The Best Web Design Comics

Many web designers are also closet comic-book nerds.

Andy Clarke came out of the closet at Web Directions South earlier this year when he spoke about finding inspiration for web design in comic book art.

I’ve noticed that a lot of other geeks have not only been embracing their love for comics, but writing their own. In fact, when a web designer or developer with a creative streak turns his or her hand to drawing comics, it can produce very interesting results. More than just a lunchtime distraction, comic strips about our profession can lead to insights about how and why we do what we do. Plus, keeping oneself abreast of what is happening in our industry includes not only knowing what people are talking about, but what they’re laughing about.

Seeing as a Google search for the terms “web design comic” or “tech comic” either throws up nothing or just a bunch of rubbish, I thought I’d post my favourite comics about web design. I don’t pretend it’s an exhaustive list — I’m hoping you’ll help me out by listing your own favourite geeky comics in the comments.

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Apache Wicket 1.3 set for Java Web development

Looking to make Web development easier for Java developers, the Apache Software Foundation began offering this week Apache Wicket 1.3, an open source component-based Web framework.

Formerly housed at SourceForge, the Wicket project moved over to Apache last year; version 1.3 is the first release bearing the Apache nameplate, said Martijn Dashorst, chairman of the project and a senior software developer at Web application development firm Topicus. Enhancements have been made in areas such as AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) and portal support.

"The purpose [of Apache Wicket] is to make development for Java developers simple as a possible," Dashorst said. "We use a component model for that."

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Web design specialist puts his 2.0 sense in

In putting together a Web page, you have two choices: good design or bad. Not doing any design work at all is, by default, a bad page, says Luke Wroblewski.

One of the better-known names in the Web design world, Wroblewski will be the centerpiece of a workshop being hosted on Friday by the eBusiness Association. He will discuss designing for Web 2.0, the emerging wave of Web-based communities and hosted services.

Formerly principal designer at Yahoo Inc., Wroblewski is founder of LukeW Interface Designs, a consulting firm, and is senior principal of product ideation and design at Yahoo. He also publishes "Functioning Form," a blog about interface design.

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Value of a Custom Website Design

A custom website design is always worthy and its importance shall never be underrated. Web design is defined as a process of perception, preparation, and execution, and it is important that this process is carried out effectively. Creating a custom website design requires skill that can take several years to master. An amateur without sufficient knowledge and experience cannot execute the task properly and hence only a skilled professional who has acquired abundant proficiency in this field is the right person who not only can give your website the required artistic appeal in its look and feel but along with it will ensure that your website has a professional look too.

Most importantly you need to remember the fact that your website primarily targets your visitors, who come seeking some kind of information. Your website will manipulate the user's preliminary insight of the website’s implication and convince them to survey deeper into your website.

Your website is the representative on your behalf and so it must expose your business and the products or services you provide positively facilitating the very purpose it is intended to accomplish. A custom web design should therefore should lay its optimal stress on the requirement of your customer both in terms of accessibility and information, thus providing immense help in effective decision-making.

Therefore, it is very much important that a custom website design is laid out in such a manner that the visitor can locate his required information easily and quickly, and need not look around for too long or may get lost in the website. Lack of a proper structure and information can put the visitor in a dilemma resulting him to leave your website within a few seconds not bothering to explore further into your website. Therefore the outcome being that you can loose a visitor, who could have possibly been your customer.

The fundamentals of custom web site design is not simply a combination of magnificent graphics and use of superb colors on the website, but alongside its grand appearance there are subtle factors that make your website proportionate thus carrying out the message for your business effectively and without a glitch. Few such helpful suggestions that should be considered in order to label a website as ‘good’ are listed below:

• A clean and easy to use navigation is an essential criterion for a website. This is one of the most vital point to be taken into account while designing your website. The Homepage of the website should have a Top and a Left Navigation to provide the visitor a quick glance at the contents of your website.
  
  
• The Homepage of a custom website design is linked from all the inner pages of your website via a ‘home’ link on the website navigation menu, which ideally comprises of ‘home’, ‘about us’, ‘site map’ and ‘contact us’. But this can be different for different cases. Also the Logo of the website should ideally bear a link to the Homepage of the website.
  
  
• ’Site Map’ is one more very important aspect of a good custom website design. It gives a distinct perceptive to the visitor about the structure of your website like what are the major menus and what are the sub-menus located under those main menus etc. The visitor can simply select the page that he needs and can be there with a mere click of his mouse button.

In a nutshell, a custom website design associate the real worth of a website thus enormously affecting its performance.

And what if you are not serious about your website’s design and do not concentrate on it?

A flamboyantly designed website is sure to dissuade users from even entering your website. Also a design that is that has got nothing to do with the theme of the website can cause much harm. Endowing your visitors with poor quality design you can, be rest assured that you will in no way have visitors coming back to your website.

So, why not give your site a custom website design with that ‘professional’ element thus carrying out a sturdy message to your visitors about your sincerity and that they can trust you with their money for guaranteed quality results and absolute contentment.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com

About the Author:

Monalisa Boral Maitra is the Business Development Manager of Designarcade, an India based Website Design and Development Company, providing professional and affordable custom website design solutions. Visit them at www.designarcade.com or you can reach her at sales@designarcade.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Why Use a Professional Web Designer to Make a Website?

In todays fast developing world, the Internet is a hugely popular medium which helps in connecting different places within seconds. The Internet industry has given a tremendous boost to business organizations who work through online transactions. If the net is such an important medium to share views about different products and services, then the website which is used as a medium has to be competent enough to provide all the knowledge about the product in a prompt manner so that the consumer who is sitting on the other side of the net is fully assured with the credentials of the company and is ready to invest in it.

Thus, if such a faith is invested in the consumer with a simple advertisement through a product promotion technique with the help of the internet, then the website which is created for this very purpose has to be perfect in its matter of content.

In order to make an effective and popular website which can promote the company and its product efficiently, a professional web designer should be appointed by the company who has in-depth knowledge about the Internet industry and the search engine optimization techniques (SEO). The professional web designer will be competent enough to design a site according to the requirements of the company in a customized way.

It should be remembered that a well-made web site will invite more search enquiries. The website should be made appealing and catchy with various templates which will provide with all the useful information. The website should use contrasting background, colors, fonts and various styles in order to make the website attractive.

It should be kept in mind that the site should be user friendly so that the search gives instant results with relevant contents. If the website has informative hyper tags and metal links then the website will be more informative.

In order to make it a site which can generate more traffic, the website should use keywords in a frequent manner. The website should be registered with search engines which can be run in various browsers such as Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Hot Java, Netscape Navigator, MSN, Lynx and Amaya.

Apart from these basic objectives, the web designer should remember that web designing is an expert job which if carried properly, can create wonders for the company. A good website will make the company and its product popular among masses.

It is necessary that the product policies in terms and condition should be mentioned with the product so that the liability of the company is mentioned beforehand. It is necessary to make the website free from any digression so that there is no unnecessary matter regarding the company. Web designing is an art which requites tremendous skill to handle all the information in a systematic manner.

A professional web designer will avoid the usage of presentations by the use of Flash and animated information as it is not a good option in the web sites. It is also important to remember that all the screen resolution of every individual will be different therefore the designer should make use of basic technology in order to make a good website which is creative and full of relevant information.

About the Author:

Visit the professionals who will build you a site for a fixed fee - Berkshire Website Design at http://www.berkshirewebsitedesign.co.uk