Designing With Web Standards - What Are They and How Can They Save Me Money With My Web Site?

<p>The browser wars are over and with them the need to develop specific code for specific browsers. All the major browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari) are now cooperating so that the same piece of code in a web site will look the same in multiple browsers, as well as looking consistent in other browsing devices such as microbrowsers and TVs.</p><p><strong>What Are Web Standards?</strong></p><p>Designing with web standards is a general term used to mean that you use the following technologies, and that you use them correctly:</p>HTML or XHTML to contain the content,&#13;
CSS to hold all the styling,&#13;
JavaScript and the Document Object Model (DOM) to take care of any scripting.&#13;
<p>In the bad old days, HTML was used incorrectly. Objects like tables are meant to be used to hold tabular data but instead they were (ab)used to hold background images and other components just to artificially create a layout on a web page. Style information was mixed in along with the content making the code bloated and inefficient.</p><p>The web standards project seeks to:</p>persuade browser makers to support the standards, as they were intended and &#13;
persuade web professionals to use them that way.&#13;
<p><strong>Why Should I Care?</strong></p><p>There are numerous, tangible benefits to designing with web standards, not least of all, financial savings.</p><p><strong>Lower Costs</strong></p><p>Separating the content from the styling makes your site easier to update and maintain. This makes it less expensive for the developers as less time is needed to add new content, update existing content and test. Also, your site will be future-proofed. All compliant browsers will always support your code, you do not need to have the developers retest every time a new browser releases a new version just to make sure that the pages still look the same.</p><p>If your site is large then separation will also mean a substantial savings on the bandwidth, which in turn translates into lower hosting costs.</p><p><strong>Increased Findability, Improved SEO</strong></p><p>If your site uses meaningful (X)HTML then your site's content is easier for search engines and therefore customers to find. Some search engines score pages on how well-structured the markup is, your Alexa ranking is affected and other SEO metrics are also improved. For example, when you separate the site's content from the styling, your site gets lighter because there is less code. This means that your site loads into browsers faster and provides a better user experience, this represents an SEO benefit as search engines like Google score pages on their load time.</p><p><strong>Gain a Wider Audience, Find More Customers</strong></p><p>When your site complies web standards, accessibility is improved. That means that not only people with disabilities will be able to access your content, but also your site will be available to the new generation of mobile browsing devices automatically. In other words, new potential customers for free.</p><p>Designing with web standards is not about adhering to a set of rules just for the sake of it: the benefits are:</p>real improvements to your site and&#13;
real financial savings.&#13;

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<p>Copyright Teresa Gillman. For more free articles on <a target="_new" href="http://nefilas.com/">business website design</a> go to <a target="_new" href="http://nefilas.com/">http://Nefilas.com</a>.</p> </div><p>Article Source:
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Essentials of Web Design and Web Development

<p>The initial concentration on web design and web development is to have a plan and knowing the purpose of a task. A web developer must learn the purpose of web development as well as the web design. First, the developer must analyze the audience which essential in a lot of technical communication works. Planning and analysis necessitates for the developer to know who will be the users on the internet and what they will acquire from viewing the web design on the website.</p><p>A great strategy in order to produce audience information is by creating an information list on what the background, concerns and traits on an audience. These details may not always be integrated, though web developers can develop and sustain a collection of information that they may innovate eventually.</p><p>Initially, a developer doesn't require to have wide variety of audience but may just center on a few number which will be associated to the purpose of the web development. For instance that you are developing a web design intended for selling computer parts, your viewers might be the probable, current as well as the previous buyers of the computer parts. You may gain various viewers for your websites. Aside from the computer parts purchasers, you can also reach some business stockholders, suppliers, as well as employees. Another essential method is to develop a diagram which presents the extent of viewers that your website will reach.</p><p>The next thing to do is to provide a list of particular objectives, goals that is needed to be accomplished. After developing a collection of objectives, the next task is to accumulate domain information that will back up these objectives. Domain information is a set of information and knowledge pertaining to the subject domain that the web binds. This involves the details which the web users may meet and the information that the web developers may require for the web design or the things to employ on the internet.</p><p>The web design must take into consideration the purpose of the web and the viewers. A great web developer is aware of how to obtain the effects that is needed in the most adaptable, effective and luxurious method. Web design must have a deep understanding of hypertext, Java, multimedia as well as other programming needed and skills on certain web structures that may reach the viewers.</p><p>Once the developers are finished with web design, he must implement it within the boundaries of its technical structure that has been established on its specifications. The first implementation might be in a form of prototype that is not launched in the public but is present for further analysis and may be utilized by a group of representative audience.</p><p>A web developer makes HTML, CGI, Java scripts or applets. The implementation procedure correspond to software development due to the involvement of particular syntax for the creation of hypertext structures or when developing programming language code arguments on computer systems.</p><p>Once the website is ready to launch, you can make the public to be aware that it's going to be released. Maybe you may establish communication with other websites that has the same type of audience or has the equal purpose.</p>
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<p>Graduating in 2003 in Business and Information Technology Jonathan Popoola has since become an expert in web design Cheltenham [http://www.uniquews.co.uk] and web design Gloucestershire [http://www.uniquews.co.uk/webdesign.html]. Visit my site for more information on web design and also information on graphic design in Cheltenham</p> </div><p>Article Source:
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Are You Vying For Open Source Web Development?

<p>Web development encompasses various activities related developing a website. The importance of building a web presence in today's times is immense, triggering rush by people and organizations to own websites to make themselves visible on the internet. This in turn has driven the need for web development software and tools that give competitive advantage to its users. Now the ubiquitous questions are</p><p>o How expensive is web development?</p><p>o How much I need to PAY for building my webpage or website?</p><p>There are a wide variety of web development products being sold by different vendors that cater to all your web development needs. But they do come at a price and often we are either not in a position or simply not willing to pay the price. We are always looking for a cheaper alternative. Better still - Can we get it for free?</p><p>Yes, we can - The same features and facilities as commercial web development software are available for free as feature rich Open source web development tools. Open source software offers us several advantages the most important of which are -</p><p>o The software comes free of cost.</p><p>o You can redistribute and share for free.</p><p>o You can modify source code to suit you own requirement or enhance it.</p><p>Are you someone who is vying open source web development?</p><p>Since web development is such an important and strategic area the need for open source software is even more important. This gives you freedom for creativity and experimentation while not denting your pocket with huge expenses. FORTUNATELY there are loads of free open source web development tools and software available that can satiate the need for a great looking web site by getting you the right tools to build it for free.</p><p>Here are some open source web development products one can try:</p><p>o Aptana 0.2.7 - An html/JavaScript editor intended for development of dynamic web applications. It provides integrated java script debugging and is excellent tool for ajax development.</p><p>o Bluefish 1.0.5 - It is a good tool for experience developers and has Unicode support.</p><p>o Drupal- It is a very good open source Content Management System.</p><p>o IceBB 1.0-rc6 - It is a feature rich bulletin board/forum software. It has a WYSIWYG ( What You See Is What You Get) editor and provides Unicode support</p><p>o Joomla 1.0.13 - One of the best CMS (content management system) available. It allows you to build professional websites with lot detailed customizing options.</p><p>o Liferay Portal 4.4.0 - It is high quality portal software allowing you to get started quickly without much effort with manuals.</p><p>o Mozilla SeaMonkey 1.1 - SeaMonkey has all the regular internet application needs in own package. It has a web-browser, email, a newsgroup client, HTML authoring program and IRC chat client all under one package.</p><p>o Nucleus CMS 3.24 - This complete blogging tool allows publishing and maintaining your blog.</p><p>o Nvu 1.0 - It is a Web development system initially intended for Linux, but now available for windows too. It has a WYSIWYG editor.</p><p>o OpenLaszlo 4.0 - it is an open source web development platform whose main function is generating flash files and AJAX/DHTML to be used on websites.</p><p>o OpenSTA 1.4.3 - It is a distributed software testing architecture whose main feature is web (HTTP and HTTPS) performance and load/stress testing.</p><p>o SilverStripe 2.1.1 - It's a content management system based on PHP.</p><p>o Umbraco 3.0.1 - It is a content Management system based on ASP.NET giving full support for AJAX framework and gives u capability to maintain your website with latest web technology standards.</p><p>Go Ahead, Try these wonderful open source web development tools and build your dream website now.</p>
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<p>Jonathan Popoola specializes in web design gloucestershire [http://www.uniquews.com] and web design cheltenham [http://www.uniquews.com/webdesign.html]. Visit my site for information on webdesign.</p> </div><p>Article Source:
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Web Development - The Essential Part Of Web Site Promotion

