Archiwum miesiąca: luty 2018

Design

Title: 13 Must-Do Checks Before Launching Your WordPress Website

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Post pobrano z: Title: 13 Must-Do Checks Before Launching Your WordPress Website

You worked hard on your WordPress website and now you are about to launch it. The big day is right around the corner!

But there are a lot of things that can go wrong. Are you aware of all of them? You probably aren’t if this is your first ever launch.

That is why I decided to outline 13 things that you need to check before you launch your website…

1. Domain considerations

Okay, so it’s something I shouldn’t even have to say, but I still see a lot of people making this mistake – get your own domain name (don’t use .wordpress.com)!

Domain names are extremely affordable so you don’t have any reason not to get one. For example, at Hostinger you can get a cheap domain for $8.99/year. Please do yourself and your business a favor and get a proper domain name!

2. Make sure you have a backup

You know how life is. Things are going well… Until they aren’t. You never know what might happen, which is why it’s important to have a recent backup of your website at all times. BackupBuddy is a great plugin for backing up your site, restoring it, or moving it to a different hosting provider.

3. Build good looking website

People like to say that content is king. But think about it. When you land on a website that has a terrible design, how often do you stick around long enough to check out their content? If you are like most people, your answer is “Never”. So don’t ruin all the hard work you put into creating great content by underestimating the importance of design. Make sure that your website looks great!

4. Check Images, Videos, Sliders

Okay, so you made sure that your website looks good, but before you launch it, I suggest you go through everything one more time just to make sure that all the images and videos are working properly. Also, add a WordPress slider to your homepage, it will really liven it up!

5. Setup Email for Your WordPress Site

Many people use their personal emails for their blogs, but I don’t recommend it, because as you get more popular your inbox will be flooded with inquiries from your readers. Create a separate email account that is dedicated to the blog.

6. Make sure the contact form is working

Having a contact form is important because it provides your readers with a way to reach you. Use CaptainForm plugin to create a simple contact form and add it to your site. Just don’t forget to test it before the launch!

7. E-commerce Websites

Are you creating an ecommerce website using WordPress? Then you’ll need an easy way to process payments. Stripe works great for that. Simply install a payment plugin and add “Buy Now” buttons. You are ready to sell!

8. Build a knowledge base

Your customers will have questions… a lot of them! If you don’t want to spend all your waking hours on customer support, you should create a knowledge database. Install the KnowAll Theme and add the most frequently asked questions to it. It will save you tons of time in the long run!

9. Setup social media accounts

When it comes to social media, you want to hit the ground running, which is why it’s important to setup your social media accounts prior to the launch. I recommend you to start with Facebook and Twitter. Once you have grown these a bit, you can branch out to other social networks, such as Instagram and Pinterest.

10. Use social media schedule tool

Things are going to get busy once you launch your website. It’s very easy to neglect your social media profiles when there are so many other pressing matters that need your attention. That’s why you should use Viraltag to schedule and recycle your posts on various social networks. Put it on autopilot and watch your profiles grow!

11. Want to earn from affiliates?

Are you aware that you don’t actually need to have your own product to start earning money from day one? You can become an affiliate, sell other people’s products, and earn a commission. It can be a very lucrative business model. For example, you could become an iGaming affiliate and use VegasHero.co – WordPress Affiliate themes & plugins – to add monetized games to your website. There are plenty of opportunities like that, you just need to look!

12. Make sure you take care of analytics

Data is extremely important because that is what allows you to make good decisions in your business. That’s why you need to set up Google Analytics before the launch. That way you’ll have all the metrics you need from day one.

13. Make sure Yoast is running

Do you want people to be able to find you on Google? Well, then you better make sure that each of your posts is optimized for search engines, not just for the readers. Yoast SEO plugin can be incredibly helpful in that regard. Do you already have it running? Make sure that you do!

Conclusion

I know that you are already busy. There are many things that you need to do before the launch. However, please do yourself a favor, and run the checks that I recommended. It will make the launch day go much smoother!

