eCommerce Website Design eCommerce websites have their own unique character that is designed to lead the visitor to one simple task – make an online purchase. A web designer needs to consider a variety of online selling principles while designing an eCommerce website. In this article we will try to take a look at some of the major design aspects that you must have in an eCommerce website. Many of you are probably already asking why eCommerce website design is different from any other website design. They all need to be attractive, well organized and use the right colors that fits the website spirit and so on. Your instincts are good. However a close look at some successful eCommerce websites will reveal the conceptual differences that are typical in a successful eCommerce website. An eCommerce website needs to follow certain selling principles: Give the user a pleasant experience during his online shopping. Make certain you provide sufficient information on who owns the website and why they should be trusted. The website must be easy to use. If it isn’t, the visitor will go to your competitor. Those principles are not new. We all know those basics from our day to day experiences in the mall, shopping center and every other market place that is waiting for us to open up our wallets. The big challenge for a web designer is how to translate those conventional marketing techniques to the virtual world of the internet. I’m sure you’ve all noticed that in most supermarkets the bread stand is placed at the far end of the building, yet you can smell the fresh bread at the entrance (sometimes they even use a special air duct to carry the smells). That has been done deliberately. Marketers use our sense of smell to draw us through the store where we are exposed to all sorts of tempting goodies as we go to get our loaf of bread. How do you draw an imaginarily path in a web page? A path designed to lead the visitor to do what you want him to do…make an online purchase. Unlike the supermarket our website has no smell. In a website the distance from one point to the other is pretty much the same, so the exit is always right there. In a website you can try to order the “shelf” in the way you think will best expose the visitor to many of your products, but there is always a chance that he will find a short cut to another page that can also be the way off your site. As can be see, although putting your products on the web is much easier then renting space and opening a supermarket. However, selling your products on the web can be difficult. A good eCommerce website design will lead the visitor to the right page in one click or two at the most. Sometime web designers will use techniques that would never be considered for non-eCommerce websites. Everyone has seen at least one sales letter website. On these web pages the only link is to the order form. Sales letters are not the most typical eCommerce website because they usually sell only one product. That allows the web designer the ability to exaggerate the one click principle and make it an advantage. All the facts about the product have been presented to the user is a smart way while every few lines he has the option to click on the order form. If he is not yet convinced he will have the option to continue to read more facts and testimonials about the products. Believe it or not, those sales letter websites are actually selling. “What about online shops?” Online shops have to deal with more then one product. Of course, the greater number of products increases the complexity of the website. Sophisticated eCommerce websites use a variety of personalization technologies in an effort to determine the best selection of products to offer to the visitor. Personalization technologies are a major part of advanced eCommerce websites. However this topic is beyond the scope of this article. The cleverness of an eCommerce website’s personalization technology has a major influence on its design. The first to use such technology was Amazon.com who decided to push their client’s books to a visitor based on that visitor’s past orders combined with the statistics they had collected on all visitors used to predict what someone looking at a specific book might also be interested in reading. Today the goal is to try to predict what to offer the user on his first visit as well. An eCommerce web design is also about the layout. One important aspect is where the user’s eyes look first when accessing a web page. Lots of research has been done on this topic. Most research showed that the middle left side area will attract the most attention followed by the center of the page. By using these techniques web designers try to draw the “walking path” for the visitor’s eye, much like what was done at the supermarket. An experienced eCommerce web designer will know how to create designs to meets those demands. If you are about to open an eCommerce website or you are already own one, make sure you understand the web design principles for online selling. Consider consulting with an experienced website designer preferably someone who has experience with eCommerce websites. Good luck with your sales.

