Web Design

Making the right choice to get started

Posted on by Peter

web-design

Nobody has the mind-set that everyone that owns a car is a mechanic.  Nor should they then have the mind-set that every one that owns a computer is a web developer.  Choosing Novage Communications the right Singapore company to design your website is as important as the content it should contain.  It will, for instance, not be the best choice to appoint a graphic designer as your sole web developer.  With the focus mainly on graphics, some important objectives might be overlooked and you will end up with a website that might not be browser independent.  Nor will it have the functionality you seek in a well-designed website.

As mentioned above, the main focus of web design should be the functionality of the webpage, the ease at which users interact with the design, and the basic optimization of the overall website.  It is what you can provide to the users that should have more attention.  A clean design is always an appealing one.

When looking at the functionality of your web design, there are a few questions you should ask yourself.  This will help you get a better understanding of the degree of functionality you currently have on your website.  Questions might include:

  • If your website has links, are they all working and loading as they should?
  • Do you have the necessary security that is required for users to operate on your website?
  • Does your website contain contact forms or feedback forms, and are they working properly?

Answering these questions will give you a clear understanding of the functionality of your web design.

Just as important as functionality is the ease at which users can interact with the website. Sometimes designing for ease of use might require giving up some functionality, which will be worth it as the user will be able to easily navigate your design, getting them where they need to be faster.Easy_navigation

There are numerous articles about web design optimization available on the web.  But what it basically gets down to is this: how fast can I access the content that I need.  Speed is the number one factor in web design.  With articles ranging from acceptable response time to web performance matters, all users online agree – They want things to happen now!

Studies have shown that an average response time of 4 seconds seems to be the norm when opening a webpage.  So it is essential that the main page of your website opens within that limit.  With limited images and smaller image sizes incorporated in your web development, this might not be so hard to do.  Consider what impression you want the users to have and work according to that.  No need to bombard them with detail and images on the first page.  A well-structured website will make any web developer earn his keep.

Why choose WordPress CMS?

Posted on by Peter

Content management systems (CMS) are those internal systems/databases which are used for the organization of your digital content. A CMS helps you to manage your website’s content more easily and effectively. It maintains a record of all content that is in the website, and facilitates easy retrieval through queries when a user is trying to access the content.

web design wordpress

web design wordpress

CMSs store content of all kinds, from images, music and video to simple text in its various formats. The main advantage that having a CMS gives is that you can manage it effectively without having to be tech-savvy.

Here at Novage Communications, we recommend the use of WordPress, not only because it is an open-source platform (free), but more because it provides for easy and complete customization according to user requirements. While most CMSs are easy to manage, WordPress is much more so, which means you can regularly make changes to website content without having an in-house IT-savvy person to do it all the time.

Why choose WordPress CMS?

  1.   Zero cost on acquisition – some CMSs like ExpressionEngine are not free which brings an additional subscription/licensing charge. This is not something you have to consider.
  2.   No cost for maintenance and enhancement – apart from what you are paying, for the project being carried out for you, there’s no separate charge for enhancements to the CMS e.g. expansion as the business  grows. You can maintain your website without being tech-savvy, provided you have some initial minima training. You certainly don’t need any programming knowledge.
  3.   Search engine accessibility – at Novage, we take extra steps to ensure that we make your CMS highly optimized for search engines using backend and in-code optimization techniques. This makes it easier for the bots to crawl through the CMS resulting in ranking improvement. Other techniques include URL rewriting and Meta description enhancement.
  4.   Great support – WordPress enjoys an online support community of more than 800,000 developers worldwide. This means that there are numerous tutorials and documentations for virtually anything you need to do on your CMS. Error queries can also be attended to very quickly.
  5.   Enhancements and themes – there are countless plugins and themes that come with the WordPress CMS. You can choose from open source and premium themes, all of which can be further customized to make them an exact fit for your uses.
  6.   Usability – the WordPress CMS comes with a very easy to understand dashboard where changes and enhancements to content can be carried out. You can do all this with no knowledge of HTML, PHP or any programming.