WYSIWYG Web Design Software - Which One is Best?

There are a number of applications out there that allow you to design websites using WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editors. We're going to look at the best web design software that falls into this category. We'll also look at the benefits of using such software to help you decide whether or not it's right for you.

The principle behind WYSIWYG editors is that whatever you see on the page is what you'll get when your website is published. Basically it gives you an interface where you can build your website exactly how you want it to look when people visit it online.

The most popular web design software packages are Dreamweaver, FrontPage and XSitePro. Adobe Dreamweaver is the professional choice due to its massive range of features and ability to create dynamic websites. The downside being it's difficult to pick up and use 'out of the box' and requires a lot of hours to learn just the basics, especially if you're new to web design. It's also expensive to buy.

Microsoft's FrontPage has a lot of features but often adds needless code to the pages it creates. This can increase page loading times, especially for those who still access the internet using a dial-up connection. It's not as user-friendly as Dreamweaver and pushes you in the direction of using Microsoft server technologies to build dynamic sites which won't suit everyone's needs. On the plus side, FrontPage costs less than Dreamweaver and is slightly easier to learn.

The third and final WYSIWYG web design software we're going to look at is XSitePro from Intellimon Ltd. This is a relatively new application that has been developed with the novice or internet marketer in mind.

Because the majority of features within Dreamweaver and FrontPage won't be used by most users, XSitePro has done away with them and left only the tools that novice-to-intermediate web designers need. It's resulted in an easy-to-use application that can be picked up and used by just about anybody.

The downside to XSitePro is that it's more difficult to create dynamic sites and has done away with the look and feel of traditional WYSIWYG website software. So if you're used to working with Dreamweaver or FrontPage then you might find XSitePro hard to get used to.

When it comes to web design software, a WYSIWYG editor is really the only way to go. It makes production time far quicker, but you need to start with the right software.

If you're a professional web designer and you want to create cutting-edge websites using the latest technologies then without a doubt you need to use Adobe Dreamweaver. It's amazingly powerful and automates a lot of the common tasks associated with web design.

If you're not after something quite as feature-packed as Dreamweaver and you're a fan of Microsoft technologies and you'd like to use them on the web, then FrontPage might be for you. Just don't go creating large pages as they could take an age to load!

If you're new to web design or you'd like to get something that doesn't have the learning time of Dreamweaver or FrontPage then XSitePro is for you. It's quick to learn, easy to use and can produce truly beautiful sites very quickly. And like Dreamweaver, it automates a lot of the common tasks associated with web design.

Picking the right WYSIWYG web design software is essential to make sure you find web design fun and interesting and not a chore. You should choose based on your skill level and exactly what you want to achieve. That will give you the results you want and will make building websites something you can enjoy for years to come.

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Writing a Request For Proposal For Web Site Design and Development

A company that is looking to get bids from several qualified vendors for a Web site design or development project will typically write a Request for Proposal (RFP) and either post it online or send it directly to potential vendors it has identified.

As with any complex project, a Web site design project requires clear communication between the client and web developer in order for the client to receive accurate bids. The RFP serves as a baseline of project requirements on which competing vendors may price their services. I have outlined a few items below that should typically be in a Website Design and Development Request for Proposal, though some times more information is necessary.

Writing your Request for Proposal

The Request for Proposal (RFP) process allows potential vendors to get an idea of your goals, existing challenges and possible limitations without lengthy phone discussions or in-person meetings that can severely impact the amount of time it takes for you to get started with your Web Design and Development project. It allows you to succinctly describe exactly what you are looking for and what a potential vendor should expect in the project.

An ideal RFP would clearly specify all the requirements pertaining to your website. It would allow the developer to present you with a proposal based your particular needs and, needless to say, the more details your RFP contains, the more accurate a proposal the developer is able to present.

