Web Design Links
Elevated
Notion of Stickiness Is Discarded as Hype Fades
Wall Street Journal
This is another terrific article from the Wall Street Journal - in this case, by
Tom Weber. It debunks the concept of "stickiness," the objective
of Web designers to get visitors to stay on their sites and not leave.
Many have tried to do this, and have still wound up with failures. The
reason, as Mr. Weber makes clear, is that although many successful sites ARE
sticky, they are not successful BECAUSE they are sticky. They are
successful for one reason: they offer value to their guests. Ebay is
sticky because it offers auctions. Game sites are another class of sticky
sites, for obvious reasons. Your objective for your site is to meet the
needs and objectives of your guests and clients. Stickiness should not be
the objective (unless your business model is selling advertising). So if
your guests want to buy office supplies, don't worry about stickiness.
Help them easily and quickly buy office supplies. Don't worry about
pouring glue all over the place.
As a side note...you'll notice that I frequently review Wall Street Journal
articles. If you're interested in the strategic and business aspects of
information technology and ebusiness - not just the hardcore bits and bytes -
then I strongly encourage you to get a subscription to this fine online
publication and read it every day. It has the best survey of technology
news that I've seen, with wonderful in-depth stories. And no, I'm NOT a
shill - I'm not making any money from this recommendation. But if they had
an affiliate program, you can bet I'd participate. Buying a subscription
is just about the best way you can spend money on the Internet.
The
Web @ Work / Cars Dawydiak
Wall Street Journal
This article tells the story of a car dealership in California that has
installed two Webcams in its showroom to let customers browse and inspect the
inventory. The company feels the system was a no-brainer because of
increased sales. Customers can browse from their homes or offices anywhere
in the world and request information about a specific car they've seen.
The site is at http://www.carsauto.com and
I'd encourage you to take a look at it. If you're in a business where
customers might want to see your inventory or your facility, this is a very
powerful (and fun) solution. The vendor of the system is at http://www.perceptualrobotics.com/
Enhance
your site design for better business
ZDNet
A good overview of basic Web design techniques. Some that I particularly
agree with include:
1. Make it easy to navigate
2. Make sure that the link the guest clicks on delivers what they were
expecting. Make the links clear.
3. Remember the 3 click rule.
4. Make your product look attractive using graphics and photographs...but
keep download time fast by minimizing other non-essential images.
5. Keep your design simple.
6. Provide lots of information.
7. Test your site on multiple clients and machines.
8. Make it accessible to all connection methods, speeds and technologies.
Web
babble laughable
Chicago Tribune
Often overlooked in any Web design project is the process of actually writing
the copy (text) for the site. We've all seen pages (probably Gadwall's
when I think about it) that wallow in techno-speak and jargon. Everyone
offers solutions and core competencies that optimize and accelerate the seamless
integration of the dueling cultures within our world-class virtual
organizations. Aside from writing really bad material, spelling and
grammar errors abound. We spend so much time worrying about how to
integrate Flash into our site that we forget that most people will get the
information that really counts from the text that was written. And on many
sites that text was written by someone who blew off the English classes.
Design
nightmares
builder.com
A Halloween-themed review of some of the basic Web design mistakes you should
avoid. Some good basic information in here, although the jokes and
references are pretty silly.
Dot
com design tips
ZD Net
This is a good overview of tips for creating a powerful ecommerce site.
It's not so much oriented towards generic design issues as it is towards
merchandising your products properly and making the purchasing experience a
pleasant one for the customer.
www.hope.edu/resources/lib/www/goodbad.html
A list of hints on designing pages. It includes links to some other design
hint sites.
Art and the Zen of Web Sites
A long article reviewing design hints for Web sites. It starts off with
some great, pithy and mostly fictional quotes.
webpagesthatsuck.com
This is one of the best and most entertaining sites to learn what NOT to do.
