Why Your Sites & Applications Shouldn’t Spend Much Time In Beta

The beta stage is one of the transitory stages any application or software undergoes during its production and development process. One simple example is Gmail which has been in the beta stage for a long time now.

There are two types of reactions users generally have towards beta software, websites and web applications. One set of users are simply delighted to be the first ones to test the new version of a particular site or application. Others however, tend to be simply annoyed with beta versions.

This annoyance is largely attributed to the unpolished aspect of the beta phase. Usually, in Boston web development circles, beta versions are released for the main purpose of getting active users to test it and report for bugs.

In the software release life cycle of any website or web application, the beta stage comes after the alpha stage (wherein new features are added).

Chris Campbell of Particle Tree is just one of the serious web users who wishes websites paid more attention to the proper development of the same. There is enough hype created during certain beta launches to instigate anticipation for a particular product or service, but if there is no attempt made to implement changes then all the hype is rendered useless.

Web development in Boston as practiced at Cosmos Creatives Boston pays attention to the proper steps of the software release life cycle. We create websites, develop them and launch them only after they have gone through the right channels of testing- speedily of course!

Image credit: Flickr

Fonts Maketh A Website Design As Well

Some very common things that a professional website design company will pay special attention to when creating and establishing a brand’s identity on the internet are elements like the company logo, the general layout and the colors used in portraying the brand.

This is all well and good as the above elements do make a tremendous contribution to the overall website design.

There are very few Boston web development professionals however, who will also pay attention to other small but equally influential factors like the font-sets used in the website design and the level of accessibility a particular brand has. Even the images and graphics used and image quality conveys tonnes where site usability is concerned.

Take fonts for instance. Ever since cascading style sheets or CSS cam into the picture, it has broadened the scope of web site design in Boston. Web development in Boston professionals have more flexibility when making use of this element in a web page, a landing page or on any other website promotional material.

Of course, the fact that different browsers will render your website design differently could be a potential concern. But with the right Boston web designing company working on your web space, it shouldn’t be much of a concern.

Cosmos Creatives Boston can effectively evaluate your business goals and image to formulate the right Boston website design plan for your organization. A talented team of web development and website design professionals can work to create a web space that is unique and stands out from the rest of the competition.

Image credit: Flickr

Boston Website Design Takes A Look At Color Therapy For The Site Visitor

Cymbolism is a website totally dedicated to color and the varying effects it has on people. The website describes its main goal as “an attempt to quantify the association between colors and words, making it simple for designers to choose the best colors for the desired emotional effect.”

Website design professionals have always been dependent on color to get the message across to the general public and the relation between color and human response has been a favorite topic in Boston web design circles. So such an attempt to make sense of these relations by websites like these is highly commendable.

Color scheme planners and organizers are part of every Boston website designing professional’s kit. Nonetheless, to an untrained eye, a system overload would be expected given the elaborate color codes and lists that are usually included. One of the foremost difficulties a design team in a Boston web designing company is known to face is a color scheme that is incompatible in certain web browsers.

At Cosmos Creatives Boston, there is a skilled website design team taking care of all these parameters though. The research we do into the consumer mind and behavior is significant, so that we can get the best results for our website designs.

From location-centric websites to different consumer sections, we create websites that are captivating and ingratiate repeated visits. You could get a Dubai web design company who charges you extra for services that you are entitled to, or you could simply hire a professional website design company who will deliver more than you are charged for.

Chrome, Minimalism & Professional Website Design

Yes, it seemed like it was just yesterday that a new search engine to kill Google was revealed to the online community. Unfortunately (for such useless attempts), the people at Google are rather thick-skinned when it comes to murder attempts at the search giant.

The search giant went one-up on its suspected mass murderers and unleashed Google Chrome, an open source web browser which ironically, roared the official battle cry to Microsoft’s IE.

News of Google’s renewed contract with Mozilla Firefox further acted as the sealant on the war against Microsoft.

We checked out Chrome. Once we got past the shock and surprise of the end user license agreement, our web design company in Boston found it rather neat to work on. Of course, it will take a while for the open source browser to capture the market currently dazzled by Firefox offerings, but knowing that this is Google we are talking about it should not be much of a problem.

Suffice to say, from a Boston website design professional’s point of view, Google Chrome is a beauty. From its clutter-free interface to the speed and accessibility it lends to the web experience, Chrome just might start a new trend- marrying functionality with appeal.

For an exceptional Boston web design meme for your corporate or personal site that clicks with a major section of the audience, there is a lot you can learn from Google. Minimal designs can offer more to the end-user experience than gimmicks and interactive customization.

Sometimes less is just more.

Find out how you can get this idea to work for your website design.

Website Design For Social Networks – Have You Figured Out Your Target Market?

Social networks and online communities are an accepted part of the web now and there are very few that can do without them. If you have decided to start a social network dedicated to interaction between your employees or even between users of your products or services, then great going!

