Website is a collection of electronic documents and applications that reside on a Web servers and present content and interactive interfaces to the end user in form of Web pages.

Typically Web pages are classified as:

• Static -pages do not alter/change content and layout with every request of end user.
• Dynamic – pages that adapt their content and/or appearance depending on end-user.

The process of designing websites, web applications or multimedia for the Web which utilize multiple disciplines, such as animation, authoring, communication design, corporate identity, graphic design, , information architecture, interaction design, marketing, photography, search engine optimization and typography is known as Website Design. The key characteristics of good website design are:

• Good  concept
• Unique
• Simple
• Attractive
• SEO friendliness
• Website should convert visitors into customers

The typical process flow of website design is pictorially represented below:

Challenges of Website Design

Scalability

Designers need to take both the scale of the user base and the scale of the data into account when thinking about how to design the website effectively

Visual Design

Many visual design issues like this are simple to fix with a little creativity and experimentation

Comprehension

Web-based applications often help people by doing things outside their expertise. They turn to the application to help guide them through a decision making process they couldn’t do on their own. Yet, if they make the wrong decision, it negatively affects their experience and their relationship with the organization.

Interactivity

Users don’t always follow the “happy path.” They enter incorrect or invalid data. At such times, users should be given the luxury of either looking upto something for assistance like a guide or an example. Polite warnings can be given while invalid data is entered.

Change Management

People often resist changing. The problem is that users are so used to seeing things in a certain way. They refuse to accept change even if the change is in their advantage. It is important to pay close attention to how users shall make the transition incase of a change and website designers should never overlook this.

Why W3Commerce

At W3Commerce we believe in focusing on the details. In addition to the challenges mentioned above, we also ensure that

• The purpose of your website is very clear as to what it will accomplish and what will the users gain.

• Secondly we keep the audience in mind while designing the website. We make the website attractive by using flashes or animations, simple to understand for first time users, easy navigation, relevant text, updated content, reference links, quick to download, browser compatible.

• Thirdly we guarantee that your website is SEO friendly. By SEO friendly we mean that your website is ranked high by the search engines as this is one of the ways to improve the volume or quality of traffic to your website.

• And the most important of all, ensuring your visitors are converted to customers. Some of the techniques recommended are forms to send comments or remarks, forms to “tell a friend”, whitepaper downloads with registration, online chat and call buttons, virtual agents using Artificial Intelligence.

At W3Commerce we believe that it is all about creating a pleasurable, useful experience for your visitors… one that they will want to repeat over and over again!
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