AWR Web Design Blog

By Sabina Idler Emotional design has become a powerful tool in creating exceptional user experiences for websites. However, emotions did not use to play such an important role on the Web. Actually, they did not use to play any role at all; rather, they were drowned by a flood of rational functionality and efficiency. We were so busy trying to adapt to the World Wide Web as a new medium that we lost sight of its full potential. Instead of using the Internet on our terms, we adapted to its technical and, at first, impersonal nature. If it wasn’t for visionary contemporaries such as Don Norman or Aarron Walter, we might still be focusing on improving processes, neglecting the potential of emotional design. In his book Emotional Design, Norman describes why “attractive things work better.” He explains how attractive products trigger our creativity and ultimately expand our mental processes, making us more tolerant...

By Ann Davlin.www.hongkiat.com Shopping, it’s a woman’s thing right? Well, not anymore. There are many online stores with a wide range of tech gadgets which can make any man glued to the screen for hours. Also, there are numerous web stores that cater for kids, parents and teenagers as well. In general, eCommerce websites engage web customers and they are ready to struggle for each and every one of them. These days, you can’t really say that online shopping is a niche market, aimed at a small audience anymore. Read Full Article...

The web is full of discussion about which CMS platform is the best for creating web sites.  A great deal of opinion is generated from people who are comfortable using a specific platform for building web pages.  Some prefer a CMS such as Joomla!, Wordpress or Drupal, while some purists are hand-coding HTML, CSS and Javascript.  I have tried various options for building sites and I have found that Joomla! is simply the best.  Here are my top 5 reasons why. 1. Easy to Deploy  The core Joomla! system is very easy to deploy on a web server.  Within a few minutes, you can have a basic site up and running, ready to be customized and content added.  If you ever tried to hand program a CMS style site using PHP, HTML and CSS, then you can truly appreciate this. 2. Open-Source  Joomla! is open-source and is covered by a General...

There has been great discussion across the web about whether to keep your Joomla! 1.5 site or migrate to the newer versions of Joomla!, such as 1.6 or 1.7.  After a failed experiment of my own, I was even on the side of sticking with Joomla! 1.5 for now.  But that was until the Joomla! team released the new Joomla! 2.5 in January 2012.  1.6 and 1.7 were just the lead up to 2.5, which is here to stay, for a while anyway.   The Joomla! team reports that support of 2.5 is scheduled until August 2013 and that support of 1.5 is ending in April 2012.  This is an indication that it is time to begin using Joomla! 2.5.  There are many people who post negative comments about the newer versions of Joomla! because they are not working for them for various reasons. But remember this, all new versions of...

Here is a great article posted by Mandy Barrington on Sitepoint.com on February 13, 2012 If you want traffic from search engines, you know that you need to optimize your page for your target keywords. But where on the page should you place your keywords? Imagine your target keywords are seeds: will you throw them in the air and hope they grow wherever they fall, or will you place them precisely where they’ll get the most sunlight (and capture the most attention)? When you look at the big picture, popular search engines like Google have been so successful because they are able to determine the most relevant websites for the keywords queried, while penalizing sites using spammy tactics. This has led to a more satisfactory search experience for users, and a more challenging experience for web marketers and developers. Read full article...

Written by Magdalena Georgieva, Feb 13, 2012 on HubSpot.com Calls-to-action (CTAs) are one of the most important elements of lead generation, and they should be used in each and every one of your marketing tactics: emails, social media updates, press releases, trade shows ... the list goes on. In fact, whenever you want to ensure your team is moving in the right direction, pose the question, “What’s the call-to-action we're using to drive people's behavior?”Read Full Article...

February 6th, 2012 by Mirko of www.designer-daily.com This is a recurring issue for designers around the globe. No matter if you are a graphic or web designer, you will sooner or later run into a client that finds the layout of your design too “empty”. This is a quite natural reaction for a non-designer. I remember in graphic design school, most students would add more elements in their layouts than needed, or they would make these elements bigger because they were afraid of too much white space. Read Full Article...

By Zach Ball | January 24, 2012 | for SitePoint.com When creating a landing page for your website, it is important to make sure that it is visually appealing, easy to navigate, and free of errors. This article will tell you the five unbreakable rules of landing page design that can make or break your website. Read Full Article...

Web designers love to build websites and often struggle to find new clients to build for.  Today, there are increasingly more and more web designers of all skill levels available for potential clients to choose from. This makes client retention even more important than it was even a few years ago.  There are several things that a web designer can do to keep clients longer, such as providing great customer service.  However, let's talk about something that will help you retain those clients longer and at the same time improve your bottom line. Let's face it, today there are more people who are willing and asking for the ability to maintain their own content.  This has led to the increase in the use of Content Management Systems (CMS) such as Wordpress, Joomla! and Drupal.  These systems are beneficial to the designer because they can be implemented quicker and managed easier.  Clients...

Search Engine Optimization is one of the hottest topics these days in web design.  The reason is that everyone wants to know how to improve the ranking of their site in search engines like GoogleTM. Increasing your ranking will increase the likelihood that someone will find your website.  The purpose of this guide is to explain how you can improve your search engine ranking using some techniques that are not gimmicks.  Yes, it's true, there is no "magic pill" for SEO.  Actually, using techniques that attempt to fool search engines, are easily detected today and will actually hurt your ranking even more as search engines will penalize sites that use these types of methods.  The techniques described here are all legitimate and proven ways to improve your ranking. Is this a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) project or should I leave it to a SEO Professional?  The answer to this question is based on...

Posted on WebDeveloperJuice.com "Everybody makes mistakes, but there are some mistakes that are considered cardinal sins. Smart web designers need to distance themselves from these mistakes as much as possible. This is because; these are the mistakes that lead to the failure of the website to create the right impression in the minds of the website visitors. So, let’s take a look at these mistakes..." Read Full Article...

Like many web designers out there, I am slowly beginning the switch from Joomla! 1.5 to Joomla! 1.7. I actually just completed a very simple site using 1.7 and a professional template and I had really no trouble at all. That experience lit a fire under me and I dove right into my next project, one that will feature Virtuemart 2.0, which is also new and improved and a custom made template using Artisteer. Sounds great so far, right? So I had no problems installing Joomla 1.7 and Virtuemart 2.0. That was all that went well. Next I tried to install two third party extensions that I use with Virtuemart.  One would not install completely and the other installed but then when I ran it there were issues with images not displaying.  Yes, these are both supposed to be compatible with 1.5 and 1.7.  This was a little discouraging, but...

We just recently completed the overhaul of the Broad Brook Fire Department website. (bbfd.org) As we do with all of our projects, the site was built on the Joomla! CMS platform.  The department requested an area that only its members can access where they post training information, department policies and various other sensitive material.