WEB DESIGN OF HIGHEST POSSIBLE QUALITY.

In less than ten years, the Internet has exploded from being a playground for a few enthusiasts into becoming the most important source of information for almost all people in the industrial world. It's so incredibly fast and cost-effective that it's mind-boggling.

To invest in a well designed and properly maintained website is probably one of the smartest and most insightful business decision you will ever make. In one single go, you will have a shop window that envelopes the entire world, 24 hours per day, all year round.

However, you need to make sure that your website is proficiently developed.

Here are the five absolute imperative prerequisites for a professionally built site:

1. A WEB SITE MUST BE CORRECTLY CODED

These icons confirms that this is an interoperable website, validated by W3C

The international "authority" for web design coding is the World Wide Web Consortium, or in short "W3C". They are setting the standards to which both web browser developers and professional web designers submits. By using standard compliant code, the website will render gracefully in all modern browsers and the site will stay functional and operative for many, many years to come.

In fact, you can easily check any web page to see if it has standard compliant code and validates according to W3C. All you have to do is to go to the page you want to check, copy the web address (called "URL") from the address field at the top of the browser, then go here, paste the web address in the top field that says "Validate by URL" and then press "check".

If the test shows that the page validates, you are to be congratulated. The designer you used was professional and careful. And if you want to see how this very pages validates, just click here.

2. A WEB SITE MUST RENDER CORRECTLY

The most common web browser in the world is Microsoft's "Internet Explorer" on Windows. But there are dozens of other modern browser out there, used by millions of people. Not least Mozilla Firefox which probably is the best browser available right now (try it! It's absolutely free!).

Unfortunately, almost all browsers have their own "personalities" and may display the same website in slightly different ways unless the developer knows how to counteract these quirks.

3. A WEB SITE MUST BE OPTIMIZED FOR SEARCH ENGINES

There are millions of prospective customers that haven't a clue about your site's or product's existence. Give them a chance to find out. When they are using search engines, you need to make sure that your site shows up as early as possible.

Several different surveys on search engine users' behavior shows that the majority of them rarely check more than the first result page. A slightly smaller group are somewhat more patient and will also look at the second and third result page. Only a small, almost negligible group of the users continues to look further.

This means that if your website shows up on page four or later, only a fraction will actually find it. Therefore, a qualified search engine optimization of your website is crucial. Read more about search engine optimization here.

4. A WEB SITE MUST BE FAST LOADING

Even if you are connected to internet via broadband or cable and enjoying quick downloads of websites, bear in mind that you belong to a fortunate minority. Still, most users world wide are connected by telephone modems which sometimes can be painfully slow.

If your pages are so complex or contains so many images that they are not downloaded within 10-12 seconds, visitors will usually give up and perhaps move on to your competitor's site instead.

5. A WEB SITE MUST HAVE PROPER VISUAL DESIGN

There are millions (?) of extremely skilled web developers in the world. Regretfully, many of them are undividedly absorbed by the technical aspect of web development and capable of producing e.g. impressive dynamic websites using cutting edge technique.

But despite the fact that Internet above all is a visual media, they rarely have any clue about the gravity of a site's visual impact. They seldom possess any adequate training, talent or even interest in the visual aspect of web design.

Admittedly, your visitors are not coming to your website to marvel over breath-taking web design, colors, photos and other eye-candy - unless that's your business. They are going there to learn about you and what you are offering them.

Still, they will subconsciously gauge your site's (and your) credibility by the visual impression they get when they arrive. This impression has to amplify the message you are trying to convey and the expectations you want the visitors to have of you and your products.

Every shape, color, image and area in a layout conveys a message to the viewer. A trained visual designer knows how to implement a specific typography and color scheme to convey and emphasize the desired impression and to give the viewer correct perception of your company or product. He knows how to use "empty" areas in the layout, how to arrange the page's elements, how to select images and then crop, colorize and refine them to achieve the relevant effects.

An experienced visual designer also knows when and how to make effective "non-designs", i.e. visual designs that are "silent" and not overpowering the information that you are trying to deliver.

RESEARCH ABOUT VISUAL DESIGN

The only thorough, unbiased and genuine research about web credibility has been conducted by Stanford University, USA. The result shows that no less than 46.1% of those asked deemed visual impression of a website to be the most important factor on how they appreciated its credibility. The second highest score was given to "Information Design/Structure" which rendered far less, 28.5%. If you are interested, you can read more about the research from Stanford here and here.

NEED MORE THAN DESIGN?

We will also take care of the administrative tasks for you. We can find and register a suitable domain name (www.yourdomain.com). We will find the most suitable web host for the site, arrange e-mail addresses, set up the site, and maintain the site with updates on demand.

SAMPLES OF OUR WORK

We have compiled a small selection of some of our most recent web design projects. Please go here.

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