The whole web design Austin industry is changing with of the once loved Flash platform and the newcomers of jQuery, HTML5 and AJAX. This year, we expect to see some fantastic new technology come to light as a result of the above new platforms. While jQuery and AJAX are nothing new we’re going to see some exciting stuff for HTML5 this year. I’m sure many of you web developers are currently working hard away at creating excellent HTML5 features to be used in your websites or to hand out to others to use. At the end of the this year, I already foresee some exciting scripts coming from the world’s best. Next year we might even see dedicated HTML5 supply websites like we do with Flash or jQuery.
While this is all well and good for the web design Austin industry, it leaves one big problem. As with anything new, people will tend to use it incorrectly or overdo it. These are just some of the issues that face us today. It’s all about using the right amount.
One factor you have to keep in mind is that people are on the internet to access information. They want to access it quickly and efficiently. The more fancy or gimmicky content or features you put in the more you are steering away from their goal. The three second rule of pages loading still applies here. The web design Austin industry is not the only industry to suffer from this problem. Have you ever put in a DVD or Blu-ray and have had to wait for the menu to come up after some silly animation that takes ages to complete. Then when you finally click play, it takes another 10 seconds to cycle through a sequence based on the film before it even starts.
HTML5, jQuery and AJAX should all be used to help users get a better experience from your website. Here are just some tips that you can ensure does this when developing using these technologies. I’ll talk about the main two types of functionality of these technology and what you should do with them.
jQuery an HTML5 animations
If you’ve decided for some sort of jQuery or HTML5 animation on your page then I would highly recommend you keep it simple and timed correctly. More than likely you’ll be using a slider or a transition effect on your page if you’re using this technology. This can work well and give some nice movement on your page. Ensure the user has enough time to read all the content or see the imagery on their page, then slide the animation in a timely manner.
One factor that can make your web design Austin go bad is the use of more than one animation on a single page. Users do not like to be distracted too much and if you’re overloading with two animations then you can easily confuse them. A confused user is never a good idea and may even make them go elsewhere for the information or service the website is providing. If you are going to use two animations on a page and you do not listen to the advice highlighted here than at least keep your animations synched as one.
AJAX
AJAX is a wonderful technology, it allows you to continually update your content on a page or pass user interactions without the need of a refresh. Thus providing a user friendly experience and overall a great website. There is however two problems with AJAX. One is not a problem of AJAX itself but in fact you the web design Austiner using it. If you overdo it, you can annoy your users. Overusing AJAX can also have some significantly heavy impact on your web server or database server too. The key to AJAX is to keep it simple and light. Use it only where your users are getting a better experience as a result of this great web technology.
I would recommend you use AJAX for submission forms or any interactive content. Facebook itself uses AJAX quite well where new messages or notifications are highlighted on the page as you’re reading your newsfeed or alike.
As much as AJAX searches can seem like a cool idea on websites, I often disagree with their usage. Sometimes you can be browsing through your results, click the next page and that annoying AJAX spinning icon comes up and nothing happens. This is caused by the slow response of the data coming back. It’s one of the most irritating factors in website development and is a great example of when good web design Austin ideas go bad. Doing this means you’re getting away from the whole goal of AJAX itself: to make sites interactive and user friendly.
Unfortunately, the other problem with AJAX highlighted earlier isn’t the user this time. It’s the sheer concept of the platform: AJAX content is not seen by search engines. While this may be getting less, it’s still a big problem. Hiding content grabs in AJAX is a bad idea if you want that content to be seen by the likes of Google.
Too much of anything is a bad idea
It’s a well-known saying, but this is the truth and applies to the web design Austin industry. Like anything in life, overdoing something can have major repercussions and these technologies are no different. Enjoy the world of jQuery, AJAX and HTML5 and what the future holds for it, but think carefully about your planned usage and you’ll get along just fine.
The success of a website depends largely on its functionality and the user experience. However, the visual appeal of the website also determines how well the visitors perceive the web design Austin. The graphic design, colors and images used on the website can help in roping in more visitors to the site.
Very often we come across websites that are loosely built and have nothing much to offer in terms of visual design. If you are planning to get your Austin web designed or redesigned, it would be helpful for you to keep the below discussed points in your mind:
1) Poor choice of fonts- The visual appeal of a web design Austin can be ruined if the fonts used for the content on the site are unreadable because of the style or size. The web design Austiner must ensure that readable fonts are used throughout the site that enhance the reading experience of the visitors. Moreover, the designer must ensure that uniformity is maintained throughout the usage of fonts on the website. Disparate fonts can hamper the reading experience to a great extent, thus, ruining the visual appeal.
2) No highlighting color for links- Use of hyperlinks within the text can help to a great extent in improving traffic to the targeted page. However, if the links are not highlighted, users would find it difficult to reach out to the particular page. Using bright colors such as blue or red can immediately catch attention of the site visitors and help in achieving the primary objective of placing the link on that page.
3) No images to support the content- Graphic design is a small but a very significant part of the process of web design Austin. If a designer skips the usage of images that can support the text on the site, people would feel less interested to read the content. This is so because relevant and attractive images help them get an idea on what the content is all about and if the image is useful enough, they are compelled to read the text that follows.
4) Overuse of Flash- In web design Austin, excessive use of Flash can slow down the load speed of the site and hamper the browsing experience of the visitors to a great extent. This is one of the major reasons of higher bounce rate and lower conversion rate on Flash-supported websites.
5) Too many advertisements- Another factor that ruins the visual appeal of the web design Austin is too many advertisements and little useful content. The advertisements can clutter the look of the web pages and annoy the visitors who came looking for information with the hope of some valuable information.
To avoid these mistakes, it is important to invest money and time in the entire web design Austin process and hire a highly reliable web design Austin company that understands the relationship between visual web design Austin and graphic design.
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