Web Design Outsourcing Blunders

Web design outsourcing is definitely quite popular and a large
percentage of businesses, outsource their web design requirements.

While most of them experience the numerous benefits of outsourcing, there are  some who don’t. These businesses have made the wrong choice in terms of choosing  an outsourcing company and the whole process in general.

1. Choosing the Wrong Company
   It’s only if you outsource  web design to the right company that you will experience the benefits of  outsourcing. So, what are the qualities of the right kind of web designing
   company? The company should be experienced, have a team of expert designers and
   must be professional in its dealing with its clients. Coming good on these  points is of paramount importance, but these are not the only points that one  must consider. The general approach and the attitude of the web design  outsourcing company should also be considered if you want to choose the  perfect company.  So, don’t just zero in on the first company providing  outsourcing services. Don’t choose a company that doesn’t have a successful  track record of web designing. Also, stay away from a company whose outlook  towards your project isn’t positive enough.
2. Not Keeping Track
   If you are looking to get your website  design outsourced, you still have to keep track of the project. Many people fail  to do so, and end up with a website design of inferior quality that doesn’t do anything for your business. Your responsibility towards your business is not  limited to choosing the right company to do business with. You also need to make  sure that your web design project is handled in the right manner. If you don’t  keep this fact in consideration, say goodbye to any hopes of business success
   through your website. In such cases, more often than not, the website is not in tune with the expectations of the client and is way off target.
3. Not defining a Deadline
   Many a times, client do everything right, but  forget to determine a clear cut deadline for project completion. This is the  kind of mistake that spells doom for the project. Even if you have chosen the  right company, keeping in mind the parameters mentioned in the first pointer,  you still need a clearly spelt out deadline. This ensures that you get your  project on time and within your budget. Incessant delays in project completion
   might also prop up the cost of the project in many different ways. If your  project cost goes up, it has taken from you the most important benefit of  outsourcing web design – Cost effectiveness.

The Importance of Research in Web Design

There are some web designers who, after taking an outline brief from a client, will steam ahead and knock up what they think looks appealing, to them.

However, the objective of your website is to appeal to your audience; to target your customers and to speak to them in the language they are familiar with. Whether you like how it looks, or your website designer thinks it’s a work of art, are not the important things here.

Those web designers who take time to research your audience, industry and competition so they come up with something that actually sells for you and exceeds your competitors are the ones who’ll get you a site that works.

There is a well trodden path towards website design success, and it goes like this:

1. In-Depth Research
Getting to know your audience and finding out what appeals to them is the first step. There is ample research to review based on surveys conducted across various groups: age, gender, occupation, background, location to name a few. Depending on who you are selling to, your website needs to be created in such a way that it meets the needs and expectations of that group.

If your audience is an older age group for example, flashy graphics and podcasts will be ditched in favour of a clear, uncluttered screen with easy to click buttons and nothing taken for granted where technical ability and accessibility is concerned.

2. Setting and Understanding Objectives
What is it you want your website to do? Do you want it to act as a brochure site for offline referrals, or does it need to deliver search engine results? Are you looking to build a profile as an industry expert and drive visitors to subscribe to your blog or download your guides? Or do you want people to buy direct from your site? Perhaps you are looking for investors rather than customers? You might have a two or three stage plan that will evolve over a few years.

Whatever the aim, it will affect the design of your website. By understanding what you want to achieve, your web designer will create a site that ensures your goals are met and can be scaled to grow with your business if necessary.

The success of a website design project really does rest on the initial behind-the-scenes work. Taking time to conduct intelligent research and to set and understand objectives is a vital part of the design process. A website designer who dives straight in and produces something
in super fast time is not conducive to a success story!

Opera Dragonfly web design and developer toolkit now buzzing

Norwegian browser developer Opera is this week unveiling its Dragonfly web developer toolkit. The new product is emerging from its exoskeleton as a collection of tools for web design and development, with a special emphasis on debugging.

Opera Dragonfly a hybrid web application — which means users never need to update it, since the latest version is always pulled from the web. Plus, it will always be compatible with the version of Opera being used at the time.

Opera clearly realises that the world has gone mobile — and has provided a remote debugging tool for mobile devices this time.

A web designer/developer turns on the ‘remote debugging’ function and Opera Dragonfly will connect to Opera Mobile and allow for debugging directly on the device.

“You can even hack your site on tablets, TVs or your colleagues’ computers with the remote debugging feature. And, Opera Dragonfly can mask as other browsers to help ensure cross-platform mobile compatibility,” says the company.

There are also advanced colour-picking tools, options to debug Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) and a JavaScript debugger.

“Just one wrong line and your masterful script is in ruins. So, we make it easy to go through your code with conditional breakpoints, deep property inspection and watches to turn even the most jumbled JavaScript into a thing of beauty,” says Opera’s press statement.