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Friday, 01 February 2019 00:00
Web Design: Look and Feel, Page Layout, Navigation, Content
Top 20 Must-have Website Design Factors
- Ideally, your site's URL should contain your most important keyword.
- Your website should run on a content management system. Free open-source content management systems like Joomla would do a fantastic job supporting 90% of all websites, including some very complex ones.
- The style of your website should reflect the type of business you are in (check the leading companies/organizations in your field and model your site after them)
- Your site should be compatible with all major browsers two generations back
- Your site needs to be highly responsive, i.e. resize and rescale itself on all major mobile phones and tablet devices
- Page load time should be under 2-4 seconds
- All external links should open a 'New Window'; all internal links should be set for the 'This/Same Frame'
- All hyperlinks should have 'Titles' defined.
- All images should have 'alt' tags describing their content.
- Your website needs to have pleasant images and an easy-to-read typography (font) style as well as spacious and not cluttered formatting.
- Your contact information needs to contain your full physical address, phone number and email, and it should be easily accessible
- Your website's navigation should be hierarchical (a tree-like structure)
- Your website's navigation should be arranged logically, starting with the broadest category and progressing down to more specific sub-categories.
- Your website must have a Breadcrumb element and a Site Map element
- Your website must contain a site-wide Search element (Google search is the best option)
- Your website needs to have a Registration form or other means of gathering users' contacts.
- Your website needs to incorporate Social Media buttons (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn)
- Your website needs to have a Blog with user comments
- Your website needs to have a custom 404 error page and 301 redirect setup
- Above all, your website should offer free and useful information for your visitors, presented in an easy-to-read format (text arranged in short paragraphs, using headers, sub-headers, bulleted lists and other web page formatting principles).
There are standard web design practices that are the norm in modern web design. However, in real life organizations often rely on opinions of individual team members who often have limited experience and lack formal training. If you'd like to discuss your website design or redesign project, call Joomla Bliss at 613.231.6308
Published in
Web Design Project
Tagged under
Friday, 14 September 2018 00:00
Selecting a Content Management System (CMS)
Selecting a Content Management System (CMS)
When selecting a Content Management System (CMS) for your website, consider the following:
- Will your website have a significant affect on your business? For example, a restaurant business is not going to be severely affected by a poorly designed website.
- Do you have a very specific, highly custom and very large-scale plan for your website? For example, are you thinking of setting up a social networking community website similar to Facebook? Are you developing an Online auction?
- Will you offer a significant amount of content? Will your website have more than 50 pages?
- Will your website have a blog where people can post comments?
- Will your website offer a newsletter subscription?
- Will you be selling anything via your website? One item or multiple items? Locally or Internationally
- Will you offer free downloads of PDF, Word, Excel files?
- Will you have a lot of visual elements, such as product image galleries, photos, videos, etc?
- Will there be restricted areas on your website that would require users to login?
- Will you have a lot of social interaction on your site (posting comments, uploading photos, exchanging messages, etc.)?
- Do you have plans to grow and enhance your website gradually, i.e. adding polls, surveys, quizzes, adding e-commerce, etc.?
- Will you be changing the look and feel of your site frequently, i.e. once every 2 years?
If you answer 'Yes' to 5 of any of these questions, your choice of a CMS should be Joomla. If your website is largely driven by a blog or simple text - it is safe to select WordPress. If you answer 'Yes' with an strong emphasis to question #2 - select Drupal or Magento.
One of the benefits of selecting Joomla for your website back-end administration is ability to chose from over 8000 third party Joomla off-the-shelf components and plugins. A Using quality extensions a Joomla developer can "assemble" a highly complex and sophisticated site in a matter of days. Customizing the flow and adding granularity to the features can be later enhanced and completed in phases, adjusting the requirements to real user behqaviour.
Whatever you do, make sure to test drive your CMS. Do not solely rely on sales presentations or word of advice. Consider the following CMS comparison article. And if you are still uncertain and would like to talk to us about a website CMS, call Joomla Bliss at 613.231.6308.
