Saturday, December 31, 2022

Happy New Year!


We are looking forward to working with you in the coming year!

TO LEARN MORE, CALL TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967




Sunday, December 25, 2022

**Award Winning** CGI 3D Animated Short Film "Hey Deer!" by Ors Barczy |...


Hey Deer! Short Animated Film about an adorable, cocoa-drinking deer who is eager to tidy and shoveling in front of his house every day. However, there is a suspicious earthquake every night which causes the mess day by day and make unbearable our fella’s life. Between two cups of cocoa the amazing truth reveals which changes the deer’s life forever…

TO LEARN MORE, CALL TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967



Wednesday, December 21, 2022

How search engines see the web


If you want to make sure your website turns up in more search engine results, stay tuned for this video, which includes:

- how search engines understand what’s on a web page
- which parts of a web page help search engines do this
- how to make your web pages more visible to search engines.

TO LEARN MORE, CALL TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Sunday, December 18, 2022

Web Typography

Web typography is the use of fonts on the World Wide Web. When HTML was first created, font faces and styles were controlled exclusively by the settings of each web browser. There was no mechanism for individual Web pages to control font display until Netscape introduced the font element in 1995, which was then standardized in the HTML 3.2 specification. However, the font specified by the font element had to be installed on the user's computer or a fallback font, such as a browser's default sans-serif or monospace font, would be used. The first Cascading Style Sheets specification was published in 1996 and provided the same capabilities.

The CSS2 specification was released in 1998 and attempted to improve the font selection process by adding font matching, synthesis and download. These techniques did not gain much use, and were removed in the CSS2.1 specification. However, Internet Explorer added support for the font downloading feature in version 4.0, released in 1997. Font downloading was later included in the CSS3 fonts module, and has since been implemented in Safari 3.1, Opera 10 and Mozilla Firefox 3.5. This has subsequently increased interest in Web typography, as well as the use of font downloading.

Read more, here.

TO LEARN MORE, CALL TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Thursday, December 15, 2022

Advertising on social media


If you want to reach specific audiences online, advertising on social media sites is a great option. In this video we’ll talk about: 

- how to get your message in front of specific audiences
- how advertising on social networks can complement your other social efforts.

TO LEARN MORE, CALL TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Friday, December 9, 2022

Occupations, Who Builds Websites?

There are two primary jobs involved in creating a website: the web designer and web developer, who often work closely together on a website. The web designers are responsible for the visual aspect, which includes the layout, coloring and typography of a web page. Web designers will also have a working knowledge of markup languages such as HTML and CSS, although the extent of their knowledge will differ from one web designer to another. Particularly in smaller organizations, one person will need the necessary skills for designing and programming the full web page, while larger organizations may have a web designer responsible for the visual aspect alone.

Further jobs which may become involved in the creation of a website include:

  • Graphic designers to create visuals for the site such as logos, layouts and buttons
  • Internet marketing specialists to help maintain web presence through strategic solutions on targeting viewers to the site, by using marketing and promotional techniques on the internet
  • SEO writers to research and recommend the correct words to be incorporated into a particular website and make the website more accessible and found on numerous search engines
  • Internet copywriter to create the written content of the page to appeal to the targeted viewers of the site
  • User experience (UX) designer incorporates aspects of user-focused design considerations which include information architecture, user-centered design, user testing, interaction design, and occasionally visual design.

Read more, here.

TO LEARN MORE, CALL TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Tuesday, December 6, 2022

Setting your goals for social media


Once you’ve learned the lay of the land when it comes to social media, it’s time to figure out what you’re trying to accomplish. Let’s talk about: 

- setting specific goals for your social media efforts
- focusing your efforts on those goals
- putting your plan into action.

TO LEARN MORE, CALL TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Wednesday, November 30, 2022

Homepage Design

Usability experts, including Jakob Nielsen and Kyle Soucy, have often emphasized homepage design for website success and asserted that the homepage is the most important page on a website. Nielsen, Jakob; Tahir, Marie (October 2001), Homepage Usability: 50 Websites Deconstructed, New Riders Publishing. However practitioners into the 2000s were starting to find that a growing number of website traffic was bypassing the homepage, going directly to internal content pages through search engines, e-newsletters and RSS feeds. Leading many practitioners to argue that homepages are less important than most people think. Jared Spool argued in 2007 that a site's homepage was actually the least important page on a website.