Banner Design Success Techniques Banners have been a major part of the World Wide Web world since its early days. Copywriters burn the midnight oil looking for new designs that will grab the visitor’s attention and compel him to click on their banner. This article discusses some of the most successful banner designs. Teasing your curiosity “Do Not Click Here”. How many of you have seen this slogan in a banner? What did you do when you first saw it? If you are like most people, when you first saw it, you clicked on it. What makes this simple sentence so powerful that it compels the visitor to click on it? The answer is curiosity !!! Copywriters and web designers are always looking for ways to arouse the website visitor’s curiosity. As banner designers their goal is to attract the visitor to the banner, usually completely ignoring the other elements on the web page that are more important to the website owner. However, because the “Do Not Click Here” slogan tells us nothing about what is on the next page, it arouses the visitor’s curiosity and makes it almost impossible not to click on this banner to see what’s behind it. Simple integrated design When Larry Page and Sergey Brin first introduced their product, “Google”, to potential investors, they mentioned Adwords as a backup option in case they didn’t make any money. We all know how lucky they were that they eventually needed to use that backup plan. What made these “boring” ads such a great success? Unlike other ads, Adwords neither arouse the visitor’s curiosity nor disturb the main flow of the web page. In fact, the opposite is true. Adwords are meant to look like part of the search results giving the user the feeling that those ads are there because he asked for them. No one has any doubt that this simple design helps Google to promote both their search engine and the Adwords advertising program. Take part in the action Banner designers wisely used interactive technologies like Flash to develop type of banners that invite the user to take part in the action. Drawing the user into the action can be accomplished in many creative ways. Some web designers use popular old games elements as part of the scene. You all know the famous game pacman. One of the banners that I like the most is the one where the user is allowed to let pacman “eat” few dollar signs. At the successful completion of this mission, a nice slogan is revealed asking him to open a saving account that will earn money with a fixed interest rate. The idea behind those interactive banners is simple: Let the user take part in the action and then at the right moment when his mind is less resistant, show him the sales message. Those interactive banners proved to be very efficient. Their biggest disadvantage is that most webmasters will not allow that kind of banner because it distracts too much from the web page content. Back to Black and White Website designers are always seeking to be different with their design ideas. One banner fashion trend that can be found lately is Black and White banners. Although research shows that blue and yellow are the most efficient color to use in a banner, Black and White banners have been seen a lot lately. It’s probably something that will eventually vanish, but the idea behind it is to be different and to make the user wonder what’s up and hopefully click on the banner to find out. Get Out of the box Have you heard about the milliondollarhomepage.com? If not, check out this website before continuing to read this article. This website has proven that creative thinking not only can bring you money but also create a whole new trend. Right after the milliondollarhomepage.com got the internet community’s attention, many designers used this idea to deign a banner on which they sell a 10x10 pixel area. Like the original concept, this banner design had its impact. Advertisers are investing money on these ad spaces while at the same time visitors are curious enough time after time looking at those unorganized pixel banners to click on them. What about the next trends What the next trends of banner design will be is something that probably no one can accurately predict. It’s up to some web designer to come up with a new concept that proves to be efficient. There is no doubt that in the future we will see new ways of designing banners, especially when more and more advertising budgets are being spent on the internet instead of commercial TV and other types of advertising media. I guess we will just need to be patient.

Annoying Website Design Have you ever considered that your website may be annoying? When it’s comes to website design, knowing what visitors hate most is a must, unless you don’t want them to visit you again. This article describes what you should exclude from your website. If you know about an annoying website, feel free to send this article to its webmaster. A few weeks ago I received an email from a colleague asking me to check one of the website he had developed. He is a web designer and his client wanted a nice attractive flash header. The flash header was great. You can’t miss it at all. Some nice graphics elements were flying in while sound effects created just the right atmosphere. However, after starting to explore the website, the header became very annoying because every time you clicked on the website the header restarted. What was pleasant initially became very annoying very quickly, disturbing your concentration and making it difficult to read what was on the page. He is not the first to create what I like to call – "annoying website design". Many webmasters, especially new webmasters are totally “in love” with their ideas and tend to go overboard with their design in one way or another. It’s nice to have an attractive header, but is it really necessary to assault the visitor’s mind with it? In my opinion, absolutely not! Webmasters sometimes forget that their website design should send a message to the visitor that should reflect the website topic and not the programmer’s skill level. Is Your Website Design Annoying? Well…. It’s not that hard to be annoying. However, some webmasters are much better than others at annoying their visitors. Check my top 5 list and decide for yourself whether you have been annoying your visitors. Background music – Unless you are operating an online internet radio station or sell music CDs, why play a midi/wav file in the background continuously on every page? Huge font size – If you are designing a website for people with a disability then you are doing the right thing, but if not then you are shouting. People don’t like it when someone shouts at them. Small font size – Do you want to be heard? Keep a normal tone, don’t shout but "speak" in a reasonable volume. Overlapping layers – Layers can be very useful up to the point. But not when they are being used to put an annoying message in the visitor’s face. Don’t try to force your visitor to read your messages. Try persuasion instead of brute force. Popup windows – Even though popup windows are now blocked by many add on tools, webmasters keep using them. The annoying part of popups is sometimes we actually miss important information because of those anti popup tools. Haven't you heard the old phrase "if you can’t beat him, join him”? Don’t use pop up windows. Put your important messages in a central place on your website. Most likely each one of us has our own private top five lists. You probably have many more annoying design cases in mind. Well, you’re right, the list is much longer then that. I just wanted to describe some of the highlights in order to bring this important subject your attention. Some of you are probably reading those lines and smiling while some others have a feeling a deja-vu. Keep in your mind that as a webmaster the last thing you want to do is put lots of effort into your website and then find out that your visitors hate it. It's not a matter of taste, it's more about being the same polite person we all try to be when we go to a party. I tried to point out a few things that might be useful to some web designers and webmasters. I don’t know about you, but I’m going to send this article to my friend, hopefully he’ll send it to his client :)