Design

Designing a mobile app? These tips will help you

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Mobile navigation is one of the essential aspects of mobile application design.  In a time when many of us use mobile phone applications to carry out online tasks, the ability to use an application quickly and efficiently makes all the difference.  A mobile application should work intuitively in a way that provides you with what you need when you need it.

However, designing an effective mobile navigation system for a mobile application can be complex.  Hardware and software are continually changing and evolving. Phones come in different strengths and sizes.

And unlike a desktop or laptop, mobile screens are small, and therefore each area or aspect of a screen becomes increasingly more important.  For this reason, navigation systems should be minimal.

When a user opens up an application, they need to be able to understand where to go, and how to get there.  If they cannot do this, you will lose them.

This means that designing an effective navigation system for a mobile application is crucial.

Get to know your audience

Without understanding who will be using your design, it can often be difficult to gain insight into how to begin designing.

Audience research assists with making better choices when working towards a design.  It will also assist with gaining consensus on how these designs should be implemented.

If you are unsure where to start, get some UI design inspiration by looking at the competition.

Without an effective navigation system, the website or application will suffer.  However, creating an interface which will be effective across different interfaces or screen sizes may not always be easy.

You, as a designer, have to balance business goals with technical constraints, stakeholder strategy, content needs and user behavior.

The Principles of Mobile Navigation

Mobile is different

Although desktop computers are seen to be more powerful than a small screened computer like a mobile phone, smartphones are more powerful than desktops in that they work quickly, are highly personal, and are carried with us.

A smartphone has sensors which can detect location, movement, acceleration, orientation, proximity, traffic conditions and much more.

A mobile phone is very different to a desktop computer.  So, when designing for a mobile phone, take the following points into consideration:

  • Go Zen: edit your features carefully, only including those which will assist the app to work intuitively, and with efficiency.
  • Be unique: With so many applications to choose from, add a special interface, which will motivate a user to pick yours.
  • Be effective: Mobile phones are very personal.  We use and interact with them constantly.  Apps that are fun, efficient, reliable and delightful to use bring pleasure.  People will become attached to the experience.

Mobile devices have their own contexts

It’s important for designers to understand when and why we use mobile phones.  This enables an enjoyable application experience.

Mobile phones are often used to carry out micro-tasks such as banking, checking a location, searching for recipes or booking tickets.  Understanding when people use phones adds to creating a valuable experience.  Most people use phones when they are bored, busy and lost.

Bored

Waiting at an airport, traveling by train or passing time often provide opportunities for phone use.  People may often play games or search for information.  A mobile app can provide a fun or playful experience which a person might become immersed in.  In this context, applications can be geared towards longer time sessions.

Busy

Carrying out tasks while in a rush or during a quick break means they need to be efficient and often might be carried out with only one hand in a busy environment. Bold design is important.

Lost

People in unfamiliar surroundings or who are searching for somewhere new in a familiar surrounding might be considered to use a phone while lost.  Create an application which wouldn’t use too much battery power, and which can be extended to offline support.

Guidelines for creating a Mobile Application

If the interaction between the user and the app is not instant, then the app will not have an audience.  If a user uses the app, there needs to be an instant response, even while the app may process this input.

Style:  An app which is both attractive and intuitive will be extremely valuable.  Place a lot of attention into the finer details of how the app is styled to give it a gorgeous interface.

Thumbs:  Ensure your user will be able to use thumbs to get your app to work.  Even in a two-handed grip, your user will likely use thumbs to get the app to work.

Scrolling:  Try to avoid a scrolling screen, which can be frustrating and unreliable when in a hurry.

Targets:  Thumbs present large areas when working on a small screen.  Consider what this means for the various features or targets of your app.

What size would you need numbers or letters to be?  Where do you space your features?  Planning carefully helps.  It wouldn’t be helpful to place a return and send button close together on an SMS application, for example.

Navigation models

There are many navigation models for mobile apps.  Choose one which will be most effective for your application.

None:  Most helpful for isolated screen utility apps.

Tab Bar:  Three to six content areas.

Drill Down:  Content placed in a hierarchy.