In 2012 and 2013, carousels (also called 'sliders' and 'rotating banners') have become an extremely popular design element on homepages, often used to showcase featured or recent content in a confined space. Many practitioners argue that carousels are an ineffective design element and hurt a website's search engine optimization and usability.

Read more, here.

TO LEARN MORE, CALL TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Sunday, November 27, 2022

Set targets for your small business


Learn how to set targets for your small business and achieve them.

TO LEARN MORE, CALL TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Thursday, November 24, 2022

Happy Thanksgiving.


Happy Thanksgiving from the team here at Upward Trend.

TO LEARN MORE, CALL TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967



Monday, November 21, 2022

Generated Content : Dynamic Websites

Dynamic websites are generated on the fly and use server-side technology to generate webpages. They typically extract their content from one or more back-end databases: some are database queries across a relational database to query a catalogue or to summarise numeric information, others may use a document database such as MongoDB or NoSQL to store larger units of content, such as blog posts or wiki articles.

In the design process, dynamic pages are often mocked-up or wireframed using static pages. The skillset needed to develop dynamic web pages is much broader than for a static pages, involving server-side and database coding as well as client-side interface design. Even medium-sized dynamic projects are thus almost always a team effort.

When dynamic web pages first developed, they were typically coded directly in languages such as Perl, PHP or ASP. Some of these, notably PHP and ASP, used a 'template' approach where a server-side page resembled the structure of the completed client-side page and data was inserted into places defined by 'tags'. This was a quicker means of development than coding in a purely procedural coding language such as Perl.

Both of these approaches have now been supplanted for many websites by higher-level application-focused tools such as content management systems. These build on top of general purpose coding platforms and assume that a website exists to offer content according to one of several well recognised models, such as a time-sequenced blog, a thematic magazine or news site, a wiki or a user forum. These tools make the implementation of such a site very easy, and a purely organisational and design-based task, without requiring any coding.

Editing the content itself (as well as the template page) can be done both by means of the site itself, and with the use of third-party software. The ability to edit all pages is provided only to a specific category of users (for example, administrators, or registered users). In some cases, anonymous users are allowed to edit certain web content, which is less frequent (for example, on forums - adding messages). An example of a site with an anonymous change is Wikipedia.

Read more, here.

TO LEARN MORE, CALL TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Friday, November 18, 2022

Social media basics


Social media is everywhere, and people engage with it every day. Learn what it is and how you can take advantage of these networks by:

- understanding why you need to be there
- joining the right social media sites
- growing your presence and engaging with your networks.

TO LEARN MORE, CALL TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Saturday, November 12, 2022

Generated Content : Static Websites


A static website stores a unique file for every page of a static website. Each time that page is requested, the same content is returned. This content is created once, during the design of the website. It is usually manually authored, although some sites use an automated creation process, similar to a dynamic website, whose results are stored long-term as completed pages. These automatically created static sites became more popular around 2015, with generators such as Jekyll and Adobe Muse.

The benefits of a static website are that they were simpler to host, as their server only needed to serve static content, not execute server-side scripts. This required less server administration and had less chance of exposing security holes. They could also serve pages more quickly, on low-cost server hardware. These advantage became less important as cheap web hosting expanded to also offer dynamic features, and virtual servers offered high performance for short intervals at low cost.

Almost all websites have some static content, as supporting assets such as images and style sheets are usually static, even on a website with highly dynamic pages.

Read more, here.

TO LEARN MORE, CALL TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Wednesday, November 9, 2022

Why you procrastinate even when it feels bad


Explore what happens in the brain to trigger procrastination, and what strategies you can use to break the cycle of this harmful practice.

--

The report you’ve been putting off is due tomorrow. It’s time to buckle down, open your computer ... and check your phone. Maybe watch your favorite YouTube channel? Or maybe you should just start in the morning? This is the cycle of procrastination. So, why do we procrastinate when we know it’s bad for us? Explore how your body triggers a procrastination response, and how you can break the cycle.

Directed by Vitalii Nebelskyi, and action agency.

