Chimes Web Design Blog

Web Trends that are on the verge of getting extinct in the year 2013

Mitali Sharma — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 13:44:34 +0000

As the internet gets 30 years old, its trends have considerably changed in due course of time. The extinction of the old website trends is simply because those trends don’t support the intended business growth of the website. This may so because such website trends don’t have the potential of holding the users to achieve a high rate of conversion. That is why some of the web trends, which perhaps used to be very famous at a particular period of time, tend to die down in the due course of the time. As 2013 has started which is estimated to a dominant year in the web industry, let’s check out which are the popular web trends that hold the changes of getting extinct by this calendar year.

Too complex web designs: While getting its website designed, any business firms prefer to get a very unique and masterpiece. They ask the developers to provide them with something that didn’t exist earlier. The plan is not bad but it is seen that in a drive to get something very unique, many such websites have come into action which are too complex. Although they are very high in terms of form, and looks but lack in functionality. These kinds of websites are not very much preferred by the users in terms of usability and navigation. Internet users look for fast working websites in order to get a quick access over the internet. So, websites designs that made complex with consideration to form and negligence to functionality is likely to die out soon.

Rotating banner ads on the home page: This is one of the website trends that have become very famous; however it is not for every website. Only those websites who have too much information to share must go for rotating banner. Moreover, putting these ads are not easy because a lot of things are required to be taken into consideration while deciding the speed of the rotation?

Use of stock photos: Its and interesting fact that one major part of the internet users remain reserved for image processing, so photos attract the attention first. But if the user gets to see those cheesy fake looking pictures on the website then they get a big turn down vibe. This is because kind of images like that of a operating waiting to answer, etc have become too common and users tend to relate the fakeness of these images with the fakeness of the website, hence end up considering the website not so genuine.

Popup ads: This has become a real irritating for the internet users that the moment they enter a website and can have a glance of the information they are looking, they get pop up ads that doesn’t just block the website but also tend to show up something very irrelevant to users’ search. These kind of pop ads are very frequent in eCommerce website. Instant popping up of ads with lines like “buy now” , “shop now” will be just like a situation when we enter a store and the sales boy instantly ask our credit card, before you can really check whether there is anything worth buying or not.

Why Responsive Websites Are More Alluring To The Mobile Internet Users?

Mitali Sharma — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 12:50:04 +0000

Introduction of Responsive design in web development is one of the exciting changes that has enhanced the user interface and have made millions of mobile phone users more comfortable. As we all know, responsive design is a mechanism that enables a website to best fit into the screen of the users’ device, let it be Smartphone, desktop, tablet or laptop. It has become the core requirement of the business firms to get their website upgraded with responsive design, especially to make the website compatible with the mobile screens. Research data shows that more internet users are using their mobile phones to access the internet. Hence, it’s important that business firms require concentrating on having a responsive mobile website in order to stay connected to those millions of users who access internet through mobile.

Moreover, use of responsive design makes the mobile site development easier and less time consuming. Also, responsive websites are easy to manage and users’ can have a seamless experience of navigation without any redirection assistance. Stand alone website takes time to get loaded in the mobile screen, and then in order to fit with the mobile screen, the website gets too squished, making it impossible for the users to have a better readability. But responsive websites’ capability to adjust along with mobile screen ensures a smooth experience to the readers in term readability, quick loading of the site and easy navigability. By having a responsive website, the owner company doesn’t need to be much concerned about how to redirect the users through the website, as these websites automatically fits with online tracking with its quick “click” options to the users. Moreover, the responsive websites have already become very popular in the market and users have got into the habit of using these sites, so any company who fails to facilitate its users through a responsive website are definitely to loose in the long run.

Small Business Entetrprises Equally In Need Of Mobile Websites

Mitali Sharma — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 13:26:42 +0000

As the culture of mobile websites is getting popular, the small business enterprises are continually asking the question that whether their business is in need of mobile websites too. Well the answer is simply yes for those small business enterprises that are having a desktop website and getting business out of it. Because if through a desktop website any small business enterprise is making a strong online presence, then to continue with the same status getting a mobile website has become very requisite. According to Google, 40% of searches are done through mobile a device, which clearly hints to the fact that mobile devices have become a powerful tool that people prefer to gain information of their required products or services. It has become the common habit of people to make a quick search from their mobile about the brick and mortar store that they are thinking of visiting, in fact to a large extent the decision of whether to visit that store or not depends on the information that is presented through the website.
Now, a small business owner may put the point that in that case why his desktop website can’t cater the requirement of the mobile user, because the desktop website also opens up in a mobile. The answer is simple that online users are at hurry yet lazy. They need very thing to get done instantly but not even ready to put much effort. So no user is going to spare a single minute for a website that is not user friendly, hard to navigate, takes time to load and makes the user wait. All these aspects that are not preferred by the users get projected if a desktop website is opened in a mobile device; because the specification and functionality of a desktop screen is very different from a mobile screen. If technology has improved so much and Smartphones are being developed to support the mobile websites, then why a user won’t will take benefit of it. Mobile website is specially designed for mobile screens; these are quick that loading, easy to navigate and give quick “click” options to the users. The fact is that these users have already got into the habit of using mobile websites for easy and prompt access, so any small business enterprise that want to get hold of its customer base through online need to have a mobile website.

