The old techniques and methods that were use to transmit visual communications have been modify continuously. Graphic design includes a lot of aspects. Now, its boundaries are very fuzzy to the point of confusing the range of activities and responsibilities. The progress and evolution of the products and services of the companies has grown up very fast and dramatically. This forces them to compete to occupy a niche in the market.
The colors and the combinations of the colors are sometimes the key for the success of the design; adding in the concept of design: Web design, flash design, banners design, card design, T-Shirt Design, CMS Development, etc.
Since, there are a lot of colors and nuances; when we are working for example: in a homepage design can be complicated and is welcome any help that allow us to limit the search.
There are different ways of looking at the color on a project: A monochrome treatment or based on grays or tinted; nuanced or muted colors; bright colors of shadows and between those possibilities exists a lot of combinations. Some colors harmonize especially with each others. The best way to find these combinations is using the color wheel.
A basic color wheel sequentially orders the progression of colors that make up the spectrum of light from red to violet. There are different ways to select colors to form a harmonious group: the colors, in a way pleasing to the eye are mutually enhancing.
Choosing the right colors are determinate also by the nature of the project, the trademark or the public for whom the brand is oriented, are determinants. Is not the same, a marketing campaign for young people selling sport products that a campaign for the same niche promoting a religious event.
There are different harmonies of colors that are used for designers and artists:
- Harmony analogues
- Complementary or contrasting colors
- Complementary split
- Double complementary harmony
- Harmony of three colors
In the market there are also digital tools to choose and to combine colors. The applications that help us as designers to choose the colors are:
-Color Wheel Pro which generates previews of the results of the colors harmony (allows multiple types of harmonies) in Flash format.
-CorelDraw, from version 8, have an excellent colors harmonies wheel.
-Photoshop has a plugin available (only available for Mac) is very similar to the colors harmonies Wheel in CorelDraw. Its name is Hotdoor Harmony.
-easyRGB offers an interactive utility to create color harmonies combinations from one color that we introduce, like for example the color of the logo.
-New Vision has a utility called color complementor that also serves to the same purpose.
We can also make use of the gradients especially on digital design. But if the design is going to be printed is not a good idea, in case we don’t have a good printer with you. Because you lose the quality of the gradient when it’s printed.
So, we have to be careful and use the correct tools to success in our projects.
http://www.artstudiosl.biz
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Life cycle of the systems
When we are talking about the design of an application or a website we forgot that is not only the graphic design or the development but also implies a lot of steps that we have to consider as part of the life cycle of the systems.
Web design and flash design have become very popular lately, with the new technologies that are arriving and the methodologies that developers are implementing.
At the moment we talk with the client we have to evaluate their needs and their budget to propose a project and its magnitude. The projects can vary from a static website to a dynamic and functional website that consist in a website that the public is going to see and the CMS development that will allow webmaster to manage the content of the site and make changes constantly.
The process for a website that contains a content management system is long and sometimes complicated if you don’t have a clear idea of what you have to do. You can simplify some steps by using a CMS that is already created, there are a lot in the internet they are open source, so you can change them. But, in the case our website has a non common functionality the developers have to create it from zero. The steps are:
- Feasibility study
- Requirements Analysis
- Design
o Database design (database structure, ER model, UML, etc.)
o Graphic Design (homepage design, CMS design, etc.)
- Prototype development
- Testing Implementation
- Quality Testing (if a feedback is needed has to come back to the Development)
- Release the product (real implementation)
- Maintenance
This life cycle of the systems can be implemented in websites development and will allow to designers and developers to be faster so the clients can be happier with their services.
There are some methodologies that help us with our projects.
Agile web development is a new methodology that emerged from other traditional methods such as waterfalls. Agile methods emphasized the communication face to face with the client leaving behind the documentation as an intermediary. For agile become successful the team work should be small and the team members should be available to communicate with their partners and with clients directly. All the team should be aware of the process of the project and help others in case it’s needed. The management of the team should be loaded in all the team members not only in just one person. All the team should participate in the creation of schedules, changes, tasks, etc.
Implementing agile web development requires some individual and team freedom that have constant adaptation of work and communication functions. Adjusting the organizational processes to reflect the real situation of the projects.
Some companies also change the roles and responsibilities, policies and processes to stay alive in the market and they have success.
So, when we start a project we have to be alert on implementing correctly the life cycle and the methodologies to have a happy ending with our clients and they can be happy with their results.
http://www.artstudiosl.biz
Web design and flash design have become very popular lately, with the new technologies that are arriving and the methodologies that developers are implementing.