Components of a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a Web site Design and Development Project:

Project Background Information

Brief overview of your organization, including some history and your primary business objectives.
Detailed description of the project you would like to receive the proposal for.
If your budget requirements are strict, it might help to include a 'Ballpark' Budget - which developers can use to scope and scale your solution and save you time.
Target launch date and required deliverable dates - include any dates that you need the project to meet. Are there crucial meetings and cut-off dates that the developer should be aware of? If you are not sure what the time frame should be, it's okay to see what the proposals you receive recommend and renegotiate. It's also good to anticipate and state how flexible you are with the project's completion date.

Marketing Requirements and Data

Audience demographics - who will be the main users of your site? Are there several different audiences that need to be addressed?
User comfort level with technology -  how technically savvy is your audience? Will they know how to deal with plug-ins, for example?
Will users have high-speed connections, or will many be on modems?
Audience base -  how large do you expect your user base to be?

Design and Corporate Branding Requirements

Do you have corporate identity guidelines that must be followed, including fonts and colors and graphic treatments?
What look and feel to you envision for the Web site? Include some adjectives to describe what your site should communicate.
Provide examples of Web sites that relate to the RFP either because they have a similar feel to the one your are looking for, or even examples of what you do NOT want.
Will there be any animated elements (i.e. Flash animations)? How many? How are they going to be used?

Technical and Infrastructure Requirements

Web hosting considerations. Do you currently have a Web host or are you looking for a new one to handle this project?
Browser/platform considerations. Generally speaking, a Web site for consumers or the general public should work similarly across all modern browsers and Operating Systems. If you are targeting a very specific audience it is possible your needs are different.
Development platform requirements. Do you require an Open Source solution, are you open to a proprietary solution that is more tailored to your exact needs, etc.
Coding language requirements (e.g. ASP.NET, PHP, Java). Many times this depends on the type of Web hosting platform or any pre-existing software you may have.
Are there third party applications you'd like to incorporate?

Functionality/programming Requirements

Will there be forms on the site? If so, how many? How should they be handled? (e.g. e-mailed to recipients, stored in a database, etc.)
Will the site require tools to manage content/information (e.g. ability for staff to add content such as press releases or quarterly reports)?
Will there be any e-commerce on the site? If so, who will be entering data on products offered? How will transactions be managed?
Are there any other interactive features the site should have? What are they, and how do you envision them to work?

Search Engine Optimization

Describe any currently defined search engine friendly production requirements and expectations
Indicate if you are seeking SEO/SEM consultation services

Ongoing Site Maintenance Plans

How often will the site be updated? Are you looking for a retainer situation, or 'on-demand' hourly work?
Will you be self-maintaining or will you be outsourcing maintenance services?

Project Management

Who will be the main point of contact on your staff? Keep in mind that in most cases it is easiest to have a single point of contact at both your organization and the company designing and developing your Web site.
How will the tasks be divided between you and the developer in order to complete the project?
Are there any third parties (subcontractors, etc.) that will also be involved in the project?

RFP Response Deadline and Contact Information

When is the response to the RFP due?
To whom should the response be sent?
Do you prefer E-mail or hard copies, and if so, how many hard copies?
Is there a specific solicitation number that needs to be referenced in the Proposal Document?
What is the RFP review process? How long do you anticipate to take to make your decision before the project can begin?

Some Additional Thoughts Before You Begin:

For all items listed above, be sure to clearly indicate if you must have any item(s) bid as an optional aspect of the project. Keep in mind possible dependencies between project aspect/components that may make this impractical.
Before writing your Request For Proposal, determine your budget for the project and, beyond that, your priorities for selecting a Developer who can meet your budgetary requirements.

Writing an RFP is a good exercise for anyone thinking about a site design or redesign as it takes thoughtful planning to specify and construct a website. A well thought out, quality RFP is essential to a successful endeavor because it helps you to focus on your goals and exactly how to achieve them.

Best of luck with your Web site Design and Development Project.

