Do You Need A Web Designer?

Monday, April 28th, 2008

Not everyone needs a web designer. View the following presentation and decide whether you need one or can manage on your own.

Transcript

Slide 1: DO YOU NEED A WEB DESIGNER?

Assessing whether you can do it by yourself

Slide 2

Step 1: How to set your website goal
Step 2: How to identify and target your market
Step 3: How to write your content
Do you need a web designer?
Step 4: How to choose a web designer
Step 5: How to choose your domain name
Step 6: How to choose a web host
Step 7: How to launch your website
Why completing your website is not the end
Step 8: How to promote your website

See the complete guide at www.realfreewebsites.com/website-plan

Slide 3

Learning web design is an option

Slide 4

Here are some arguments in favor of doing it yourself

Slide 5

Lower costs: You can design a website for free or very low cost, as long as you put in the effort

Slide 6

Direct control of the design: There is no communication divide between you and a designer – you understand exactly what you want

Slide 7

Gain knowledge to make future changes: Your new learned skills allow you to easily make future changes and edits to your website

Slide 8

Learning HTML is easy! Contrary to what some believe, HTML code is very straightforward Also, browsers are forgiving of incorrect code

Slide 9

Even better, WYSIWYG programs are improving: What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) programs allow you to create your website without any coding

Slide 10

Many learning opportunities: Free tutorials, forums, learning materials and resources are plentiful on the Internet

Slide 11

Here are some arguments against doing it yourself

Slide 12

WYSIWYG programs still have limitations: Bad, invalid code affecting accessibility, search engine ranking, and cross-browser compatibility Limited control compared to coding; Some programs have steep learning curves

Slide 13

There’s a lot more to good website design than knowing HTML: As a beginner, you don’t know… …what you don’t know

Slide 14

7 factors in web design that are commonly overlooked by beginners

Slide 15

1. Usability E.g. Knowing

Where page elements, such as navigation links are best placed
How to use whitespace
Which fonts are easiest to read
How to make forms simpler to fill out

Slide 16

2. Accessibility Creating code that can be used by disabled visitors E.g.

Keyboard shortcuts
Alt text for pictures
Alternatives to JavaScript Legal requirement for some countries Increases potential market Ethically important

Slide 17

3. Search Engine Optimization A huge field of study Many best practices for coding and content writing E.g.

Optimized title tags
Putting content earliest in the code
Using keywords and phrases in your linking text
Ever-changing recommendations

Slide 18

4. Ease of maintenance/Future changes

Coding techniques that can hugely ease alterations
Use of templates and included codes
Logical directory structure
Commented code
Modular code

Slide 19

5. Design “sense” Knowing

What design appeals to different markets
What colors are most effectively combined
How best aesthetically to arrange page elements

Slide 20

6. Quality of graphic elements

The overall professional appearance of images is very noticeable, and dependent on
Web-optimized images
Correct image file type
Image resolutions
Image cropping and editing
Graphic design technique

Slide 21

7. Page loading speed Factors affecting download speed, include

Image size
Page size
Layout type (table or Cascading Style Sheets)
Number of discrete items on page

Slide 22

Making your first website is easy, and anyone can do it. Making your first good website will take a lot of time and learning.

Slide 23

You’ve now examined whether you need a web designer. This is part of a series of presentations on the process of good website design. See the complete guide at www.realfreewebsites.com/website-plan

Slide 24

Need Help? Ask the experts at guiding you through website development: www.realfreewebsites.com

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One Response to “Do You Need A Web Designer?”

How to Plan a Website: a Complete Guide Says:
May 12th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
[…] A transcript is also available: Do you need a web designer?. […]