Archive for February, 2008

February 28th 2008
Tips for Good Web Page Design

Posted under Dreamweaver

Some basic tips when you start to design your website:

  1. Short Paragraphs
    Break text into very short paragraphs. Longer paragraphs tend to look like forbidding brick walls of type on screen.
  2. Clean, modern fonts
    Use a sans serif (clean, modern-looking) font, like verdana or arial for paragraphs of text because they are more legible on screen.
  3. Don’t center Paragraphs
    Don’t center more than two lines of type. Centering is ok for headlines, but in paragraphs it begins to look messy and is harder to read.
  4. Don’t use all caps
    Don’t use all caps, except in headlines. They’re harder to read. Use Bold or Italic for emphasis. All-caps is considered shouting.
  5. Contrast between text and background
    Make sure there is lots of contrast between your background color and text or it will be hard to read. If you use a background image, make sure it’s extremely low contrast so it won’t make reading text difficult.
  6. Use images that download quickly
    Learn to use tools like Photoshop or Pixelmator (or even free tools like iPhoto) to resize and optimize your pictures for quick download.
  7. Use the same image on different pages
    Using the same image over and over on different pages will economize on transfers. If the same image appears on different pages of your site, it will only have to be downloaded by the browser one time.
  8. Keep it compact
    Don’t annoy users! Scrolling, especially side-to-side, and automatically resizing a user’s browser window often makes people go away without exploring your content.
  9. Easy navigation
    Make it easy to find links to every part of your site from every page. Organize links so they are obvious and intuitive, and put navigation near the top of your page.
  10. Keep it simple
    Don’t load the page with extra frills like clip art and unrelated photos. One strong photo related to the content will do more than ten random images, and cute is highly overrated. Too many elements on a page tend to look busy. They confuse, distract from and dilute content.
  11. Visual Hierarchy
    Lay out each page so the most important things have more emphasis, are noticed first and are read first. Putting things at the top, in the upper left or center, making them bigger or brighter or in more contrast to the background are all ways of creating emphasis. Surrounding something with blank space also creates emphasis.

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February 23rd 2008
Website Update

Posted under Fenixworks

When you are registering for a workshop, you now have the option to choose “Pay by Master Card/Visa” or “Invoice Me”.

Using the Master Card/Visa option to pay for the workshop immediately has always been the only option. The new option for an invoice allows you to automatically generate an invoice that you can submit to your company.

When you use the “Invoice Me” option, feel free to mail your check in, or simply bring it along with you to your first workshop (and save on postage!)

Up until today you’ve had to call and get an invoice generated on the phone. We’re very happy to have added this functionality directly to our website.

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1007 SW Morrison • Portland, Oregon 97205 • 503-336-4712 voice