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Posts Tagged ‘web design brisbane’

Eight Steps to Great Web Design

August 7th, 2010

Take control of getting your site established by a developer and comprehend the process it will save you money and get you a site that actually works the intended purpose!

1. Comprehending your business and how you are currently positioned in your market.
In order to author a site that truly meets your requirements; you first need to have a full comprehension of your business including your products, and/or services and more importantly their market position. You then have to acknowledge how you want to explain your business and what it offers in 7 seconds or less. Sounds impossible? Well that is the average time that a user will consider the point “is this site I searched for?”.

2. Budget and estimation
Have a budget in mind and don’t be afraid to let the developers know what it is. In saying this: BE REALISTIC, $500 will never see a great web site created, nor will they be anything left in the bank to market it.

3. The creative process
Be armed with example sites and more importantly the elements of the site you like so they can accomplish an understanding of what you would like to see on your site and also what you find frustrating about other sites. This will construct a good profile and identify not only what type of site to build for you but your tolerance to colours, animations, layouts etc. for your requirements which will allow for efficient development. The more interaction and information you give them in the beginning the more time you will save everybody in the long run by achieving what you want 1st time round. Check with the designers on how many rounds of changes come with the contract, most will allow for a total conceptual redesign only once and 2 rounds of changes after that.

4. Production and Content
After the home page design is created, the developers will more than likely take the general layout of this concept and then create the inner page template. It is this template that will be duplicated for most of your pages for your site.
Present your content in a pre-proofed word processed document; don’t get too creative with the document fonts etc. as these will not be preserved when the content is copied into the code of the site. It is inferred that you do use bolding, underlining, headings and sub heading though ,as these highlights are transferred into the site and are essential later on in not only establishing with the reader but for Search Engine Optimisation.
One last tip for content; provide a decent amount of content but formulate it in a way that a reader may acquire a summary of what you are trying to get across in the 1st couple of paragraphs and an image or to. The rest of the paragraphs that get into finer details ARE FOR GOOGLE !

5. Development Programming and CMS
If your website contains Content Managed Areas (CMS) or has any other dynamic sections the developers will wrap your design around a content management program such as Joomla or Drupal or they may have a custom built system. Make sure that you get to see how the CMS system works on another site they have developed or an example site they may have. it is essential that you know that you can use and know the system when your site is complete.

6. Testing and training
We work closely with the developers to test your site especially if there are any CMS or special programs that have been created for you. You can guarantee if it is has just been written for you then it will not work 100% first time round. This is a where things can get ugly in the process you must understand the way the program operates and test it as if you were normal website user. If it doesn’t make sense to you, odds are it won’t make sense to your audience. Make sure you test your website on more than just your browser, try to test it on Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari. All of these browsers are available to download on the internet for free!

7. Launch – going live
When the developers are ready to bring your site live make sure you have completed the above testing step until you are happy that this website is the best representation of your business / product it can be. Remember even though you can change things after going live it is still a poor reflection on your business if there are spelling mistakes or broken images when you launch.

8. Marketing
There is little point in having a website if nobody visits it, make sure as part of you contract you have discussed search engine optimisation and or search engine marketing as part of your website build. This is the absolute most important factor of the whole process. If you are the only one looking at your site then you are in trouble.

Remember Search Engine Optimisation is about 30% Onsite (getting your site correct for Search Engine to index correctly) and 70% Promotion. Any developer who tells you otherwise hasn’t been in the industry too long.

For more information about web design Brisbane, contact Web Site Blue. Our web designers understand marketing as well as design.

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Tips to Creating a New Business Logo

August 6th, 2010

A logo is a central step to forming a business. It is the face of your business. And like your face conveys the tone of your business, gestures the service and displays the professionalism or lack there of.

People spend a lot of money on the formation of their logo and walk away with no artwork files. Then a couple months down the track when they require to put signage on their new building they cannot track the design studio down that formulated the original logo for them and so incur costs to have it redone. This is unnecessary and may cause complications when trying to replecate the logo exactly as created originally.

We have created some basic tips you for to think about when creating a logo. Hopefully these will help you from experiencing any future obstacles.