Design interactions to be tappable

With a mobile interface, the user won’t be clicking on options or instructions.  Instead, the user taps a screen.

Therefore, improving the quality of this interaction will improve the user experience.  Ensure that your app doesn’t respond to accidental tapping or touch, as this will frustrate the user.

Create buttons which are large enough, and spaced widely enough to create a usable interface, but not too far apart that they become unreachable.

User-friendly keyboards

Assist your user with typing keyboards which are easy to use, and which is most useful for the information being submitted.

If your application requires a lot of typing, ensure that it can be used in landscape position to enable a larger keyboard.

Gestures

If your app enables the use of gestures, such as a screen swipe to turn a page, you might have to decide how to reveal their availability to the user.

Two-handed gestures are often difficult for a user, and not an essential part of your app.  Most apps use controls which can be used with a single finger.

The benefits of designing for mobile

Apart from not being left behind as people use smaller screens to carry out everyday tasks, there are other benefits to embracing a mobile-first approach:

  • Mobile users needs are met.
  • This allows designers to focus on content, structure and navigation details.
  • Web pages become easier to navigate, which improves the overall experience. This assists visitors with wanting to visit a site.
  • A mobile first approach produces fresh concepts and clean designs.

Conclusion

In order to create an effective design for a mobile application, a different perspective is needed.  Mobile applications need to be simple, responsive and intuitive.  This is important when designing for clients.

Designing for the small screen can be challenging.  Not all design concepts can be implemented on smaller screens.  Different sizes or technical capabilities of phones means that designs are often complicated.

There is no single solution to designing for mobile apps.  Instead, focusing on what your audience needs, and providing effective and well thought out designs to enable pleasurable user experiences is crucial.

By conducting research and exploring how a mobile app interacts with users, a designer can provide a quality product which offers value and efficiency.

CSS

AMP News

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Post pobrano z: AMP News

AMP is controversial, to say the least. Dave and I did a show on it about a year ago that to me felt fairly balanced in addressing some of the issues. Let’s cover some recent news and responses.

One thing that isn’t usually controversial: it’s fast. AMP pages are damn performant. Even that, though, is contentious. Ferdy Christant notes:

Technically correct AMP pages will perform very similar to any non-horrible web page.

The difference between AMP performing instantly and getting numbers ranging from 2–8s as seen above have to be explained.

Part of that answer you can probably guess: the cache is simply very fast. It’s hard to compete with a Google-class CDN.

You don’t need AMP to have a fast website.

FYI @CityLab article pages load faster than @nytimes AMP pages. Just to show you do not need AMP to have fast loading pages #webperf pic.twitter.com/34YboEBwLP

— Michael Donohoe (@donohoe) February 23, 2018

The most controversial bit is that carrot offered for using AMP: the search results news carousel. The carousel is extremely prominent in Google search results, and AMP is a one-way ticket to get in. You could make a site faster than AMP, but that doesn’t meet the criteria for entry. Tim Kadlec:

there has been no indication of any attempt to address the first issue, that of incentivization and premium placement. In fact, not only has there been no attempt to fix it, it appears the AMP team is doubling-down on those incentives instead.

Doubling-down, as in, AMP stories will be released soon and will also enjoy premium placement on Google. Every indication is that the primary desire of people reaching for AMP is the preferential search results treatment. Gina Trapani:

In my experience people are motivated to use AMP… I’ve seen this from our clients…mostly because of SEO. They want it in that top stories carousel, they want that lightning bolt of approval in regular search results which is happening now.

Of course, Google can do whatever they want. They are an independent company and if they wanna tell us that we have to use a special format to have benefits on their platform, then that’s the way it is. It doesn’t mean we have to be happy about it. Hundreds of people have signed the AMP letter, which calls for two changes:

  1. Instead of granting premium placement in search results only to AMP, provide the same perks to all pages that meet an objective, neutral performance criterion such as Speed Index. Publishers can then use any technical solution of their choice.
  2. Do not display third-party content within a Google page unless it is clear to the user that they are looking at a Google product. It is perfectly acceptable for Google to launch a “news reader” but it is not acceptable to display a page that carries only third-party branding on what is actually a Google URL, nor to require that third party to use Google’s hosting in order to appear in search results.