<p>The purpose of forming a web page can be professional or personal. Web development today is very convenient for the advanced technology in use. Increasing websites and web usage in the modern world indicate the benefits of software engineering towards web development. Web provides ample space to the user to work on and provides an option to the users for having a websites.</p><p>Purpose of web development:</p><p>Web hosting is done for the purpose of sharing idea at any level. It started at academic level and continued towards persons and professionals. Nowadays scripting in PHP Programming and .net Programming has become so easy that everyone can design their own personal web page. With a good web development, a company can make the web to be a marketing outlet for selling and purchasing services and products of all kind.</p><p>What does web development team do?</p><p>Web Development Team are given the job of assessing and rescripting (if required) the theme formulated by the designing team for the website. Web Development demands understanding of processes related to the web development. Web Development Team has the responsibility for giving a new face to the finished website. Evaluation requires technical procedure and subjectivity. Web Developers individually work for bringing their style into their creation and the combination of the entire thought process is used to influence the web page.</p><p>Software Programming and languages like XML, Perl, Flash, HTML, etc are used for web development. Web developers are required knowing more than one of these languages to have a demand in the web world. Web Development is a lengthy process of evaluation and revisal that helps in maintenance and creation of a website.</p><p>IT community with the advancement of technology has paved the way for making web page simple for a layman. Web Creation and development process is very easy for the availability of many software tools and the quality assurance provide by them.</p><p>XML and Java Script of asynchronous nature allow the website to be more sensitive to user request without comprising the website's original speed. The Sign Up processes and processes related to chatting and searching becomes easy using XML and Asynchronous Java Script. The technicalities related to developing a personal website can be averted as there are several websites working at minimal prices for the same purpose. However, professional web pages demand a proper knowledge about web development for marketing their services or products. Provision of accessibility, web standards and browser compatibility should be considered for developing a professional website.</p><p>Cost factors plays a very great role in website designing and process related to its developing. Global Business concerns forms a budget especially for the purpose of web development. They look for the best available deal at the minimal of expenditure. Sub-continent Companies like India provide the web developing mantra to all concerns around the world at a very reasonable rate. Superior quality of offered service and cost-effectiveness has allowed many Multi National Companies to turn towards Indian Professionals of Web Development.</p><p>Web Development is now getting on the notice of many people for its personal and financial benefits. <a target="_new" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.discussweb.com/">http://www.discussweb.com/</a> is providing information on designing and developing the websites with ease. Several Companies are cropping up to give their Indian Counterparts a run for their money.</p>
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<p>Mansi Aggarwal Recommends that you visit www.discussweb.com [http://www.discussweb.com/] for more information on IT Community [http://www.discussweb.com/] and Web development [http://www.discussweb.com/].</p> </div><p>Article Source:
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Web Development - Do It Yourself?

<p><b>Can I Do My Own Website?</b></p><p>Many businesses or individuals in Windsor who want a website commonly ask the question: "Can I develop my own website?" The short answer to this question is yes, absolutely. In fact, developing a simple website is easier now than it ever has been. Programs such as Macromedia's Dreamweaver or Microsoft Front Page have made it easy to develop web pages with little to no skill. Simply pick a pre-made template, type in your text, add a couple of pictures and voila! You have yourself a website, right? Well, sort of.</p><p>The simple fact of the matter is, you can't expect to develop a professional looking, tightly coded, website just by plugging your text into a pre-made template with a code generation tool. Yes, software has greatly improved over the years with how it generates HTML, the markup code that defines the structure of your web pages, but generated code will always be bulkier, and less efficient than hand coded HTML pages.</p><p>Most professionals in Windsor develop their HTML pages by hand. In fact, most page developers rarely ever use anything but a text editor to generate their pages. Professional page developers will use HTML for what it was developed for, to describe the structure of a page, and encapsulate the content of said page via the markup tags relevant to the content at hand. What does all that mumbo jumbo mean? Well, simply put, it means that a professional web page developer is going to structure a page correctly, using the correct tags, not just using tags that look right when a page is rendered to the browser. A professional page developer never concerns himself with how the HTML makes a page look, HTML is there to structure a page, not describe how the style is defined. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) describes how the nicely structured pages should look when rendered to the browser. Moreover, the developer structures his/her pages so they render correctly in all browsers, a task that the code generators fail miserably at most times.</p><p><b>What's In Your Page Source?</b></p><p>Alright, I will be the first to admit that most people don't care how bulky their web pages are or how inefficient they are coded. Granted, most visitors are on high-speed internet and those extra 500 milliseconds your page takes to load isn't going to matter, right? Again, sort of. You always have to be aware of how long your pages are taking to load, and how responsive they are for your visitors. Studies have shown that an average user will wait about 10 seconds for a page to load before they navigate away out of frustration. I have a feeling that this study was done before the vast majority of users had high-speed internet. I suspect that tolerance to waiting is actually much lower.</p><p>Experienced web developers and web designers will always optimize their images, and HTML to load as quickly as possible. Images that are not properly compressed can easily be 5 times larger than a properly compressed image. Improperly compressed images can easily increase a web page load by 5-10 seconds!</p><p><b>Got Google?</b></p><p>One of the biggest detriments of doing your own web development is the lack of search engine optimization. One of the most common causes of websites having poor search engine rankings is because the page is full of HTML errors which throw off the search engine crawlers. Web pages that are not structured correctly, and have a lot of styling information inline with the content will never rank well compared to websites that are structured correctly with nice clean content.</p><p>So does this mean that if you do your own website, you won't ever get listed in the search engines? Of course not, but if a professional web designer or web developer programs your HTML pages, your pages are much more likely to get indexed correctly. Moreover, most web developers will put a link from their well indexed site to your new site, which will further help the crawlers find your site quicker. If your developer is experienced in search engine optimization (SEO), that will even further liken your chances to high rankings in the search engines.</p><p><b>How's It Going To Look?</b></p><p>Ok, so we have established that yes you can do your own website. It might be coded terribly, and not rank well in the search engines, but you are still determined to do it yourself. Quick question, how is the site actually going to look? If you are a good designer, and can make a nice picture of how you want your site to look, you can use your code generator to make it look the same right? Not quite.</p><p>Getting your website to look the same as what you had envisioned is a very tricky proposition for an inexperienced web designer. Developing for the web is very different from developing a page for traditional print. In traditional print, you have a fixed canvas (the page), whereas on the web, you have several variables to contend with. First, you have no idea what resolution your users will be viewing your web-pages at when developing your website. What looks good at 1024x768 might look terrible at 1280x1024 resolutions. To further complicate things, different browsers can show the exact same HTML much differently. Specifically, Internet Explorer based browsers use a different engine than Gecko based browsers (Mozilla, Firefox etc). It can be truly frustrating even for experienced developers to try and keep things looking the same across the board, but for a do-it-yourselfer it can be an impossible task.</p><p>Ok, let's say you've tackled all the compatibility issues. How will the website actually look when it's done? Will it look professional? Or, will it look like a do it yourself site? If your website is being used for business, what image do you waAnt to attach to your company?</p><p><b>Are You Scared Now?</b></p><p>It really isn't my intent to suggest that you shouldn't try to develop your own website. I still maintain that a lot of people can develop a fairly decent site themselves, especially if they have a basic understanding of HTML and a fairly good design sense. One good approach to doing it yourself is to have a web developer that you can consult with on some of the more technical issues. You can save a lot of money by doing it yourself and letting your developer check your work for any major issues with the web pages. Many web developers in Windsor will gladly check your pages over at an affordable hoAurly rate, correcting any major issues.</p><p>Having a developer to walk you through some of the more technical aspects of web developing can be a very sound approach if you want to do your own web programming. You really do have to weigh the hourly rate of checking the code against the cost of having the developer program everything.</p>
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<p>Sharbel Lutfallah is a Web Developer and Programmer in Windsor. Visit <a target="_new" href="http://www.wiredsolutions.ca">http://www.wiredsolutions.ca</a> to gain more valuable information when looking for your own <a target="_new" href="http://www.wiredsolutions.ca">Web Developer and Web Programmer</a>.</p> </div><p>Article Source:
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PHP Web Development Beneficial For Online Business