TO LEARN MORE, CALL TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Thursday, November 3, 2022

Skills and Techniques : Quality of code

Website designers may consider it to be good practice to conform to standards. This is usually done via a description specifying what the element is doing. Failure to conform to standards may not make a website unusable or error prone, but standards can relate to the correct layout of pages for readability as well making sure coded elements are closed appropriately. This includes errors in code, more organized layout for code, and making sure IDs and classes are identified properly. Poorly coded pages are sometimes colloquially called tag soup. Validating via W3C can only be done when a correct DOCTYPE declaration is made, which is used to highlight errors in code. The system identifies the errors and areas that do not conform to web design standards. This information can then be corrected by the user.

Read more, here.

TO LEARN MORE, CALL TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Monday, October 31, 2022

Your email marketing options


Many email marketing software systems will guide you through the entire process of setting up an effective email campaign. You can monitor how recipients interact with your emails in order to personalise the content. In this video, you’ll learn about:

- common features of email marketing tools
- benefits of tracking email recipient behaviours
- personalising content according to customer information.

TO LEARN MORE, CALL TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Tuesday, October 25, 2022

Skills and Techniques : Motion graphics


The page layout and user interface may also be affected by the use of motion graphics. The choice of whether or not to use motion graphics may depend on the target market for the website. Motion graphics may be expected or at least better received with an entertainment-oriented website. However, a website target audience with a more serious or formal interest (such as business, community, or government) might find animations unnecessary and distracting if only for entertainment or decoration purposes. This doesn't mean that more serious content couldn't be enhanced with animated or video presentations that is relevant to the content. In either case, motion graphic design may make the difference between more effective visuals or distracting visuals.

Motion graphics that are not initiated by the site visitor can produce accessibility issues. The World Wide Web consortium accessibility standards require that site visitors be able to disable the animations.

Read more, here.

TO LEARN MORE, CALL TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Saturday, October 22, 2022

Your online goals


Taking your business online offers a lot of opportunities, but with so many options, it’s easy to spin your wheels and lose focus. Setting specific goals can help as you begin to navigate 
the digital world.

TO LEARN MORE, CALL TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Sunday, October 16, 2022

Skills and Techniques : Typography

Web designers may choose to limit the variety of website typefaces to only a few which are of a similar style, instead of using a wide range of typefaces or type styles. Most browsers recognize a specific number of safe fonts, which designers mainly use in order to avoid complications.

Font downloading was later included in the CSS3 fonts module and has since been implemented in Safari 3.1, Opera 10 and Mozilla Firefox 3.5. This has subsequently increased interest in web typography, as well as the usage of font downloading.

Most site layouts incorporate negative space to break the text up into paragraphs and also avoid center-aligned text.

Read more, here.

TO LEARN MORE, CALL TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Thursday, October 13, 2022

Website design do’s and don’ts


When designing your website, watch out for mistakes that often chase customers away. In this lesson, we’ll outline some ways to avoid frustration, such as:

- quick-loading pages
- mobile-friendliness
- general accessibility

TO LEARN MORE, CALL TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Friday, October 7, 2022

Skills and Techniques : Page Layout


Part of the user interface design is affected by the quality of the page layout. For example, a designer may consider whether the site's page layout should remain consistent on different pages when designing the layout. Page pixel width may also be considered vital for aligning objects in the layout design. The most popular fixed-width websites generally have the same set width to match the current most popular browser window, at the current most popular screen resolution, on the current most popular monitor size. Most pages are also center-aligned for concerns of aesthetics on larger screens.

Fluid layouts increased in popularity around 2000 to allow the browser to make user-specific layout adjustments to fluid layouts based on the details of the reader's screen (window size, font size relative to window etc.). They grew as an alternative to HTML-table-based layouts and grid-based design in both page layout design principle and in coding technique, but were very slow to be adopted. This was due to considerations of screen reading devices and varying windows sizes which designers have no control over. Accordingly, a design may be broken down into units (sidebars, content blocks, embedded advertising areas, navigation areas) that are sent to the browser and which will be fitted into the display window by the browser, as best it can. Although such a display may often change the relative position of major content units, sidebars may be displaced below body text rather than to the side of it. This is a more flexible display than a hard-coded grid-based layout that doesn't fit the device window. In particular, the relative position of content blocks may change while leaving the content within the block unaffected. This also minimizes the user's need to horizontally scroll the page.

Responsive web design is a newer approach, based on CSS3, and a deeper level of per-device specification within the page's style sheet through an enhanced use of the CSS @media rule. In March 2018 Google announced they would be rolling out mobile-first indexing. Sites using responsive design are well placed to ensure they meet this new approach.