Ethan Marcotte is concerned:

absent action from some sort of regulatory body, I’m not sure what influence you or I could exert to change the trajectory of AMP

…but thinks we could perhaps collectively have influence. Jeremy Keith has called some of the messaging behind AMP an outright lie:

I don’t think the developers working on the AMP format are intentionally deceptive (although they are engaging in some impressive cognitive gymnastics). The AMP ecosystem, on the other hand, that’s another story—the preferential treatment of Google-hosted AMP pages in the carousel and in search results; that’s messed up.

Jeremy also notes that the power Google is exerting here is worrisome. Part of the stated motivation is trying to fix the web. Taking a stand, as it were.

I remember feeling very heartened to see WikiPedia, Google and others take a stand on January 18th, 2012 (against SOPA and PIPA). But I also remember feeling uneasy. In this particular case, companies were lobbying for a cause I agreed with. But what if they were lobbying for a cause I didn’t agree with? Large corporations using their power to influence politics seems like a very bad idea. Isn’t it still a bad idea, even if I happen to agree with the cause?

Cloudflare quite rightly kicked The Daily Stormer off their roster of customers. Then the CEO of Cloudflare quite rightly wrote this in a company-wide memo:

Literally, I woke up in a bad mood and decided someone shouldn’t be allowed on the Internet. No one should have that power.

There’s an uncomfortable tension here.

AMP is also expanding to other technology, notably email. Well, Gmail, that is. Fast, well-rendering, interactive emails seem like a hugely positive thing. Perhaps predictably at this point, people in that industry have similar concerns. Jason Rodriguez:

I’m an email guy. I’ve written three books on email, spoken at a bunch of conferences on the topic, and help build tools for other email folks at my day job. I love seeing the email platform grow and evolve. I love seeing people working on interesting ideas that make email more valuable for the subscribers that receive them.

So, you’d think I’d be thrilled by Google’s announcement about adding dynamic content and interactivity to Gmail with AMP for Email. You’d be wrong.

Jason’s primary concern being that instead of improving support for what we already have, they’ve invented a new format and called it open-sourced, but have full control over it. However, with far more blockers in the way (e.g. ESPs not supporting the new MIME type) and less carrots to offer, it seems like a long shot it will happen.

I know I’ve covered a lot of negative news here, but that’s mostly what I’ve been seeing. Strangely enough, I feel more interested in watching how this all shakes out than I am motivated to weigh in on either side.

AMP News is a post from CSS-Tricks

CSS

Working Towards Better Naming

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There is a quote that I bet every one of you has heard many times. You know the one. The one that reminds you how hard naming is.

Let’s talk names.

We talk often about how hard naming is, but it’s less common see people talk about how to get better at it. Even naming philosophies lend structure to naming, but don’t pick names for you. Names are more than just some hard thing we get needlessly caught up in. They’re essential to good code. Good names can make a code base easy to pick up and work with. Bad names are hard to understand, or worse yet, prone to error.

Naming Examples

Let’s look at some examples in JavaScript.

function processData(data) {
  var result = JSON.parse(data);
  return result;
}

Reading only the function name, parameter name, and returned variable, we see that processData gets data and returns a result. These names have added nearly zero information to the reader. Code like this is easy to write when you just want to get it working or you’re trying to stay flexible to changes, and that’s okay. It’s always a good idea to go over your code with fresh eyes to fix things, and names should be on your quality checklist.

Here’s a more descriptive way we could have written the last example:

function parseJson(string) {
  var jsonObject = JSON.parse(string);
  return jsonObject;
}

Technology is one of the most abbreviation and acronym heavy fields there are, and they are key to great names. FTP is easier to read and understand than „File Transfer Protocol.” In some cases though, the reader can be left out.