Published in
Web Design Project
Tagged under
Friday, 19 October 2018 00:00
Website Marketing: What to Expect
Your website is representative of your business, its reputation and even credibility. When getting ready to build a website, consider the following factors:
- Your website needs to have a modern look and feel, appropriate for your type of business (e.g. social networking website versus financial planning firm; alternative energy provider versus HR software developer)
- Your website needs to offer a good amount of free and interesting information to its visitors (links to quality websites in your industry, free PDFs, demos, etc.)
- Your website's content needs to be written in a simple language and presented in an easy-to-read format (suitable for visual scanning)
- Your website needs to have clear and visible calls to action (buy, order, download, register - links, banners, and buttons)
- You webiste needs to collect emails of your visitors or other contact information (newsletter signup, registration form, free download, free demo)
- You need to conduct a thorough keyword research as well as competitive analysis
- You need to SEO your site's design, content, and formatting by incorporating your main keywords in all structural elements
- You need to build as many incoming (back) links as you can from sites and blogs in your industry
- Your need to learn about online PR and Social Media Marketing (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Plus, and Pinterest)
- Your need to participate in your industry's reputable forums and blogs and offer your professional advice
You need to enrol in Google AdWords; you need to create custom landing pages for each ad group (one per each ad group, keep them orphan)
You need to collect your website statistics and analyze it on a regular basis (Google Analytics is a must; remember to set goals)
In summary, you need to be constantly creating content: on your website's blog and on the leading social sites, as well as posting comments on forums and blogs with links back to your site where possible. The key is to create meanignful and useful content for your visitors and for the general public; re-writing your press releases and posting them on all social sites will be counter productive.
Above all, you need to entice your users to clicking on Social Media buttons: "like" and "plus" and "share" your pages as well as posting comments on your site. Those comments should ideally contain your most important keywords. Comments are key. Simply clicking the buttons is not enough, or you need hundreds of those clicks. But comments, if you can get 40 social media "likes" with keyword-relevant comments, you site will move up in ranking on Google very significantly. Being on the first page on Google will drive traffic to your site. Your next objective is to retain this traffic by earning its interest.
If you'd like to talk about your website marketing objectives call Joomla Bliss at 613.231.6308
Published in
Marketing and SEO
Thursday, 12 July 2018 00:00
How to Select a Hosting Company for a Joomla Website
If you are considering a new Joomla website or converting your old website into a Joomla website, start with finding out whether your current hosting provider supports Joomla properly. Joomla runs best on the *nix apache type of servers (not Windows apache), Linux apache is often the best choice if you are getting a Joomla-driven website.
Most hosting companies say that they "support Joomla", but in reality they often support only "plan vanilla" Joomla but for more advanced requirements they implement "work-arounds" or don't support them at all. Some advanced Joomla security components do not run well on these servers. In theory, you can add plugins and customize configuration on any server to get it all working, but in practice - it results in endless communication, hosting support folks are not always knowledgeable, and in some cases, additional tweaks destabilize the site and can even break it.
It is best to do things in the right way right from the start. Get a Linux apache server to host your Joomla websites.
Joomla Website Hosting Requirements
- LAMP server: Linux + Apache Server + MySQL + PHP/Perl
- PHP scripting available (PHP Version 5.3.10+, 5.5+ recommended)
- Access to MySQL database. MYSQL Version 5.1+
- FTP/Control Panel Access. Database access.
- Support for mod_rewrite (for SEF) - a Linux apache server supports it natively
- Support for apache/PHP modules: mod_zlib, mod_sql, mod_xml, curl, curlwrapper, GD library, ionCube, rewrite.
To be sure, please review the official Joomla Technical Requirements page.
Published in
Joomla Web Design
Tagged under
Monday, 26 December 2022 00:00
Single Page Web Design Trend of 2022
Love it or hate it, but you can't deny that it's there. The single page web design is the most noticeable trend of 2022.
When we ask our clients what website designs they like they send us samples of the sites that all have a few things in common:
- Scrolling: One page (i.e. wall) design where the main menu tabs, if present, do not take you to new pages but jump you down on the same page. Scrolling can be quite extensive!