Tip 1
First things first - you need to decide if you would like your logo to have an accompanying icon. It is suggested that if your service or product name is not in your business name then perhaps an icon will help in conveying a clear message across to your target audience.

An icon can add an extra element to your branding in that you could use the icon on its own on collateral where perhaps you are sighting for a more illustrative finish without losing recognition.

A good example of this is the well-known and executed Nike logo.

Tip 2
Colour can be an crucial decision as it not only could affect the output costs but can also hinder your output use. Think about the end result and what you will be bringing your branding onto in the future. Make sure your designer is aware of this as they should design accordingly.

Tip 3
Make sure you get a back up disk of your logo as a master file and make certain that it includes all the files required for the different printing formats.

Creative software updates frequently and some programmes become obsolete. Make certain you have a copy of your logo as a PDF - with the text converted to curves.

Tip 4
Using images in your logo is not very easy to regulate. For example it is hard to to reverse into black and white. Images also have limitations when it comes to size - they can only be reproduced to a certain size before they start pixilation.

Tip 5
Using gradients in your logo is not recommended. This too can have limitations when it comes to output for ie: gradients are hard to reproduce when embroidering fabrics.

Tip 6
Make certain sure the font is legible. Some logos need to be reproduced on small pieces of collateral ie: post stamps. It is important that in this case the text is
readable

Tip 7
Make sure that you collect a copy of your logo in CMYK high resolution 300 dpi (for printing use) and RGB 72 dpi(for web use).

Tip 8
It is important to have a style guide of your logo. It will clearly show you how to use your logo so it looks exactly the same every time it is reproduced. This allows you to keep your corporate image consistent.

Tip 9
Make sure that you get a letter from the design studio declaring that you own the copyright to your logo.

If you follow these tips then not only will you accept a well-designed logo but you will also own the artwork. And when it comes to reproducing your collateral you will be doing it the most cost effective way.

For logo design Brisbane and web design Brisbane, contact graphic design Brisbane today for a free two hour consultation.

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Rule One of Business: Get Paid

May 25th, 2010

To be paid, you would figure is fundamentally fundamental in your business because if you aren’t getting paid, why are you in business?

You may be shocked at the amount of business people who let their customer base to simply pay when and if they remember it. I know of such a tradesman who persistently makes bad debts like awards. Why is that? Very possibly because he won’t bring himself to demand the money and people overpower him.

If you let a client credit, only do it if they cleared consistency to you by paying cash on delivery (COD) for a period. Also, you should find whether they have the resources to pay you - if not do not do business with them. Don’t fool yourself into thinking “I need the work” or “I need the sales”. It’s fruitless to do the service or providing the goods for free if you are not paid.

If you are the type of person who can’t ask for the fee when the job has been done, try these cheats:
Tell your customer that when the service is finished, you need cash or cheque. They should likely have it there at at the finish date and you will not need to request your fee.

When you hand out a quote, make sure your payment terms are clear.

Form an invoice including the terms of payment plainly listed and give the customer the invoice when the work is finished. They will review the invoice and generally understand they will pay you the money now without you needing to say a word. Manufacture an “evil boss” who would flay you alive if you do not return with the fee for the service.

Ask your banking institution to set you up with Merchant facilities so you can have credit cards like Mastercard and Visa. Many people utilize credit cards and it could prevent the difficulty of the customer not holding a cheque account or not having the right amount of cash in their wallet.

As another option, don’t be afraid to hold the promised goods until they have been paid for. Know, until they’re paid for, the goods remain to be yours.

If you choose to give somebody credit, be sure you take the following details from them some time BEFORE you give them credit.

  • Name
  • Address
  • Phone number
  • Bank name and address
  • Account no.
  • 3 trade references with their names, addresses and phone numbers

When you record all this information, call the branch and make for certain that they use an account there. Then, contact each of the trade reference and find out if they pay their invoices correctly or if they have had any dilemmas with them.

Most people will be willing to tell you if the person is troublesome. If everything is OK, allow them a moderate level of debt, say no more than $500 (depending on your business). Monitor the operation of the account for a few months before allowing this amount to be exceeded.

If you’re looking for a Brisbane web design company or Brisbane SEO company, talk to Search Tempo. Check out their SEO prices today.

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