WordPress has been voted “Best CMS of 2009″  in the 2009 Open Source CMS Awards. WordPress was awarded the Overall Best Open Source CMS Award.  This is a landmark, and it marks a shift in the public perception of WordPress, from blog software to full-featured CMS.

Every day thousands of new people are discovering why WordPress is the software of choice for websites, blogs and communities. Unlike other CMS software, Wordpress empowers a website owner without compromising on usability or scalability. New users discover that Wordpress has the easiest CMS administration interface, and authoring a page is similar to writing an email.

The Open Source CMS Awards received over 12,000 nominations and more than 23,000 votes across five categories.

In regards to website development, modern web design and content creation utilize a Web 2.0 philosophy comprised of a unified set of standards. Web 2.0 styled Internet websites have a standard set of default web pages, such as About Us, Contact Us, Customer Service, etc. Most Internet users are accustomed to seeing these default web pages, and often seek these web pages for establishing a company’s credibility prior to making a purchase.

A common web 2.0 web design practice is to optimize access to such default pages. Using the standard nomenclature for default web pages will help optimization efforts. Clients often request customizations to these pages, such as changing the title or removal from the primary navigation. For instance, in regards to requesting customer service, consumers are most familiar with the title ‘Customer Service’, therefore changing that title to ‘Customer Satisfaction’ or ‘Customer Care’ may not provide optimal results in regards to website navigation.

Let’s say Quality Auto Parts Inc., a regional auto parts dealer, personalizes some standard automobile terminology to help induce a unique corporate image. The owner of the company prefers the term ’steering torus’ to ’steering wheel’, and changes this term in all the company’s printed, broadcast, and electronic media. Neither of these terms are incorrect, and they both work well grammatically. However, most consumers immediately relate to the term ’steering wheel’, almost at a sub-conscience level. The term ’steering torus’ is not as familiar to a consumer because it is not used regularly by the industry.

Quality Auto Parts Inc. shortly after re-issues new versions of all their printed, broadcast, and electronic media with all instances of the term ’steering torus’ changed back to ’steering wheel’.

In respect to media and website usability, specific terminology is relevant. Design personalization is most effectively executed by customizing design elements such as graphics, fonts, colors, etc.

†A torus is a geometrical surface of revolution generated by revolving a circle in three dimensional space about an axis coplanar with the circle. Real world examples of torus objects include doughnuts, inner tubes, many lifebuoys, O-rings and Vortex rings.  Learn more about geometric objects such as the Torus.

The Internet is fast becoming the average American’s primary source of information.
Modern consumers are more savvy than their predecessors. Today’s customers often research a company’s website prior to making a purchase. Studies have shown that by displaying an address and phone number on the company website, a company can gain credibility in the eyes of a potential customers. This is of particularly importance in regards to Ecommerce websites. Providing a physical street address and a direct and/or toll free phone number helps a consumer feel more confident about purchasing an item on the Internet.

“About Us” and “Contact Us” are standard web pages on a majority of websites because they induce credibility. Many Internet consumers expect these pages to display such information. By prominently presenting this information on the website, an ecommerce store can increase sales potential.

The top five procedures for increase website credibility.

* Display Physical Contact Information (phone, mailing address)
* Display a Privacy Policy
* Display Professional Quailty Company Logos
* Contract Professional Web Design
* Display Professional Quality Photos

Websites can continue to increase their credibility if they adopt these basic policies:

Identity:

Disclose the physical location where they are produced, including an address, a telephone number or e-mail address.

Disclose their ownership, private or public, naming their parent company.

Disclose their purpose and mission.

Advertising and Sponsorships:

Distinguish advertising from news and information, using labels or other visual means. This includes “in-house” advertising or cross-corporate ad sponsorships. Search engines, shopping tools and portals should clearly disclose paid result-placement advertising, so consumers may distinguish between objective search results and paid ads.

Disclose relevant business relationships, including sponsored links to other sites. For example: A site that directs a reader to another site to buy a book should clearly disclose any financial relationship between the two sites.

Identify sponsors. The site’s sponsorship policies should be clearly noted in accompanying text or on an “About Us” or “Site Center” page.