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Web Design Software Introduction

Web design software is a great way to design your website because it makes things so much simpler for you. With many types of web design software, you could build a functional website within minutes and then keep adding features to it to enhance its appeal.

Earlier, when website designers needed to build websites from scratch, web designing was quite a daunting affair, but today with the help of the several web design software applications available, it has become much easier to build and have websites.

A lot of commercial, as well as personal, users are building their websites themselves using these tools and you could do that easily too. In fact, there are even lots of free web design software packages available these days.

Website Design Software Features

Let us take a look at the features that design software applications must typically have.

1. The WYSIWYG ("what you see is what you get") web building applications are considered by far to be the best web design software for a beginning developer. These tools are convenient because when you use them, what you see is what you get (hence the name).

If you are a novice, these tools could really help you because you are actually seeing your website taking shape as you add those individual features to it. Dreamweaver and FrontPage are two of the best and most popular WYSIWYG web design software tools available today.

2. Look for the basic features. You have to know that each web building software application has a different set of features to offer. Since all websites are also different, you will be better off using a software program that meets with your requirements.

For example, if you are making a product website that will have reviews, it will be a totally different ballgame than if you are planning a social networking website. A brief study of the features of the website will tell you what kind of web design program would be the best for it.

3. Remember that all of these applications have their own strengths and weaknesses. You could read their reviews beforehand to understand what these are. For example, some websites are better for navigability and some are better for the security that they provide. If your website does not have serious privacy issues, you could go for a website that provides better value-added features to the users such as better navigability.

4. Most of the website designing programs that you will use will also have options for you for the hosting of the website. If they have that, it would be a more suitable option for you because then you would save on costs and would have to deal with just one company rather than two of them. These are generally considered to be the best web design software companies out there on the Internet.

As in everything available on the Internet, there is a lot of competition in the world of web design software too, and it is not good to take things at their face value. You have to be discerning.

One of the best things you could do is to visit some online forums about web design software applications and read there the reviews from users and experts to know which of them will be best suited for your needs. Just looking at the features mentioned on the product websites would not be enough.

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Design & Functional Elements of Web 2.0

In W3C's Web 1.0 standard, a small sector of specialised individuals created content for a large number of companies and people. For instance, anything graphics related would take users to Adobe.com, CNN.com for news and Microsoft.com to address Windows-related problems. However, as resources in the form of blogs, RSS feeds, etc became available to the public, the amount of information published to the web increased. As a result, the W3C developed a new standard - Web 2.0.

Web 2.0 allows data to be split into microcontent and then split over various domains. Examples include RSS, Google Maps and social bookmarking tagging websites. Interfaces like these are changing the way we store, access and share information and it has ceased to matter which domain the source is coming from.

Naturally, this holds huge interface changes for designers since interfaces now need to be constructed keeping the amount of information being "out sourced" across multiple domains, in mind. Think of it as a platform for content, and with that in mind it becomes easy to see how design will change. An interface can now be constructed with stores of information coming from widely different sources - companies, individuals and governments and presenting them in a way that could never be done on a single domain.

Take Amazon.com for instance. They have created an interface (Amazon Light) which allows users to change the standard interface according to personal preference by making its database publically accessible.

There are a few design trends and functions that now need to be implemented for a Web 2.0 website.

Transitioning to XML

One of the biggest transitions to Web 2.0 is realising the transfer to a semantic markup like XML, ie better being able to describe content. Although HTML and XHTML do the job marginally well, descriptions are limited to pre-existing, pre-defined syntax such as headers, listings, paragraphs, citations and definitions and there is no other way to describe the content of most documents. Sure, you can limitedly define the content of simple documents, but we're not talking about simple documents here, are we? With Web 2.0, not only is this possible but it's critical to accesssibility.

With non-Web 2.0 websites, you are forced to scroll down manually looking for which content is new and what you've already seen before. RSS, an XML format allows users flexible accessibility features by allowing them to subscribe to (participating) websites' feeds by typing the URI into an aggregator. The aggregator will then routinely poll the site, check if anything is new and display the content thus saving you a lot of time.