<p>In today's competitive world of business over the internet, every online business website needs latest web technology solutions with best web application development. But there are intense competitors when it comes to developing an eye-catching website and making it function effectively or perform fast and easy multi-tasking. There are so many platforms for website designing like static HTML, flash websites and many more. PHP is one such platform that effectively works the best for custom cutting-edge web solutions. Another major feature for opting PHP is the cost advantage. Designing, customizing, developing and modifying PHP based websites is done well with affordable investment. Major web development companies offer professional web services on PHP including website development, developing web application, CMS development, custom PHP website development, static/dynamic and interactive MYSQL websites designing and much more with PHP web Development.</p><p>PHP is very well known and recognized programming language for custom website development with its fully functional scripting language. Significantly it can be quickly mixed up into HTML easily. PHP Development is quite easy as opposed to its competitors such as ASP.Net, Coffee and some other. PHP Website Development got uncomplicated format, techniques and features and every programmer can understand it quite quickly. There may be some efficient alternatives available for the development of efficient website, but PHP web development fits the best.</p><p>Extensive Benefits of PHP Web Development:</p><p>• A website developed with PHP will have fast data processing and easy functionality.&#13;• It can run on all the OS systems such as Unix, Unix like and Windows.&#13;• Provides highest excellence along with greater efficiency and usability.&#13;• It has a best ability to upload into the HTML value.&#13;• This is very much appropriate with many hosts such as IIS, Apache and some more.&#13;• Data source control can handle many data source such as Sybase, Oracle, MySQL, Strong, Informix, Commonly used ODC and PostgreSQL.&#13;• Major Web applications are easy to integrate with PHP such as Ajax, Flash and some more offering best website visibility.&#13;• PHP development with feature rich collection uses less value and can be outfitted well with design advancement of its own for custom website design.</p><p>We provide you the best web solutions for website development with years of quality experience in PHP development. With PHP it has become possible to make robust website that goes in an extensive way to assist the best through its functionality. PHP website development also raises the visibility and representation of the website in a highly effective and professional style.</p><p>Hiring a dedicated PHP web developer will offer excellence and keeping of time along with efficiency to your web development. The companies can work out on some other primary areas of development after selecting the affordable PHP developer.</p><p>All the above advantages avail with affordable cost price for web development through open source PHP Web Development, an best choice for any online business organization to come up with modern thoughts and try to fulfill their requirement with better services. Dedicated PHP developer works timely to meet your requirement with client interaction about work updates and regular interaction. They will produce working reviews to you and one of the points they will provide you is their easy development style. We provide professional PHP developers and PHP programmers well experienced in PHP to offer you quality website development services.</p><p>Along with the latest PHP development and excellence in PHP web development we are anxious to satisfy our client needs and give them best quality work. Our dedicated PHP Developers and Programmers are resourceful all the time for project customization. So if you are looking for highly skilled PHP developer to get custom PHP web development just start with us to Hire PHP Developers and PHP Programmers.</p>
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<p>For more details refer website: <a target="_new" href="http://www.satisnet.com/web-services/web-application-development/php-web-development">http://www.satisnet.com/web-services/web-application-development/php-web-development</a></p><p>I am fond of writing on the new advancements in the technical fields and latest web development trends. I have also participated in various Internet Marketing events &amp; Web-Based Public Meetings.</p> </div><p>Article Source:
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Website Insurance - Web Standards Ensure the Business Value of Your Website

<p>You have come up with a new idea for your website. This new idea involves some new technology for the web that is becoming hot and your company can take advantage of this and ride that wave. You go to your web developer or internal development team and ask the question:</p><p><strong>We need to add this to our website. How soon can it be done, and how much will it cost?</strong></p><p>At some point soon after, you get an answer you were not expecting that is some version of the following:</p><p><strong>If you want that new technology you will have to rebuild your website or make some major upgrades to accommodate the new technology.</strong></p><p>What just happened? Most likely the major reason you are in this fix is that your website was built in such a way that the "new thing" does not "fit". Similar to having a custom built car that cannot use off the shelf parts, so are you doomed to forever "rebuild" every time something new comes along.</p><p>That should rarely ever happen if your website was built using what is called "Web Standards".</p><p>How you and many others got into this fix could be the subject of a book but there is little comfort in knowing the details. The bottom line is that there is a standard that is becoming the focus of new web technology development and if your website does not adhere to those standards, you will soon discover that your website is a dinosaur and will soon become extinct without a costly rebuild.</p><p><strong>The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)</strong></p><p>The business consumer of web development services is not currently well served. The majority of small businesses' websites are built by amateurs with no understanding of the scope and consequences of what they are doing. A few courses at the community college is all it takes to put up your shingle and become a "web developer". It is no surprise when asking them, "What is the W3C?", will get you a blank stare. I have personally asked this question a meetings with "web developers" and found that most of the room could not answer that questions.</p><p>The W3C was formed back in 1997, so you would think by now that it would not only be "standard" but also ubiquitous. Sadly, it has been a very slow process because of the ignorance of the consumer and lack of standardized training of web developers. Fortunately, the realization of the importance of these standards is becoming of age in the last few years because of the rapid pace and demands of technology. So how do you ensure your website is built correctly?</p><p><strong>First Step: Validate.</strong></p><p>Go to validator.w3.org (link available later in article) and then paste or type your website URL (address) and click validate. You will most likely discover you have more errors than you ever imagined. Your first step is to get those error fixed or if you must rebuild, make this validation step a central part of your development requirements.</p><p><strong>Second Step: Check the Code</strong></p><p>This can be the hard part because unless you are familiar with HTML it will all look like gibberish to you. Your first problem is: How do you look at the code? If you have Internet Explorer, click "View" on the menu and then "Source". If you have FireFox then also click "View" on the menu and select "Page Source". In both cases a new window will be opened and will contain the HTML source code of that page. HTML is made up of tags which are mostly pairs of labels that have the "greater than" and "less than" symbols with text in between. You will be looking for the following types of code and structure with an associated negative or positive point value for keeping score:</p><p><strong>Negative Values</strong></p>No "DOCTYPE" on the first line of the document. Minus 15.&#13;
Do you see one or more "style" tags? If it is very short (one or two lines) a minus 2 if longer a minus 10&#13;
Do you see one or more "table" tags? One or two is ok, Minus 2 for each after two.&#13;
Do you see the word "style" as part of any tag? Minus two for each.&#13;
Do you see one or more "font" tags? Minus 2 for each.&#13;
Do you see one or more "img" tags? Images that directly relate to the content and have "alt" descriptions that match that content are good, but all others are a minus 2 for each<p><strong>Positive Values</strong></p>Do you see "DOCTYPE" on the first line of the document. Plus 10&#13;
Do you see one or more "link" tags? Plus 5.&#13;
Do you see one or more "div" tags WITHOUT the word "style" as part of that tag? Plus 2 for each.&#13;
Do you see h1, h2, h3 tags? Plus 2 for each.<p>You should have a score of at least plus 20. If less than 20, you are at risk. if a negative number you are in serious trouble. Your website was built incorrectly and you will have problems going forward. What type of problems or issues will a poorly built website result in? There is no short answer unfortunately, because it depends on how poorly your website was coded and structured. One thing for sure is that you will miss out on the following benefits of a well built web standards compliant website:</p><p><strong>Web Standard Benefits</strong></p><p>Cost Benefits&#13;</p>Content it easy to manage and edit because the code is simple and free of garbage tags&#13;
Updating the website design will not involve the content since that is in a separate document&#13;
Updating the website content will not involve the design, since that is in a separate document&#13;
SEO is less costly for equivalent results<p>Management Benefits&#13;</p>You can delegate responsibilities between the content management tasks and the design tasks&#13;
Content changes and updates do not affect the website style or require style changes&#13;
Design changes and updates do not affect the website content<p>Visitor Benefits&#13;</p>Pages load faster&#13;
Design is consistent across all browsers&#13;
Ease of content updates encourages more return visits&#13;
Ease of design updates encourages more design updates and more interest from visitors<p>How do you ensure that your website is built correctly?</p><p>The reason there is so many websites that are poorly built is because you need a certain amount of technical knowledge to ensure it is done correctly. Here are some tips that will help:&#13;</p>Your ace in the hole is the W3C validator at <a target="_new" rel="nofollow" href="http://validator.w3.org">http://validator.w3.org</a>. It should become your friend and is the single non-technical way you can monitor your site.&#13;
Separation of style and content. If you have a static website this is easier to monitor, with a dynamic website link WordPress, Joomla or Drupal this can be harder. Use the "point system" listed above to help you evaluate the site.&#13;
Specify W3C compliance in writing, in our agreements. As more consumers of web services demand compliance it will become more common. YOU, as a consumer, have more power that you realize to improve the quality of web development.<p>Hopefully, you now have more information to ensure you get a quality website and can reap the benefits of web standards.</p>
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<p>John Moore is the Technical Director for SonicSpider LLC. A full service web development company. He writes web based software, reviews and consults on systems for companies and is involve in educational articles and presentations on web technology. SonicSpider has developed two programs to help small businesses and the web developer community.</p><p><a target="_new" href="http://www.sonicwebtech.com">SonicWebTech Program</a><br/> Tools and Services for the Web Developer and Business Community</p><p><a target="_new" href="http://www.rightstartwebsites.com">The RightStart Websites</a><br/> Re-inventing website development for small businesses</p> </div><p>Article Source:
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Are Web Standards Healthy For The World Wide Web?