Read more, here.

TO LEARN MORE, CALL TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Tuesday, October 4, 2022

Building your online presence


Let’s take a look at all the options for launching your business online, step by step. We’ll cover:

- local listings
- social media and video
- websites and mobile apps.

TO LEARN MORE, CALL TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967


Wednesday, September 28, 2022

Skills and Techniques : User Experience Design and Interactive Design


User understanding of the content of a website often depends on user understanding of how the website works. This is part of the user experience design. User experience is related to layout, clear instructions and labeling on a website. How well a user understands how they can interact on a site may also depend on the interactive design of the site. If a user perceives the usefulness of the website, they are more likely to continue using it. Users who are skilled and well versed with website use may find a more distinctive, yet less intuitive or less user-friendly website interface useful nonetheless. However, users with less experience are less likely to see the advantages or usefulness of a less intuitive website interface. This drives the trend for a more universal user experience and ease of access to accommodate as many users as possible regardless of user skill. Much of the user experience design and interactive design are considered in the user interface design.

Advanced interactive functions may require plug-ins if not advanced coding language skills. Choosing whether or not to use interactivity that requires plug-ins is a critical decision in user experience design. If the plug-in doesn't come pre-installed with most browsers, there's a risk that the user will have neither the know how or the patience to install a plug-in just to access the content. If the function requires advanced coding language skills, it may be too costly in either time or money to code compared to the amount of enhancement the function will add to the user experience. There's also a risk that advanced interactivity may be incompatible with older browsers or hardware configurations. Publishing a function that doesn't work reliably is potentially worse for the user experience than making no attempt. It depends on the target audience if it's likely to be needed or worth any risks.

Read more, here.

TO LEARN MORE, CALL TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Sunday, September 25, 2022

The power of local directories


One of the best ways to connect with customers online is to get listed in local directories. In this lesson we’ll show you:

- where to start
- how to list your business
- how to manage your local profiles.

TO LEARN MORE HOW WE CAN HELP YOU, CALL US TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Monday, September 19, 2022

Skills and Techniques : Marketing and Communication Design

Marketing and communication design on a website may identify what works for its target market. This can be an age group or particular strand of culture; thus the designer may understand the trends of its audience. Designers may also understand the type of website they are designing, meaning, for example, that (B2B) business-to-business website design considerations might differ greatly from a consumer targeted website such as a retail or entertainment website. Careful consideration might be made to ensure that the aesthetics or overall design of a site do not clash with the clarity and accuracy of the content or the ease of web navigation, especially on a B2B website. Designers may also consider the reputation of the owner or business the site is representing to make sure they are portrayed favourably.

Read more, here.

TO LEARN MORE, CALL TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Friday, September 16, 2022

Using digital to advertise locally


Local advertising is a great, affordable (sometimes even free) way to connect with customers who are close at hand. In this lesson we’ll talk about:

- why local advertising is important
- where you can advertise online to local customers
- some special features of “local” ads.

TO LEARN MORE HOW WE CAN HELP YOU, CALL US TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Saturday, September 10, 2022

History of Web Design 2001-2012 and Later...


2001–2012
Since the start of the 21st century the web has become more and more integrated into peoples lives. As this has happened the technology of the web has also moved on. There have also been significant changes in the way people use and access the web, and this has changed how sites are designed.

Since the end of the browsers wars new browsers have been released. Many of these are open source meaning that they tend to have faster development and are more supportive of new standards. The new options are considered by many to be better than Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

The W3C has released new standards for HTML (HTML5) and CSS (CSS3), as well as new JavaScript API's, each as a new but individual standard.[when?] While the term HTML5 is only used to refer to the new version of HTML and some of the JavaScript API's, it has become common to use it to refer to the entire suite of new standards (HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript).

2012 and later
With the improvement of 3G and LTE internet coverage, large part of website traffic became mobile-generated. This affected the web design industry, pushing it towards minimalistic, lightened and simplistic style. In particular, the "Mobile first" approach emerged, which implies creating website design with mobile-oriented layout first, and then adapting it to higher screen dimensions.

Read more, here.

