The Web Production Process
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Web design and development practices have evolved towards placing more emphasis on usability, fast loading pages, and good quality, content rich Web pages. This is done to ensure that anyone browsing a website enjoys a positive experience while visiting the website, increasing the opportunity for better ROI. This article will outline the steps that should be taken when creating and implementing an effective, efficient and creatively unique product while maintaining the proper steps involved in designing and implementing the best possible product.
One of the most common issues Web designers encounter is the necessary balance of graphics to straight HTML/Text/CSS. In theory, everyone would like a website that only contains pretty graphics and awesome Flash animation. Although we still use these elements on our Web page, the proper balance is often overlooked, thus resulting in poorer than expected results from the site, even though on the outside it might look perfect. Additionally, with the various modem speeds used by Internet surfers around the world, Web pages must be as small as possible to decrease loading time and increase user retention.
Outline the Purpose of Your Web Site
The first thing a designer needs to establish is the purpose of the website. What market area(s) are being targeted? What age group and demographic? Is the website intended to generate leads? Sales? Answering these questions will help as a guideline to constraints which need to be considered while designing the website. This step in the process is critical to the overall success of the site and will dictate the approach one should take when designing, optimizing, and implementing the Web project at hand.
Marketing the Web Site
Once the purpose and target audience of a site has been decided, thinking about the marketing strategy to be adopted should follow. Pay-per-click, search engine submissions, and optimizing the website for various search engines are some of the available options. With the current popularity of search engines, and the fact that most Internet users go to Google or Yahoo! to find what they are looking for, doing some form of search engine optimization will help in gaining more exposure online and reap the benefits of being ranked well on the various search engines.
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