<p>The World Wide Web as we know today is a vast interlinking of websites all over the world open to all for information sharing, working, socializing and entertainment. It was first envisioned by Tim Berners-Lee in 1990 and he called his program WorldWideWeb, with one essential component, that of universality.</p><p>In these times of phenomenal technological growth where the web has spread its consuming net to all corners of the globe, certain universally accepted rules have to be put in place to ensure order and the full realization of the Web's potentials. This is the role of web standards as represented by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA). The standards include the following: &#13;</p>HyperText Markup Language (HTML)Extensible Markup Language (XML)eXtensible HyperText Markup Language (XHTML)Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)Document Object Module Level 1 (DOM 1)ECMAScript (Standardized JavaScript)&#13;
<p>The technical details of the web standards are best left to the experts, but the impact of the standards to the industry and the user public is of paramount concern.</p><p>To Web Developers</p><p>Proponents of web standards argue that the standards would make web development easier, faster and more systematic because there are set rules and processes to follow. While others claim that the standards hamper innovation, creativity for enhancements is still encouraged as long as such enhancements do not go outside the bounds of the standards.</p><p>To Users</p><p>Accessibility, usability and compatibility must be guaranteed to each and every Web user across the globe. Web standards must ensure use of the Web by all people who are capable of using it including those with physical impairments to include helpful output devices like voice browsers, Braille browsers or hand-held browsers. Compatibility will also be less of a problem as the standards will create programs that will make old versions compatible with new ones and new versions to automatically degrade to old versions. This is like a dream, but even the World Wide Web started as a dream.</p><p>Conclusion</p><p>Aware of the problem of inconsistencies between web designs and varied browser versions, web developers who are advocates of web standards are concerned with the universal accessibility of the Web especially with the emergence of additional software and hardware that are now able to browse the Web like telephones, PDAs and pagers. With this in mind, they are pushing for the universal acceptance and adoption of web standards to make the Web a better place in which to communicate, work, socialize and be entertained. In short, web standards are surely something to be embraced, the ultimate goal being that of making the web truly inclusive for all.</p>
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<p>Need help with your business website design? Call us today, we're happy to help you with your questions.</p><p>Lloyd Roberts | 123 Web Design Bournemouth</p><p>123 <a target="_new" href="http://www.123webdesignbournemouth.co.uk">Web Design Bournemouth</a></p><p><a target="_new" href="http://www.123webdesignbournemouth.co.uk">http://www.123webdesignbournemouth.co.uk</a></p> </div><p>Article Source:
<a href="http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Lloyd_Roberts">http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lloyd_Roberts</a>
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Web Services Needed: What SMEs Need to Know When Hiring a Web Developer or Designer

<p>Your business is... well, whatever your business may be: human resources, plumbing, running your restaurant. Many SME owners are privileged to do what they love and work very hard to make their businesses successful. Whatever you do, you want your website to work for you, but you want to spend your time running your business, not working on the nuts and bolts of website design, so when you need web services, how do you ensure that you are doing the right thing for your business?</p><p>This straightforward checklist will allow you to manage your web service needs from start to finish and to make sure you get the best quality and value web development for your company.</p><p><strong>Which web services do you need?</strong></p><p>If you don't yet have a website, the first step is to write down exactly why you want a website and what you want it to do for your business. Is it an online business card for reference? Do you want to sell products or services via your site? Is it to improve communication within or outside the organisation? All of these factors influence the design and development of your website, who might be best suited to do the work and the potential cost.</p><p>If you already have a website, try to pinpoint exactly what you do and don't like about the existing website and how things might be changed. Try and be specific: rather than noting that it looks outdated, identify what makes it so: is it the colour scheme or the fonts? Is the navigation clumsy or out-of-date? You don't have to be a web design expert to do this, but it will give you a head start in looking for a web developer to solve these problems.</p><p>Next, prioritise your "wishlist", which may be a combination of specific points, e.g. improving the layout and more general needs e.g. "I want to drive more business to my website". Once you have this, you have a brief which a web developer can use to work out the web services needed and how to achieve the desired results. Since the list is prioritised, when it comes to obtaining quotes for the work, you can decide how much is achievable within your timeframe and budget.</p><p><strong>Choosing the right person</strong></p><p>Do you need a web designer, web developer or programmer? The terms may all sound similar, but there are distinct differences in the work they do and therefore what you can expect from their web services for your site.</p><p><strong>A web designer focuses primarily on the appearance or look and feel</strong> of the website, including the layout. A good web designer should be an expert in making websites visually powerful and impactful and in drawing visitors to the right areas of your website. Some web designers combine their services with graphic design, so if you have a new look and feel branding on your website, they can incorporate it for you on company letterheads and business cards too.</p><p><strong>A web programmer focuses more on functionality</strong>. He or she might program solely for the web or may do software programming too. The programmer's concern is getting features of your website to work. Examples may include building an online intranet or database application, where information can be stored on your database and manipulated via your website. In larger companies, these roles are often split so that programmers work on the "back end" - the features that make a website work and then apply the "front end" created by a web designer to make the site more attractive.</p><p><strong>A web developer muddies the water considerably, sorry.</strong> Web developers can incorporate elements of design and programming. Web development is a broader term for getting a website online and making it work. You can expect a good web developer to have an eye to both the appearance and functionality of the website.</p><p>If you need to narrow it down and you're not quite sure about the technicalities, have a look around your site. Most likely your URLs in the address bar will have some kind of extension e.g.(.html,.asp,.php,.cfm). Try Googling for terms like "asp developer" to find someone with the specific skills to enhance your website.</p><p><strong>Grill the portfolio</strong> When you visit a web developer's website, check their portfolio thoroughly and don't stop there - look for their clients' website online. If you are looking for website redesign to allow you to update content more easily, how well are the developer's portfolio sites maintained? If you are primarily concerned with Search engine optimisation (SEO), how do client sites fare on search engines for the relevant terms?</p><p><strong>The personal touch</strong> Above all, pay attention to client recommendations. The website can show you the end result, but the recommendation can tell you about the web design process with this particular individual or company. Every SME is different, but with all those I have worked with, one thing has remained the same: the importance of the personal touch. Whether you are employing a freelancer or a big web development company, you need to ensure that you can establish a good relationship with your web developer. How quickly and thoroughly do they respond to emails or phone calls? Are they forthcoming with advice and what sort of advice do they offer? Again, you don't have to be an expert, you just have to judge whether you think it rings true and fits for you and your business</p><p><strong>Go big or go local?</strong> Web design and development is big business and variety is the name of the game. Google, Bing and Yahoo! can play a big part in your decision, but rankings aren't always the whole story.</p><p>It is well worth considering a local web design company or developer, because they may have local contacts to help you promote your website or greater access to resources like online business directory listings which can boost your search engine rankings.</p><p>I worked with a Cambridge charity who wanted to employ a Cambridge web developer because they knew the web services needed would be ongoing and that discussion and meeting face to face in Cambridge would be important to them, rather than discussing their needs over the phone or email.</p><p><strong>How much should web design cost?</strong> As with any investment you make for your SME, it goes without saying that you should shop around and get a few quotes. Even if you know which developer you want to go with, it is worth checking that you are being charged the going rate for the web services needed. If the web design prices are above average, you need to decide whether your relationship with the company or freelance web developer are worth paying the extra cost. If the prices are considerably below average, this should set alarm bells ringing. Canny SMEs know that you always get what you pay for.</p><p>Working as a freelancer, I know that my clients prefer me to be upfront about costs and that it builds trust. Beware companies who hedge their bets with quotes as it might be a telltale sign of inexperience. However, it is worth bearing in mind that quoted prices are only a starting point. As an SME, it is down to you to hash out exactly what is included and what is not. For example, many sites offer SEO friendly websites. This means that the web design will incorporate the features needed to give your site a boost on Google. However, SEO does not stop here. In my experience, building websites for Cambridge companies in search engines is an ongoing process which takes place over a period of time.</p><p><strong>Web design prices: break it down</strong> If in doubt, ask the web designer or developer to break the cost down per task. That way, if there is a time-consuming feature which is not at the top of your web design wishlist, you can decide whether or not it is worth the web developer's time and - more importantly - your money.</p><p><strong>Your SME, your website</strong> Love or loathe the internet: your website is a big part of your company's identity. It pays to get it right; it costs to get it wrong, so take your time to find the web services you need.</p>
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<p>Victoria is an experienced, professionally qualified freelance web designer and developer based in Cambridge, UK, committed to delivering bespoke, elegant and reasonably priced web solutions to small and medium-sized businesses across the UK.Website: Rebel Phoenix <a target="_new" href="http://www.rebelphoenix.com">Cambridge Web Developer</a>.</p> </div><p>Article Source:
<a href="http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Victoria_N_Brown">http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Victoria_N_Brown</a>
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Redesign Your Site with the Web Standards to Improve Business