Providing Web Services

In the early years of the dotCom buzz, websites were referred to as "pages" and the web a virtual world complete with shopping malls and banks.

But as the years went by and we entered the 21st century, and information became not only more widely available but also publically accessible, the face of the web changed. XML content made the data shareable and editable between different systems. Instead of visual design being the basis of interacting with content, programmable Web services have become the interface by which content can be accessed. Now anyone can build an interface for content that comes from any domain through a web services API.

Prime examples are Amazon and eBay who have made their content accessible through their APIs and have spawned A9 (for Amazon) and Andale (for eBay). Andale provides auctioneers with the highest bidding products and how much they're selling for, using the information from eBay.

Jumbling it All Up

With Web 1.0 it was all about designing great looking websites whereas with Web 2.0 it's all about delivering great experiences. Noting the difference is instrumental to web development with the new standard.

Because of the increasing content now available, and the opportunities the new standard offers, it is now important to effectively market content versus marketing the website itself. RSS is a great example of marketing content by informing you of what has been newly added to the website; it enriches the user experience. Additionally, searches can now be implemented in conjunction with RSS thereby allowing users to view new results by pre-defined categories.

Changing Navigation: Putting Users in Control

Since most of the content that will now be available will most likely not be found in its original domain, the original navigation for accessing that content will no longer be as the designer intended it. The navigation might now come in the guise of a feed reader, a link on a blog, a search engine or some other form of content aggregator.

The primary disadvantage to this of course, is that users will no longer be able to identify what material is where considering the fact that websites are now dependant on content, the link might be anywhere. However, developers have found a way around this situation by tracking what content is most viewed by users, and they can place links to it in a more publically accessible and easily navigable place.

Users & Metadata

More power to the public is the tagline of the new Web 2.0 standard which now allows content to have metadata not according to the designers' specifications but by the users' own experiences thanks to sites like Flickr, de.licio.us and other social bookmarking websites.

There is now an increased chance that content will be more accurately described, tagged and referenced.

A Shift towards Programming

There is now a clear separation between structure and style which donates an emphasis from the visual to the information itself. This is a key paradigm shift as now developers are writing content more attuned for machines as opposed to people.

What this means for designers as hinted above, is to now start marketing content more effectively. They now need to get familiar and comfortable with web services and syndication (e.g RSS), in effect start pragmatically thinking much along the lines of developers.

The potentials that Web 2.0 brings with it are huge, true but there are certain design and functional considerations to adopt. So before you decide to jump in and move with the flow, understand the key concepts first so you don't live to regret your decision later.

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Web Design Day Rates Explained in Plain English

First Things First

If you are an employee it's easy to get confused about consultant or freelance rates. The thing to remember is freelancers can only charge for the time they are actively working for a client. However, they are not necessarily active for a client for 40 hours a week, 52 weeks of the year. Therefore their rates have to take into account all the time they are not billing a client and their running costs. It's all explained below.

Why Have Freelancers and Consultants?

Freelancers play a vital role in the economy. Without freelancers companies would have to hire and train all their own staff. Can you imagine hiring a member of staff to carry out a specific specialised task that only needs doing once or twice a year?

How Day Rates Work

Companies providing services in many industries such as web design, SEO, engineering etc base their charges on day rates. These can be the source of confusion or contention for the companies who need to hire firms using day rates as the headline rate can seem high.

Often, when evaluating rates, people will take the headline day rate, multiply it by 261 (the number of weekdays in a year) and assume they are being ripped off. For example, a day rate of £325.00 is made to look like a salary of - 261 x £325 = £85k! Nice money if you can get it.

In fact this is a nonsense. In simple terms day rates are calculated thus.