TO LEARN MORE, CALL TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Wednesday, September 7, 2022

Measuring success in email marketing


Knowing whether your email campaigns are successful will help you take the right actions when it comes time to improving them. In this lesson, we'll explore:

- why email metrics are important in evaluating campaign success
- five useful metrics that can help you understand email performance
- how to draw insights from the email metrics gathered.

TO LEARN MORE HOW WE CAN HELP YOU, CALL US TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Thursday, September 1, 2022

Evolution of Web Design

In 1996, Microsoft released its first competitive browser, which was complete with its own features and HTML tags. It was also the first browser to support style sheets, which at the time was seen as an obscure authoring technique and is today an important aspect of web design. The HTML markup for tables was originally intended for displaying tabular data. However designers quickly realized the potential of using HTML tables for creating the complex, multi-column layouts that were otherwise not possible. At this time, as design and good aesthetics seemed to take precedence over good mark-up structure, and little attention was paid to semantics and web accessibility. HTML sites were limited in their design options, even more so with earlier versions of HTML. To create complex designs, many web designers had to use complicated table structures or even use blank spacer .GIF images to stop empty table cells from collapsing. CSS was introduced in December 1996 by the W3C to support presentation and layout. This allowed HTML code to be semantic rather than both semantic and presentational, and improved web accessibility, see tableless web design.

In 1996, Flash (originally known as FutureSplash) was developed. At the time, the Flash content development tool was relatively simple compared to now, using basic layout and drawing tools, a limited precursor to ActionScript, and a timeline, but it enabled web designers to go beyond the point of HTML, animated GIFs and JavaScript. However, because Flash required a plug-in, many web developers avoided using it for fear of limiting their market share due to lack of compatibility. Instead, designers reverted to gif animations (if they didn't forego using motion graphics altogether) and JavaScript for widgets. But the benefits of Flash made it popular enough among specific target markets to eventually work its way to the vast majority of browsers, and powerful enough to be used to develop entire sites.

Read more, here.

TO LEARN MORE, CALL TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Monday, August 29, 2022

Managing successful email campaigns


There’s a lot to manage when running an email campaign - use these strategies to set yourself up for success. Here we’ll explore how to:

- use A/B testing to improve engagement
- create relevant campaign landing pages
- measure the performance of your email campaigns.

TO LEARN MORE HOW WE CAN HELP YOU, CALL US TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Tuesday, August 23, 2022

The Start of the Web and Web Design

In 1989, whilst working at CERN Tim Berners-Lee proposed to create a global hypertext project, which later became known as the World Wide Web. During 1991 to 1993 the World Wide Web was born. Text-only pages could be viewed using a simple line-mode browser. In 1993 Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina, created the Mosaic browser. At the time there were multiple browsers, however the majority of them were Unix-based and naturally text heavy. There had been no integrated approach to graphic design elements such as images or sounds. The Mosaic browser broke this mould. The W3C was created in October 1994 to "lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its interoperability." This discouraged any one company from monopolizing a propriety browser and programming language, which could have altered the effect of the World Wide Web as a whole. The W3C continues to set standards, which can today be seen with JavaScript and other languages. In 1994 Andreessen formed Mosaic Communications Corp. that later became known as Netscape Communications, the Netscape 0.9 browser. Netscape created its own HTML tags without regard to the traditional standards process. For example, Netscape 1.1 included tags for changing background colours and formatting text with tables on web pages. Throughout 1996 to 1999 the browser wars began, as Microsoft and Netscape fought for ultimate browser dominance. During this time there were many new technologies in the field, notably Cascading Style Sheets, JavaScript, and Dynamic HTML. On the whole, the browser competition did lead to many positive creations and helped web design evolve at a rapid pace.

Read more, here.

TO LEARN MORE, CALL TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Saturday, August 20, 2022

Crafting great marketing emails


Your email marketing campaigns will change, but the goal remains the same. You want to craft attention-grabbing emails that encourage action. With a few tips, you can market your business like a pro. In this video, we’ll explore how to:

- use subject lines to make a good first impression
- write concise content with strong calls to action
- include helpful links for customers.

TO LEARN MORE HOW WE CAN HELP YOU, CALL US TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Sunday, August 14, 2022

History of Web Design

1988–2001

Although web design has a fairly recent history. It can be linked to other areas such as graphic design, user experience, and multimedia arts, but is more aptly seen from a technological standpoint. It has become a large part of people's everyday lives. It is hard to imagine the Internet without animated graphics, different styles of typography, background, videos and music.