<p>Taking web standards into account when designing a website may not be the primary concern for many site owners, but when it comes to finding an extra edge to improve their business, they are more than willing to do anything required to increase revenues. Let's see how complying with the Web standards can help a business website.</p><p><strong>What are the standards?</strong></p><p>On the Web, the main standards are the languages used when creating websites. The most wide-spread ones are HTML, XHTML and CSS. HTML or XHTML are used to create the backbone of websites - the structure. (The difference between HTML and XHTML is that XHTML was formed from XML and is forward compatible.) CSS, in turn, is used to style, format and position the structure and content.</p><p><strong>What is web standards compliance?</strong></p><p>Put simply, web standards compliance is using the web languages correctly. This involves using HTML tags properly and the way they were and are intended to use.<!--nextpage-->For instance, one of the most common felonies against the web standards is using table tags for layout, while the correct usage is to use them only for tabular data (information to be put in tables).</p><p><strong>Benefits of standards compliance</strong></p><p>Creating quality, standards compliant code has a number of benefits:&#13;</p>website forward compatibility&#13;
increased site download speed&#13;
browser compatibility&#13;
easier site maintenance&#13;
broader target audience&#13;
<strong>How can this help the business?</strong><p>Perhaps every entrepreneur asks himself right now, "And where is the money here?" The probably every benefit can either increase revenues or save expenses. Let's look at them in detail.</p><p><strong>Site forward compatibility</strong></p><p>Web standards, such as XHTML and CSS, are designed to work forever. They will also be supported for an almost unlimited period of time. Designing a site with the web standards will ensure the website backbone will<!--nextpage-->not need to be redone any time soon, which reduces the amount of work on the site and the expenses of the site owner.</p><p><strong>Increased download speed</strong></p><p>When using XHTML for content and structure and CSS for styling and formating, the page size is lower, when compared to a page, designed with tables for layout. For instance, a site with relatively small amount of images is 50% less than a table-based website. As users enjoy fast-loading websites (they start leaving after eight (8) seconds beyond clicking on a link), they will be more likely to become a clients of a web standards compliant website.</p><p><strong>Browser compatibility</strong></p><p>A web standards compliant site is displayed correctly (and looks the same) in all standards compliant browsers. Adjusting the site to suit a less helpful browser (Internet Explorer, for instance) is much easier with CSS than with tables. This saves enormous amounts of time for a web designer.</p><p><strong>Easier site<!--nextpage-->maintenance</strong></p><p>When separating content and styling with XHTML and CSS, it is much easier to edit any of those, because they are located in different files. Should one need to adjust the look of the main page heading (h1), he/she will just need to change a line or two in a style sheet to change the appearance of all headings on the website. Editing content is easier as well, because no styling and formatting is in the way and it is easy to spot the content in clean and semantically correct code markup.</p><p><strong>Broader target audience</strong></p><p>Furthermore, web standards are used not only on computers, but also by PDAs (hand held devices, palm computers), phones and other devices. A site, adhering to the web standards, will be either displayed correctly without edition or will require very little work to be able to display correctly on a platform, other than a computer. Such easy availability will make the company site easily accessible for a wider range of<!--nextpage-->potential customers, increasing the chances of business success as well.</p><p><strong>So what to do?</strong></p><p>Naturally, there may be several choices for a business site owner:&#13;do nothing and wait till something more noticeable becomes obvious about the web standards&#13;wait, research the topic, get more proof and redesign with the web standards and the visitors in mind&#13;redesign the site right now, either with the help of an in-house web designer or a professional company</p><p>Any of the choices above solely depend on the situation of the business site. Most probably, making a site web standards compliant will be most beneficial to starting or young websites, which will reduce the amount of work needed in the future. Mature websites can consider adjusting their websites to improve the quality of their visitor experience. Those, whose sites are barely important can live as they are, provided the site works. Thus, it all depends on the site owner and the situation the<!--nextpage-->business is in.</p><p>Think this is not so important? Think again. Wired has redesigned with the web standards in mind. It took a lot of work, but it was worth it.</p>
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</div><p>Article Source:
<a href="http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Yuri_Filimonov">http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Yuri_Filimonov</a>
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What Makes a Good Web Development Company

