Plan a Flash Application

Purpose, Audience, Treatment, Specifications

Some of us like to jump right into Adobe Flash and start designing. This is where a lot of developers waste time and money. Have a plan.
The first thing to do is decide what you and your client are looking to accomplish, a purpose. This is a good way to keep anyone involved in the project on track.
Secondly, determine your audience. This is very important. If it is being designed for children, you may want to include animals with moving parts whenever the cursor is rolled over an animal. After all, you can't aim to hit a target if you don't know where the bullseye is at.
Next, decide how the application will be presented to the user: Tone, approach, and emphasis on the different multimedia elements in the application.
Fourth, create a flowchart and storyboard to start placing the elements together in line with your ideas. Specifications include the arrangement of elements and the functionality of each. A flowchart will help to pinpoint any aberrations in navigation scheme before work begins. Planning out the user interface of an interactive project is important because employing design guidelines becomes more crucial. Such elements here to scrutinize are optical balance, unity, movement, and simplicity.
After all of this be sure to test the application for consistency and user control functionality.

E-Commerce Web Design Tips

I recently have undertaken an E-Commerce website, and begun to research effective strategies I would like to share . . .

1. Image accounts for a lot, and when your potential customer is checking out your products or services online, they want to do what they would normally do in the store (or as close to it as possible), online: For your business, this means taking excellent photography that shows your product in different contexts, or environments, and at different angles.

2. Let your customers know they are secure before they get to the 'Pay Now' purchase page. You can do this by signing up for a $2 a month SiteLock badge (the site conducts security constantly monitors your site to ensure your information is not being compromised), or if your website has another method, make sure it is posted on the homepage of your website somewhere along with subsequent order pages.

3. Your website: Clean + Professional = Trustworthy. Simple as that.

4. Link to your businesses contact information from every page, and make that link easy to be found.

5. Streamline your checkout process: Don't ask for someone's information before they have agreed to make a purchase. Then have options to 'Log In' for a repeat customer, or is a new customer, check a box if they want your site to retain their information for future purchases. Then have another check box to be added to a mailing list.

6. Offer some form of guarantee or a discount. Be sure to make this pronounced on the product page.

7. If the word 'FREE' is ANYWHERE pertaining to a product, make it bold or easy to point out to a page onlooker.

8. Give your customers more than one payment method to 'checkout' with.

9. Don't confuse your buyers: Place a limited amount of information on each subsequent page leading up to checkout, so they will be focused on what they set out to do: Purchase your product! If they see an advertisement and click on it, or a link to a news article of interest, they may not return!

10. Lastly, give your customers navigation tools when checking out and a 'progress bar' on each checkout page to let buyers be aware of where they are at in the checkout process.

Any suggestions would be of aid, as a website viewer.

Webpage Critique for Louisville Detailing . . . HELP!

I began a

new webpage

yesterday for a client. Louisville Detailing is a local car detailer that offers a load of other services besides those that a regular car detailing shop offers. I am thinking about outlining that on the front page somewhere. After all, it is

common practice to place all points that differentiates a certain business from it's competitors on a webpage

. All content, even links are currently from existing website, so if you critique, please do not pick on that. I am looking for suggestions for what, as a client, someone would look for to be on an 'auto detlailing' webpage. What would make YOU want to get your car spiffed up for a hot date? What would make you want to get a crummy decal off of your car or have someone else shine your rims and tires up? My thoughts are pricing right off, but I have placed that on the 'detailing' page considering they do have many other services. So, besides that. . . . The webpage can be found here.

Webpage Layout and User Friendliness

Users traverse a page on a web site in only a few basic ways. It is easy to follow the flow of what we, as designers, envision for a page, instead of really focusing on our audience and the true functionality. Functionality goes beyond aesthetics. This includes screen resolution, browser capabilities, and designing for alternate client environments. As far as layout is concerned, for a usual informative site such as a periodical, it is usually a paper-based reading pattern. The paper based reading pattern follows a left to right, then down, and left to right zig zag. A secondary pattern is screen-based, which is more landscape oriented: How you would view something on a television. This is a circular pattern, beginning center top proceeding to follow a clockwise motion back around. This must be considered when designing content for location placement.

Does your business need to go social media crazy?

Experts squawk about Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, YouTube, designing websites, and a whole litany of online and social media possibilities, but not all of them make sense for every single business.

When it comes to local advertising, small business owners must seriously consider how to concentrate their efforts. While we all must utilize the internet and social media to some extent, what will be most effective for one owner, may be a waste of time for another. By reflecting on some key issues, devising a successful local advertising strategy becomes less about what everyone else says and more about what you truly want and need.

Tips on Formatting Site Content for Your Audience

Using headings, lists, and a consistent structure will help to unify your symmetric main ideas, while declaring  them from those of other levels. Make line by line reading sensible and summarize, so the onlooker will know in an instant if it pertains to what is of interest to them. You have to think about how a user intends to interact with the information on your Web page.  Is a reader more likely to read or scan your pages? This will be useful in determining whether or not you arrange your page in a paper-based pattern or a screen-based pattern. Use a grid to format your content. You can choose to do this by using HTML tables and setting the cellpadding property to '0'. Tip: Be sure to create CSS documents to guide the formatting on your Website, it will be a lot easier to edit later!