5 Free Web Designers Resources You Must Know

5 Free Web Designers Resources You Must Know


Over the last few months me and my designer-developer buddies have been sharing our favourite web design tools, tricks and tips.
Our final conclusion was that it’s very exciting to be a designer these days. The web is quite gushing with many cute designing apps and tools.
Below you will find our current Top 5 Free Web Design Tools. Some are new, some are golden oldies, but all of them are tools we can’t live without! And what’s more, they’re useful no matter what stage of web design you’re at.
Feel free to share your own must-have tools of the trade in the comments below.
1. Wix.com: Create Your Own Free Websites, MySpace Layouts and More
We reckon Wix.com one of the best new tools around for creating flash websites, MySpace layouts & widgets. Flash design used to be a pain in the butt but with Wix you get a tool that’s simple to use, cuts our development time, requires no coding, offers fully customisable flash templates (useful for small client projects), is easy to update … and is free. We’re loving it!

2. FireFox Web Developer Extension Toolbar
Created by Chris Pederick, the web developer extension for your Mozilla Firefox browser is one of the best free tools out there. Seriously. It’s simple to install, and is especially useful with the debugging aspects of web design.

3. Colour Lovers & Kuler: Colour Choice Made Easy
Ok, so this is two free tools for the price of one. We all use both these sites to save time and get inspiration when choosing just the right colour palette for our sites and designs. And we love them both.
ColourLovers.com



Kuler

4. Wordpress.com Theme
We know it’s been around for ages but if you are a blogger, or want to create a cool flexible & free blog, Wordpress is still by far the best place to go. But the part we’re loving most at the moment is the theme viewer section. We’re using it to get inspiration for simple, clean website designs. And also for what to avoid!
5. Browser Shots: Check Browser Compatibility, Cross Platform Browser Test
A free open-source online service, Browser Shots saves you time by testing out your designs in various browsers in one place. You simply submit your web address and it makes screenshots of your web design in different browsers.

Free HD Wallpapers

Free HD Wallpapers

There are a lot of emerging websites to download free high definition wallpapers for your desktop. This post features some of the websites for HD wallpapers. You may post the links by commenting below if you have found other great HD wallpaper websites.
HDWallpapers.net


myHDWallpaper.com

CoolHDWallpapers.com

zixpk.com

jootix.com

WallGall.com

18 Free WordPress Themes

18 Free WordPress Themes



This is a list of 18 free wordpress themes collected from different theme websites that you can download for free of charge. These are the high quality and professional themes for your wordpress blogs.
1. Saffron Spice from SkinPress.com

2. Pixeled from Samk.ca


3. Super Fresh from ThemeStation.com

4. Absynthe from Chris-Wallance.com

5. Arthemia from Michaelhutagalung.com

6. Imprezz from ProductiveDreams.com

7. Seabreeze from FreeThemeLayouts.com

8. Black Pearl from ThemesPreview.com

9. The Web News Theme from WPThemeDesigner.com

10. Marine from DezinerFolio.com

11. SoulVision from WordPressThemesBase.com

12. Blue from SmashingMagazine.com

13. BlackRock from SkinPress.com

14. Craftwork from Rock-Kitty.net

15. RS10 from ThemeLab.com

16. Fusion from WordPress.org

17. Japan Style from WordPress.org

18. WP-String from FreeWordPressTheme.info

Background Music in Flash Templates

Background Music in Flash Templates


This tutorial shows you how to add a background music in actionscript 3.0 flash templates from flashmo.com website.
1. Import your MP3 file into the library. File >> Import >> Import to Library…
2. Right click on your imported MP3 file in the library and click on “Linkage…”.


3. Give the class name: flashmo_music and you need to uncheck export in first frame in order to avoid the problem of not displaying the preloader at first 50 percent of SWF loading.

4. Click on first frame of sound control layer. Select your music file in sound drop down box and select Stop in Sync drop down box as you see in this screen shot.

5. Remove /* from line no. 96 and */ from line no. 118 at the buttons frame of actions layer. This tutorial is based on flashmo_174_cateye template and line numbers and frame number might be varied for other flashmo templates.

6. Publish your SWF and test it. Have fun!
If you have any question or problem, you may drop a comment below. Thank you for choosing flashmo templates.