Good Design Practices

Your website is where your business resides -- it's like the headquarter of an offline company. Hence, it is important to practise good design principles to make sure your site reaches out to the maximum number of visitors and sells to as many people as possible.

Make sure you have clear directions on the navigation of your website. The navigation menu should be uncluttered and concise so that visitors know how to navigate around your website without confusion.

Reduce the number of images on your website. They make your site load very slowly and more often than not they are very unnecessary. If you think any image is essential on your site, make sure you optimize them using image editing programs so that they have a minimum file size.

Keep your text paragraphs at a reasonable length. If a paragraph is too long, you should split it into seperate paragraphs so that the text blocks will not be too big. This is important because a block of text that is too large will deter visitors from reading your content.

Make sure your website complies to web standards at www.w3.org and make sure they are cross-browser compatible. If your website looks great in Internet Explorer but breaks horribly in Firefox and Opera, you will lose out on a lot of prospective visitors.

Avoid using scripting languages on your site unless it is absolutely necessary. Use scripting languages to handle or manipulate data, not to create visual effects on your website. Heavy scripts will slow down the loading time of your site and even crash some browsers. Also, scripts are not supported across all browsers, so some visitors might miss important information because of that.

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Open Source Software

If you've spent any lengthy amount of time on the Internet, you've probably heard of open source software but might not have fully understood what it is and why it even exists. This article will describe this recent phenomenon and describe some of its benefits for the software using community.

In a nutshell, open source software is software made by everyone - for everyone. The hopes behind its development is that through its open access, it will evolve into something that represents the true desires of computer users. Through a wide network of user involvement, the software in question is enhanced and debugged without costs or administrative politics.

Traditionally, software is developed behind closed doors. A team of professional coders build it but the community at large isn't part of its conception. It's costly to produce and as you can probably guess, that cost is passed on to the end user: the consumer. Open source software on the other hand is free. Free to download, free to install, free to use, free to modify, and free to share.

Started over twenty years ago, it's a phenomenon that is gaining in both popularity and exposure. In its first conception, open source gave birth to the World Wide Web as we know it today. The Internet as a whole is the result of free permission to access the web, use the web, contribute to the web, and share the web with others. But it certainly hasn't stopped there. In the not too distant past, Netscape converted its once commercial version of its Navigator web browser to open source. And today, open source is venturing into the commercial realm as well.

At first thought, the idea of open source may sound just plain crazy to those who earn a living from software development. But the facts point to a different prediction. Open source software puts companies in a terrific position to re-brand and re-position themselves in a market that they may have not been able to reach before. In the business world, open source is all about image and when consumers witness corporations contributing (instead of selling) to the buying public, they gain big favor in the eyes of their users (plus tremendous opportunities to sell other items).

Inviting the public inside a product's development builds community and trust. It also sets the platform for increased reliability. Fans of open source programs are adamant about reliable software and highly criticize commercialized versions for being buggy and error-prone. Avid fans even proclaim commercialism is the cause of shoddy software.

Another benefit that open source brings to light is the speed at which its products are developed, enhanced, supported and distributed. This is because the people who regularly contribute to an open source product do so for unmotivated reasons (other than perhaps to feed the ego.) They're highly talented, they're available, and they care. Bringing money into any project can almost mean instant death. It can kill motivation, desire, and a true willingness to create a good product. In a commercial setting, participants work for a paycheck rather than for the product. And this is what puts open source projects far ahead of its monetized competition.

As a software user, this means you can contribute to an open source project as well, and help to develop it into a product that reflects your direct preferences. You aren't "stuck" using open source software the way you would be stuck using an expensive word processor or database. You have the same access to open source software as its programmers have and in essence, you are your own customer!

Perhaps at this point you're wondering where you can get in on this wonderful opportunity. There are plenty of open source opportunities sprinkled across the Internet and they can be easily found though any search engine. Google "open source project" and you'll be sure to find more resources than you can shake a stick at!