HTML5 Is To Change the Structuring and Presenting Of Content for the Web

Mitali Sharma — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 11:22:14 +0000

Web app developers are putting lots of hope on the upcoming HTML5, which is estimated to change the face of the internet, by changing the way users interact with the web. This new version of the HTML markup language is estimated to get released in 2014, and the movers and shakers of the IT industry are waiting hard for its release. The new version of the language is likely to revolutionize the process of app development, by making the HTML5 based apps compatible with different platforms, browsers and devices. With the launch of HTML 5, web designers will be allowed to develop apps without any restraints. This new technology is going to change the user interaction with the web in a remarkable way. But for that, app developers have to understand a host of technologies like HTML5 APIs and it, to rightly use this upcoming markup language boom.

Courtesy: html5rocks.com

But what, this much talked about, HTML 5 will change? This language has been developed with the aim of making the multimedia integration more feasible, easy to use and compatible over different platforms, browsers, computers and other devices like mobiles. Experts are also proposing that HTML5 will bring increased speed due and this will nullify the need of extra elements inside the actual codes. In simple words, it means that an HTML5 browser will be able to render the same content on the screen without the input of extra information, as the browser will use a more concise amount of code and automatically shown that requires to be shown on the screen.

HTML5 will bring forth a web technology, which will be no longer reliable on Flash to support animations on websites. Besides, HTML5 will also offer more efficient means to support easy animating and drawing of objects. One of the biggest advantages of HTML 5 will be that it will end the slow loading process of flash files over Smartphone screens, as the servers will be easily able to download to the files to parse the information.

Reasons behind Why Black And White Is Good For Web Design

Nidhi Bajaj — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 13:17:37 +0000

While browsing various sites, you can simply witness many of them have used colorful and high resolution pictures in order to grab the attention and interest of the visitors. On the contrary, there are many websites that have used black-and-white pictures. Did you ever give a thought why they are using black and white images on their websites? If not yet, then think about it and read the below given reasons to end up your inquisitiveness.

Offer a unique artistic look

Many websites use black and white pictures to give a unique artistic look to the site and increase its overall beauty and charm without using colors. The viewer can see the precise details of the picture even if it is not colored and get impressive visuals.

Entails professionalism

Black and white pictures entail professionalism and give a real professional look to the site. It can hold visitors for a while with the proper use of black and white color combination. Very less websites have courage to maintain that balance and simplicity in order to attract viewers.

Increase viewer’s curiosity

It is commonly observed that a black and white picture increases the curiosity of viewers. This will influence them to get deeper and look for the story behind the images.

Obstacle-free message delivery

Known for the simplicity, black and white pictures helps in conveying message smoothly and clearly without any kind of obstacle. This way, readers can easily get the actual message behind the pictures.

Encourage viewers to read the content

Right placing of black and white pictures on the site can hold the eyes of the viewers and influence them to read the below given content. It helps in drawing visitor’s attention to look at the pictures and also read the content given for more details.

Microsoft’ Key web Development Suite WebMatrix gets Upgraded

admin — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 12:46:00 +0000

Microsoft’ s web development suite WebMatrix Tool suite gets further upgraded from its version-2 to the final version by adding some few features in it. The new version is an “extensibility model” that allows the developers to write their own plug-ins or use community-built ones. Besides, it’s extremely fast at installing open source apps such as Joomla!, WordPress, Drupal, etc. Also, the version has mobile support for all templates. Further, it supports new built-in templates for PHP, Node.js and HTML5. The version possesses simple UI, which facilitate easy installing of necessary components from thousands of NuGet packages. Moreover, publishing of a local site from WebMatrix gets more simplified with this new version as it offers tighter integration with Windows Azure.

Courtesy: blogs.msdn.com

The new advance version of WebMatrix is a bundle of tools that allow developers to have easy take over website creation, publication and maintenance by facilitating the developer with quick installing and publishing of open-source applications or built-in templates. This tool suite comprises Web server, various programming languages, database engines, and more. This tool kit will be of great worth to those developers, who uses ASP.Net, PHP, Node.js and/or HTML5.

To have access to this new version, developers can click on the WebMatrix button on their dashboards, provided they are already using Microsoft’s Windows Azure Web Sites hosting framework. Otherwise, WebMatrix 2 can be downloaded directly from Microsoft’s WebMatrix page.