Number of weekdays in a year = 261

Less - 25 Holidays

Less - 8 Bank Holidays

Less - 5 days allowance for being ill

Less - 24 days of non billable time

Less - 10 days for marketing and business development

Total - 72 days

Total billable working days in a year = 261 - 72 = 189 Days

Now the per person costs for running the business

£500 - advertising

£500 - Hardware and Software

£1000 - Servers etc

£100 - Affiliation costs (professional bodies etc)

£2000 - Client visits etc

£150 - Insurances etc

£500 - Accountancy fees etc

£2000 - Phone/Office etc

Total = £6750.00

This equates to a daily overhead of £35.71 (overhead divided by billable days)

Now the required salary including Employers NIC etc

A well qualified and experienced consultant salary = £40k (£44475.52 with NIC etc)

This gives a day rate of £235.32 (salary divided by billable days)

Next comes profit and 20% is an accepted level of profit = £54.21

Now add it all up - £35.71 + £235.32 + £54.21 = £325.24

So the day rate of £325 gives the consultant a salary of £40k and the company a profit of £10k, not what you might call earth shattering and this assumes the company don't get thrown a curve ball.

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Web Design in 2010-2011 - Analysis

As we're coming to the middle of this year, everyone is trying to analyze the recent trends in web designing and web development. However, in this article, we'll see what web designers and developers are trying to utilize with the new features to create impressive designs. We will also try to look into the factors that are driving this change.

1. The days of static design visuals are dead
With the online technology that is available today, web designers are coding websites more creatively than using simple images and html/css. Clients have come to expect a higher level of functionality and interactivity as they visit more and more websites that utilize things like Ajax, and JavaScript. Whilst CSS3/HTML5 has started to step on the toes of JavaScript, JavaScript itself has started to inch into the territory of Flash. JavaScript has just finished a major revision of its specifications for the language. Once browser companies adopt these standards, web developers will be provided with more tools to improve their capabilities in creating web applications.

2. Grid-based designs, Mobile Designs, Retro Designs are gaining popularity as well.
But Grid based is used mostly in portfolios, product pages and big blogs; they almost never appear on corporate websites or in online shops. With the huge amount of data present, classifying information based on context rather than content will be paramount for companies which handle large amount of data (financial, social, etc).

3. Print Design influence
Traditional techniques from print design are increasingly being applied to the Web, be they layout techniques or rich versatile typography. Web Designers are taking layout and design inspiration from print. This includes lots of whitespace, large type,use of a grid and clear hierarchy of elements. The layouts of these websites often resemble those of print magazines or posters, with striking headlines, multi-column text, highlighted quotations, indented text, supporting imagery, side notes and footnotes.

4. Faster and better Web browsers
Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Opera has offered more choices to web users. But, well, it is part of a web designer's job to make sure that texts are easy and nice to read on all major browsers and platforms. With browser wars is in full force, Techniques for progressive enhancement are more commonplace than before, giving users of modern web browsers a better web experience than those who will not or cannot use them. This has surely drive competition in web designing.

5. Growth of community-oriented Platforms
In many ways, the growth of platforms such as Twitter and Facebook has led the web to be much more community-oriented. Along with these changes will come increased focus in getting information in real-time. Twitter is one of the examples that give immediate and breaking information on the sites. With more and more growth of such social media platforms and more people participating in the creation of information on the web, the way in which we obtain information has shift from being from a singular source, into a more community-created source.

6. Interactive Designs
Web designers of Web applications are paying significantly more attention to the way in which functionality is presented and are trying to improve the user experience with more interactive and responsive solutions. There's a lot more emphasis now on site usability and creating sites that are minimalist in design and easy to navigate (perfect use of CSS and a grid based layout). Horizontal scroll bars have been out there for a decade, but today it feels that they are gaining a new context. The move to horizontal scroll bars is probably an attempt among some designers to provide a more distinct user experience. One way to make websites more responsive is through "keypress navigation," which hasn't been widely adopted so far. But lately we've observed more designs implementing this effectively. Web designers of Web applications are paying significantly more attention to the way in which functionality is presented and are trying to improve the user experience with more interactive and responsive solutions.