Customer Service:

Disclose relevant financial relationships with other sites, particularly when these relationships affect the cost to a consumer.

Disclose all fees charged, including service, transaction and handling fees, and shipping costs. This information should be disclosed before the ordering process begins.

State and enforce policies for returning unwanted items or canceling transactions or reservations.

Corrections:

Deek to correct false, misleading or incorrect information.

Display a page or section of the site where incorrect information is corrected or clarified.

Mark content with its published date when failing to do so could mislead consumers.

State their policy on a consumer’s rights if a purchase is made based on incorrect information on the site.

Privacy:

Policies should be easy to find and clearly, simply stated.

Disclose how personal data from site visitors and customers will be used. Personal data includes name, address, phone number and credit card number.

Disclose whether they use browser-tracking mechanisms such as “cookies,” and other technologies such as Web beacons, bugs and robots.

Explain how data collected from them will be used.

Notify customers of changes to privacy policies, and provide an easy opt-out alternative.

Here are various Internet website sources to confirm this article:

http://credibility.stanford.edu/guidelines/index.html

http://www.consumerwebwatch.org/consumer-reports-webwatch-guidelines.cfm

http://www.aisip.com/Establishing-Credibility-Using-About-Contact-Pages.php

http://captology.stanford.edu/pdf/p61-fogg.pdf

Core fonts for the Web

reference:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_fonts_for_the_Web

In modern web design production, people are often unaware about the limited selection of core web fonts that can be displayed on a website consistently across browsers, operating systems,  computers, and other Internet devices.

In print design, a font is permanently printed into the paper medium. A PDF document is the digital equivalent to a real world print document, as most of the same elements required to produce the print document can be embedded into the PDF document and rendered when the document is opened. PDF documents can be viewed on any computer that has the Adobe Acrobat software installed.

A web page is much different than an Adobe PDF document. A web page does not store any fonts at all, contrary it uses the core fonts installed with the operating system of  the users computer. Core fonts provide web designers with a standardized minimum list of fonts to select from. By selecting from the core web fonts list, a web designer can be confident that the web page text will display as expected across all Internet platforms.

When a web designer creates a web page, a list of multiple fonts are defined to accommodate multiple operating systems. For example, the most common font set on the Internet is “Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif”.

Arial is a common Internet font used by Windows computers. Helvetica is a common Internet font used by Macintosh computers. The san-serif definition will allow the Internet browser to use any san-serif font, should neither Arial nor Helvetica exist on the user’s computer. The same methods apply to serif fonts. A common serif web font set is “Times New Roman, Times, serif”, which defines a common Windows serif font, a common Macintosh serif font and a generic serif definition.

Selecting a custom font for a website can lead to unexpected inconsistencies in how the text is displayed on one computer opposed to another. For example, a web page using the custom fonts “Arial Rounded MT” or  “Helvetica Nue”, will only display those fonts if they are installed on the user’s computer and/or supported by the user’s Internet browser. If no core font substitution is defined for the web page, the Internet browser will typically substitute the custom font for the computer’s default Internet font. This can sometimes cause unexpected and undesirable results.

If a custom font is required, it will be rendered to an image, which can then be accurately rendered by any Internet browser regardless.

Here is a list of the core web fonts for Microsoft operating systems.

Andale Mono	Arial	Comic Sans MS	Courier New
Georgia	Impact	Times New Roman	Trebuchet MS
Verdana	Webdings

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_fonts_for_the_Web

Font embedding is a technique where fonts are downloaded from the web server when the web page is viewed. This ensures that the fonts specified by the web designer are available to the user, and allows web designers to use fonts which are not commonly installed on most computers. This technique is controversial because most implementations do not validate whether it is legal to embed the font, and allows the font to be freely downloaded, resulting in copyright infringement and illegal proliferation through the web. Therefore, font companies resist the standardization of this technique. Font embedding is not widely used on the web, but with evolving Internet browser releases, its usage is may increase.

In the meantime, however, most web designers will continue to use the default set of core web fonts.

Testing the usability of a website.

