How to reduce an image’s size

February 26th, 2009

One of the most common questions we get asked at web design suffolk is how to reduce an images size. There are a whole multitude of images and graphics available for people to put onto their sites, but it is often difficult to work out how to prepare them for the web. If you don’t get it right, you could end up with images that are pix-elated and blurry, or on the other end of the scale, you could end up with pictures that are too big and slow to download - that why we want to tell you how to reduce them in size.

Reducing the dimensions is the best way that web design suffolk has found to reduce images sizes for the web. For example, if your image measures 1024×758 pixels, you could reduce it to 800×600. You could also crop the image, chopping off excess from the edges. These techniques will change the size and shape of the image, but not otherwise affect the quality.

Always freshen your content

February 12th, 2009

If you are looking to have a successful site online, one that people will come back time and time again, the single most important thing you must do is freshen your content daily. If you visit a site designed by web design suffolk and discover that it was last updated two months ago, you will surely move on and try another site. Even if you are looking at a simple info site and just want an address, if the content isn’t updated and fresh, then people will move away fairly quickly.

Basically, updated content impresses people and keep them coming back for more. What is shows clearly to all users that visit your site is that you have a clear commitment to your site and it matters. Therefore an updated site will always attract new customers and users.

What is Wi-Fi and Bluetooth?

January 16th, 2009

Wi-Fi, or if you are a geek, IEEE 802. 11X, is a set of wireless standards that allow computers and PDA’s to communicate using radio waves. Web Design Suffolk has seen it become very prominent in all laptops that are sold today, with 99% of them now having w-fi as standard. Wi-Fi works through walls and other obstacles with a range of up to a few hundred feet or more.Its nowhere near as fast as a wired network, but it is more than fast enough to deliver a solid internet connection.

Bluetooth is another wireless standard that is slower then wi-fi. and has a shorter range. It’s popularity is due to the fact that it is very easy to use with multiple devices, with mobile phones being the most commonly used. In terms of internet use, web design suffolk feels that it can still be useful for connecting a laptop to a phone to get online when you are out and about.

How easy is it to set up a website?

January 6th, 2009

One of the most common questions that we are asked at web design suffolk is how easy is it to set-up a website. When you put it into simple terms, it is actually very easy. The first thing you need to do is get online and register a domain name - this is most commonly called a web address - an example of this would be something like me@theweb.co.uk.

Once this is done you will then need to create your own web pages - the best people to talk to about this would be web design suffolk, though there are thousands of web design companies all over the country. Most web design companies will build your site using a form of an HTML editing program. Once your site is built, you will then have to rent some webspace to house your site and to upload the pages to. Once this is all done, you will have your bery own live website - what are you waiting for - go to it

Keep your design fresh and clean

November 20th, 2008

There are literally millions and billions and trillions of websites in the world and the first thing most people think about when they are putting their dream site together, after they have spoken to the best designers in England - IE - web design suffolk, is how much content can i throw up on my site and how often. Often is the crucial word here, as often will mean your site is well spider-ed by the bots. How much is also equally important, because you can actually have too much content.

This may seem to go against everything you might have heard about great websites, but often web design suffolk discover that know matter how great the site, if it is cluttered with too much information and content, people will be turned off. It is important when you are selling products top give a good a description that is for sure, but do people need the whole technical manual online, not really. if you keep your content fresh and simple you wont go far wrong online.

Offer your Home page up as a default

October 6th, 2008

One of the first things internet users tend to work out is that they can change their home page via some simple option clicks. Usually their ISP or work place will foist-er some boring page as their home page, so why not offer your own once web design suffolk have made it a desirable destination.

You should never ever force your home page on anybody or heaven forbid do it without their knowledge - but if they are a regular visitor to your site and maybe even registered with you, it will do not harm to offer them the opportunity ti have your site as a home page. Web design suffolk can make it so a simple click on a yes button can reconfigure their browser options settings and your site will become their new home page once they launch their web browser.

Add new content to keep people coming back

September 11th, 2008

There is nothing worse for somebody visiting a website than discovering that the content hasn’t been update for weeks. If your content is old there is nothing web design suffolk can do about it - content has to come from the website owner and it has to be new, fresh and exciting, but most importantly of all, it has to regular.  Users are very clever these days at working out whether a site has been looked after and updated, if they suspect that they are on a web ghost ship, they will jump ship in a nano second.

Be it once a week, day or hour, it will cost you in time, but if you want a site to succeed after web design suffolk have built it, then you need to keep looking after the site and feeding it with content. Whats new could then become hot news and this is something you shouldn’t overlook either. New content is important, but sometimes you can make a news item out of new items and this will them mean double the content. What are writing for? get writing and start publishing!

No CMS, no cigar

September 3rd, 2008

One of the most crucial elements of a web design is a site that has built with CMS as standard. CMS stands for Content Management System, which means that your site will allow you to easily update pictures, text and products from the back-end administration area with minimum technical knowledge needed and ease of use. All services and products have a limited life span and web design suffolk insist that all web sites built in the region now have CMS as standard. For a site to be taken seriously, you must contantly update the products and ervices on it. Old products should also be easily archived as a back catalogue, with clear indications that they are old stock. But if your stock is no more, they should be taken off your site and deleted.

Too many cooks….

September 2nd, 2008

Though web design is a very important part of a site, the design should also allow the back end to have an effective CMS area that will allow web users to update content quickly and easily. One of the problems that web designers find though is that admin rights are too freely and easily handed out which means that multiple people add content, which invariably means that some content will be confused and mixed. The way around this is too have web design suffolk ensure that your site has admin permissions for different areas of your site and individuals are only responsible for their own areas.

It is also a good practice to upload new content on certain days via your web design suffolk site and leave the site to settle on other days. All the new copy and images should be prepared in the other days of the week and that way users will get know when they can see some new products and information in a way they can be comfortable with. House rules for web design are the same as rules for content management - the right people do the right thing at a specific given time. Keep it short and always get to the point quickly.

Monitor your customer feedback and act accordingly

September 1st, 2008

If you are involved in e-commerce and your site delivers actual goods to people, then there is a good chance that you might have had some problems with courier companies and deliveries and maybe even faulty or unwanted goods from drop ship third parties. It is very important that you keep hold of all of this information and ensure that if a courier company lets you down - you have already agreed that they will compensate you for your loss.

Remember with couriers also that you should have a back-up organization in place if you need to use somebody else. Even the big boys such as DHL and TNT get it wrong sometimes and you need to measures up their performance and costs with other companies. The automated delivery systems will probably be put in place by web design suffolk but you cannot control what happens when the parcel leaves your organization.

Improvements can always be made on your site, and by monitoring complaints and errors, you can work with the people of web design suffolk and get your site to be perfect and efficient in no time. Always remember to look at the bigger picture and look to grow and keep an eye on the future. The bottom line is that if you keep an eye on developments as they happen, you wont make the same mistakes again in the future and your customers will stay happy.