Call 0750-216-1212, 0750-217-1212
Sign In Register

Website Archives

Home / Website

Category Archives: Website

16 Mar

Web Design Best Practices in 2020

By: Hemin Mohammed
Date: 16-March-20

There is no doubt that advertising is a crucial part of companies and businesses, particularly in Erbil in which economy is booming fast. No matter if it’s a small, mid-size or even an enterprise. They need to have presence online in order to show their customers what they can offer. Digital advertising allows businesses grow faster by engaging with more people at a smaller budget and a shorter time frame than traditional ways of marketing (print and press).

Moreover, website is a great asset of digital marketing since all products, services, activities, deals and offers of your company are communicated in the most presentable and efficient way you’re your customers.

Therefore, the first step that companies in Erbil and worldwide should do is to have a reliable website allowing their customers engage with them. You may not sell your products and services online but you show website visitors what you can offer to them. Here starts the real business with the very basic channel of online presence that a website. As the first thing customers do is they look for your brand online. So if you have a business, and don’t have a website yet. It is time to consider having a website to tell people that you are existing doing this business.

For the reasons above web design industry has changed dramatically over the past decade. In addition, web standards are constantly changing, so revising your UX (User Experience) practices frequently is a key to success. User experience and needs were the main factors behind this enormous change in web design technology. It’s worth mentioning that business owners in Iraq aim to have a website that generate more conversions than just appealing users to stay for a longer time on their websites without performing a single action. These conversions may include: subscribing for a service, purchase of a product, downloading a trial software, upgrading a free service, registrations…etc. It’s simply called Website Conversions Rate-the percentage of users who performed one of the mentioned necessary actions. Therefore, the web developers team at Standing Tech company takes a great care about website conversions. This will help businesses grow their business scale and increase their profit. Standing Tech is a pioneer web developer in Erbil in applying these constant standards in Kurdistan region. Standing Tech’s strategy in 2020 is to have a revolutionary change in web design technology in the region and Iraq as whole, practicing the best and most effective web design standard techniques. If your browse their products’ section on their official website, you will realize that they have practiced up-to-date website standards. Here are some of the techniques Standing Tech depends on in designing websites.

Website header standards

In fact, the header tells much about what the website is offering to its visitors or customers. What brand is represented? What are the services and products offered on the website? How to contact company staff? What are the deals they have for their customers?

Apart from this, the header is a critical part of the home page as it grasps the first impression of users. Also it holds the most important elements that a good website header has. So if want to have an effective header you should consider having below elements:

  • Logo and slogan
  • Call-to-actions (CATs)
  • Headlines
  • Navigational menu
  • Search bar

However, these elements should not be used to overload the header. There should be a kind of balance between the content (text) and the technical elements. It is also not a good idea to leave the header empty. A user who cannot perform a simple action on your interface in a few seconds will probably leave and never return.

User Experience Design (UX)

UX is what a user of a certain product experiences when using that product. A good website should have a well-designed UX to satisfy users with your products/ services by making improvements in term of usability, accessibility, and providing pleasure in the interaction. In a simpler concept you when design your website, you should have your customers in mind.

Your website design should be simple and easy for your users. It has to allow them to quickly and efficiently interact with it. Complexity of elements and features on your website may distract the visitors and sends them back where they came from.

Your website should include these features to effectively target the user experience:

Useful: Is the content of your website useful and fulfilling your visitor’s needs? Does it make your visitors satisfy when they leave your website? Will they come back again?

Usable: Can your website be navigated on both mobile and desktop devices easily without errors? Today with developed smartphone market, almost 80% of web traffic comes from mobile phones.

Desirable: Are your brand and website elements reflecting you and your business identity in the best way possible? Have you used brand equity accurately so that your customers do not get confused about your brand?

Credible: Are you presenting yourself as the leading brand in the specified industry that people can refer to and trust? Trust in business leads to customer loyalty which will bring more revenues by their continuous actions.

Reduce Choices on Website

Simplicity has become fashionable today. Big companies like apple design their websites and applications in a very simple and stylish way. Choose a simple design for your website because when you offer more choices to your customers, it will be hard for them to make their mind. This could be done by turning your visitor’s focus to your Call-to-actions (CATs) by avoiding to present too many products and services on your webpages.

These CATs may include performing an action on certain pages, filling out a form, signing up for your newsletter, leaving a message, making a phone call, and visiting your physical store.