<p>The world of web development is still very much misunderstood. We've even heard people call it a "dark art". So when you need help turning your ideas and designs into a high quality website or web application, how do you know who you can trust to get this done?</p><p>The purpose of this post is to provide some key points on what makes a good web development company, and will help you understand the kind of questions you should be asking development companies.</p><p>This is going to be a very opinionated post and we make no apologies for it. If you disagree with anything we are certainly open to discussing it further.</p><p>Now to get on with the post. Below are the key areas we are going to be looking at, and what you should be looking for in a web development company.</p>Able to do both front-end and back-end development&#13;
Don't specialise in one back-end technology&#13;
Should follow best practices&#13;
Understanding of marketing strategies surrounding the<!--nextpage-->projects&#13;
Invests time in research and development&#13;
Has a rigorous testing process, including automated tests&#13;
Flexible to change&#13;
Use source control<p><strong>Able to do both front-end and back-end development</strong>&#13;We don't subscribe to idea of developers that do front-end development and developers that do back-end development. That's the equivalent of having a plumber who only fits pipes and leaves the fitting of the baths, showers, sinks and toilets to someone else.</p><p>We agree there is a separation between web developers and web designers, there's a completely different thought process going on there, but the separation between front-end and back-end is just wrong. To be a good web developer you need to understand the full development cycle and to be able to get involved in the project from start to finish. There is also much to be learnt from the working with the varying technologies, but we'll come on to that.</p><p><strong>Don't specialise in one<!--nextpage-->back-end technology</strong>&#13;There are a number of good back-end technologies that are appropriate for web development including Ruby on Rails, ASP.Net and PHP (and others). They all have their strengths and weaknesses and not one is perfect. A good web development company should be flexible in which technologies they use, so that they use the most appropriate one for their clients' needs.</p><p>The key reason we have spent time learning a number of technologies is to able to pick and choose the bits we like. Over the years the developers involved in The League have been able to take the good parts of each technology and formulate a number of best practices and use them across all platforms.</p><p><strong>Should follow best practices</strong>&#13;The key to being a good web developer is not the technologies that you use, but the best practices that you follow. As technologies come and go in our very fast moving industry those best practices will remain, or at least evolve. As a<!--nextpage-->developer if you have a good grounding then you can move with the times and technologies fairly easily.</p><p>So what are these best practices that we are talking about. Below are some of the key ones we follow.</p>Writing semantic HTML&#13;
Follow web standards for all front end coding&#13;
Automated testing of both front-end and back-end code&#13;
Use of a MVC framework<p><strong>Understanding of marketing strategies surrounding the projects</strong>&#13;We've heard this complaint many times that web developers don't think about the marketing strategy of a project. This is generally because developers don't care. Well they should. How can they advise clients and think about helping clients produce the right solution, if they aren't thinking about the "bigger picture" (sorry, we know it's a horrid phrase, we'll go wash our mouths out now). If a developer blindly does the work, they are not offering the client a service, they are just being a meat puppet.</p><p>The most important<!--nextpage-->question a developer can ask is "Why?". Take time to understand the client's requirements fully, and advise them, after all the client doesn't understand the ins and outs of web development, you do. Make the development cycle a two way conversation.</p><p><strong>Invests time in research and development</strong>&#13;As everyone knows the web industry is a very fast moving industry. Things come and go in the blink of an eye. A good web development company gives it's developers allocated time each week to look at new trends and technologies. Admittedly some of these trends and technologies are dead ends, but you won't know unless you look into them.</p><p>If you want to know if a web development company knows there stuff, simply ask them what their developers have been looking into recently. You don't have to understand everything you are told, note them down though and look them up on the internet to understand if the company are looking at new trends or not.</p><p>R&amp;D is probably<!--nextpage-->the most important time each week for a developer. If developers don't evolve, the solutions they build will become stagnate and dated very quickly. As a client do you want an out of date solution before you even start?</p><p><strong>Has a rigorous testing process, including automated tests</strong>&#13;Too often we have seen the client is <strong>the</strong> tester for a project. If this is happening, then, to put it bluntly, the development company don't understand your project well enough, they are just "banging out" code.</p><p>A good web development company should be writing automated tests (integration tests, unit-tests etc) for all their code, both front-end and back-end. On a simple level, tests help developers to concentrate on the code they are writing at that given time, they also help developers to write more concise code. More concise code means the code base is easier to understand and cheaper to maintain.</p><p>The major benefit of a test suite to a client is that when<!--nextpage-->changes are made to the code in the project there can be a lot more confidence in the fact that the change, or new code, hasn't broken anything else.</p><p>We are not saying automated testing is the silver bullet of web development, and tests are only effective if they are written well, but they certainly should be part of any web developers toolset.</p><p>Automated tests aren't the only important aspect of testing. The web development company should also have a level of human testing as well, and this is certainly something clients should be involved in. <a target="_new" rel="nofollow" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_story">User stories</a> are key to this process. As part of the development process, clients should work with the web development company to put together User stories, so that all parties involved understand how users will interact with the site or application and the results of those interactions.</p><p><strong>Flexible to change</strong>&#13;We've all heard<!--nextpage-->developers complaining how their clients' change the requirements of a project midway thought a project. Developers need to stop complaining about this, it happens to us all and it's never going to change. A good web development company should have processes in place to cope with change. If you are a client, ask how change requests will be handled.</p><p>Web developers should work to short release cycles, preferably 1 - 2 weeks. The worst thing that can happen to a project is that the developers get the brief, start the work and then 2 months later they announce it's finished, only for the client to say "This isn't what I asked for!". By working to short release cycles, clients can be involved at all stages. At the end of each release the client should review the project so far and submit any change requests.</p><p><strong>Use source control</strong>&#13;Our final recommendation is a pretty obvious and simple one, to most people, but we still speak to developers who don't use any form<!--nextpage-->of <a target="_new" rel="nofollow" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revision_control">source control</a>. This seems more prevalent with freelancers as they don't see the need as they are the only ones working on the code. If that's how they see it, then they are missing the point.</p><p>There are lots of reasons why all code should be source controlled. We're are only going to mention a couple of key points here. Firstly it's a great way of keeping a log of changes made to code. (As long as developers put a comment into the commit). Secondly and most importantly is allows developers to change code without the fear of losing already work already done. This is especially useful when trying out other possible coding solutions to a problem.</p>
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<p>John Polling has been working as a web developer for approximately 10 years now and has recently set up his own <a target="_new" href="http://theled.co.uk">web development company</a>.</p><p>He has worked for KPMG, McCann-Erikcons, Daimlyer Chrysler UK and a few smaller marketing agencies.</p> </div><p>Article Source:
<a href="http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=John_Polling">http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Polling</a>
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Understanding the Business of Web Development

<p>Internet reaches out to a wide audience and is used to publish personal and professional information with some engaging user experience. Web development or setting up a website or enthralling web application and hosting it on the Internet has become simpler through the use of cutting edge technology. In fact the technology is meant to be used by the web developers as well as the end users for improving the overall web experience. This trend can be seen clearly as more of websites are being posted online. The Internet can be easily distinguished from other popular technologies such as television and radio as the web gives an ample space to the user for personalization with an unlimited scope for extending their creativity and reaching out to large number of public audiences.</p><p>The Internet can be seen as a collection of a wide variety with a frequent mix of personal and professional web spaces. The Internet was meant to be a platform for imparting knowledge to the masses at<!--nextpage-->the time of its birth. But now it has come a long way to be a place where the users worldwide connect, interact, and communicate themselves through websites and web applications. Today even the businesses run online with their online productivity overshadowing their real world productivity. The web has become an inimitable marketplace for people to buy and sell all kinds of products and services.</p><p>Web development lifecycle starts with the inception of a thought for having a web application that does the business processing for the individual or the company. The ideas are revised and reevaluated before going further and determining the scope and requirements of the web application. On specifying the business requirements the companies move a step ahead in starting with the actual web application development. Web development is a specialized area of work which involves an understanding of the web development technologies and all other related processes. Web developers do not<!--nextpage-->automatically produce a fine website on demand. They must be communicated and made to understand the exact expectations of the web application. On learning the features and functionalities of the web application the web developers build a precise web application and deploy it online for faster business processing.</p><p>The web development technology is in itself a collection of technologies and computer programming languages that are used to create and run a computer program. Some of the popular and essential custom web application development technologies to be learnt by the web developers are HTML, XML, Flash, Perl, CSS et al. A computer language is a way to communicate to the computer by the user to process the output in accordance with the desired logic. Web application development is much more than just writing computer programs in specific programming languages and running the program to get the desired outputs. Web development is a branch of computer science that involves<!--nextpage-->connecting thousands of millions of computers together and running an intercommunicating program on them.</p><p>Leaving the intricate details of the web development technology we discuss the general public usage of the Internet. Cutting edge technology today enables the end user to develop a fully functional website and publish information online. There are many content management systems like Joomla, Drupal, and WordPress that help the users get a personal and professional website and manage it free of all the inner development hassles. The web developers materialize the complexities of the web development by creating a user platform that helps the non-technical users to become web enthusiasts. Though, the technical personnel are always called up to troubleshoot problems encountered by the users.</p><p>Talking of web applications there is always a mention of fast applications that improve the user experience by processing the output swiftly and presenting it without the need of<!--nextpage-->refreshing the webpage. Such client-server web applications are called Rich Internet Applications (RIA) and are built using web development technologies such as Adobe Flex, Microsoft Silverlight, and AJAX in collaboration with server-side scripting languages like ASP.NET, PHP, Ruby, and others. All the rich Internet applications are enthralling and provide an engaging interactivity to the users. A typical RIA is a web-based application that runs on the client browser and synchronizes data with the server database while functioning as conventional desktop based software. Hence the users get desktop like features and functionalities from the web.</p><p>For a professional <a target="_new" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.sparsh-technologies.com">web development company</a> having comprehensive knowledge about the web development technologies like.Net and PHP and having significant experience and commendable expertise over developing custom web applications is a prerequisite. The web<!--nextpage-->development company can cater clients globally as the company can reach out to a maximum target audience through the Internet. Before delivering the final application these companies need to look for a resounding web presence by resolving issues like browser compatibility, accessibility, and web standards. Web standards in particular have been put in place to ensure that websites meet their fundamental purpose if communicating with a user.</p><p>The business and markets for web development is not new. Web development has always been there since the time of the Internet itself just that it has evolved over the time and is accelerating its evolution every time. With custom web application development being a wide prospect, more and more web development services providers are partnering organizations around the world in getting their businesses superior web representations.</p>
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<p><a target="_new" href="http://www.sparsh-technologies.com">Sparsh Technologies</a> provide excellent Web Development Services to its client at an affordable rate. We provide robust, secure and scalable web solutions using latest technologies like ASP.NET, PHP, Flex, Silverlight and many others. Using these latest technologies, we have successfully delivered numerous projects in different industry verticals like Finance, Retail, Ecommerce, Real Estate, Hospitality, Consulting, Music, Oil &amp; Gas etc.</p> </div><p>Article Source:
<a href="http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=R_Ramani">http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=R_Ramani</a>
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Web Site Accessibility and Web Standards -- Get More Visitors and Make More Money

