Web Design, CSS, SEO, Web Metrics

CSS Print Command

2005-04-26T09:27:00.000-07:00

If you ever have a page that looks great on the screen but when you print it the info is cut off. Problematic right? Well, there’s a fix, it may not work for all pages, but it will help you hide the unwanted portions of a page when the user prints.

Code:
********************************************************
PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU REMOVE ALL $'s from this code
They were added so code would show up in the page
********************************************************

<$style type="text/css" media="print">
.nodisplay{display: none;}
<$/style>

The media=”print” is the key here. It dictates that on the print command to apply this style or styles.

Add a class=”nodisplay” to the portion you want to hide.

Cut and paste this to see how it works. NOTE: use the print preview option so you don’t burn ink.

<$table class="nodisplay" id="Table" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%" border="0" runat="server">
<$tbody><$tr>
<$td valign="top" width="30%">
***************************************
THIS INFORMATION SHOULD NOT PRINT!!!!!!
***************************************
<$/td>
<$/tr><$/tbody><$/table>
<$br>
<$br>
<$br>
<$table class="nodisplay" id="Table" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%" border="1" runat="server">
<$tbody><$tr>
<$td valign="top" width="30%">
_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_
THIS INFORMATION SHOULD PRINT!!!!!!
_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_
<$/td>
<$/tr><$/tbody><$/table>

Neeed more help? Check out Downtown Digital for more cool tips and tricks.

Good Web Design

2005-04-18T21:18:00.000-07:00

So you have an idea and you want to build a web site. A GOOD web site (Goal Oriented Objective Design) is essential if you are going to have a site that is both usable and effective.

First, what is the goal of your website? That is what is it you wish to achieve once it is up and running?

Second Orient your website, and by this I mean align or position the site with respect to the clients you wish to attract and keep.

Third, what is the Objective of the site? Do you want to sell products? Do you want to provide information? You should have clear goals in mid before you start the design process as this will better assist you when you actually begin coding you site.

Last is the Design. Your design is arguably the most important part of your site. A bad design could turn of a visitor before they have a chance to realize the value of the service or products you offer. If you rush into a design that is not thought out you risk failing from the start of your project

Any website design that we at Downtown Digital undertake will follow this process. Asking a client questions up front can save immeasurable hours of coding and provides an end result that will achieve fantastic results.

Adding Animation to your website

2005-04-07T21:27:00.000-07:00

If you are going to use animation in your website, you need to ask yourself, “why do I want to have movement on my site, to catch someone’s attention, to sell a product or just because it looks cool.” All too often the answer is the latter. The best animation is built around an effective strategy that both conveys a message and makes the visitor take action. Just because you can use Flash does not mean you should. You should have clearly defined goals when you design your animation for your website.

Downtown Digital has a client, Salon Va Bella that wanted Flash in their website. The first thing we did was to engage the customer and ask the basic questions to determine if it was wise to add animation to the site or if it would just be “fluff.” In the end, the Downtown Digital staff came up with a beautiful Flash header that conveyed a relaxing spa/salon atmosphere that would attract customers

So, if you are going to use animation in your site you have to ask yourself some questions. Just adding animation on your website will not bring or retain a user. Define goals, set a baseline and gather metrics to see if what you are doing is working. If you have questions, ask us. Downtown Digital will always answer a question about good design techniques and principles.

Creating Compelling Navigation

2005-04-06T21:56:00.000-07:00

For most sites, navigation is the key to a good user experience. If you have hard to read links, roll-over buttons that time out too quick, or too many nested links this may frustrate a visitor. Try to simplify your websites navigation. If you choose a horizontal navigation, make sure it serves the site well. If the user has to scroll "below the fold" the top horizontal nav may not be the wisest choice.

Try using .asp to build your navigation and of course you should be using CSS to make quick and easy changes to the nav on the fly. We rebuilt the Downtown Digital navigation after finding users were having a hard time getting to the web design and web hosting pages. Since Downtown Digital revamped the navigation, our customer retention rates have doubled and business is up 18%. If as simple a change as navigation look and feel is and the potential ROI, you should always revisit your site design and consult your metrics to try and enhance your user experience.