The Dreamweaver Templates Resource

The Dreamweaver Templates Resource is a reviewed listing of high quality website template companies. These companies produce professional templates for webmasters. In many cases our reviewers have extensive experience with the products and in other cases we have done a site review to make your job locating a suitable professional template somewhat easier.
We hope this listing will save you time searching for well constructed, beautiful templates with high consumer appeal. Dreamweaver Web Site Templates also make excellent teaching examples for students of all levels. Many years of graphic design experience has been employed in producing these resource listings but please remember that Dreamweaver-Templates.org does not assume any responsibility or liability for these resources. The list is in order of popularity and is provided as a free service, please use at your own risk.

ON-THE-WEB TemplateS:

Company	Templates Description
Dreamweaver Graphics Co.	Inexpensive and easy to use small business web site design templates. These basic business layouts are suitable for a wide variety of uses. Great for business start-ups. Their ease of use also makes them ideal for students or personal sites.
TemplateStore	These templates utilize a combination of Dreamweaver's built-in template and library functions to get your web site underway quickly and easily. Useful documentation and online help.
Projectseven	May very well be the most beautiful and technically astute CSS templates on the web, bar none. A must see.
Legend Web	High quality and inexpensive. Legend Web offers a straightforward assortment of standard and ecommerce templates.
Ecommerce Templates	Quick setup · Great designs · USPS Shipping · PayPal Instant Payment Notification · Search Page · Product options · Layout options and More.
TemplateRover	Web site templates for some entirely different businesses. i.e. Tanning Salons, Tattoo and Body Art Shops, Pest Exterminators and Farming. Highly stylized selection of HTML templates suitable for all development platforms. Plenty of Flash and pizzazz if that's your desire.
Template Monster	Highly stylized designs. The largest selection of online website templates we know of; most utilizing Adobe Photoshop PSD files and suitable for all development environments. You might prefer this simpler Template Monster Search website for your research.
Subia Creative	Handsome use of photography is what makes Subia templates stand out. • Unique photos on every page. Change photos to depict your particular industry or business style. • Templates include at least 10 pages with flexibility to add even more. • Layered PhotoShop files for ease of customization
RealTemplates®	Our own selection of professionally designed templates for all types of sites. Choose from hundreds of templates in many business categories. Designed by some of the best template designers.
The osCommerce Store	osCommerce Templates are ready made solutions to use for on-line shops. These ecommerce shops are a combination of osCommerce software provided by osCommerce.com in conjunction with a template store-front design.
4Templates	Low cost well constructed design, many Wordpress templates. jQuery templates also.
Dreamweaver Resources	Templates validate to W3C standards. Primarily designed for Dreamweaver and Fireworks, but not limited to this software. Use the templates straight out of the box or use the supplied png and style sheet to customize to suit your style. An Australian firm.
i3DThemes	Web Templates for Dreamweaver 8/CS3/CS4/CS5. Unique website templates with many options. Include step-by-step tutorials.
Smartwebby.com	Many lessons on Dreamweaver basics and advanced topics. High quality website designs. Template categories include Business, Food, Family, Sports, Travel, Real Estate and more! Unique features include drop-down menus, swap images and rollover buttons. An easy to follow customization guide is also included with each download.
Template Kingdom	We like the structure of these templates. The CSS and HTML are well programmed. These templates are fairly simple and may work well for those with minimal experience. They are fast loading and uncomplicated to modify.
WebCo Design	Flash/Dreamweaver intros and complete sites. Easy to implement and beautiful.

Stock Artwork, Photography, and Web Templates Oh My!

My own personal opinion is this: the creation of stock templates doesn’t hurt the profession at all; Rather, it empowers designers to save time and money on development costs and it’s part of the natural progression of our industry.
If you look at any other industries in history and you’ll see the same trends towards the commoditization of items that were previous big-ticket services… It’s actually kinda surprising that it took this long for our quickly moving industry to hit this stage.
That doesn’t diminish the fact that some people are probably irritated by the new movement within the industry. Using templates feels… well, wrong … to a group of professionals that largely prides themselves on creativity, originality, and hard work ethic.
As an example though, let’s examine the case of the photography industry not too long ago – an industry that was for years steeped in mysterious and inaccessible processes that were dangerous and difficult to master – which left 99% of consumers reliant upon film developers to process their film into prints; Film developers were probably irritated when the first serious digital camera / printer combination came out, but Flickr is bigger than ever and the photography field as a whole has benefited.

