Printing And Graphic Design- Where Did It All Start.
Graphic design and printing has over the years established a solid place in the community especially as far as marketing and communication are concerned. This we all know. What we don’t is how the two come into existence. Let’s find out shall we?
Evolution of printing: The whole thing was first seen on textiles before it made its way to the paper. A lucky guess would be that it started with the Chinese given their tradition. And that is about right; it began in Asia in the 3rd century. Woodblock painting is where the idea sprung from. In Africa, and more so in Egypt in the ages of the Pharaohs, this kind of printing was also in existence. It however went under only to resurface as block printing in the 15th century.
A closer look at the history and traces of art can be found in Mesopotamian where civilization is thought to have begun back in 3000BC. The block printing moved to mobile objects in the beginning of the 15th century
Evolution of graphic design: Graphic design can be described as a more advanced form of printing since there is included some more detail. It is of more visual appeal and can be created anywhere; from walls to works of clay to even computer screens.
Graphic design has an inevitable place in the advertisement, website and publication sector. It is estimated that the evolution of graphic designs took place in the southern France. Here, one can easily witness the graphic designs of animals in the Chauvet Cave. They are believed to be created by the primitive people over 30,000 B.C. and similar forms of designs can be observed in Lascaux Cave of France also. They were estimated to be drawn over 14,000 B.C., further one can easily observe the designs of primitive hunters at a place called Bhimbetka rock shelters in India and to one’s surprise they are over 7,000 B.C. old.
History reveals that the evolutions of writing and graphic art took place together. It is estimated that the evolution of both took place in between 3000-4000 B.C. Besides writing, the graphic art was used to create various kinds of books also. Few of the unique books include Lindisfarne Gospels (c. 710), Ada Gospels (in group of manuscripts- late 8th century), Book of Kells (c. 800), and Book of Durrow (7th century).
In the past, the graphic design techniques were also used to create Miniatures, Maps, Calligraphy, playing cards, etc. In the present age they are widely used for rebranding (sprite, KFC, etc), signage (Olympic Games, World Wildlife Fund, etc) and for logos and trademarks (MSN, Google, Apple, etc).
Flash Website- When To Have It
For a web developer, Flash is undoubtedly a powerful tool. But it is a fact that it cannot be used to resolve every kind of problem. Here we will try to understand Flash with the help of its merits and demerits. After that you can easily reach on to a conclusion whether it is productive to go for Flash website development or not. Of course, our ultimate target is to benefit the visitors by good information.
Advantages of using Flash:
- Flash is friendly to nearly 95-98% of the Web browsers. If you have applied Flash to build a website then it is surely going to be viewed by every user who has Flash plug-in. It is not dependent on browser or operating system.
- In today’s world, if you are going for animation then Flash is must. It has wider application in the field of animation.
- Most applications that are based on flash are easily picked up by video players like Quick Time
- There are no bandwidth limitations and browser support issues if you are going for Flash games.
- During Flash website development, vector graphics can look smoother and appealing. There is a facility of image replacement as well for the special fonts. The process of image replacement can be done with a technique known as sIFR i.e. Scalable Inman Flash Replacement. Besides the above mentioned features, Flash applications can also perform the task of script actions and data collection.
Disadvantages of Flash websites:
- Slow speeds are a nightmare for flash websites since they rarely load fast enough to meet a user’s expectations.
- With Flash websites The ‘BACK’ button is
- You need a really good screen reader to read flash images and these are hard to locate
- If you are going to have a flash website, make sure you use HTML since the language is necessary for the algorithms of search engine to pick them out for search results.
- Most people, believe it or not don’t understand the use of flash applications and they think they are only for visual appeals. Thus the main purpose is not achieved.
Conclusion: So now you know all the pros and cons of Flash website development and it’s up to you to decide what is best. Flash offers numerous benefits but customer’s dissatisfaction and SEO inaccessibility are the prime drawbacks associated with it. When it comes to site navigation then it is highly recommended never to use Flash.
The Evolution of E-Commerce
E to stand for electronic, eCommerce has been on a journey of development and growth since the 70′s. Electronic Data Interchange, or in short EDI is the term that has taken the place of the eCommerce of yesteryears. Back then it meant eBanking but not any more. Now it means having ATMs and a more advanced system of data exchange where credit card details can be passed over the internet.
In the 1990s, saw the first e-commerce purchase which was cars take place online. At some point e-commerce was adopting the name of online trading; something that has not changed so much today. At around this time the internet was not everyone’s cup of tea as it was just referred to as another development in technology that people were oblivious about. They only took it seriously at around 1994. Having in mind some had already started purchasing cars online long before that, such people were referred to as technologically savvy.
This delayed period may be attributed to a number of factors. One of them is the fact that the governments lacked the enthusiasm to support such kind of transactions over the internet. Faith was lacking and that meant there was little support. As the years advanced into the 1994 and 1995, it was established that there was security in those types of transactions and that it was generally safe. In essence, there was nothing wrong with using credit cards to shop online.
A few e-Commerce strategy landmarks occurred in 1994 when Pizza Hut offered online ordering via its webpage and Netscape released Mozilla. A year later in 1995, Jeff Bezos launched Amazon. Additionally in 1995, the first 24-hour radio stations started broadcasting and the well-known eBay was introduced to the Internet under the name Auction Web.