- Flat navigation, i.e. no submenus visible
- Excessive pagination, where one article is spread through multiple pages, making users click "next" multiple times
- Sliding in and out of side navigational panels a la Windows 10
- Zigzagging of on-page information by presenting a chunk of it aligned to the left and then the chunk that follows aligned to the right
- On-page boxes instead of the traditional navigation with the main menu on the top or side bar
- Use of imagery, icons and buttons of huge dimensions; use of huge font sizes; use of contrasting bright colors
- Use of transparent background with overlayed images and buttons
- Stacking links to key information points in the footer area, with no site map
- Limited amount of information presented on a page
Take a look at some of the examples that illustrate this web design trend:
One-page desing with zigzagging of information
Huge overlayed images with transparency work
Large images, large buttons, centering small chunks of information
Oversized images, fonts, buttons, and boxes
As with everything, there are pluses and minuses of this web design trend.
Published in
Web Design News
Friday, 13 July 2018 00:00
10 Tips for Marketing Managers: Website Design or Redesign Project
Planning on undertaking a website design or website redesign project? Allow us to present the ultimate website redesign checklist.
Kick off the project. Get executives on board
- Schedule informal one-on-one meetings with your key executives and ask them what they would like to see in a new website.
- Then schedule a group meeting with all key executives.
- Get their consensus on all main points regarding the future website's usability and look and feel
- Define roles and get proper authority for yourself. Get your executives to officially appoint you as the Project Lead by sending an email announcement to everyone in your company who maybe involved in this project.
Plan your project. Prepare. Do homework
- Large website design project can last several months
- Create a project plan
- Work backward from the desired launch date
- List all major milestones first (prepare requirements, hire a web design agency, etc)
- Split each milestone into smaller tasks (provide screen shots of favorable design samples, collect links to sample websites, etc)
- Setup reminders for yourself
- Adjust the plan as you think of more things to do and add more tasks
Define website requirements and create an RFP (request for proposals) document
- List all features and capabilities you'd like to have on your website.
- List as many as you can, even some very small ones
- Order them by categories (interface, usability, back-end management, statistics, etc)
- Provide links to applicable examples and paste in screen shots (do both).
- Clearly articulate things that you do like and those you don't like
- In case of RFPs, more is better. The more information and examples, the better.
- Plan at least a week for this milestone
Most common items to include in the website design RFP document:
- your company overview and vision/mission
- main purposes of the website (reputation, information presentation, lead generation, selling online, event management, etc)
- list all desired functionalities, including very small ones (CMS recommendation, online backup capability, mobile device friendliness, external link open new window, browser compatibility, stylish typography, etc.)
- ask for recommendations on features and functionalities, a lot of useful information will come your way that may help you cut costs
- planned completion date (website launch)
- planned project duration, for example, 90 calendar days
- request a project plan
- request training and post-launch support options
- request website maintenance options (SLA)
- request hosting recommendations (even if you already have hosting)
- request detaile financial proposal: cost breakdown, the number of hours allocated for each item and hourly rate. Do not specify your budget unless it is very small. Request to add all costs (such as project management, communications, etc.). Request to specify what extra charges may be incurred later on (additional project management if the project gets delayed, moving the site to a live hosting, communications with your host, etc)
- specify whether or not image sourcing and formatting will be required or not
- provide proposal evaluation criteria. Be specific, assign points to each criteria.
- provide clear submission instructions (print/email, deadline for questions, deadline for submission, etc)
- specify proposal award process (winners are invited to the interviews in 30 days after proposal deadline; losers are not notified)
- ask for portfolio samples of similar projects
- ask for client references (this is different from portfolio! and very important to ask for)
- request resumes with designers' qualifications
- include legal clauses (no obligation, confidentiality)
Source qualified web design agencies
- Do a Google search for "website design" in your area and gather emails from 10-20 website agencies
- Send your RFP doc to these design agencies via a BCC email
- Alternatively, you can post your RFP on MERX (if you are in Canada)
- Gather proposals and read them carefully while taking notes. Even though it is time consuming, this step is crucial for the success of your website redesign project. Proposals will be part of the legal contract you will have with the hired agency, so if an item is not in the proposal, the service provider will have no obligation to complete it
- Select three finalists and invite them for an interview
Hire the most qualified web design agency for your project
- Prepare a checklist with 5-10 hiring criteria, for example:
- understanding of your requirements and objectives
- agency’s expertise and portfolio
- similar projects completed and client references
- designers' qualifications (many web design agencies have a very high churn and hire recent grads for the actual work; only sales and account management folks are permanent)
- project methodology (ask for a "walk through" on how the project is progressed; what PM software tools are used, if any)
- risk mitigation strategies (what if you don't like the design concepts? will you need to pay for rework?
