Mira P Designs

What Makes A Good Site?

Paul Rickard — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 01:05:10 +0000

I’ve been in the web design business quite a while and even though it’s a constant learning experience, it baffles me about how some sites are created. All of the beautiful designs I see are paralleled by completely ugly sites that are created by “experienced” web designers. That’s not to say they are completely clueless as to site layout but they are clueless as to what today’s designs should look like.

Back in the old days of web design, sites were pretty much just text on the page just to get information anywhere in the world. As time went on, they started to get more creative and included different layouts with tables, background colors, and images. Imagine if you, as a skilled designer, could go back in time and work your magic. Of course, you would be limited by the technology of the time and the fact that things like jQuery, Flash, CSS, weren’t invented yet. Designs are now focused properly using CSS, XHTML, and the newest thing HTML5 and CSS3 (Although HTML5 and CSS3 aren’t fully implemented yet, you can still use it and make it backward compatible for older browsers).

However, many sites I see are still using tables for layout? They are only to be used for data and not layout. That’s one of the things CSS is all about, utilizing divs. Not only are they using tables but making very clunky graphics that sparkle and rotate etc. like the multiple animated gif images of the past. I’ve even worked with some of these people, that went as far to say that tables were how they learned it and they refused to change. Even I know that you need to adapt and change with new technologies.

If you are going to design websites either for a living or as a side gig, it’s best to allow yourself to grow as technology grows. We are all capable of learning and lifelong learning is a term that is being used all the time. I suggest visiting your local book store or your local library and getting the latest books on new design technologies, design inspiration, or software and you’ll be surprised at how much more you can accomplish and make the web as beautiful as it should be.

Honorable Mention

Paul Rickard — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 20:49:54 +0000

I was mentioned in a Status Issue article for my work with Allison Ethier.

Status Issue Article

Sylvia Tremblay Intros

Paul Rickard — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 00:31:04 +0000

I did a couple different intro videos for Sylvia Tremblay in through her different website design changes. Here they are in their full glory:

First One:

Second and Current One:

Google doesn’t use the keywords meta tag in your web ranking.

Paul Rickard — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 22:13:46 +0000

Some people believe that adding certain keywords will make them appear at the top of the search engines. Well, that’s entirely not the case. It hasn’t been for a very long time since it has been abused in many sites over the years including words that have nothing to do with the website in question just to get it higher. People have even gone as far as to put certain celebrities in their keywords to get higher such as Brad Pitt back in the Interview with the Vampire days when it was huge and he got a lot of press. What is important, is your website content and if there are a lot of articles about your site, links to your site, or paying to be a higher ranked site. Take care of those and you will be higher on the food chain.