Minimize Animations on your website

As one of the latest web design trends, many web developers can use micro animations effectively to:

  • Encourage visitors to perform Call-to-Actions (CTAs).
  • give your website responsiveness.
  • Make your website easy to use or understand.

If animations are overused on your website, it will have a complete opposite effect. This will distract and confuse your visitors. So animations have to be used in moderate and accurate way to as per the designer’s strategic plan. On the other hand, small animations can have a good impact on the look and feel of the website.

Utilize Negative Spaces

Negative space or some call it ‘white space’ describes the areas between different elements on a web page. Negative spaces between your web elements and content gives your website an appealing look.

Mobile-Friendly Pages

Mobile responsive and friendly websites are not optional anymore. It has become a must do in website technology. It is worth mentioning that more than half of the web traffic worldwide comes from mobile phones. Usually the first page is very significant for any website as most of the actions should be available there. On the desktop version, developers and designers put a large slider or a big banner with company logo and slogan. Whereas in mobile version these big elements do not necessarily appear as they should be. So these need to be optimized per mobile design standards. Otherwise users will not feel good about your website.

Avoid Using Big Sliders & Carousels

Big sliders and carousels were used dominantly in website design trends for a while, but not anymore. UX experts have noticed that these elements could have a negative impact on your website due to below reasons:

  • Web pages will load slowly.
  • Affecting negatively on your valuable content
  • Appearing poor and malfunctioning on mobile devices.

So if you still have these elements on your website, consider removing them and replace them with static images for your products and services. Then you will see the difference in page time loading and giving more space to your content.

Branding Consistency

Your branding needs to be coherent across all digital platforms and including your website. If you miss this point, your branding is completely missed altogether.

Branding consistency is helping you acquire new customers and also keep old ones. Always make sure that your branding and your business are in-line with your customers by making your website:

  • The same logo is communicated.
  • The same slogan is communicated.
  • Uses the same color and theme
  • Contains the appropriate content.

Write Effective Content

Content is the most important factor customers visiting your website. It should be designed in an organized way to be functional and stylish.

If visitors are satisfied by the content you have presented to them, there will be the chance of converting them to real customers by performing actions as purchasing your products, subscribing to your services and much more. You be specific and concise in creating your content. Particularly nowadays more minimal designs are style and popular with presentable images and brief text content.

When you write content for a specific product or service on your website, it should allow people to identify:

  • What the product/ service is
  • What the features of the product/ service are
  • What are the benefits of this product/ service to you?
  • How to perform a Call-to-Action (CAT)?

Optimize for Speed

Make your website as fast as possible. Your pages should always load within 3 seconds as the standard loading time. If your website for whatever reason exceeded this time frame, visitors may leave without hesitance. To have a fast loading website, you need to integrate all these practices and standards mentioned throughout this article. Avoid using complicated flashy GUIs that cause delays to loading your web pages.

Use Landing Pages

Today majority of businesses are advertising on social media platforms and Google Ads. To help grow your business use landing pages specific to your user objectives.

A landing page also called a ‘destination page’ is a single web page that appears when clicking an optimized search result, a marketing promotion or an online advertisement.

standalone page accessible only by your target audience when they click on your ad and should be designed with a single goal (CTA) in mind. (Sign up, phone call, contact form, etc).

It’s been proven that landing pages helped businesses improve their digital marketing campaigns and increase their conversion rates. As landing pages would be the first destinations that users are redirected to, they should have a beautiful and appealing design.

Use Color Contrast

Contrasting color are part of the look and feel for a website. It soon draws the eye to a specific element in your design. This technique can be used to highlight your logo or a certain word or phrases that you want your audience to see first when they browse that certain page.

Update Your Website SEO Constantly

Google and other search engines are constantly updating their algorithms and standards from website ranking perspective.

These updates may happen several times in a year that cause dramatic changes to rankings for millions of websites, your website may be one them.

So maintaining your website’s SEO up to date, you will have the chance to increase your web traffic and eventually enhance rankings. It is worth mentioning that ranking is very important for your website. The higher ranking your website may have, the better it is in terms of competition with your business competitors and also increasing your online visibility. So this concludes that your website ranking has an important impact on your business growth. In other words, growth means making more profit.