Here’s an example where the abbreviations are convenient for the developer writing the code, but not so handy for anyone else who needs to read or contribute to it:

function cts(con, ack) {
  if (con && ack) {
    return true;
  }
  else {
    return false;
  }
}

Often I’ll read code with an acronym and have to switch to my web browser to do a search, only to find results for car models. A perfect example of that is cts, which returns a lot of Cadillac results. ack does show up on a search, but I’d rather not leave it my text editor. con can be misunderstood many ways. Is it a connection? A count? A container? Maybe it’s a scam. These things may be obvious if you are familiar with the code base, but it adds a learning curve to those joining the project. A few extra seconds can save several minutes for readers over years.

Here’s the previous example written without abbreviations:

function clearToSend(connectionExists, acknowledgementStatus) {
  if (connectionExists && acknowledgementStatus) {
    return true;
  }
  else {
    return false;
  }
}

Let’s turn to some HTML examples because HTML is perhaps the most name heavy language of them all.

<section class="new-promotion-parent">
  <img class="logo" src="small-square-logo-monochrome.png"/>
  <div class="get-your-coupon">
    <p>Get Your Coupon</p>
  </div>
</section>

We can imagine that the word „new” was used here likely because a designer was told to update the promotion-parent element, but to also keep support for the existing class, maybe for old HTML floating about. The term „new” is an accurate description for the first few months, but over time it becomes more and more ironic. A better idea might be to add a separate class that describes what is new. For example, if a new flat design is being implemented, then a class name of flat-design might work. For an added bonus, you can let the CSS from the existing promotion-parent class cascade if you’d like to reuse some of the styles.

Similarly, logo seems like a sensible class name at first. Inevitably, however, a second logo will come along somewhere, which gets the name alt-logo. The logos keep coming, and so do the increasingly bad names. Most assets have several variations, such as different shapes, sizes, color schemes and more. That said, small-square-logo-monochrome wouldn’t be a great class name either, because the image itself should be able to be swapped without the class name becoming obsolete. A better idea might be a name that describes the role of the asset rather than the type or appearance.

Here, the language of the div has been used to name the div get-your-coupon. The content of an HTML document is meant to continually evolve; names are not. A coupon code today might be an email signup in the future, while keeping the same styles and functionality. HTML is one place where names are often too specific instead of too vague.

Here’s that same HTML code taking the suggestions into consideration:

<section class="flat-design promotion-parent">
  <img class="promotion-branding-image" src="small-square-logo-monochrome.png"/>
  <div class="primary-promotion-text">
    <p>Get Your Coupon</p>
  </div>
</section>

We can even look at the names in a database for better naming. Tables often get used countless times across an application in several very different contexts.

Here’s a simplified database table:

CREATE TABLE `book` (
  `id` int(12) NOT NULL,
  `title` varchar(50) NOT NULL,
  `author` varchar(50) NOT NULL,
  `type` bit(1) NOT NULL,
  `sort` int(12) NOT NULL,
  `order` varchar(25) NOT NULL,
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;

What does type mean in the context of books? Does it mean fiction or non-fiction? Does it mean paperback or hardcover? Maybe it means physical or digital?

The sort column is equally confusing. Is it representing ASC or DESC? Does it represent which column is being used to sort? Maybe it decides if sorting is active? Or maybe it decides show the books in some other alternate order?

And then there’s order. Aside from being equally ambiguous, order is a reserved word in MySQL and many other languages. You can work around this using backticks (`) for MySQL, but it’s probably a better idea to avoid using reserved words altogether.

Here’s how the table could be written in a more descriptive way:

CREATE TABLE `book` (
  `id` int(12) NOT NULL,
  `title` varchar(50) NOT NULL,
  `author` varchar(50) NOT NULL,
  `cover_type` bit(1) NOT NULL,
  `sort_order` int(12) NOT NULL,
  `purchase_order_number` varchar(25) NOT NULL,
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;

Naming Conventions

Let’s talk naming conventions.

if (oldmanshaven) {
  return true;
}

Did you read that as Old Mans Haven or Old Man Shaven? Either way, it forces you to slow down and think which adds up and might one day lead to a misunderstanding. PascalCase, camelCase, snake_case, kebab-case are all excellent choices. Use them, and just as important, be consistent.