Ensure Your Website Design Is Cross-Browser Compatible

admin — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 14:18:00 +0000

Huge traffic is the most important factor, when it comes to online business performance. You want lots of potential buyers located across the globe to browse and visit your site for making purchases and increase your sales and profit figures. Whether you have a high profile or cheap web design, it does not matter a lot. Just make sure customers can see and visit your site whenever they need. No matter which browser or operating system they are using. They should simply reach your website and make purchases, which is your main concern if you are the owner of the website.

Courtesy: orphicpixel.com

Now a days, there are many versions of browsers available for the users. Further, users can now even install multiple browsers in their computer systems as some sites operate well on any particular browsers as compare to others. In order to come out of the browsing problems that prevent your visitors to reach you, it is very important for you to get your website design that is compatible with all the operating systems and browsers.

Instruct your web developer and designer that how your website will display in famous browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Explorer. It should be properly tested on different browsers before making it live to go. You can check this by using various tools available online that allow you to compare the appearance of your website in several browsers. Double check whether your site is Cross-Browser compatible or not before it affect the browsing experience of your potential customers. Remember that if your site fail to function and display smoothly on major browsers that are widely used by the users throughout the globe, then this will directly affect your website ranking.

Google Releases New Aids For Web Development

admin — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 14:08:15 +0000

Recently, Google has released two latest internally authored technologies that can be of great help for web developers. The new tools are for tracking JavaScript memory leaks and for accessing Google APIs (application programming interfaces). Both will help in reducing the workload of web developers.

The first one named Leak Finder, it can help developers in fixing a common issues related to JavaScript. This tool will help in looking for memory leaks within a program written by them. JavaScript comprise of a built-in automatic waste collection that eliminate objects from working memory when they are not used in the program by the other objects. Though, this procedure is not perfect in several cases where JavaScript will keep objects that are no longer in use or referred. Leak finder will work as an effective tool to find out un-referenced objects, which has been disposed and notify this information to a web developer in the form of machine-readable output through software for automatic application testing.

The second tool introduced by Google is a library which makes a Web programming language Google developed known as Dart. According to Google, Dart is a much better substitute to JavaScript for authoring complicated Web applications.

Google carries on to support the use of the open web development technologies with the introduction of these two highly effective tools. Google has provided a number of sample applications to prove its point and also the efficiency of its latest technologies.

The Latest Ideas to Boost Your Landing Pages

admin — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 17:31:52 +0000

There’s no doubt as to product landing experiences may vary depending on what you actually sell. Despite the fact, there are a number of designers in the industry who constantly search for unique designs to hog limelight and improve sales. But there’s no one particular solution to every issue and this why you should search for modern designs and related features that have helped many like you.

I’ve compiled a list of ideas in the blog that can be utilized for creating quality landing pages. These ideas will help you in many effective ways whether it’s about selling e-books or website templates.

You should understand that the key part of a landing page is content. Content communicates with your audiences in an effective way. You should often try to focus not just on creative designs but also on unique combinations of colors and branding techniques. Larger graphics, background textures, and thumbnail gallery of WordPress themes are best options to consider. You shouldn’t forget that a sale is derived from trusts that a random visitor builds over a time on your time. Trust build up is only possible through their attention. You can also consider designing your products graphics to split up view and for magnifying zoom effects.

It’s been talked about many times in the past. Simplicity with a tinge of professionalism is still the right way to get noticed on the web. But it’s often been misunderstood by many. Creating a landing page both professional and simple is essential to earn attention from various random visitors. You should rather focus on CSS3 and other transition effects which look great on modern web browsers. Cubender too is great for simple 3-field input form. It allows visitors to sign up for web services.

By simply taking care of features aforementioned, you will be able to improve your modern landing page designs that may result in various profits. However, I’d still say that creative exploration is the key to success. You should experiment with existing protocols to find an option that others may follow in the future.

An Insight into Newly Launched Plone 4.2 and other Features

admin — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 13:33:45 +0000

With the launch of version 4.2, Plone, the open source CMS maker, is phenomenally introducing two new features and out of the two is rules-based theming. Not just that, collection tool and site sections represented by Plone are smartly altered to perform faster and sturdily with both new features.

The quick acceptance of the launch was somehow predictable considering Plone’s past record in CMS. Newly introduced 4.2 versions are reported to have listed above plus HTML5 support and Python 2.7 support. They are capable of a sound search within all sections.

Rules-based theming, also known as Diazo theming, offers a variety of customization features that too without code’s overindulgence. It does help with a fine acknowledgement to HTML and CSS but the best part is its impeccable influence to master custom website designs. Diazo turns HTML into a vibrant page on Plone.

On the other hand, modified version of collection tool is predicted to be faster on the back end. The 4.2 version brags a new UI for single step collection building and a quick preview for results.

Plone has other additions such as rendering model and simplified publisher control for future release. An easy access to jQuery UI widgets and support for CSS3 is on the cards too. It’d be too early to speculate success of the venture. However, the predictions are rife strong in its favor.