At the moment we talk with the client we have to evaluate their needs and their budget to propose a project and its magnitude. The projects can vary from a static website to a dynamic and functional website that consist in a website that the public is going to see and the CMS development that will allow webmaster to manage the content of the site and make changes constantly.
The process for a website that contains a content management system is long and sometimes complicated if you don’t have a clear idea of what you have to do. You can simplify some steps by using a CMS that is already created, there are a lot in the internet they are open source, so you can change them. But, in the case our website has a non common functionality the developers have to create it from zero. The steps are:
- Feasibility study
- Requirements Analysis
- Design
o Database design (database structure, ER model, UML, etc.)
o Graphic Design (homepage design, CMS design, etc.)
- Prototype development
- Testing Implementation
- Quality Testing (if a feedback is needed has to come back to the Development)
- Release the product (real implementation)
- Maintenance
This life cycle of the systems can be implemented in websites development and will allow to designers and developers to be faster so the clients can be happier with their services.
There are some methodologies that help us with our projects.
Agile web development is a new methodology that emerged from other traditional methods such as waterfalls. Agile methods emphasized the communication face to face with the client leaving behind the documentation as an intermediary. For agile become successful the team work should be small and the team members should be available to communicate with their partners and with clients directly. All the team should be aware of the process of the project and help others in case it’s needed. The management of the team should be loaded in all the team members not only in just one person. All the team should participate in the creation of schedules, changes, tasks, etc.
Implementing agile web development requires some individual and team freedom that have constant adaptation of work and communication functions. Adjusting the organizational processes to reflect the real situation of the projects.
Some companies also change the roles and responsibilities, policies and processes to stay alive in the market and they have success.
So, when we start a project we have to be alert on implementing correctly the life cycle and the methodologies to have a happy ending with our clients and they can be happy with their results.
http://www.artstudiosl.biz
Web design and SEO companies
Sometimes common people see the web design and SEO companies as something difficult and far but also users can learn about SEO and its methods.
SEO is Search Engine Optimization to get a high ranking on google or any other search engine as: yahoo or altavista.
The importance of the SEO techniques is essential for the visibilities of the website in the Internet and to improve the visitor’s traffic.
In this article, are including some techniques to improve the SEO of the websites that developers can apply the factors are group in 2 categories: inside the page and outside the page (links that comes from other sites):
-Keywords: Search engines only read the first 200 words on this tag, so should be contain the keywords that are going to be use for the site. Is recommended to add the words in uppercase and lowercase since some engines are sensitive. Words should not be repeated more than 3 times creating search phrases that the user might use. Also adding the geographic location of the business. Not using punctuation marks because we are spending valuable spaces.
-Description: The text inside the description tags will appear under the title in the search results of the search engines, should encourage the users to click the link and its length should be less than 170 characters containing the keywords for the page.
-The Wording of Titles: The title identifies a page in the search engines results. The title is between the head tagsMy page and have to contain in its first words the criteria for whom they are optimizing the web. If it’s possible to include everything that is necessary in a single phrase that would be great. As a recommendation is that the length of the title is between the 70 and 120 characters.
-Robot tags: The search engines should know how to inspect the pages there are 2 ways: a meta tag or a robots.txt file generation. Using meta tag is like that: . When we generate a file this have to be place in the root of the domain and have to contain information about the directories and folders that the user can visit in the search engine or not.
When we work with flash design there are methods and scripts to work for the search engine in the internet, giving the results we are expecting.
So, we don’t have to forget that is not only our graphic design that will mark the difference but also the methods and techniques we are using. The homepage design is the one that needs the most of Search Engine Optimization because is the bridge to you other pages.
CMS Development has made easier the way of adding keywords and tags in just some moments in your websites, there are also modules and tools that help webmasters to check the visitor’s traffic.
But you have to research which keywords are the most convenient for the website or product you are working on, and are going to permit your website success in SEO.
http://www.artstudiosl.biz
SEO is Search Engine Optimization to get a high ranking on google or any other search engine as: yahoo or altavista.
The importance of the SEO techniques is essential for the visibilities of the website in the Internet and to improve the visitor’s traffic.
In this article, are including some techniques to improve the SEO of the websites that developers can apply the factors are group in 2 categories: inside the page and outside the page (links that comes from other sites):
-Keywords: Search engines only read the first 200 words on this tag, so should be contain the keywords that are going to be use for the site. Is recommended to add the words in uppercase and lowercase since some engines are sensitive. Words should not be repeated more than 3 times creating search phrases that the user might use. Also adding the geographic location of the business. Not using punctuation marks because we are spending valuable spaces.