Downtown Digital will review your site for free and give you suggestions to make your site user friendly. We also offer Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies to get your site noticed.

Cheap, Affordable Web Hosting

2005-04-04T21:30:00.000-07:00

Downtown Digital just launched our new prices!! Now cheap, affordable web hosting is available! We have doubled our web site hosting and kept the prices the same!! Search the web for affordable web hosting and we'll bet that Downtown Digital will have some of the best web hosting prices you can find.

If you are an Arizona business looking for cheap and affordable web site hosting, look no further, Downtown Digital has the web hosting plan for you!

If you need advise on picking an affordable web site host, contact us and we'll help you choose what's right for you even if you don't host with us. Web Hosting solutions in Arizona have never been easier.

Arizona web hosting

2005-04-04T13:07:00.000-07:00

Choosing a web host can be an arduous task. In order to choose the proper web host for your web site you need to identify your needs and then choose accordingly. At Downtown Digital we provide 3 different web hosting solutions to fit most customers needs.

When choosing a web host, you can search for "cheap web hosting" or "affordable web hosting" and you will find that reading through the sites will give you a headache. There are 3 questions to ask when choosing a web host:

1) How much storage space do they provide
2) How many email boxes do they provide
3) What technology does the web host support ( ie. .NET, Apache, .ASP etc.)

Visit Downtown Digital and look at our hosting solutions. There is a simple grid to compare and a money back guarantee if you are not satisfied. You do not need to look any further for web hosting solutions.

Downtown Digital Web Design

2005-04-01T06:59:00.000-08:00

Downtown Digital L.L.C. specializes in designing, developing, and implementing professional web sites for small to medium-sized businesses. This is what makes our company different from most web development companies in Arizona. By using a unique approach with each of our individual clients, we ensure cost-effective results every time.

One way to save money when looking for a web designer in Arizona is to have a clear idea about what you would like to accomplish with your web site. Give a web designer a clear cut plan will help the designer give you an accurate quote and will also help speed the time to market. Downtown Digital has a very simple process that we walk our clients through when we initially meet. This sets goals and expectations from the start and assures timely delivery.

Make sure to inquire about maintenance fees, code ownership, deliverables, prototypes and goals in the initial meetings to set expectations up front. These web design ideas should help you obtain a relatively accurate quote.

Web Design in Arizona, like most places is a relatively new business. There are good and bad so be careful when choosing. At Downtown Digital we can assist you with the sometimes painful task of getting a great web site even on a tight budget,

Web design in Arizona

2005-03-29T17:59:00.000-08:00

Downtown Digital has been designing websites for business in Arizona for over 7 years. We have built sites for both large and small clients and find that the one thing everyone wants to do is save money. So all the developers at Downtown Digital got together and put together a plan that can save our clients money by speeding up our development and delivery time and thus save our clients money.

As we mentioned before, Downtown Digital's main goal is constancy and achieving consistency across all pages of a website is most effectively done using CSS as a main design element. Using the Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) is one of the easiest ways to make quick global changes to your site. You can change fonts, images, tables, cell colors, buttons or almost anything else that you would like.

To make a change, you edit your style sheet and your change takes effect across all pages in your site.

I can not tell you how the use of CSS has made development at Downtown Digital easier. Throughout the U.S. and Arizona, we have applied our web design concepts to some very effective websites.

Using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) in Web Design

2005-03-29T09:29:00.000-08:00

I can not begin to tell you how important it is to use style sheets. They are so incredibly powerful and can make global changes to your website quick and painless. Before you start designing a style sheet, I'd suggest looking over the basis on the W3C website so that you build a compliant CSS from the start.

Over the years my Downtown Digital website has gone through many changes and I have learned a lot of tricks. Without a doubt the CSS has been the most powerfully tool I have used. In a matter of minutes I can make changes to the site and load the CSS and the look and feel changes. I can't tell you the success Downtown Digital has had by just a few simple changes that can catch a visitors eye and make them take action ant turn that action into a solid lead or sale.

CSS is an amazing this ad I will continue to talk about it. Once you have it down, you'll NEVER use a font tag again!

Stick around....this is going to get interesting