Here’s that same code in snake_case, which is less likely to be misread:

if (old_man_shaven) {
  return true;
}

One more example:

if (!isNaN(number)) {
  alert('not a number')
}
else if (!number > 50) {
  alert('number too large')
}
else if (!number < 10) {
  alert('number too small')
}
else {
  // code here
}

I looked at some of my first lines of code for inspiration writing this post. I didn’t see many bad names because I wrote code in a way that didn’t use names. I used very few functions, rarely used assignments, and would abuse variables by making them do a dozen different things. Having plenty of names in your code is often a sign that you’re abstracting things properly.

Here’s one example from my code:

function validateNumber(number) {
  var maximumValue = 50;
  var minimumValue = 10;
  if (isNaN(number)) {
    alert('not a number')
    return false;
  }
  if (number > maximumValue) {
    alert('number too large')
    return false;
  }
  if (number < minimumValue) {
    alert('number too small')
    return false;
  }
}

if (validateNumber(number)) {
  // code here
}

Caveats

Naming things is an art, not a science. There’s some things outside the name to consider when evaluating if a name is good or bad.

Context

Context can give generic terms much more meaning. For example, „item” is a vague name but, in the context of a getCustomerSalesOrder() function, we can tell it likely refers to a product that was purchased. A function that is short, focused, and takes context into account can reduce the need for verbose names. I still prefer a good name. Context can disappear easily over time as functions get longer or re-factored. Names are more permanent markers of meaning.

Comments

Code comments are important to readable code, but they can’t do it all by themselves. Comments should pick up where names leave off, giving details you can’t cram into a name, noting the reason for a particular way of doing things, or ranting about a broken library.

/* This refers to a product that was purchased and relates to the customer-sales-order class. */
.product-item {
  display: block;
  text-transform: uppercase;
  width: 100vw;
}

Reading Length

Longer names create more to read and wider lines. It can especially be problematic when accessing deep into an array, such as:

$order_details['customer']['ship_to_address']['default']['street_address']['line_1']

That said, even that straw man example I just gave, while verbose, is crystal clear and gives me no reason to stop reading to think or look over the rest of the function to understand the context.

Names are everywhere in Code

Most of the characters of a code file probably aren’t brackets or syntax, but names. It might be variable names, function names, HTML tags or attributes, database tables or columns, or any of the countless things that we give names to in any given project.

I still struggle with naming things. I often find myself sitting frozen at my text editor, trying to name some minor variable. I’ve learned that when that happens, it’s likely because I’m dealing with something difficult to conceptualize, which makes it all the more important to find the right name for it.

Working Towards Better Naming is a post from CSS-Tricks

Design

Designing for Smartphones? Here’s What you Need to Know

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If you are making anything that will be consumed by end users in some way, then you have to be designing for smartphones. Everyone has a smartphone. The government gives out smartphones to welfare recipients. So even people who can’t afford to buy and maintain a data plan for smartphones have a smartphone. Practically everyone you want to read with your product or service will be doing so on a smartphone.

That means that designing for smartphones has to be the priority for whatever you are making. That includes hardware. If you want to build a great sounding speaker for music playback, you have to recognize that most of that music will be coming from a smartphone or streaming service triggered by a smartphone. No one wants to physically tether their phone to a speaker. So you have to consider various wireless standards that are smartphone friendly.

If you are making clothes, you have to consider the smartphone. Do you have a pocket that can comfortably hold the large smartphones that are popular today? Do you have a place that makes routing the wire convenient? Is there a pocket that can hold a charger?

So if you are designing anything, you are designing for smartphones. Here is what you need to know that will pay dividends for the final product:

Design to Minimize Smartphone Weaknesses

As great as smartphones are, they have some built-in weaknesses that are going to present problems to the user. You can be a hero to the end user by designing around those weaknesses and making them less pronounced. One example is the camera bump so prevalent on modern smartphones. While smartphones are getting thinner, cameras are not. They still need physical space to be any good.