It’s even better when you chose a team of result-oriented Boston website design professionals and web development in Boston experts to give shape to your idea. As Dion Hinchcliffe of ZDNet reflects, “It’s beginning to be understood that communities aren’t just for socializing but for getting things done.”

One of the primary elements that a reliable Boston website design company will work on before settling on the development design for an online community is a thorough study of the niche market. For instance, if you are a PR company specializing in clubs and nightspots and wish to create a loyal network of clubbers, then you know that the younger age group is the one you need to target.

The level of exclusivity depends completely on the type of end-user you want to attract.

If the target audience has not been figured out then the development process can get ambiguous.

Creating an online portal that engages the visitor and end-user enough to guarantee automatic word-of-mouth advertising is another vital component your hired website design company needs to work on. All it takes is one exceptional feature that will make your network irresistible to the target market, and you have found for yourself a dedicated group of takers for your online community.

This is why movie reviewers love being associated with the Rotten Tomatoes community, and why musicians tend to gravitate towards MySpace and more recently, why Christians would probably want to join Xt3.

Hire website design professionals in Boston who are familiar with the ethos behind online communities and make sure that you elucidate on your ideas clearly to get the best results.

Reevaluating The Widget

Widgets are fun. Period.

That was my opinion when I first discovered that widgets like ‘noughts and crosses’ games and ‘cartoon of the day’ could be peppered across a website or blog to liven things up.

From then to the present, I have added informative, useful, adaptable and a host of other really nice adjectives to one of my favorite parts of Web 2.0- widgets. There is simply nothing that cannot be done with the right widget in hand.

One of my favorite widget-loving blogs, Snipperoo has this really great post about some common misconceptions about widgets.

You don’t need to be a professional in website design to add rich applications like widgets and neither do you need to be a whiz at web development in Boston to implement them. All you need to do is customize a widget of your choice and voila, you have something on your blog or website that will not only add value to user-experience but to your business/service as well!

We decided to add this snazzy corkboard widget from Rock You! on one of our blogs. A couple of photos, sticky notes and funny graphics was all it took to give readers on this business blog a glimpse of the online shopping portal attached to the website it was promoting.

The returns and site visits it helped bring in- in terms of online marketing was immediately noticeable.

Cosmos Creatives Boston stuck to a minimalistic blog, with the focus on content (as any good blog ought to do). The various widgets added in were more than just icing on the cake- they had a purpose, viz. promoting the products and services.

Smart website promotion, what say?

The Dreaded 404 Error – Make Your Users & Search Engines Love It

A 404 error page is something you should avoid having on your website if you are an entrepreneur looking to increase website traffic. They could be a step back in search engine optimization in Boston efforts and are more likely than not to prevent your site from getting indexed.

In plain speak a 404 DNS error or a File Not Found error is what the server spits out when someone types in a URL that does not exist on your website or is under construction and is hence unavailable. A page or two that give out such errors on your website can be tolerable for most users. Search engines on the other hand, don’t like them.

Known to affect the visibility of a particular website in SERP’s, a File Not Found error can be turned to your website’s advantage with customized pages that cloak the error though.

A stand-by page called a 404.htm page is an excellent way to get past the 404 error and can benefit your SEO efforts enormously. Take a look at the File Not Found error pages put up on Smashing Magazine.

These stand-by pages not only provide the user to your website something to chuckle/think/learn about, but also encourage the search engine to include the page as relevant to the website and hence index-worthy.

Absolutely do not tell your Boston web design professionals to create a 404 error page that is an exact copy of your homepage- its not going to win your website any popularity points. Encourage user-friendliness and accessibility- after all that’s the main aim of any website.

Know more about how you can win more users and enhance your website design in Boston efforts at Cosmos Creatives Boston.

Image credit: Flickr

Web Designing, Computer Games And Online Games

‘Spore’, a computer game based on evolution, has bagged critic awards even before its launch and is one of the most hotly anticipated games of 2008. The hullabaloo is partly due to its creator being the mastermind behind the famous SimCity computer game which took the gaming world by storm in the late 80’s and went on to become the bestselling computer game ever.

Graphic design in Boston professionals and Flash animation designers work on similar lines more often than not. As in computer games where an element of personalization is inserted into the gaming model, in Flash animation develops games in which a similar thread of design is incorporated.

But where computer games are often complex and involve extensive plots, intriguing strategies and a lot of role-play, Flash animation games are shorter and usually seek to create an impact with a witty storyline. These are the ones made use of by the marketing community for online marketing.

There is a growing influence of the social aspect seen in a lot of computer games that have emerged recently though. This trend is especially noticed in online games like Second Life and even instant messaging systems like IMVU which blend Flash animations, dynamic environments and at times a social networking element that is highly customizable.

Contact Cosmos Creatives Boston for refreshing marketing ideas that make use of unique web design in Boston.