It is a nifty and funny site that is simple, direct and provides some very
useful information about what NOT to do with Web design. There are
articles, a daily update, a newsletter and a bulletin board.If you are a Web
designer, and you haven't looked at this site, you're missing a serious reality
check.
www.infohiway.com/faster/
Tips on making your site faster, from the Bandwidth Conservation Society.
HTML
Disasters
Yahoo Internet Life
This is a page reviewing several other sites that discuss Web design disasters.
At this review, two of the links weren't working.
How big can I make my Web
page
Web Pages That Suck
An interesting statistical survey of top Web pages and their load times.
The conclusion is that the faster pages tend to be the more popular pages.
Top 10 Mistakes in Web
Design
A handy list of 10 mistakes to avoid when developing Web pages.
The Alertbox: Current Issues in Web
Usability
Useit.com
A compilation of articles on Web development and usability. There's some
great information here.
Beginner's
Guide to HTML
NCSA
Want to learn how to program your own Web pages? This is a clear,
well-written and well-organized primer.
Introduction
to HTML
University of Toronto
This is another useful guide. It actually provides more detail than the
NCSA version.
XML - the better HTML?
Webreference.com
Trying to figure out what XML is? Read this article. While it gets a
little tangled up in programming (you kind of need to understand a little HTML
to understand the illustrations), it does give you a pretty good idea of the
value of this "meta-language." Essentially, think of XML as a
way of transmitting data so that it can be read by two types of systems: people
and computers. The data is much more structured than a standard Web page,
which allows it to be more easily read by another computer. However, the
data can be also displayed in an XML compatible browser, just like a standard
HTML Web page. This is VERY powerful.
3D Animation Workshop
Webreference.com
This is a collection of well-written articles on 3D tools, concepts, history and
animation. One of the articles of particular interest is the column
written late in 1999 on the history of VRML and its future. This article
is at http://webreference.com/3d/lesson81
www.top9.com
This listing of the highest traffic sites is a terrific place to begin your
research for great sites. There are LOTS of categories to look at.
216-Color
Browser-Safe Palette
Whatis
This is a handy page to bookmark. It gives you the 216 colors that you can
use that are safe for virtually any computer. If you want to use a color
that your guests are likely to see the way you intended it, have a look at this
page.
Webreference.com
This is a fantastic resource to get yourself up to speed on the Web. There
are lots of articles, tutorials and other resources. Beware, some of the
articles are written poorly and could stand some serious editing. However,
the content is generally excellent and the site should be a stop on your
learning journey.
World Wide Web Consortium
If you're going to be doing any kind of Web design, or simply want to understand
the latest technology, these folks are the "masters of the domain."
They are the standard setters of the Web. The W3C was founded in 1994 by
Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the Web, no matter what Al Gore says.
Atomz.com
A search engine for your site - either free or for fee.
www.mapblast.com
This site allows you to create a customized map for your location, and provide a
link to it from your own page.
Macromedia
The developer of several Web design software packages, including Flash,
Fireworks, Shockwave
and Dreamweaver.
Debabilizer
A powerful graphics processing software
GIF Construction
Kit
Create wacky animated GIF's using this tool.
Shout3d
This vendor provides VRML effects and is the vendor for the Excite effects.
Harmony
This is software for balancing your colors
Hexmac
Software to help you with font control.
www.microsoft.com/typography
Web Embedding Fonts Tool from Microsoft
Real.com
The vendor of Realvideo and Realaudio - streaming video and audio
Dicer
This software will slice your graphics for better Web performance.
Adobe
Adobe makes a variety of products for Web designers, including Photoshop,
GoLive, and Acrobat.
.
Jasc
This is the home page of the maker of Paint
Shop Pro and other image products. Their products are very powerful
and a little cheaper than their competision.
Bryce 3D from MetaCreations
This is 3D rendering and animation software.
iPIX
They bought PictureWorks. They no longer make a product named Spin
Panorama, but have a look at their camera
software.
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