WDA Blog

18 year old Joel Kitching, a University of British Columbia student has won himself a silver medal in web design at the WorldSkills competition held in Japan. Kitching competed with 20 other web designers from around the world, all trying out their best skills at creating outstanding websites. Joel had earlier won a silver medal in Grade 10 for a provincial skills competition and gold in Grade 11 at regional, provincial and national competitions. After pocketing the gold medal at the 2006 nationals Joel was all set to fly out to Japan.Joel`s teachers believe that the boy is a natural and has a  good eye for design and a strong talent in coding. The theme for the web design project at the four-day 2007 WorldSkills competition was to create a database-driven site that would allow WorldSkills alumni to stay in touch with each other once the competition was over.

The TOCA ME design conference is scheduled to be held on 23rd February 2008 at Munich ,Germany .Many  international and national web designers would be participating in the conference and will be providing valuable insight into the web development processes and on various techniques they have used in creating powerful web designs. An exhibition is also being conducted showcasing the current work of leading web designers. A design competition is being held as a run-up to the conference and the winners would be felicitated during the conference as well. The conference provides a common communication platform for some real time networking where participants can interact with each other and gain knowledge while comparing notes. The conference, the third in the series is being hosted and organized by Munich-based design studio TOCA ME which was founded five years ago and specializes on print, event and web design.

Bigger more established web design companies are trying to bring cost efficiencies and professionalism to the web development business and are offering to buy client lists from web designers who are no longer in the field or from smaller businesses who are trying to swim against the tide in business competition urged on by unprecedented growth in e-commerce revenues. Tough competition and use of advanced technology by larger companies may be forcing freelancers and small web design business ventures to have second thoughts about continuing working in the field. Many freelancers do a pretty good job but do not have the necessary set up to continue serving the clients. Some young web designers may move on to other business opportunities or deviate to acquire a degree or other skills while their web design career takes a backseat. The clients in this case are left to fend for themselves. Larger companies are cashing in on this opportunity and offering to buy out client lists or sometimes even acquire the entire business itself from business owners who are willing to sell. 

With internet becoming more and more popular the web is now being identified as a real source of revenue and a competitive market where all types of business units – big or small sell their products. All budding talents are attracted by the growth potential of this industry, positive trend and its size. Competition among the small web design companies or web development agencies is growing fast and bigger business units are entering market with a complete range of services. Companies with sound fundamental status are involved in massive advertising campaigns and developing tools with latest technologies using less time. This may in a way push out to some extent smaller or individual run businesses companies because it is difficult for them to cope up with the larger potential of the market without latest technologies and advanced skillsets.The whole industry may just undergo massive restructuring and there may be place only for those who think big and better. 

When you actually start creating a website it is very critical that the website design should be attractive, fast loading, user friendly and should have the capability of drawing users to it again and again. Additionally focus on actual content, layout of the website and navigation is extremely important. The web design should be clean and the layout and navigation simple enough so even newcomers to the internet can browse through with ease. A good dose of white space is recommended which gives the website a neat, organized look. All pages or group of pages should have one basic design and each page should have content relevant to that section. Uniformity helps users to focus on content even if your background is slightly distracting. If your website has many links then it becomes necessary to use dropdown menus for main topics. With a few well placed and well utilized web design elements the desired look and feel of a website can be achieved. 

It is a known fact that a visitor to any website knows within the first few seconds if the site is worth spending more time on. If your website looks outdated or has a very inferior web design it is not likely to impress even casual visitors. And if your website is a business website, serious web users will think twice before doing business with you as a website is a reflection of a person or a business and a website with a poor website design shows the business in very poor light. In this age of cut throat business emerging companies should look at having websites with powerful web designs that would create an impact on visitors and prospective customers. Businesses can have custom made website designs that are able to convey the right message about the company in the shortest possible time and ensure that you have the attention of the visitors and encourage them to probe further. 

With the ever changing interests of people around the globe it’s become increasingly vital to keep changing the dynamics of a business as well. A business needs to keep abreast of the latest in this competitive world today and so should its website design. Even if your website has already been running for years, it may require restructuring or redesigning to keep up with the times.  Search engines also favor websites that are restructured and revamped more often than others because it keeps the substance in it fresh and active. It gives the audience a hint or a clue that this is a website that is more often used than the others. It also gives them reason to believe that it offers a good deal of priceless content, and therefore should be ranked higher than others which have probably not been updated or undergone a change of web design in a while. Website redesigning will give you the leverage and will permit you to make any of the small changes to your website that you would like.

Did you know a well designed customer friendly website will persistently bring visitors back to your website every time? Most importantly it is observed that one should put relevant content on the website .If the content of your site does not interest the visitor, it is not likely that it will be of any use to the visitor. To avoid poor load time, it’s vital to avoid too many graphics on your website. Pay attention to spelling. Errors in spelling will give the visitor the message that you probably are not aware of what you website is conveying and worse, that you may just be plain careless which is not going to get your business the stamp of trust. Visible, well placed links will only help your visitor access all the pages in your website from anywhere within the site. It is also important to ensure your web design is compatible with all the popular browsers as web users have a choice in browsers now unlike a few years back when only one web browser was available. 

A website solutions provider can produce a brilliantly designed website by simply focusing on few critical factors important in good website designing. A theme binds the entire website together with common fundamentals on all the pages that bring regularity and balance to the website design. Navigation is best when kept simple and clearly visible. Your website would become ineffective if the visitors don’t find what they are looking for. It’s important to remember that your visitor should be able to reach any page from any page on the website. All information on the website should be clear and crisp and in a simple language. One must avoid using difficult words in the substance and try to include the keywords that may help searching easier on the website. Using web design tools that can boost your website’s search engine rankings and help bring in more business, is the most desired flavor of the season for anyone who has a presence on the web. 

Your website is the one thing that defines you and your business and has the probability to draw the entire virtual world to your products or services. The main reason why you bring people to a website is to talk about yourself and the only way to do that is to build a website with a powerful web design. Your home page is usually the first thing in a website that a visitor comes across .It has to clearly state what is it you want to sell, offer, feature, etc.The links on the homepage need to clearly visible so that people have the choice to move forward  to seek out more information. Highlight what is important in such a way as to grab attention and hold it. It is significant to use bullets or symbols and you can even try the slanted bullets or a different bullet style for more eye appeal. When you are designing your website its important to make sure that every word in the content of your website should say something of significance.  You also need to use convincing words to sell yourself and your business.