<p>Most website commissioners are not interested in Web Standards or Web accessibility - that is clear from the results of DRC Research carried out in the UK in 2004. The research highlighted the appalling lack of accessibility of most UK web sites - with 81% labelled by researchers as 'impossible' to use by many disabled people.</p><p>So if you are a web developer, don't waste your time trying to get clients excited by your ethical approach. Instead just get on with the job of creating accessible standards based websites -- and tell them you use development methods that will help them attract more visitors -- and help them make more money.</p><p><b>Use Web Standards -- money can be saved and money can be made</b></p><p>Pages built using web standards tend to be smaller and they tend to load quicker. This leads to the first and most obvious saving -- lower bandwidth costs.</p><p>What is not so obvious, however, is that faster loading pages can also generate additional traffic<!--nextpage-->and revenue. For example, when Multimap.com redesigned their site using web standards they estimated they saved 40,000 Gb of bandwidth per year -- but they also found that their advertising revenues increased. The quicker loading pages encouraged people to spend more time on the site - and consequently advertising revenues went up.</p><p><b>Accessible websites make more money</b></p><p>Julie Howell, Digital Policy Development Officer at the RNIB, talking about one of Tesco's websites -- a website designed to provide easier access for blind and visually impaired people,</p><p>"Many fully-sighted people find Tesco's simply designed Access site offers them a better user experience than any other supermarket website. Developed for vision-impaired users, it now takes a surprising £13 million a year, and seems to attract a much wider audience than originally intended."&#13;</p><p><b>Accessible websites attract more people</b></p><p>Apart from the 10 million Disabled people in the UK and 50<!--nextpage-->million in America, accessible websites will be easier to use by older people, people with slow connections or older technologies and people with low literacy. Older people are the fastest growing group of new users in many countries. As many older people have multiple impairments, accessible sites are likely to be more attractive to this group.</p><p><b>Disabled people and older people have money to spend</b></p><p>In the UK Disabled people have £50 billion of disposable income, in the USA they have US$ 175 billion. Older people currently control over 80% of the wealth of the UK. As was demonstrated by Tesco -- making your website even a little more accessible not only brings you good press -- it attracts the attention of the community of older people and disabled web surfers - who spend their money on your website rather than your competitors.</p><p><b>Web Standards means shorter development times and re-usable content</b></p><p>Production and maintenance costs are lower when<!--nextpage-->content is package in highly structured ways, for example, when standard (X)HTML is used. Separating the structure of content, i.e., headings, lists, images, paragraphs, from the way that content is presented opens up opportunities to create multiple 'views' of that content.</p><p>As a result, content can be optimized with less effort for delivery on hand-held devices, formatted for printing or delivered to assistive devices such as screen readers.</p><p>When the time comes around for a new design, it is easier to substitute a new style sheet than to spend hours changing hundreds of font tags and background colour attributes.</p><p><b>Web standards means you don't waste time battling with Browser quirks</b></p><p>When using Web standards there is no need to produce multiple versions of pages to cope with the quirks of different browsers. The time and effort previously required to create and maintain 'browser sniffing' scripts can now be re-deployed to add value to the site for<!--nextpage-->visitors.</p><p><b>Web standards helps you break free from proprietary technologies </b></p><p>Using Web standards can free organisations from being captives of browsers dependent on proprietary tags and rendering behaviour. For example, IBM's move to Open Source desktop clients has reportedly been held back due to their web based systems being built on top of the non-standard Internet Explorer web browser.</p><p><b>Less errors in pages means less time dealing with complaints </b></p><p>Without working to standards - it is not possible to check for markup errors; there are no rules to check against. Standards base web pages can be checked against code validators such as the W3C validator - highlighting any errors - and allowing you to get those errors fixed. If you website works for more people on more browsers you won't have to spend time replying to emails from people complaining your site doesn't work.</p><p><b>Content is future-proofed and compatible with older browsers. <!--nextpage--></b>&#13;Pages built using web standards will display more consistently across browsers and platforms, including older browsers. Your content will not necessarily look the same in old 'non-standard compliant' browser but the bottom line is that the content will still be available.</p><p><b>Greater search engine visibility</b></p><p>Search engines are able to index web pages more accurately if the content on those pages is well structured. For example, when keywords appear in page headings many search engines give extra weight to those words when indexing the page. A web page where headings are improperly marked up is likely to suffer in the search rankings compared with a page with the same content that is marked up correctly. An accessible website will have alternative text for images and multimedia - and this will provide more text be indexed by search engines.</p><p><b>Accessible websites designed using Web Standards leads to real measurable benefits:</b> more visitors, increased<!--nextpage-->income, decreased cost, greater search engine visibility, faster loading and easier to use pages. Sell the benefits to websites commissioners, not the ideology.</p>
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<p>This article was written by Jim Byrne, a Web site accessibility specialist since 1996. He is the founder of the Worldwide Guild of Accessible Web Designers and author of the <a target="_new" href="http://www.qnecms.co.uk">QnECMS - the accessible CMS</a>. Visit <a target="_new" href="http://www.jimbyrne.co.uk">Jim Byrne &amp; Associates</a> for accessible web design training, access audits, and accessible web design.</p> </div><p>Article Source:
<a href="http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Jim_Byrne">http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jim_Byrne</a>
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Is Your Web Developer a Cowboy?