Your Website Security is crucial

Your website security needs to be very strong regardless of whether you sell your products and services online or not. This would be for the safety of both your customers and the website itself. If a website has a vulnerable security, it is more exposed to hacking.

Millions of websites are hacked on a yearly basis. This is all due to neglecting the security side.

In order to protect your website from hacking, there are a number of precautionary steps you should follow:

  • Always update your themes and plugins.
  • Don’t missing security updates
  • Use strong passwords
  • Make sure you don’t have security holes.
  • Avoid possible data leaks

Also these steps can enhance your website security to a greater level:

  • Install recommended SSL Certificates to enable an encrypted connection to your website.
  • The security plugins installed should be compatible with your website.
  • Update your CMS platform and its plugins frequently to latest versions. If you keep them updated, you are safe from intrusions by hackers.

Design a Chat Boat

One of the best ways web developers depend on to collect information from your website visitors is to have a well-designed Chat Boat. Unlike traditional ways information has been collected from visitors through some different elements like newsletter opt-ins and complicated forms.

Nowadays visitors rather want to speak with a representative of your company and get their queries answered immediately. Therefore, the right technique to satisfy customers on your website is to utilize this element. It is reliable and cost effective.

Using Smart Videos

Videos are considered as the most powerful marketing tool. They bring more engagements than the rest of content. They soon tell you the story they carry.

For this reason, in 2020 marketing experts recommend to use smart videos as an effective promotional asset in website development.

Those days gone when website designers used to embed YouTube videos on their websites. A high quality video can do the purpose and convey the marketing message to targeted customers. After all, it is easy to utilize this powerful technique into your website.

3D Elements

Using 3D objects and elements is trendy in web design 2020. Whether you are a web developer or business owner, while designing or renovating your website, consider using 3D elements to easily grasp visitor’s attentions. Moreover, these elements will help bring your website into life. Also they create visual appeals and enhance user experience (UX).

Stylish Illustrations

Illustrations have become very popular part of user graphic interface (UGI) in the past couple of years. People are into illustrations more than long paragraphs of text. Sometimes you may use simple illustrations to explain your products and services instead of text. In 2020 most web designers include attractive illustrations in their trendy design.

 More about Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

One the most important practices of all time, especially in 2020 is prioritizing a good search engine optimization. The more you invest your efforts and capabilities on SEO, you’re more likely to have a better web ranking and getting more visitors on your website.

To do this you need to use targeted keywords throughout your website. The more effective content you publish on your website for users, the better organic traffic you will get.

To have an effective SEO for your website, follow these steps:

  • Responsive/ mobile-friendly design: not only to access your website from mobile and tablet devices, but also to get a better ranking by search engines like Google.
  • Header Tags (H1): the header tag (H1) can either be a headline of a certain page or a title of a post. They are used with relevant keywords to show you’re including relevant information on your headline or post title.
  • Title tags and meta descriptions: these help search engines understand the content of a web page. Since you’re writing for real people, you should have a kind of balance between SEO performance and style of your website.
  • Short descriptions for web URLs: this short readable description will often contain keywords.
  • Bring relevant URLs from high-quality websites: if you link your website with those high-ranked one, there will be a good chance to attract new visitors and increase overall traffic to your website.

I have a website. It’s up and running fine. Why should keep it updated?

Lots of website owners often ask this question, “do I ever need to update my website? Is it worth my time, effort and money to update my website even though it’s working fine and running?”

The reasonable answer to this question is YES.

Every year thousands of websites are designed and launched by business owners. Some of these could be your competitors that they affect their customers’ feelings with their newly updated websites. So from competition perspective it is mandatory you should renovate your website at least once every two to three years. Also in terms of security and ranking algorithms, it’s highly recommended to do that. Nowadays customers get excited when they see their service providers are updating their websites and communication channels constantly.

References:

27 Feb

Mobile-First Web Design vs. Responsive Web Design

By: Bassel Tibi
Date: 27-Feb-20

In this article, we wall talk about two different approaches in Web design domain, the Responsive Web Design and the Mobile-First Web Design.

First, we will mention the meaning the feature for each design, then we will do a comparison and state which one is best for your organization,

Mobile-first website design:

Mobile-first websites are completely different from traditional websites. The conditions in which someone may visit your website from a mobile device are slightly different from the conditions sitting behind a computer or laptop.

Make things easy for your customers, more than 50% access the Internet from their mobile   phones, do not make them lose you there, and do not lose many visitors and potential customers.