- quality assurance processes
- communications protocol and response rate (emails are answered within 12-24 hours)
- account management (who will be your main contact and their role in the agency)
- cancellation policies (what if the web agency decides to end the project prematurely)
- Select three finalists and invite them for interviews
- Schedule all three interviews in one week
- Schedule all interviews in the morning
- Do not interview more than one agency per day
- Take your time. Spend 1-2 hours on each web desing agency
- Ask questions and take the opportunity to fill potential gaps in your knowledge
- Create a matrix for the three finalists and evaluate the results carefully. Do it in writing. First impressions are not always correct. Some sales people are very good, but this does not always mean that their proposed value is the best
- Use a group meeting if your team is large, gather “votes” and analyze 'pros' and 'cons' for each agency
- Address the financial part of the proposals separately
- Double check to make sure that all costs have been factored in (your budget can double because of the "not included" items)
- Schedule a meeting with your executive team and present your findings to them along with your recommendation on the final candidate.
- Make sure you get their consensus and official approval
- Notify the web design agency who is awarded your contract
- Ensure that the proposal is pasted into the legal Contract with all the necessary changes
- Sign the contract and get the signed copy from the hired web design agency
- Provide down payment if required.
Start the design and production process
- Request a kickoff meeting with the web design agency and ask them to walk you through the process again. This can be done remotely.
- Set up tasks and reminders for all milestones of the project as per the project plan submitted by the hired web design agency in their proposal/contract.
Coordinate with the web design agency
- If the project plan is too high-level, make necessary adjustments and update the web design agency on the changes.
- Use Google calendar to track milestones and main tasks and share it with your web designers
- Split up all milestones and large tasks into small tasks. For example, for larger chunks of tasks, such as re-format 100 pages, ask to complete 1-4 and pages first and show them to you for approval. This step can be split into three tasks: ask for 1-4 samples; provide feedback; verify the final results (set reminders for yourself).
Organize project files properly
- Update your project plan promptly
- Store all emails and documents related to the website design project in designated folders. Have a back up copy online (Google drive is highly secure).
- Use long descriptive subject lines in your emails. Request the designers do the same. This will help you locate a particular email quickly.
- Do not send long emails, but be specific.
- Do not delete emails for 3 months upon completion of the project.
Manage quality and conduct QA
- Provide your feedback in writing
- For the main reviews, summarize your requests in one document. Be clear and specific, add illustrations and screen shots - this will ensure the best quality of the final product and decrease your communication time.
- Provide your approvals in a timely manner.
- Plan for and conduct Quality Assurance
- Conduct your own QA and list all the items
- Request your team members do the same (make sure to explain that no design changes will be made at this point)
- Summarize all required changes into one document and send it to the designers
- Schedule a QA meeting with your web design agency (in person or via skype)
- Go over all items one by one
Manage your management wisely
- Some executives request new features after the design has been completed. This can get you caught into a grinder between the designers, executives and your finance department.
- Notify your management and get their approvals on each important milestone by email (completion of the design concept, completion of content porting, completion of usability flow)
- Clearly explain where additional charges may apply.
Joomla Bliss is a specialized boutique website design firm based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. We will be delighted to talk to you about your website design or redeisgn project. We work on a fixed-cost all-including contract basis, and our quote includes Joomla and SEO training as well as granular project reporting and post-launch support. Call Anna at 613.231.6308 or email her to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to discuss your website design or redesign challenges and objectives.