In professional web design circles, the usability testing session has become an essential component of any major project. Similar to focus groups44 in brand development and product launches, usability testing offers a rare opportunity to receive feedback from the very people the website is aimed at – before it’s too late to do anything about it.

But how can you get the most from these usability testing sessions?

1. Choosing your subjects

As with any market research project, the results will only be as good as the people you test. Do not test people from your own company, or friends and family. Go to a market research firm or temp agency and ask them to source participants to a certain profile. Make sure the market research firm does not provide the name of the company or any other details that will cloud the judgement of the participants.

2. Before the usability testing

Online poll

Other than calls and text messages, which of the following do you do most often on your mobile/cell phone?
Download ringtones
Read news or sport content
Check your email
Use social networks (Facebook etc.)
Use maps or get directions
Look for local info or transport news
None of the above

(Submit your answer and we’ll show you the results so far)

As with everything in life, first impressions are vital. Each participant must be put at ease. Remember, the usability testing session is often an extremely artificial environment and, for the most beneficial and informative results, we want them to behave as if they were using the site at home or work.

Provide clear instructions on how to get to the usability testing location, and if necessary meet the participants at local stations. Do not use terms such as ‘usability testing’ or ‘market research’, as these can confuse and put people on edge. Also, ensure that participants know how long the usability testing will take, and the type of tasks they will be expected to perform.

After the initial greeting and welcoming drinks, there are always legal forms that must be signed. It is essential that these are written in plain English, and are as short as possible. The last thing any nervous usability testing subject wants is to be given a contract that looks like they’re signing their soul away. All you want is for them to be reassured that the tests are completely confidential, and for permission to use the data generated during the test as part of our results. So tell them that.

3. Beginning the usability testing

Before diving into key tasks, get the user familiar with the environment. Tell them the website’s name and URL, and ask them for initial feedback on what they would expect from the site or what they would like the site to be. Make note of any terms or phrases they use – this not only demonstrates you are taking their feedback seriously, but may provide useful tips as to possible labels for key functionality or navigation.

Next, let them look at the website they are testing. Gauge their first impressions before allowing them to familiarise themselves with the site.

These few simple tasks will help convince the participant that the usability testing will not be difficult and, perhaps most importantly, that they’re not the ones being tested.

4. Choosing tasks

Set tasks that are essential to the new site’s success, such as:

Buying products
Paying bills
Contacting the client
Remember, you’re not looking for an ego massage. The site was built for a reason – can your target audience do what you need them to do?

It’s also a good idea to ask the user to suggest tasks. While this gives another indication of their expectations and requirements, it may suggest new functionality or priorities.

5. How to word tasks

People tend to perform more naturally if you provide them with scenarios rather than instructions. When giving them tasks, you should use phrases like ‘Scenario A has occurred, and you need to ring the company urgently – find the telephone number’. This is far better than ‘find the contact us section of the site’.

6. Presenting tasks

Only give participants one task at a time. More than this may intimidate them, or alter their approach to the test.

If the user is required to use inputs from outside the test (e.g. an email giving them a password to the site), give them these inputs in the form they will be presented. This will provide useful feedback on all elements of the process, rather than simply the site.

7. How to behave during the usability testing

It’s essential that you remember that it’s the website that is being tested, not you or the subject. Any feedback you get is valuable – make sure the participant knows this. If they can’t do something, make sure they know it’s not their fault.

You must stay quiet and out of sight during the test. You must not alter the test results by providing clues, suggesting directions or by reacting to things they say or do. All feedback you give must be neutral. Do not start shaking your head or huffing, however tempting it might be!

The only time you should speak is to help the participant give an opinion, or to clarify a response. If in doubt, shut up!

Given the investment made in the project, clients often find it difficult to be quiet during tests. If your client wants to be present, put them in another room with an audio/video link.

8. After the usability testing

After all the tasks have been completed, you should gather as much information as possible. Asking for overall impressions of the site will allow you to judge whether expectations have been met, and whether the participant’s view of the client or site has changed during the process.

Always ask for suggestions – this not only demonstrates the value you place on their thoughts, but may provide insights into how the site can better support the user.