Also, search engines have made many adjustments that indicate that websites compatible with mobile devices will be more important in ranking in search engine results.

Attention to the technical aspect of designing mobile-friendly websites is halfway, you should also make sure that this website improves the types of searches you get. Mobile users generally search for quick and easy information, which means they may not search for browsing a whole bunch of text to find what they need. While a great deal of content is crucial to drive searches on your desktop computer, providing relevant information, such as your phone number and address, is visible and easy to find when it comes to mobile search.

If your business contains a storefront, showroom, or office location that customers can visit, it is also important that you have an accurate Google Map card, so that users can easily get directions while on the move.

Why is designing a mobile-first website important to your business?

We have entered a new era of Internet use, specifically the use of the Internet via a mobile phone, consumers are turning to their mobile devices not only to write text, social network, and get directions and location on Google Map, but also use them to improve their lives, and get what they want through it.

Mobile devices have become essential in our daily routine, and according to the Internet trends report, the time the user spends dealing with digital media via mobile devices has reached more than three hours a day for the average user. Because of this shift in user behavior of the Internet, your digital marketing strategy must shift to a mobile focus as well, meaning that you need to optimize all of your marketing campaigns, assets and mobile orientation and  the most important of once which is a mobile-first website.

What does it mean, a mobile-first website?

When we talk about mobile-first websites, we mean that the website looks great on any mobile device, such as a smartphone or tablet. More than 90% of mobile users consider access to mobile content to be critical, and this means that many may consider leaving sites that they cannot browse through mobile. The site must be built on its compatibility with mobile, so the text is easy to read, and easy to navigate between its contents. The buttons and links are large and clear enough.

The most important thing on mobile-first websites is their ability to give your customers the information they want quickly, and despite the different information that people search for from different sites, the data that shows the basic information that people want is summarized in the name ,the address and phone number. If you have a retail store, a restaurant, or any other commercial activity that customers come to, then perhaps in addition to the previous data, the display of working hours will also be useful.

Google announced earlier that mobile compatibility is now a symbol of ranking, which means that mobile-first websites appear higher in search results, and every update after that strengthens and supports this trend more.

Your appearance in advanced results leads to more preferences for your site, more visits, and thus more customers and sales. The first thing I recommend is to make sure now that your website is compatible with the mobile, we can Standing Tech test it for you, the second thing that I recommend is to do a human test, ask one of your friends to test the site by moving between its contents through the mobile, how the content looks, and the ease of navigation between its sections , So you get a realistic user experience.

The importance of a mobile-friendly site:

Need a comfortable website? Yes, if you want to get and maintain more customers, you need a mobile-first site.

Studies recently conducted by Google confirm that any business, whether small, medium or large, needs a mobile-first website if it wants to gain a competitive advantage now and in the future.

Think carefully, how many percent do you lose if you don’t have a mobile-first site? More than half of your potential customers will go elsewhere, if your site is not mobile-friendly. Think about the permanent value of a single customer and think about how many people the customer will refer you to if you provide a good service.

When you dig deeper, what we’re really talking about are changing preferences of the modern consumer. Today’s consumer is more connected to mobile and less patient than years ago. What does a modern consumer want from your website? He wants the site to be fast, safe and accessible on a mobile device, and full of great content compatible for viewing on mobile.

Your website needs to be fast on mobile devices, the modern consumer does not want to wait, if the rapid loading of your pages does not happen, the user will click on the back button, if the download of your site does not exceed 3 seconds, then there is no problem for you.

Your website needs to be safe:

As of the beginning of 2018, Google has started classifying unsafe websites (websites that do not have an HTTPS or SSL certificate), the secure sites will be marked with a “locked” icon in green, and the unsafe websites will be marked with a ” not secure “.

Your customers are more likely to be smart and knowledgeable and understand the risks of hacking a website. If you have two options between two sites that are identical in the quality of products or services, but one of them has a green lock, i.e. it is safe, and the other is not safe. You will choose the safe site.

Standing Tech is the best place you can find a help and support on designing a mobile-first-website with the above features, we have local experts in all cities (Erbil, Sulaimaniah, Duhok, and Halabjah).

Responsive Web Design (RWD):

It is the design that changes its shape according to the shape and size of the user’s screen, and responsive designs become popular in recent years as an improvement in the appearance of sites, but today it has become necessary for your site to have a responsive design and it is no longer optional, because it greatly facilitates the browsing process as well as reading Texts, and leave the visitor with a good impression that makes him return to your site again.