-Description: The text inside the description tags will appear under the title in the search results of the search engines, should encourage the users to click the link and its length should be less than 170 characters containing the keywords for the page.
-The Wording of Titles: The title identifies a page in the search engines results. The title is between the head tags
-Robot tags: The search engines should know how to inspect the pages there are 2 ways: a meta tag or a robots.txt file generation. Using meta tag is like that: . When we generate a file this have to be place in the root of the domain and have to contain information about the directories and folders that the user can visit in the search engine or not.
When we work with flash design there are methods and scripts to work for the search engine in the internet, giving the results we are expecting.
So, we don’t have to forget that is not only our graphic design that will mark the difference but also the methods and techniques we are using. The homepage design is the one that needs the most of Search Engine Optimization because is the bridge to you other pages.
CMS Development has made easier the way of adding keywords and tags in just some moments in your websites, there are also modules and tools that help webmasters to check the visitor’s traffic.
But you have to research which keywords are the most convenient for the website or product you are working on, and are going to permit your website success in SEO.
http://www.artstudiosl.biz
Web 2.0 has become the transition step of the evolution in the internet, changing the conventional desktop applications with new web applications that can help the users with their needs. Web 2.0 is not exactly a new technology or application, but is an attitude.
The web 2.0 supports applications that generate different services and collaborations that can replace the common desktop applications. At this point, Internet is having a normal evolution on applications that comes from static websites that were not updated frequently and had not much user’s interaction, to nowadays applications and sites with astounding functionalities are emerging.
The graphic design of the websites should be more attractive for the users, because of the hard competition on the market in the new evolution of the internet; it has to be neater and cleaner in the content’s distribution, choosing the right colors, and elements position, etc.
But also Web 2.0 has marked examples of the progress that the applications have had during the last years and that are obvious for the public. Some examples are:
Publicity services, Social networks, Content networks, blogs, encyclopedias, Search Engine Optimization, Tags, download applications, CMS Development, Flash designs, photo communities, etc.
Some of the methods that help web 2.0 project be alive are:
Flash design and development, Flex design and development, or Lazlo design and development,
Web design instead of desktop application
Use of some programming languages such as: Ajax, Ruby on Rails, PHP 5, etc.
Use of API’s and XML
Search Engine Optimization in the website
Standardize sites with XHTML and CSS
Separate the content (xhtml) with the appearance (CSS) in the websites.
Web 2.0 is very important as part of the evolution of the Internet, as a designer and/or developers should be very concern about the fact that our websites should meet the requirements for Web 2.0 to improve our websites and applications.
We have also advice to our clients the importance of the homepage design for the user’s attraction and the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for their sites and become more competitive in the market adding a new attitude call web 2.0
Web 3.0 is appearing in the internet as the new step that will become to give meaning to the web. Right now, there is no agreement about the most appropriate way for its development. Following like that the normal process of Semantic Web which is, by the way, is an evolutionary process in permanent construction. So, Web 2.0 and web 3.0 is just another step in the process.
It’s so excited the way internet is moving and how developers and designers are engage to this process, if you were left behind in this long way, the best you can do now is start reading and implementing the methods that are included in web 2.0, not forgetting the user interface as a hook for their clients, SEO and their methods for google positioning, google adwords, google adsense, metatags, etc. but that’s another subject we can talk about, later.
http://www.artstudiosl.biz
The web 2.0 supports applications that generate different services and collaborations that can replace the common desktop applications. At this point, Internet is having a normal evolution on applications that comes from static websites that were not updated frequently and had not much user’s interaction, to nowadays applications and sites with astounding functionalities are emerging.
The graphic design of the websites should be more attractive for the users, because of the hard competition on the market in the new evolution of the internet; it has to be neater and cleaner in the content’s distribution, choosing the right colors, and elements position, etc.
But also Web 2.0 has marked examples of the progress that the applications have had during the last years and that are obvious for the public. Some examples are:
Publicity services, Social networks, Content networks, blogs, encyclopedias, Search Engine Optimization, Tags, download applications, CMS Development, Flash designs, photo communities, etc.
Some of the methods that help web 2.0 project be alive are:
Flash design and development, Flex design and development, or Lazlo design and development,
Web design instead of desktop application
Use of some programming languages such as: Ajax, Ruby on Rails, PHP 5, etc.
