 My Design Philosophy:
Why choose ziska designs to build your web site?
My design principles are simple. If I create a web site for you, I want the site to:
- be fast loading
- be simple to navigate
- look good
- attract and retain visitors
- be as accessible as possible
- meet your needs
Less is more ...
"Things should be made as simple as possible - but no simpler" - Albert Einstein.
I believe in good web site design. I also believe that less is often more. Far too many sites are bloated with graphics, have terrible navigation, take ages to download and assume that visitors all have the latest plug-ins. I think that simple, fast and user-friendly sites will keep your user's attention and help your business to succeed on the web. As they suggest at "Art and the Zen of web sites"
http://www.tlc-systems.com/webtips.shtml
- as a simple test, try visiting a web site and holding your breath for as long as it takes the home page to load.
But what is wrong with complexity?
Each time that a new browser version appears, it usually has support for new HTML tags. Some may be upgrades to the latest HTML standard. But some will be proprietary tags for features supported only by that particular browser.
So, before you decide that you want to use all of these new features on your web site, consider the following:
How many of the older browsers will support this? How many people WON'T be able to view your site properly? Why do you want to use this new feature? Because you need it or because you can? What percentage of your site visitors will be using the latest browsers? If people do have an older browser version, what will they be able to see?
All web browsers have bugs of one sort or another. So it is not surprising that even a relatively simple page design can be incompatible with some browsers. In fact, it is remarkably easy to create a valid page whose contents are incompatible with, or even invisible to one or more browsers.
As web site designers we all love to try out these new techniques and new technologies. But that doesn't mean we should use them on all web sites that we design and produce. A sensible balance needs to be struck between the latest "all-singing, all-dancing" technology and the browsers in use by your site visitors.
Here is an example of what I could do on this site using some fancy techniques. A new window will open and you can see our top menu with some fancy flying graphics. A nice effect, but it won't work on older browsers, so some of our site visitors would be left on a page with no navigation! Surprisingly, this effect seems to work better in the latest Netscape browser. However, the whole menu structure does get a bit distorted. In an Opera browser, nothing at all happens!
Accessibility ...
I try to design accessible web sites. I can make a web site as accessible as possible to all users without compromising the look and feel that you want. See my article on Accessible Web Sites for further details.
Your needs ...
I create web sites customised to YOUR needs. From small to large sites, I can offer you a completely professional service.
I encourage you to contact some of our previous clients and ask them about my services.
Recommended Links:
If you are interested in any aspect of web design, you may find these sites of interest:
Use.it.com http://www.useit.com - Jakob Nielsen has made it his personal mission in life to make web sites easier to use. Nielsen has consulted for many major companies telling them why their multimillion pound web efforts are completely useless and scare people away. On the site you can read more than five years' worth of his very clearly written articles about the intricacies of site usability and design. (Yes, I am a great fans of Mr Nielsen!)
All Things Web at http://www.pantos.org/atw/ As they say in their own words "A primary focus of All Things Web is the design and development of reader-friendly web pages". A hugely interesting and thought provoking site.
Art and the Zen of web sites at http://www.tlc-systems.com/webtips.shtml One huge article that looks at the whole philosophy of web design and how it differs from other media.
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