Gradually over the years, e-Commerce strategy has gone from being known only by the Internet savvy to being fully recognized by the average person. When one heard ‘B2B’ they eventually recognized that to mean business-to-business and could assume it was referring to the concept of e-Commerce. Retailers became e-tailers and receipts from the purchase of products or services were widely accepted via emails from the seller or provider. Email (Electronic Mail), instant messaging, online shopping and order tracking, domestic and international payment systems, shopping carts, and electronic tickets have all become part of our daily vocabulary. In today’s business world, there really is no option to have an internet presence, this is how fully evolved e-commerce has become.
In the recent times the government has gotten involved in the e-commerce, thus making the consumer not only comfortable, but also willing to share private information, financial, personal, and banking information over the internet. Most businesses have resulted in going online in transacting their businesses. The e-commerce strategy has really helped people to start their own business entity without any much expense. Since there is no overhead charges, for example, rent, leasing of studio, fax machine and printers. If one got the right e-commerce strategy one can successful run his business proficiently online.
10 Tips for Effective Web Design
For one to actually thrive in today’s global market one has to not only have a physical presences but also have an online internet presences. Having an online website service is an added advantage to the business proprietor as it provide with a more customer base, in addition to this it also possible to create a distinct presences in your relevant business field.
The web design really matters in once business or company, as most potential customers would prefer dealing with a company offering high grade website to one with a low grade website. From ones website, a lucid customer can automatically judge its professionalism. Thus it should be the companies’ objective to cautiously evaluate the type of website the have to come up with, as it makes either their downfall or their success.
Stated below are 10 important tips for the effective web design. Have a look on them and provide a distinct look to your website wherever necessary:
1. The audience you target to capture: First of all there must be an available audience so has to identify the target audience. One should always make out the audience requirement so as to create a website mainly for the audience requirement and not individual requirement. To actually understand the audience one should evaluate its Demography, so as to know under which bracket of age do most o the people fall in, their living standards and their income, so as to create a site that will get them glued to.
2. Make anticipations that your visitors might: The site should be able to meet ones needs, this is best done after having to know the audience psychology well, so as to provide what they anxiously need
3. Gather adequate information: Do some homework to understand the taste of your target users. First visit the websites that your target users prefer to go, try to find what is unique in those sites, read down the magazines that your target users like to subscribe and pay special attention to the online advertisements.
4. What is the main aim of your content?: Just try to create a center of attention in any site you decade to create, these is achieved by trying to include some flavor in the site.
5. Avert unhelpful users: Some people visit some website without any intention of doing anything worthwhile, and by so doing they create needless traffic thus preventing passage for those who purposely visit the site from doing it.
6. It is important to keep the site regularly updated constantly. Don’t mix your personal interests in the site and keep all the rules of content writing in place, like having lists instead of paragraphs and things like that. All the pages should be fast in opening. If its slow, then your visitors will only be one timers.
7. Make sure that your web designers throw in the must have tools as these are important for web masters.
8. Scrolling: To aid an online user navigation of the website is of much importance thus every website should have a site map.
9. Build a foundation of trust with all your visitors. Inquire for their opinions and add customer support. It will help in the building process.
10. Keep all your content accurate. Any information that affects the user should be highlighted without concealing it.
Steps To Successful SEO
Many Internet professionals are intently curious about search engine optimization (SEO). But how exactly is a page optimized for SEO? There are certain benchmarks that business can follow to achieve high search engine results page ranking (SERPs) and get the targeted traffic they want. These steps will be discussed in detail.
The initial step to SEO success is to create a strong webpage. This does not mean you must fill it with irrelevant features, widgets, feeds and more. Instead, a page is considered strong when it is filled with original, quality content. When speaking of originality it means that it is not plagiarized, and the meaning of quality relates to incorporating something new. Plainly stated, when a search engine has numerous articles on walking dogs, preference begins to go to articles with specific topics, such as instructions for walking certain breeds, or walking a dog on a hot day. It is important to realize that if something has been posted time and time again on the Internet, then it is not regarded to as special.
Second, SEO pages are optimized for keywords in the right locations. First, the targeted keywords must be accurately positioned. Targeted keywords and phrases should be in the page title (not the site title), which is normally marked in HTML with the tag. Also, targeted keywords should be in the actual URL of the page (e.g. www.stuff.com/Targeted_Keywords.html). Finally, the target keywords are generally recommended to be in the first paragraph and last sentence of content. Long-tail keywords, aka related keywords, should be in the article body and separated by paragraph. What this entire process says to a search engine bot is, This article is about X because the URL, page title, introductory paragraph and conclusion say it is. But X and A, B, C, D are related because they appear to be sub-topics of X. Index this article for X and A, B, C, D under X.
The Final step is to ensure that you have exceptional backlinks (a link placed on another page which directs a researcher onto your page. SEO relies heavily on backlinks, so it is important to have your anchored on a page with minimal other links and that is highly regarded by search engines, such as Google PageRank.
SEO is not a complex idea, but its practices use thousands of dollars each year as companies teach marketers to use SEO and buy backlinks. But one thing is for sure, the SEO industry is not going away soon.