Read more, here.

TO LEARN MORE, CALL TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Thursday, August 11, 2022

Email marketing basics


Sending newsletters and special offers to customers via email can play a key part in your overall marketing plan, building and strengthening relationships with your customers. In this video, we’ll explore:

- developing a contact list
- targeting audiences based on interests
- building relationships with customers.

TO LEARN MORE HOW WE CAN HELP YOU, CALL US TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Friday, August 5, 2022

Web Design


Web design encompasses many different skills and disciplines in the production and maintenance of websites. The different areas of web design include web graphic design; user interface design (UI design); authoring, including standardised code and proprietary software; user experience design (UX design); and search engine optimization. Often many individuals will work in teams covering different aspects of the design process, although some designers will cover them all. The term "web design" is normally used to describe the design process relating to the front-end (client side) design of a website including writing markup. Web design partially overlaps web engineering in the broader scope of web development. Web designers are expected to have an awareness of usability and be up to date with web accessibility guidelines.

Read more, here.

TO LEARN MORE, CALL TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Monday, August 1, 2022

Make your website easy to use


Visitors to your website should be able to navigate and interact with your site easily - that’s called usability. Bring them back again and again by: 

- providing simple and clear navigation
- creating a consistent layout
- writing relevant and effective content.

TO LEARN MORE HOW WE CAN HELP YOU, CALL US TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Internet Users

In 2009 there were reportedly 1.73 billion users worldwide with Asia taking leading with 738,257,230 users. Other internet users by region and continent include;

  • Europe - 418,029,796 users.
  • North America - 252,908,000 users.
  • Caribbean and Latin America - 179,031,479 users.
  • Africa - 67,371,700 users.
  • Middle East - 57,425,046 users.
  • Australia and Oceania - 20,970,490 users.

Following modernization, better access to computers, growth in smartphones technology and use, social media popularity, and cheaper access to the internet, the number of internet users worldwide increased tremendously to 3.97 in 2019. This represents over 51 percent of the global population, with Asia remaining the continent with the most internet users as it accounts for 50 percent of the total number of internet users worldwide. China has the most internet users in the Asian continent, accounting for 25 percent of users in Asia. Also, China has more internet users than any other country in the world with over 934 million monthly users as at 2020. This number is more than double the number of internet users in the US which ranked third with 284 million monthly online users. India ranked second with about 687 million internet users accessing the internet either through mobile devices or computers. One of the most popular activities online is social networking. In 2020, Facebook, a social networking site founded by Mark Zuckerberg recorded over 2.7 billion monthly active users. This number accounts for over half of global internet users, making Facebook the most popular online social network.

Read more, here.

TO LEARN MORE, CALL TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Sunday, July 24, 2022

How to choose keywords


Choosing keywords is the cornerstone of successful search engine optimisation. In this video, we’ll discuss:

- why you need to do keyword research
- the difference between short tail and long tail keywords
- what to consider when selecting keywords

TO LEARN MORE HOW WE CAN HELP YOU, CALL US TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Monday, July 18, 2022

Types of Websites


Websites can be divided into two broad categories—static and interactive. Interactive sites are part of the Web 2.0 community of sites and allow for interactivity between the site owner and site visitors or users. Static sites serve or capture information but do not allow engagement with the audience or users directly. Some websites are informational or produced by enthusiasts or for personal use or entertainment. Many websites do aim to make money, using one or more business models, including:
  • Posting interesting content and selling contextual advertising either through direct sales or through an advertising network.
  • E-commerce: products or services are purchased directly through the website
  • Advertising products or services available at a brick and mortar business
  • Freemium: basic content is available for free but premium content requires a payment (e.g., WordPress website, it is an open-source platform to build a blog or website.)
There are many varieties of websites, each specializing in a particular type of content or use, and they may be arbitrarily classified in any number of ways.

Read more, here.

