should last you about 2+ years without any major changes. Have a look around on net, there’s a lot good web designers out there, so finding someone that fits your budget shouldn’t be difficult. Since most web designers have a portfolio site, you can see what they have done and whether or not his design style fits in with your business. An easy way to find out whether he/she is the right person for the job is to compare his work with your competitors’ website. A good web designer should be able to do well in both design and coding, and some will also have knowledge of Search Engine Optimization. If possible try to hire someone who has some SEO knowledge, and let them know your preferred search keywords before he/she start building the website. A website that built with SEO in mind can greatly benefit from free search engine traffic. One thing to remember is always find out exactly what you will get in the end before starting the project.

Not all industries can see huge benefits in having a website, some can benefit more than the others but having one will certainly give you an edge over your competitors who doesn’t, even if it just has your logo and contact details on there!

Link

I found this pretty cool flash site when I was looking for inspirations on the net. It’s probably been online for long time…and I’m used to being the last one to find out about these things on the net but if you never seen it you might want to check it out.

A very interesting WordPress theme design, the girl image weights the most in the overall design layout. The way it’s positioned blends in very well with other elements, from a designer point of view it’s definitely above the good level, however, from the business point of view I can see that there’s a number of issues. The obvious one would be the use of colours, the difference between foreground and background isn’t great enough and this can be tiring reader’s eyes. And to make the matter worst the designer has used a very small font size.

Overall I think it’s very good piece of “art”, perfect for personal use, but it certainly not something that I would consider for business use.

Here’s the live version

A good way to show non-technical people, like clients, how you work and what’s involved in creating a top quality website.