Published in
Website Design - Project Mgmnt
Saturday, 14 October 2017 00:00
Website Template Provider: Yootheme
Hi from Joomla Bliss, a web design agency in Ottawa
This post is a review of one of our favourite website template designers Yootheme. The company is based in Hamburg, Germany and run by a team of young designers and developers. They build their templates using Warp framework .
We like their style. Their website templates come loaded with a suite of neat widgets. We find that for North American business environment their templates are best suited for small businesses and consultants, and not for medium or large corporations.
They stay in synch with times and add new templates often. The demo site is very easy to use, each site comes in several color schemes. Their website templates are designed for Joomla and Wordpress.
The prices are higher than average and the Euro conversion makes their templates adn subscription almost double of those of Rockettheme or Joomlart.
If you are interested in finding out more, contact Joomla Bliss via this site or give us a call at 613.231.6308.
Published in
Web Design Project
Friday, 17 November 2017 00:00
Website Template Provider: Rockettheme
Hello from Joomla Bliss, a web design agency in Ottawa
This post is a review of one of our favourite website template providers Rockettheme. The company is based in Denver, Colorado and run by a team of experienced web designers and developers. They build templates for Joomla, Worpress and Magento.
We love them almost as much as we love Joomlart. Their website templates come loaded useful extensions and neat modules. And their templates are very well suited for any type of business in any country.
They stay in synch with times and add new templates often. Rocketheme has a vast network of partners who offer signigicant discounts on their products via Rocketthem
The prices are very reasonable in the web design industry. We love how clean their code it, how scalable it is and how rich with extensions their website templates are.
If you are interested in finding out more, contact Joomla Bliss via this site or give us a call at 613.231.6308.
Published in
Web Design Project
Monday, 25 September 2017 00:00
Website Template Provider: Joomlart
Greetings from Joomla Bliss, a web design agency in Ottawa
This post is a review of our favourite website template provider Joomlart. The company is 11 years old, which is very old for web businesses; it is based in Vietnam and run by a team of young web designers and developers. They build their templates using powerful T3 framework.
We like their style. Their website templates come loaded useful extensions and neat modules. We find that Joomlart's templates are very well suited for North American businesses of any size as well as for individual owners and consultants.
They stay in synch with times and add new templates often. The demo site is very easy to use, each site comes in several color schemes. They also develop templates for Magento as well, which is a very good engine for ecommerce sites. The extension suite that they offer for sale is of exceptionally high quality. It is a one-stop place for any online business. We can assemble some of the most complicated business models for under $1000 using Joomlart's tempates and extensions.
Recently Joomlart began to offer templates for Wordpress as well.
The prices are very reasonable and probably the best in the web design industry. We love how clean their code it, how scalable it is and how rich with extensions their website templates are.
If you are interested in finding out more, contact Joomla Bliss via this site or give us a call at 613.231.6308.
Published in
Web Design Project
Sunday, 24 December 2017 00:00
Joomla! 3.4.8 Released
Season's Greetings from Joomla Bliss in Ottawa!
The Joomla Development Team has just released Joomla version 3.4.8! Unlike the last few patches which are more urgent, this is mainly a bug-fix patch, so the team agreed that this can wait until after the holidays :) We do recommmended every one to update to 3.4.8 as soon as they can though, just to stay up-to-date.
You can update your site in your Joomla! admin panel or download the packages on the Joomla! site.
If you need any assistances with Joomla design upgrades or need to restore a hacked Joomla website, we at Joomla Bliss are happy to help. Just give us a call!
Published in
Joomla News
FAQ Categories
- Website Design - Costs (3)
- Website Design - Timeline (2)
- Website Design - Project Mgmnt (3)
- Website Design - Risk Management (1)
- Website Design - Joomla Bliss Team (1)
- Website Design - Quality (2)
- Website Design - Content Management System (CMS) (1)
- Website Design - Template Layout (3)
- Website Design - Hosting (2)
- Website Design - SEO (2)
- Website Design - Maintenance and Support (1)
- Website Design - Joomla Trainng (1)
- Website Design - Mobile Website (1)
- Website Design - Upgrading Joomla (1)
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