<p>What do you think of your web developer?</p><p>Over the last few years we have quietly, but at every opportunity, been asking this question to business owners, marketing directors and executives responsible for their company website whether for commissioning, developing or maintaining their online presence. We also asked if they were happy with the website that the developer had provided, or if they thought it was bringing tangible benefit to their business. The responses were sharply divided. It seems that the businesses' experience of Web developers is like Marmite: you either love them or hate them.</p><p>Shockingly, over 80% of respondents reported a 'poor' or 'very poor' experience of working with a website developer or designer. Many made comments that were very uncomplimentary toward their web developers. Some stated that they felt they had been, "Taken for a ride," by those who had either baffled them with technology and jargon, or had - deliberately or otherwise -<!--nextpage-->raised their expectations beyond what was feasible with the investment they were making. One had invested tens of thousands with a web development company to build an online presence for their business and now has a website that not only makes no contribution to any business objective, neither has it produced a single enquiry. The overall impression that we gained from our research to date and a term used by more than one unhappy respondent was that web developers are: "A load of cowboys."</p><p>These poor experiences have a knock-on effect, not just for those who have been unhappy with their outcomes but for the web development and internet marketing industries as a whole. It results in an increased conviction that all web developers were likely to be the same, and that there was no-one out there who could be trusted. In addition, the inclination to invest any further resources and capital on online promotion of their business was greatly reduced. "We've done that and it didn't work,"<!--nextpage-->was a common response.</p><p><b>What do the web developers have to say?</b></p><p>To balance the picture we also surveyed web developers and web design companies to see if we could identify what had created this tale of woe from businesses.</p><p>Many were unaware of the situation and some were quite frank in their derision of business owners. Common responses included</p>"They don't know what they are doing,"&#13;
"We're not telepathic you know!"&#13;
"They don't understand what is involved."&#13;
"We never get the right information."&#13;
"They keep changing their minds, often before the previous changes are completed."
<p>Each side seemed to blame the other for what might be interpreted as a straightforward breakdown in communication.</p><p>So why does this happen? There are no doubt numerous reasons, but focusing on the communication issue, we asked the web developers if they ever asked for, or received, a web design brief from their clients. The majority response was:<!--nextpage-->"Rarely!" The design briefs received mostly consisted of a single page of vague information that lacked the detail and specifics required. Although they usually included requests for things that far exceeded the budget or amount the business owner was willing to spend and were full of wish lists and 'good' ideas that require bespoke development or even new technology (for the words 'bespoke' and 'new', read - interchangeably - 'difficult' and 'expensive')!</p><p><b>So whose job is it?</b></p><p>Isn't it part of the web developers' job to write the brief? Actually, no it isn't, it is the responsibility of the business owner to communicate their requirements, their goals, their current situation and future plans. After all, as more than one developer pointed out, "We're are not telepathic you know!"</p><p>In addition, the pressure of trying to keep a small web development business running (let alone in profit) in this ever increasingly competitive industry means that there is no time or<!--nextpage-->other resources to be teaching the business owner how to write a web design brief, even though it would create a better outcome for everyone. For the majority of situations, there is often no clear or effective communication, more a case of asking questions of the business owner - which they often don't understand clearly, which is no-ones fault - to get some sort of outline and then on with the job of designing and building the website.</p><p><b>Our experience - Web developer</b></p><p>Our experience indicates that the majority of web developers really want to do the best job they can for their clients.</p><p>They have the skills and knowledge to build websites that could work for their clients' businesses. They have the equipment and resources to carry out the work. We also observe however that there are web developers who mistake the functionality of the software that they use for their own creative skills. Ultimately over a period of more than a decade we have encountered very few<!--nextpage-->who would deliberately, "Take their client for a ride," as some businesses have claimed.</p><p><b>Our experience - Businesses</b></p><p>Websites for businesses create a particular quandary for the business owner, manager or similar. There seems to be a huge barrier of technology and jargon to break through to be able to even speak the same language as the web development world. In addition, it is very difficult for anyone without extended experience to make any kind of value judgement about what is good or bad. Consider a different situation: whether you eat in a restaurant often or not, because you do eat every day, if you go into a restaurant, it is possible to make some kind of judgement as to whether you had a good experience, whether the food was good, whether the service was acceptable or excellent. Of course this is subjective to your own preferences and experiences, but at least you understand what a restaurant is, what it is supposed to do or be for and so on.</p><p>In our<!--nextpage-->survey we ask a further question of businesses: "What is your website for, why did you get a website?" Very few offered any kind of clear response, the most common being: "Because we needed a website," or "Because our competitors had one." We also hear: "To generate sales/leads/enquiries etc." quite often, which is at least focused on business, but is nowhere near specific enough to be called an objective.</p><p>If it is not common for businesses to even understand what the website is for, or why they are getting one developed, how can it be possible for them to make a judgment on what is good or bad, other than it produces no results. Even this judgement requires something to measure the results - or lack thereof - against.</p><p><b>Management by abdication</b></p><p>In so many cases the business abdicates responsibility for the website to a web developer in the mistaken belief that 'they know best'. While the web developer knows about websites, they are likely to know little or<!--nextpage-->nothing about the client's business and even less about the customers who will use the website. Together with the lack of communication between the web developer and the business owner it is not difficult to see why so many websites are poorly designed, deliver bad user experiences and ultimately poor or no results for the business.</p><p><b>Is there a solution</b></p><p>The first step to a solution is to address the communication problem. It is clear that there must be effective communication and the first stage of this would normally take the form of a clear and concise website design brief.</p><p><b>The website design brief</b></p><p>The last time we reported on web design briefs we had surveyed 57 web development companies, further surveying has now brought this number to nearly 100. While everyone does it slightly differently, they all had information requirements in common.</p><p>Remember that:</p>The document needs to be clear and concise,&#13;
The document is prepared for<!--nextpage-->someone outside your business who doesn't necessarily know anything about your business or industry. Even if they claim to have worked in your industry before, unless they are specialists, then you should assume nothing.
<p>Its purpose is to state clearly your requirements, including:</p>A profile of your business, its existing image, brand and products or other offerings including future plans&#13;
The objectives of the site - stated clearly in terms that can be measured, not woolly 'to generate enquiries' or similar, think detail and be specific.&#13;
The target market - who will be the users of the site, what will be their requirements?&#13;
Functionality requirements - often expressed as an outline, and as a business owner you may not be able to describe this well, but for example, do you require online payments and if so are you already accepting credit cards in your business. - remember, adding functionality usually increases cost far more than increasing the number of pages<!--nextpage-->in the site.&#13;
The scale and scope of the development project - how big, how many pages, who will provide what and so on.&#13;
What are the project constraints, budget, timescale etc.
<p>This document is not a wish list (although you could include things that you would like to do as well as but not instead of the above), it is the document that the developer works to and effectively forms part of your contract with them and is therefore subject to discussion and revision before being finalised.</p><p><b>In conclusion</b></p><p>The commissioning of a website is a much bigger project than appears at the beginning. Websites are not 'job-and-finish' projects. You need to form a good relationship with your web developer because you will be working with them for a long time, and the first step to a successful relationship is sorting out the communication. It is your business, if you have articulated clearly what you want, why your business needs it, and provided all the information the<!--nextpage-->developer requires including realistic expectations, budgets and timescales then if it isn't delivered to the brief then you can blame the web developer. Otherwise accept that it is your problem, not their fault that they are not telepathic.</p><p>Furthermore, you need to take responsibility for the project, but also recognise that the development of a website is a team game, not something to be simply handed over and then moaned about when it was not quite what you were thinking of.</p><p><b>Last word</b></p><p>If you are serious about selling online or using the internet to promote your business it is important to recognise that you need to make a considerable investment of time and effort or you might as well take your money and simply thrown up in the air!</p>
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<p>Nigel T Packer established Business for Business in 1999 following a broad range of experiences in industry, commerce and the public sector. Business for Business is an internet marketing and eBusiness consultancy, specialising User experience and website promotion startegy. Business for Business also provides specialised training. <a target="_new" href="http://www.businessforbusiness.co.uk">http://www.businessforbusiness.co.uk</a></p> </div><p>Article Source:
<a href="http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Nigel_T_Packer">http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nigel_T_Packer</a>
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Web Development - An Overview

<p>A web page may be created for personal or professional purposes. Technology has made web development a convenient process. In fact the benefits of technology vis-à-vis the web are meant for both developers and users. The increased usage of the web and the growing number of websites are an indication of this. And what sets the web apart from other technologies such as the television and radio is the space it gives to the user. Everyone can have a web site of their own, but not everyone can, for instance, have a show on television.</p><p>The mix of personal and professional web spaces is interesting to track. In the initial days of the web, the purpose was purely idea-sharing at an academic level. In about two years, the web was opened up as a public place and you started seeing a mix of personal and professional sites. In the next stage of its growth, the web was filled with everyone's personal sites. Everyone had a web page up and ready with personal photographs, 'about me'<!--nextpage-->etc. And then came the boom of companies on the web, and business on the web grew like never before. The web became an inimitable marketplace for people to buy and sell all kinds of products and services.</p><p>In the lifecycle of website creation, the development team evaluates and, if necessary, revises ideas storyboarded by the design team. Web development is a specialized area of work which involves an understanding, even if not knowledge, of all other related processes. It can be said that the development team is directly responsible for the creation of a finished website. Evaluation is not just a technical procedure, and involves some degree of subjectivity also. Developers do not just mechanically use rules to create webpage. Individual web developers would bring their own style to the work, and the final product would be influenced in that way.</p><p>Web development is carried out with the use of languages such as HTML, XML, Flash, Perl, CSS etc. Like languages we use in our<!--nextpage-->day to day life, each of these languages used for web development has their own respective logics. A web developer must be well-versed in the use of one or more of these languages. The lay person has a very simplistic understanding of what web development involves. The development stage of a website is in fact a long-drawn process often requiring rework and multiple revisions. Both creation and maintenance of a web space is known as web development.</p><p>As mentioned earlier technology is now geared towards making it easier for a common person to develop a web page. There are, now, many tools available to help a person develop a website and make the web development process easier to an extent. The very fact that there are websites taking care of the complete development side of website creation for users, speaks volumes for the complexities involved in web development. A lot of the complexities of web development arise from the fact that a web developer must possess the ability to<!--nextpage-->troubleshoot serious technical problems.</p><p>Asynchronous JavaScript And XML (AJAX) is a web development technique used to create interactive web applications. Even though the phenomena itself has been around on the web for about a decade, the term AJAX was recently attributed to this technique which is often misunderstood as being to be a technology. AJAX is very relevant in present day web surfing. There are times when you need your website to seem more responsive. But at the same time to continually process small amounts of data requested by the user you cannot afford for the whole web site to be reloaded. AJAX allows this activity to go on behind the scenes which accentuates the sense of interactivity on the web without affecting the speed of the web site. Filling up forms on websites, and other such activities become particularly easy because of this technique.</p><p>The technicalities can be avoided, but any company doing business online must have a good understanding of web<!--nextpage-->development. These companies looking for a resounding web presence must be aware of issues like browser compatibility, accessibility, and web standards. Web standards in particular have been put in place to ensure that websites meet their fundamental purpose if communicating with a user.</p><p>In the field of web development 'web development India' is the new mantra of success. Global companies are recognizing the path-breaking working being carried out by web developers in India. Companies from across the world are partnering with Indian firms because of the cost-effective, superior quality services on offer. Web development professionals in India with their expertise are attractive key global players towards India. Touted as an industry that will see phenomenal growth in the next couple of years, web development India is surely going to be the way of the future.</p>
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<p>Munish Dev Rathee is a SEO cum content writer associated with a seo and PPC Services company [http://www.seoloop.com/]</p> </div><p>Article Source:
<a href="http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Munish_Dev">http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Munish_Dev</a>
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