For more, go to my new website.

Louisville Detailing SEO Work

Before completion, I already had Louisville Detailing's Website on the first page of Google results for 'Auto Detailing Louisville KY'. I enhanced the content, the unique keyword and description identity of each page of the site, and tagged the images and text appropriately on all of the pages. I also targeted this specific keyterm throughout the whole site. Having a consistent theme helps in the authority the site has, including the backlinks and crosslink compatibility.

So what works? A conglomerate of different elements intertwined to create a theme visible to search engines!

New Company Website

Please check this out! The official roll-out of the non-under construction site is this weekend! Awesome Louisville Web Design

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO TO OPTIMIZE A WEB SITE?

The first thing to do is to analyze the site, so an accurate estimate can be given to a client for services that are proposed to be rendered. In this instance, the client is only paying for services that would currently benefit them. If after a few weeks of the changes pass without results, the next step, paid advertising, is conducted and targeted specifically for the business at hand. I have never had to resort to paid yet!

After conducting the main work, it is time to bring content into the site: Text and Photos. Content must be appropriately tagged in order to be effective. Even after this the work is not complete: Partner sites and cross/back links must be gathered and created. These get placed on a separate HTML document that contains a link to it from your website.

Contact SD&DD today for YOUR free analysis!

Madden Elevator Website Critique

Please help me to critique this website (still in the production/revision stage)!

Please respond to this blog with comments after viewing: Madden Elevator Preliminary New Site

Any suggestions would be of aid, as a website viewer.

THANK YOU!

Keyword Creation Tips

Choosing your primary keywords may be one of the most difficult parts of good SEO. It is also, however, one of the most important. When you begin optimizing your website for search engines, you will need to choose one primary keyword or keyword phrase, and four to six secondary keywords.
These keywords are going to be essential later on. You won't just use them for a single page on your website. Instead, they should feature prominently on each page of your website, in any website-related blogs, in any website-related newsletters, and in any website-related press releases. SEO goes beyond just a website.
With that in mind, look for keywords that will stand the test of time. Avoid keywords that are too general; you want targeted keywords for targeted traffic. But don't swerve to the opposite extreme; a keyword is no good if it's something so specific that no one would ever search for it.

Landing Page Suggestions

Communicate the value of your branded product and your organization's integrity.

Just in case the visitor does not want to provide their information at the time of the visit, be sure to communicate predominantly other contact means, providing them with the control to contact you (e.g. your primary company phone, sales numbers, technical and even basic information lines of communication). This provides contact information without forcing their hand into providing you their information.

A landing page must be keyword-rich, optimizing it for the search engines. The search engines crawl these primary landing pages. The first step is to have an attention-grabbing Header tag, subsequently, it should be followed by content that provides a solution via your products or services that address the visitors particular issue. Landing pages are the key to a successful website. You utilize these main landing pages to capture your audience and keep them on your site, which will result in conversions and a ROI. These are the gems of your website and should be optimized as such.

The user is taken to your first landing page and immediately, literal seconds pass, before they make the decision to stay and explore your site, that is how very critical landing pages are. Literally, this means that within less time than someone can truly perceive what they are looking at, they are drawing conclusions that will impact the rest of their experience.

Good Cheap Web Design?

What to look for in a web designer?

Check out this article that will clue you in on what to look for, then come back to this website to discover that there is an alternative solution to high-priced web design, for those of you out there who are just struggling to begin or grow your business. You probably do not have a hoard of money to just throw into a web site. You have come to the right place.

Eureka!

 As a Web Developer and a VBA for Access programmer, I am always undertaking new opportunities to challenge myself.  I cannot stand being at a productivity halt--in a mind warp loop trying to figure out some code--without even attempting to climb outside of the box and overcome the ruts I get into.  All of the useless wandering is all worth it when a problem that exists is looked at with a fresh set of eyes and a satisfied stomach . . . and then, SOLVED!  It's kind of like working out . . . It's a struggle, but when it's all said and done, the relief is paramount.  Happy picking!

Client Site--Louisville Mechanical

This website I did for a client and am in the process of perfecting the SEO.  They are mechanical contractors, HVAC contractors, and do chiller and boiler repair, with a lot of specialties such as medical gasses, geothermal work, and plumbing all in Louisville, KY:  Louisville Mechanical HVAC contractor Louisville, KY

Spencer Drafting & Database Design--Produciton With Amazing Software Results

Thanks to some amazing software, I am now realizing on a grand scale, how productive I can be in such a small time frame.  I am definitely able to keep costs low operating out of my home and using a formula that I am now familiar with, that I believe has driven results for my sites and my customer's. Cheap Web Design Louisville, KY and Shepherdsville, KY, or even anywhere else!  Check out my site, which is my main homepage, for my rates:  Spencer Drafting & Database Design