Why You Should use Web Templates

Are you on the lookout for a way to design your own website but have a limited amount of knowledge in the area? Or maybe you are in business and need to create a website to sell goods and services through or simply advertise your products. One way of doing this is to use web templates which can help you to have your own website up and running in less time than you thought. So why should you use web templates?

1. Templates like this are ready made which means that there is no developing that needs to be done to put the template in place.
2. Many of the web templates that are available are totally free to download and use. This is good news if you do not have any funds to purchase some of the pay to use web templates that are out there on the market.
3. You will not have to consider any of the bugs that can be present during the web development phase of creating templates. All of this has been done for you which means no headaches in this area when using web templates.
4. Web templates will enable anyone to build a website that looks professional and has many different elements within it.
5. It is possible to use web templates and customise them to meet your needs. Whilst many of them will have the same theme you can refine this and turn it into something that is unique to you and your wants.
6. When using web templates it is so easy to edit any area of your website that you want to. There is no coding to think about which gives anyone who is using such templates absolute flexibility over their website.
7. Using web templates can save a business a great deal of money when building a website. This is due to the fact that website developers will have already worked their magic on the template and will not need to be consulted again. These kind of savings are essential for any business or individual who does not have the money in place to pay for these kind of services.
8. Using web templates can save a great deal of time also. They are easy to access and use and content within a website can be edited in a matter of minutes.
9. If you are unsure as to how you would like your website to look using web templates can provide you with the inspiration that you are looking for. Then once it is built, if you are not totally happy with the look of the site you can make changes until you are happy with it.
10. Web templates can be found incredibly easily online. There is no searching for hours to find a provider of templates. In fact in less than an hour you could find templates that meet your exact needs and that are simple and straightforward to use – so what are you waiting for?

Don’t Use Template Websites.

Why not to use template websites
The reason is simple, templates are too generic and have less value then custom made design specific to your company goals and subject matter. Template web sites are designed to be sold to you and not to your customers, and many business owners get into the trap thinking that if the template looks good to you it will look good to your clients. This is not true. Designer of a temaplate had very little to do with your company. They never talked to you, never asked you a single question. The only creteria by which you select good or bad template is based only on your assessment of what is good or bad. If you have great expertise in the design field, you may be qualified to make such assumption, most do not. The time needed to customize a template of your choice to your liking and entering appropriate changes will be also close to what it will take to create custom design. The benefits could not be more obvious. Template site with bells and whistles in wrong places and no emphasis on things that you really ned to offer or custom designed site with consistent branding and clear message supported by relevant design.
Other then obvious problem above the following main problems are frequent in template websites.
Over designed templates
Template websites�are over designed with al possible features, whistles, sounds, icons, gadgets etc to make them ook finished polished and sellable to you. A god web site doesn’t have to rely on this, rather is based on good design that supports the content and branding.
Usage of images
Many template buyers don’t realize that the images used in the templates may not in fact be all legal and technically it will be a responsibility of the new owner. A potential copyright issue may cost business a lot of money. Incorrectly used image can bring law suite or cost later a lot of money.
Inconsistent Branding
Many templates have placeholder for your logo. A design that can be used with any logo is too generic to support and work together with your logo to create positive result that’s good for your branding. Design process starts with logo design and to web site design, not other way around as it is the case with all templates.
Excessive use of flash
One of the main selling points and totally useless elements is overuse of flash technology in many templates. Many times customers will be wowed by all the sound effects, visual effects a regular navigational bar makes! Your website should not looklike Vegas slot machines. Subtlety is your friend, not 25 effects used to sell YOU the template and how helping your customer make decision to buy or ot to buy your services. Stay as far as possible from templates that are using flash for navigation, body or other functional elements. The designers that make them think of selling to you more then anything