Use of API’s and XML
Search Engine Optimization in the website
Standardize sites with XHTML and CSS
Separate the content (xhtml) with the appearance (CSS) in the websites.
Web 2.0 is very important as part of the evolution of the Internet, as a designer and/or developers should be very concern about the fact that our websites should meet the requirements for Web 2.0 to improve our websites and applications.
We have also advice to our clients the importance of the homepage design for the user’s attraction and the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for their sites and become more competitive in the market adding a new attitude call web 2.0
Web 3.0 is appearing in the internet as the new step that will become to give meaning to the web. Right now, there is no agreement about the most appropriate way for its development. Following like that the normal process of Semantic Web which is, by the way, is an evolutionary process in permanent construction. So, Web 2.0 and web 3.0 is just another step in the process.
It’s so excited the way internet is moving and how developers and designers are engage to this process, if you were left behind in this long way, the best you can do now is start reading and implementing the methods that are included in web 2.0, not forgetting the user interface as a hook for their clients, SEO and their methods for google positioning, google adwords, google adsense, metatags, etc. but that’s another subject we can talk about, later.
http://www.artstudiosl.biz
CSS & graphic design.
In graphic design is very important to put attention in some areas. Sometimes they are forgotten when we are designing something. One of these areas or subject is the use of different programming languages such as xhtml, dhtml, html, xml, CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), etc. The web design depends on this, like for example cross browsers complications that sometimes appear in the websites. CSS can be used as a solution, since the designer or developer is breaking apart the content with the layout of the site; creating like that a cleaner code for their websites. But CSS is not only present in the user’s website view, is also in the administration side.
CMS Development has become more popular nowadays, letting the webmasters to manage the content of their websites but also including modules, themes, and the ability to change the look of their CMS; of course if the webmaster has the correct development knowledge. Via CSS the administrator can change the look of their CMS, change colors, element’s positions, font formatting, etc.
In flash design, CSS has been implemented to change the layout of the movie easier, giving the control of the graphic appearance to designers just editing one CSS single file. Also works the same way as in website development using (x)html. Allowing image’s galleries, banners, videos, etc. to use one CSS file and change their displaying very simple. When flash had not implemented this type of files was kind of complicated to change the background’s color, for example: if the client didn’t have the .fla file, the client had to contact the designers, and designer had to change it. Flash applications are now more portables with the use of external files (css, xml, txt,)
CSS can be saved in CSS files (.css) or in the same html page code. To be more organized designer prefer to store the Styles in a different file and import it in the html code.
There are some website editors that facilitate coding since they count with intellisense which is an auto complete application. So, designers can avoid typing a lot of code, also permit to type the identifiers correctly. CSS is included in most of these editors but don’t forget you can also use notepad or any simple editor to write CSS code and will work fine.
W3C is in charge of spreading the specifications to the internet and the reference to learn CSS, syntaxes, concepts, etc. While developing websites with CSS and html designers must meet with the established standards. W3C provides (x)html validator and CSS validators to check them and find errors and warnings in our code.
Finally, CSS is very important to create a better web, all together as designers are responsible for this. By meeting the W3C standards in our websites can also be helpful to use in our homepage design the CSS website valid logos to incentive other designers and also clients to have better websites and to use CSS in all their projects where is possible to apply.
http://www.artstudiosl.biz
CMS Development has become more popular nowadays, letting the webmasters to manage the content of their websites but also including modules, themes, and the ability to change the look of their CMS; of course if the webmaster has the correct development knowledge. Via CSS the administrator can change the look of their CMS, change colors, element’s positions, font formatting, etc.
In flash design, CSS has been implemented to change the layout of the movie easier, giving the control of the graphic appearance to designers just editing one CSS single file. Also works the same way as in website development using (x)html. Allowing image’s galleries, banners, videos, etc. to use one CSS file and change their displaying very simple. When flash had not implemented this type of files was kind of complicated to change the background’s color, for example: if the client didn’t have the .fla file, the client had to contact the designers, and designer had to change it. Flash applications are now more portables with the use of external files (css, xml, txt,)
CSS can be saved in CSS files (.css) or in the same html page code. To be more organized designer prefer to store the Styles in a different file and import it in the html code.
There are some website editors that facilitate coding since they count with intellisense which is an auto complete application. So, designers can avoid typing a lot of code, also permit to type the identifiers correctly. CSS is included in most of these editors but don’t forget you can also use notepad or any simple editor to write CSS code and will work fine.