TO LEARN MORE, CALL TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Friday, July 15, 2022

Websites and your business goals


When creating your website, consider how to combine your business goals with what your visitors want. In this lesson, we’ll talk about:

- using your site to further your business goals
- thinking like a customer
- telling your story online

TO LEARN MORE HOW WE CAN HELP YOU, CALL US TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Saturday, July 9, 2022

Multimedia and Interactive Content


Early websites had only text, and soon after, images. Web browser plug ins were then used to add audio, video, and interactivity (such as for a rich web application that mirrors the complexity of a desktop application like a word processor). Examples of such plug-ins are Microsoft Silverlight, Adobe Flash Player, Adobe Shockwave Player, and Java SE. HTML 5 includes provisions for audio and video without plugins. JavaScript is also built into most modern web browsers, and allows for website creators to send code to the web browser that instructs it how to interactively modify page content and communicate with the web server if needed. The browser's internal representation of the content is known as the Document Object Model (DOM).

WebGL (Web Graphics Library) is a modern JavaScript API for rendering interactive 3D graphics without the use of plug-ins. It allows interactive content such as 3D animations, visualizations and video explainers to presented users in the most intuitive way.

A 2010-era trend in websites called "responsive design" has given the best viewing experience as it provides a device based layout for users. These websites change their layout according to the device or mobile platform, thus giving a rich user experience.

Read more, here.

TO LEARN MORE, CALL TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Wednesday, July 6, 2022

Choosing your online presence


There’s more than one place for people to find you online. In this lesson we’ll explore just how important being online is these days, as well as some common ways to do it including:

- websites
- local business listings and review sites
- social media
- mobile apps

TO LEARN MORE HOW WE CAN HELP YOU, CALL US TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Thursday, June 30, 2022

What is a Dynamic Website?


A dynamic website is one that changes or customizes itself frequently and automatically. Server-side dynamic pages are generated "on the fly" by computer code that produces the HTML (CSS are responsible for appearance and thus, are static files). There are a wide range of software systems, such as CGI, Java Servlets and Java Server Pages (JSP), Active Server Pages and ColdFusion (CFML) that are available to generate dynamic web systems and dynamic sites. Various web application frameworks and web template systems are available for general-use programming languages like Perl, PHP, Python and Ruby to make it faster and easier to create complex dynamic websites.

A site can display the current state of a dialogue between users, monitor a changing situation, or provide information in some way personalized to the requirements of the individual user. For example, when the front page of a news site is requested, the code running on the webserver might combine stored HTML fragments with news stories retrieved from a database or another website via RSS to produce a page that includes the latest information. Dynamic sites can be interactive by using HTML forms, storing and reading back browser cookies, or by creating a series of pages that reflect the previous history of clicks. Another example of dynamic content is when a retail website with a database of media products allows a user to input a search request, e.g. for the keyword Beatles. In response, the content of the web page will spontaneously change the way it looked before, and will then display a list of Beatles products like CDs, DVDs, and books. Dynamic HTML uses JavaScript code to instruct the web browser how to interactively modify the page contents. One way to simulate a certain type of dynamic website while avoiding the performance loss of initiating the dynamic engine on a per-user or per-connection basis is to periodically automatically regenerate a large series of static pages.

Read more, here.

TO LEARN MORE, CALL TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Monday, June 27, 2022

Key website ingredients


A website consists of many parts-build and blend them right, and you’re sure to succeed. In this lesson, we’ll cover:

- your name
- the website’s organisation
- text, photos and other interactive elements.

TO LEARN MORE HOW WE CAN HELP YOU, CALL US TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967

Tuesday, June 21, 2022

What is a Static Website?

A static website is one that has web pages stored on the server in the format that is sent to a client web browser. It is primarily coded in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML); Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are used to control appearance beyond basic HTML. Images are commonly used to create the desired appearance and as part of the main content. Audio or video might also be considered "static" content if it plays automatically or is generally non-interactive. This type of website usually displays the same information to all visitors. Similar to handing out a printed brochure to customers or clients, a static website will generally provide consistent, standard information for an extended period of time. Although the website owner may make updates periodically, it is a manual process to edit the text, photos, and other content and may require basic website design skills and software. Simple forms or marketing examples of websites, such as classic website, a five-page website or a brochure website are often static websites, because they present pre-defined, static information to the user. This may include information about a company and its products and services through text, photos, animations, audio/video, and navigation menus.

Static websites may still use server side includes (SSI) as an editing convenience, such as sharing a common menu bar across many pages. As the site's behavior to the reader is still static, this is not considered a dynamic site.

Read more, here.

TO LEARN MORE, CALL TODAY:
Ryan Stone @ 707-480-0959 /or
Terry Minion @ 707-434-9967