Finally, ask the participant what they remember about the site structure and functions of the site. Clear recollection will confirm that the site is structured logically and help identify any labelling issues you may have missed.

Click Here to see how I eliminate automated spam on my website forms.

I recently received the following email from one of my web design clients:
“I get 4-5 of these form submissions a week from my website”, writes the client. “Why am I receiving these? Is this something I should be concerned about? Here is a typical sample of the email submission I have been receiving from my website form:

name: ybgsitiei
parent name: ybgsitiei
phone: OZxmqCguQkhdkgZdFY
email: eozrph@wymoxu.com
referred by: JlyXYYFqZqvkenaO

I responded to this client by explaining to them what the emails were, who was sending them and what could be done to eliminate them.

Unwanted email submissions from your website form are usually spam. Spam is unsolicited, invasive advertising that can be compared to a telemarketer calling your home at 6pm on a week night and interrupting your family while eating dinner. If you use email on a regular basis, then you are most likely no stranger to email spam.

For website owners, spam can be received via the forms on their website and any email addresses that are posted on the website. It’s easy to resolve the latter. Just don’t post live email addresses on your website. Webbots called ‘email harvesters’ scan the Internet searching for live email addresses, then save the email addresses they find to a database. The webbot’s programmer then sells the email database to spammers as mail lists. That is why most websites use contact forms in place of posting live email addresses.

But spammers have grown increasingly effective at spamming website forms. Website forms spam can be submitted by humans and by webbots. There is nothing you can do to eliminate human submitted spam, except for removing your website form.

Website forms can be protected from webbots. The first step a website designer can take is restricting webbots from seeing the form page with the robots.txt file. The robots.txt file is a website script located in the root of the website directory that tells search engine spiders and webbots what files and directories they are allowed to access. Disallowing a website’s form pages in the robots.txt file will prevent search engine webbots and other Internet webbots scanning programs from reading the website form pages. Search engines will sometimes crawl website forms, submitting an email to the owner with random letters that look like jibberish. By disallowing the website forms with the robots.txt file, you can eliminate some of your websites form spam.

However, persistent spammers will not be stopped by a robots.txt file. The solution for eliminating automated spam submissions in website forms can be acheived by installing a CAPTCHA solution in the website form.

Click Here to see how I eliminate automated spam on my website forms with CAPTCHA

CAPTCHA, is an acronym for “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart”.  CAPTCHA is a type of challenge-response test used on Internet website forms to ensure that the form submission is not generated by an automated software program, or webbot. The CAPTCHA process asks a user to complete a simple test which the website forms software is able to generate and grade. A common type of CAPTCHA requires that the user type letters or digits from a distorted image that appears on the screen. Because Internet webbots are unable to read a distorted image and solve the CAPTCHA, any user entering a correct solution is presumed to be human. CAPTCHA was developed by staff at Carnegie Mellon University and IBM in 2000.

CAPTCHA has become increasingly more common on Internet website forms, and savvy Internet users have become accustomed to completing the CAPTCHA tests on website forms. CAPTCHA use on website forms will continue to increase until the day that webbot software evolve to the point that they can solve the CAPTCHA solution. Only the most sophisticated spammers will utilize such webbot software, so CAPTCHA should be able to protect your website forms for some time.

Michael Rassel is the Owner of Razworks Web Design, a freelance website design company in Sarasota, FL.

To contact Razworks call 941-685-8851

or email Razworks using the contact form by clicking here.

Visit Razworks Website by Clicking Here >>

 

Razworks has launched a new Magento Commerce shopping cart web design for Sarasota, FL based company Fruitville Grove Market. FruitvilleMarket.com is the new ecommerce website and the company had a successful Christmas shopping season. “Today we have a website that we can direct our customers to that we our very pleased with”, states owner Henry Detwiler. “Michael Rassel is a true professional! He delivers more than you pay for”.

Razworks created an attractive front end web design in XHTML and CSS tableless layout scripting, with a web 2.0 style video player that plays the Fruitville Grove Market television commercial video. Entering the website via such a professional looking home page makes a very effective first impression with potential customers. Because the video uses the latest FLV video format it provides the optimal ratio of quality to filesize, and utilizes progressive download, which allows the video to be watched as it downloads.