Smart Microsites

Microsites usually bloom around holiday time or around an occasion or celebration. Remember the ElfYourself campaign by OfficeMax that elfed-out everybody in America couple of years back? These handy web pockets can perform any function from carrying out a political campaign to assisting a corporate launch.

Distinguished by less pages (anything from 1-10), a microsite is perfect if you are thinking of getting some excellent value for money branding via web design in Boston. Many business websites also launch microsites that actually do not sell or feature their product or service, but provide information that is related to their products.

Branding is the primary function of a microsite and due to this, it’s very nature may be completely different from the actual business website. A professional website design company can transform a company from something humdrum to a savvy online entity with a well designed microsite.

A microsite can keep changing its look and message based on the marketing need, but usually they are short-lived and custom-made for maximum impact in a minimum period of time and space.

Boston website designing professionals at times incorporate display marketing techniques into their agenda due to their exhibitive and informative nature.

Their viral aspect is the most exciting part about a microsite though. If the site is good enough, it will keep being referenced and travel across the web purely by word-of-mouth.

Want a microsite for your business as well? Cosmos Creatives Boston can help you out.

Rich Internet Applications (RIAs)

You must have come across them. They are rather ubiquitous on the WWW and occur wherever there is a certain level of asynchronous communication with a server, a web browser and a neutral platform.

Rich internet applications have the sophisticated look and functions of desktop software, but the difference lies in the fact that they are honed to be operational on a web page. Their prominence has been triggered by Boston website design professionals and even novice designers applying technologies like Flash and Ajax Frameworks.

The growth of the internet as a medium of data and information exchange too has led to the emergence of RIAs in a major way. From all the applications and usability of RIAs they might very well be on their way to making the internet a Web 3.0 experience.

Rich internet applications are automatically updated, allowing users the ability to process them. The comparatively high level of immunity to viral infection makes RIAs much better executables.

RIAs are not without drawbacks however. From an SEO point of view, the text featured in a rich internet application might not be indexable by search engines. RIAs also need constant internet connectivity. Screen readers are also shown to face certain difficulty in detecting any dynamic changes in the HTML content.

Clever web development in Boston techniques and innovative website design sensibilities can outwit these shortcomings of RIAs; similar to what we are able to do at Cosmos Creatives Dubai.

Get in touch with us to know more.

Crossing Genres

You must have come across them. They are rather ubiquitous on the WWW and occur wherever there is a certain level of asynchronous communication with a server, a web browser and a neutral platform.

Rich internet applications have the sophisticated look and functions of desktop software, but the difference lies in the fact that they are honed to be operational on a web page. Their prominence has been triggered by Boston website design professionals and even novice designers applying technologies like Flash and Ajax Frameworks.

The growth of the internet as a medium of data and information exchange too has led to the emergence of RIAs in a major way. From all the applications and usability of RIAs they might very well be on their way to making the internet a Web 3.0 experience.

Rich internet applications are automatically updated, allowing users the ability to process them. The comparatively high level of immunity to viral infection makes RIAs much better executables.

RIAs are not without drawbacks however. From an SEO point of view, the text featured in a rich internet application might not be indexable by search engines. RIAs also need constant internet connectivity. Screen readers are also shown to face certain difficulty in detecting any dynamic changes in the HTML content.

Clever web development in Boston techniques and innovative website design sensibilities can outwit these shortcomings of RIAs; similar to what we are able to do at Cosmos Creatives Dubai.

Get in touch with us to know more.

Flash Vs. HTML

While the popularity of Flash is well established in the Boston web site design community, its functionality in the online marketing community is heavily argued. This argument has made a lot of web development in Boston professionals ponder upon its use.

The highlight of Flash is a dynamic interface, one that is constantly changing and at times interacting with the user. A lot of websites who take the Web 2.0 meme really seriously go for complete user interaction with the help of Flash templates and Flash animations.

Critics of Flash state that Flash animations and splash screens deflect the visitors to a website from the content that they are looking for. It is also true that browsing the Internet for websites that incorporate Flash as opposed to regular HTML or CSS is rather useless as the keywords, anchor text and other searchable features are rendered useless when included in Flash content.

When web development in Boston professionals develop a website for the purpose of online marketing, they encode a website using either HTML or CSS which are decidedly search engine friendly. Another drawback of using Flash animations instead of HTML or CSS for website design in Boston is its inability to load on handheld devices like PDA’s, smartphones and car displays.

From an internet marketing professional’s point of view, a small section but one that is a significant revenue drawer is completely eliminated due to the use of Flash animations. The best way to ensure ranking in search engines is to marry Flash animations with HTML or CSS making the website appealing as well as search engine friendly.

You can get in touch with the web development in Boston professionals at the Boston website designing company for ways on how this can be done. You wouldn’t want to lose out on a good deal now, would you?