W3C is in charge of spreading the specifications to the internet and the reference to learn CSS, syntaxes, concepts, etc. While developing websites with CSS and html designers must meet with the established standards. W3C provides (x)html validator and CSS validators to check them and find errors and warnings in our code.
Finally, CSS is very important to create a better web, all together as designers are responsible for this. By meeting the W3C standards in our websites can also be helpful to use in our homepage design the CSS website valid logos to incentive other designers and also clients to have better websites and to use CSS in all their projects where is possible to apply.
http://www.artstudiosl.biz
Web Design has become an important part
Nowadays, web design has become an important part of the companies in the different industries giving them more market breadth and, like that the market becomes more competitive every day. More companies are using internet to promote their services and like that, they can get more clients, and they can become international
companies. A good homepage design is one important part of the website, because the first impression of the user is based on the landing page which should be elegant and neat, containing the company logo and some other important information such as services, discounts, etc. But not only is the front end side of the website but the back end very important because it gives more flexibility to the web master to change the content constantly and the cms development appears into the scene. The developer can get some tools to make the cms development easier as example
frameworks for the different development languages: CakePHP, Zend, Symphony for PHP; Ruby on Rails, Wuby and Merb for Ruby; Tapestry, Spring, GWT, Struts for Java and so on. But there are also cms that are already developed and they are open sources that can used the developers to have a functional website faster, like: Wordpress and Movable Type used normally for blogs and simple web pages, Joomla for shopping carts, Drupal to create internet communities, etc. The cms also have different modules which can be installed and their configuration can be changed with a considerable decrease in the times. This gives to the developers and project manager the opportunity to have a qualified testing stage. And the client can be more satisfied with the website that has been provided.
Back to the front end side, the website should contain also some flash design and animation to be more attractive to the public, using banners, videos, image galleries and sometimes the entire site. The animations can be created from the simplest banner to the most complicated website using actionscript. User’s interaction is very important to get the interest of the possible clients and to show the quality of the products or services offered.
To improve the marketing of the company an essential part is the graphic design providing a professional logo, banner, site mockup, etc. Since the logo is going to be part of all the company campaign the team should focus on it and it’s concept. The logo can be added in presentation cards, t-shirts, banners, tv commercials, website, videos, etc. depending of the company industry.
Graphic design also implies the right use of colors and space for the different elements that are part of what it is been created. The graphic design can control the success of the marketing campaign. It doesn’t matter if you website is functional or stable; if the designer is not good everything goes down. That’s why graphic design is at the end of this article because is VERY important to have a clean, fancy and neat design. Forget the extravagant, odd and full of content and choose the right way for your success.
http://www.artstudiosl.biz
companies. A good homepage design is one important part of the website, because the first impression of the user is based on the landing page which should be elegant and neat, containing the company logo and some other important information such as services, discounts, etc. But not only is the front end side of the website but the back end very important because it gives more flexibility to the web master to change the content constantly and the cms development appears into the scene. The developer can get some tools to make the cms development easier as example
frameworks for the different development languages: CakePHP, Zend, Symphony for PHP; Ruby on Rails, Wuby and Merb for Ruby; Tapestry, Spring, GWT, Struts for Java and so on. But there are also cms that are already developed and they are open sources that can used the developers to have a functional website faster, like: Wordpress and Movable Type used normally for blogs and simple web pages, Joomla for shopping carts, Drupal to create internet communities, etc. The cms also have different modules which can be installed and their configuration can be changed with a considerable decrease in the times. This gives to the developers and project manager the opportunity to have a qualified testing stage. And the client can be more satisfied with the website that has been provided.
Back to the front end side, the website should contain also some flash design and animation to be more attractive to the public, using banners, videos, image galleries and sometimes the entire site. The animations can be created from the simplest banner to the most complicated website using actionscript. User’s interaction is very important to get the interest of the possible clients and to show the quality of the products or services offered.
To improve the marketing of the company an essential part is the graphic design providing a professional logo, banner, site mockup, etc. Since the logo is going to be part of all the company campaign the team should focus on it and it’s concept. The logo can be added in presentation cards, t-shirts, banners, tv commercials, website, videos, etc. depending of the company industry.
Graphic design also implies the right use of colors and space for the different elements that are part of what it is been created. The graphic design can control the success of the marketing campaign. It doesn’t matter if you website is functional or stable; if the designer is not good everything goes down. That’s why graphic design is at the end of this article because is VERY important to have a clean, fancy and neat design. Forget the extravagant, odd and full of content and choose the right way for your success.
http://www.artstudiosl.biz
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