The ecommerce part of the website can be accessed from any web page in the site. The shopping cart was created using the industry’s latest and greatest ecommerce software, Magento Commerce, which has been tauted by industry professionals as the best shopping cart software available today. It provides a very professional looking, easy to use and fully functional online store. Fruitville Grove Market wanted the ability to accept credit card payment from the website, so they opted to process payment from ecommerce website purchases via PayPal. Because of the zero startup cost PayPal was a preferred option opposed to establishing a merchant account and payment gateway. Michael Rassel configured the Magento Ecommerce website to capture the customers order and shipping information, then directed the customer to PayPal to process payment for the order.

Michael Rassel was also contracted by Fruitville Grove Market to perform various search engine optimizations. By optimizing the text content top keyword phrases, installing a WordPress blog for SEO editorial authoring, and a creating numerous social network accounts to support a link building campaign. Razworks also setup a Google Adwords pay per click a search engine marketing campaign to allow FruitvilleMarket.com to display an ad on the first page of Google search results anytime someone searched for Fruit Gift Baskets or Gift Fruit Baskets.

Michael Rassel is glad that Fruitville Grove Market had such a successful Holiday season, and is proud to have another happy Razworks web design and ecommerce website customer!

Razworks has launced a new website design for Sarasota, FL based company Handaid. Handaid sells a patent pending device that helps children stop thumb sucking. Razworks developed the website within a very short two week timeline in order to launch in conjuction with a 500,000 piece ValPak postal mailing. “The upgrade that you did on our website is volumes above what we originally had, and you did it in the time that you said that you would”, stated Handaid owner Ken Stevens. “It looks incredibly professional”, Ken added, ” and gave our customers the ability to walk through our website with ease”.

Razworks created the web design in XHTML and CSS tableless layout scripting. A web 2.0 style video player plays owner/inventer Ken Stevens introductory video, which makes for a very effective and professional looking home page. Because the video uses the latest FLV video format it provides the optimal ratio of quality to filesize, and utilizes progressive download, which allows the video to be watched as it downloads.

Razworks web design services also performed various search engine optimization by embellishing the text content and including a modest repetition of the products top 3 keyword phrases. Other search engine optimization the installation of a WordPress blog for SEO editorial authoring, and a social network link building campaign.

Razworks website design also setup a Google Adwords pay per click a search engine marketing campaing and trained Ken Stevens on how to manage the advertising account. YourHandaid.com now appears on the first page of Google whenever someone searches for a product to stop thumb sucking.

Handaid wanted the ability to accept credit card payment from the website, yet they were not yet prepared to establish a merchant account and payment gateway. Razworks web design setup Handaid with PayPal and created custom web forms that captured the customers order and shipping information, then directed the customer to PayPal to process payment for the order.

Michael Rassel is proud to have another happy Razworks web design customer!

Razworks, LLC has produced and launched a new web design for Sarasota, FL business Plant Parents. The official website, PlantParents.com, is a showcase for the company’s office plant service, selling, leasing, delivering and maintaining plants to local businesses in Sarasota, Bradenton, Venice and the surrounding cities. Razworks produced an exotic web design interface for the Sarasota based small business. The website utilizes Wordpress for blogging and content management, as well as the latest photo gallery and slideshow technologies. You can view the website at http://www.PlantParents.com. To contact Razworks for website design, video, audio or animation production, visit http://razworks.com or call 941-685-8851

Razworks, LLC has completed and launched a new web design for Sarasota, FL business SS Motorsports of Sarasota. The official website, CarsBySS.com, is a showcase for the business’s specialization in remanufacturing classic muscle cars, like 1969 Camaros and 1969 Corvettes. Razworks produced an exotic web design interface for the Sarasota based company. The website utilizes Wordpress for blogging and content management, as well as the latest streaming video technologies. You can view the website at http://www.carsbyss.com. To contact Razworks for website design, video, audio or animation production, visit http://razworks.com or call 941-685-8851