The best iPhone X cases are a testimony to this principle. iPhones are among the most egregious examples of camera bumps. But a good case completely eliminates the bump.

That is not the only thing a good case does. Phones are getting more fragile as they are being made with glass on both the front and the back. A good case offers more protection from scratches and impact. Design with smartphone weaknesses in mind. And you will make the world a better place for smartphone users.

Design for Unique Smartphone Distinctives

Although it might look like it from a distance, not all smartphones are the same. The iPhone X is an example of a smartphone with a design distinctive that makes it materially different from other smartphones. The Essential Phone is the same way. They both have notches at the top of the phone instead of traditional bezels.

Immediately following the launch of the iPhone X, the most popular apps were those that were redesigned to fit the new, curved contours of the screen, and used the notch for all it was worth. If some manufacturer completely loses their mind and designs a rounded smartphone, you need to be prepared to design round apps so that you find yourself at the top of the sales charts for the people with that device.

Even people without that device will note that you are a developer that stays on top of the latest trends. They are more likely to trust you over other developers that never update their apps to reflect the newest smartphones.

Design for Humans

Even the biggest smartphone screens are tiny compared to laptops and desktops. So you have to be sure your apps and websites have fonts that are readable on small screens. You also have to account for information density. Humans need a certain amount of information at one time without being overwhelmed. You can’t cram the same amount of information on a smartphone screen as you can on a desktop or laptop screen. You have to design for humans using small screens.

If you are making a case, you have to design for the human hand. The case needs to be right-sized and somewhat grippy, as humans tend to drop phones. If you are making a charging dock, it has to be easy for humans to install the phone and not have to waste time fumbling around.

When designing for smartphones, you have to design for weaknesses of the product. Design for unique distinctions. And design for the people who will be using them.

Design

How to Design Your Own Website?

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You want to create your own website? Good for you! This article will give you a complete guideline on how you should go about the process, step by step using the latest information. Even if you a beginner, worry not because the information will not be technical, but as easy as A, B, C!

The Steps of Designing a Website

Have a Domain Name

A domain name is the name you will choose to name your website. For example, ‘thepagewizard.com’ . You must pay a fee every year to a registrar to acquire the rights of your name.

Select a Web Host and Sign Up for an Account

A web host is an organization that has several computers that are connected to the internet. After you select a web host, your web page is placed on any of the company’s computers and this allows everybody to view your website worldwide. Signing up an account with a web host, allows your website to have a home. You have to consider several factors when choosing a web host such as cost, experience and if the host is licensed. Immediately after signing up for a web host, you should then place your domain name on the account of your web host.

Design the Website Pages

You could choose to design your website on your own or hire a web design company in Las Vegas like Platinum Web Marketing, but if you are designing the website page on your own, the following is the procedure you should follow.

  1. Find something out on the web.
  2. You can use a ‘what you see is what you get’ web editor, because the editor enables you to design your site without dealing with the technical part.
  3. These editors are similar to a word processor.
  4. There are also commercial editors, for example, Microsoft Expression WEB.
  5. This editor is best if you are using windows.
  6. It is recommended you design your website to be a mobile friendly site, meaning it can work on desktops, laptops and also mobile phones.

Test The Website

After designing the site, test it on some of the huge browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer. You can get these browsers for free. You can also try the website using your phone.However, testing it directly is the best way since it is the only way you can make sure that the site is working the exact way you want it to, on someone else’s device.

Get The Credit Card Information

In case you are selling products or services, you have to acquire the credit card information. There are several advertisers and integrated programs that can be found in online affiliate programs and sponsors. The companies search for new publishers to showcase their advertisements.

Have Your Site Noticed

After you are done with the above procedures, submit your site to the search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bling. You can also use other ways to promote your site. For example, you can advise your website on newspapers, use press releases using the help of internet companies such as PRWeb. Your website can then be noticed by blogs and news sites.

In cessation, if you follow the procedure above, you will be able to create your own website easily. After creating the website, do not stop there, you should keep on improving it every now and then.