7. Slab Typefaces
These are relatively new as in the past logos and headers were smaller and more understated by web designers. However, combined with the trend toward larger headers, slab typefaces demand the reader to take notice.

8. Rich and strong Typography
It has played a major role in Web design for years now. Bold, strong, heavy headlines can effectively convey the purpose of an e-commerce website or portfolio, while subtler headings help structure content and improve legibility. Obviously, the big change we're seeing today is richer, more versatile typography. Oversized logos on an equally oversized header and Footer. We've further noticed that Web designers are extending their font stacks, adding increasingly more fall-back fonts in case a specified font is not available.

9. Recent trends
like embossing, PNG transparency, rich user Interfaces, Font replacement, Huge Images, Modal boxes(A modal box is like the pop-up's more sophisticated They serve as a user-friendly alternative to classic JavaScript windows), Media blocks, The magazine look, Carousels (slideshow navigations, in which the content rotates vertically or horizontally), Introduction blocks(place the most important message of the website right there and thus make sure that readers get the message as quickly as possible.) will continue to grow in this year.

10. More Personalization
As web designers look for more ways of attracting users and prospects to their websites and generating business online, personalization is emerging as an important component of managing the web experience for site visitors - and delivering business value. Be simple, invisible complexity, big and bold, art and creativity, bigger picture. Web Typography is going to reach some new heights in 2010-2011. JQuery, Mootools as well as CSS3 are evolving and reaching new levels of quality and 'interactivity'. Everything seems to be moving forward to larger elements which focus the attention.

If you haven't checked out CSS3 and HTML5 websites yet ( like http://www.12thi.com ), you should really look into it because they will change the way you design and code. You can take advantage of the new features to create cleaner and more efficient layout.

It is possible that we have missed some other great trends and factors. Why don't you contribute some interesting information here? Please don't hesitate to share it with us in comments.

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How E-commerce Web Site Design Differs From Normal Web Design

When it comes to e-commerce everything is a little bit different, even the web site design for an e-commerce site as compared to a normal web design. If you are interested in developing an e-commerce site, then it is important to learn about the differences between the two types of website designs and how you can design the best e-commerce website with your resources.

Your normal web design or normal website is structured to offer information to web surfers and so it includes a variety of text blocks, photos, animations and the like. The point of these websites is to be well organized and provide comprehensive information about the topic at hand to the web surfer. Frequently, these sites offer links to other websites and sometimes have advertising as well. This is the basic setup and design of the normal web page. However, with so many people worldwide using the Internet as a means for employment there is a drastic increase in e-commerce websites online, and these sites require different attention, functions, and tools.

Your basic e-commence web site is going to have the same elements as the normal website, however the e-commerce web site must also have shopping carts, secure check outs, shipping and/or delivery information, frequently live help or call center, credit card processing, fraud protection, and other elements.

For example, the e-commerce website should be designed as a store because it is offering products for sale. Also, text should be persuasive and help viewers make the decision to buy products or services from you. In addition to this, the e-commerce website should have additional information on the products, common and suggested uses, a great gifts section, and any other information that will help sell the product.

These websites should also utilize a search function where individuals can go and look for what they want without having to go through the entire website to find it. This is something normal web pages usually do not have, but as an e-commerce site it will certainly serve you and your customers well.

A testimonials page is also important on an e-commerce site because it allows newcomers to read about past customers experiences, which builds confidence immediately in your products and services. This is a really important page that you will certainly want to include on your e-commerce website.

Also, a FAQ page will really prove to be a big help to both you and your customers. The reason for this is that most customers have the same or very similar questions, and if you go ahead and answer them on an FAQ page you will not have to worry about receiving and responding to lots of different e-mails asking the same questions. Save yourself a lot of work and include an FAQ page!

Now that you know the basic differences between a normal web page and an e-commerce website, you are well on your way to building and designing your e-commerce website.

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