Thursday, July 3, 2008

Annasings.com site Hailed as July's WOTM



This badge is being given to a site that wins the Website of the Month (WOTM) Competition by WebForums. The competition is being held every month.

Cool right? Yeah, and I'm very happy to say that I just win that badge in this Month WOTM Competition! Hooray!

The said badge was earned from my Anna Pomeroy entry. Amongst the top 3 entries, annasing site, a flash based site won the competition through voting. Annasing has been design by our own WickedInnovations Design Team, a web design and development company located in the Philippines.

Annasing site is now included to the Hall of Famers. Which is indeed an honor for us to flaunt one of our our humble works.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

~ The Antagonists of Web Design Industry~


Is there such a thing like antagonist on website design industry?

Isn't it that antagonist refers to or commonly known as opponent? You might have thought that antagonist only exist in movies but NO, they are everywhere. So in short, this antagonist refers to opponent of the industry. But what are they? Or ... who are they?

Have you thought about it? Have you read on some articles pertaining to this specific type of topic? Not yet? Therefore, read along this article and be informed.

Being human is so complicated that sometimes it affects even the works of technology, no matter how advanced it is, as far as it is touched by human there and always there's an error that can happen. That's life. But how is that so? As mentioned in the second paragraph, opponents never get out of the scene in wherever industry you may look at. They always exist, that's proven because human are born competitive. They always see others as competitor and assume that everything has a big ground arena where they can showcase their stuff and make others fail. But can you identify who are they and what they do that makes them tagged as antagonist?

You know what the fuss all about but let the author show you how. Below are some of the noticeable antagonistic act on web design in the market.

Those who offer lower prices. The amount of low cost services on the market continues to rise due to some web designers who will do everything just to bag some clients not thinking that they might gonna affect the entire market. And what's disturbing is the fact that the general public are unaware that the majority of low cost websites will never amount to anything, due to their poor table based coding, poor design and the total lack of optimization.


Those who own sites which are enticing enough to deceive. The market is actually flooded with poorly or part trained designers who deceive clients by owning good looking websites. But the fact is they don't design it themselves. As most of the rationale viewers and visitors of sites, what they look for a web design site is their portfolio and the site itself to check whether it is good or not. So these deceiving sites has all the good stuff but in actual they can't employ a good design.


Those who doesn't follow the basic rule of web design site. Those who frequently commit errors such as the use of basic HTML coding (this practice is outdated and most certainly not search engine friendly since Web 2.0 launched); poor layout of sites that results to not functioning on other browser; the use of fonts are bad; the absence of privacy policy when a website is collecting data from the public; the absence of unique terms and conditions when website is taking money from the public; the absence of a sitemap, which is important to search engines; the practice of copying the homepage meta tags throughout the whole site; and the most outrageous error is adding of sitewide link by web designers to increase their own website's PR.


Those who run away without delivering the service to their clients. Unprofessional is the right adjective for them. Many clients were claiming that their designer run out after they got the payment without completing the whole project. This has of course a bad effect in the entire industry. It doesn't only affect the designer solely but it also cause for clients to think that other designers would do it. The generality effect does it bad for other web site.


The above antagonistic acts are not good in the industry and can pull it downward in the near future. In the world of website design, its not easy to fish clients online. It is not like a hotcake that easily sells wherever BUT designers can always find and serve one. So for potential clients, be aware of the above samples given. Make sure that your would-be designer is professional enough to deliver the service you want. Remember that you are paying not only few bucks but thousands of bucks for your website, so don't let them mess it. For web designers, let it serve as a reminder that working in a web design industry requires professionalism. Provide a professional design service at reasonable market value rates and compete on a professional business level. There's no room for underdogs. Strive for excellence and excel in the industry with fairness.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Does Color Matter?

Does it really matter?

Specifically, this article talks about the colors on a website. Colors are sometimes taken for granted by some web designers when they are creating a site. But mind you, colors may just be one of the factors that can attract or distract a visitor for a website. It plays a considerable impact on the visitor's decision to browse or exit from the site.

If you already have an existing site, ask people to describe the feel of your site's color, design and overall appearance. Through this survey you can get a general feedback for your site. The site should have the artistic identity of the designer but at the same time pleases the target visitors.

Branding, the strategy to create and maintain your site's unique identity through the logo and designs implemented on your web site. Proper color combinations can give your site an identity, making it stand out from the rest.

Below are the key points to consider on choosing the right color combinations for your site:

Know your target. There can be several colors for you to choose from but make sure it will conform to your target visitors which can vary from from young crowd, students, male or female, adults, housewives, job seekers, businessman, etc. This diversity should be a challenge for you to take in attracting them to your site.

Make your visitors comfortable. Many visitors are comfortable using Microsoft programs, which are designed in gray and blue. You don't need to copy the color of Microsoft, the point is gray and blue are very comfortable on the eyes, which is the main reason why many sites have those colors as background. However, you can always use your own color skills and create a pleasing combination. The best thing to do is test the site with several color combinations and do a survey on a group of people.

Be creative. Make your own identity. Colors can make your site unique, embed colors that you think will mix to your design and logo. These should make your site lively, attractive and easy on the eyes.

Make it simple. Simplicity is beauty as the cliché goes. It also applies to websites, don't overthrow your site by adding unnecessary colors which doesn't match your overall design. Don't use font colors that will not be visible on the background. Lastly, don't add colors that is totally different with the whole template's color, as much as possible, your site should only have four to five different colors.


Given the above key points for the color of a good website, you can now make a that can attracts visitor. Decide now what superb colors you need in building your site. Because colors has something to do with the success and failure of your business. So make your business grow.


See related topics on choosing color for web designers here:


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