If you are a site owner or you are thinking about creating a new site, the first thing that Standing Tech Company recommends that you should think about designing your site is to be responsive and suitable for all screen sizes of users such as phones, computers, etc. I am not talking here about a special design for Computer and other design of the phone, this technology has become from the past. Although many websites are still using them, I am talking here about only one design that changes its shape according to the size of the devices screens through which the site is browsed, such as phones of all sizes, computers and tablets.

Responsive Design features to all devices:

  1. Leaves a good user experience:

Some statistics confirmed that 70% of website visitors via phones do not return to the site again if its design does not fit the screens of their phones, because the design that matches the screens of the phones facilitates the process of browsing and reading texts well.

  1. Preference to appear in search engines:

Google is giving importance for sites with responsive design, and they appear in the first ranks in the search results that are done through mobile browsers, meaning that you will lose many visitors coming from the search engines for phones if your site is not responsive design.

  1. Improve your earnings from ads:

If your site has a responsive design, the ads will appear well and tidy, which increases the Click-through rate (CTR), and some advertising networks such as Google AdSense are now supporting responsive ad units that correspond to the responsive designs that have a major role in raising your profits in Google AdSense.

  1. Reducing site cost:

If your site is responsive design then you do not need another version of your site for mobile, and thus you will save the cost of design and the cost of servers as well as the cost of maintenance.

at the end, if your site is not Responsive Web Design and you want to make it responsive, it is not difficult, all what you have to do is contact Standing Tech Company.

Responsive Design vs Mobile-First Design

Responsive designs are intended to work on screens of all sizes and will change on the fly so that they make the best use of the screen employed. These changes often include deleting some images, rearranging content displayed in multiple columns into one column, and converting button-based menus to dropdowns, among many other things.

Responsive websites are frequently designed for optimal viewing on a larger screen with the added capability of adjusting to work on smaller ones. Sometimes “extra” information is displayed on a website designed for large screens because there is room for it but not necessarily because it is important to the goals of the website. Superfluous content is less of a problem when displayed on a large screen.

Conversely, because mobile-first designs are initially designed to work on small screens, designers are forced to determine what information is most critical and how to display it effectively on a small screen. This tends to yield highly relevant sites that focus on what’s important. Designers may add content to pages as the screen grows larger but should guard against allowing it to detract from websites’ goals.

Let’s talk now about CSS Frameworks, which is currently supports mobile-first, what is this and why we need to use it, and what is the best one?

What is framework?

Framework is a tool that has several components that help to establish a basis for the software through ready, developed and tested functions in order to ensure the quality and protection of the software. and this concept exists in several programming languages, including php, python, ruby and JavaScript which It confirms its popularity and extent of use by programmers in the world.

Purpose of using the framework

The purpose of the framework can be summarized in saving time and effort for the programmer because it does not have to reprogram the typical features that are mandatory in any application, due to the fact that it has several libraries, each one specialized in solving a specific problem, and for those who wish to use the framework and use the libraries they should respect its pattern, just as using the framework does not mean that the application will not need encoding, but rather, because the framework is only an aid.

A lot of frontend frameworks available now but few have proven their status and strength, and they continue to provide flexibility and strength to designers and programmers to build the most beautiful designs for their software projects.

Each framework has strong strengths and weaknesses, but what is important in modern frameworks is its flexibility, as the framework is designed in the form of units to allow you to use the framework in full or some of its parts to suit your project, or even use units from different frameworks, all of which are suitable for your project.

We will review one of the best frontend framework and some of its features that are provided for your software projects which is Bootstrap 

What is bootstrap?

Bootstrap is a free and open source framework for designing websites and web applications. Bootstrap 4.0 contains ready-made templates written in HTML and CSS to format text, forms, buttons, navigation bars and other GUI elements, as well as optional JavaScript plugins that help create interactive elements.

The Bootstrap framework contains elements and options for planning web development projects, including containers, the grid system, media object, and responsive item classes.

Bootstrap features and why you use it if you are a web developer or designer:

There are a lot of features and reasons that make you use Bootstrap in your projects some of these advantages are:

Bootstrap provides the ability to respond to all sizes such as different screen sizes, as well as tablets and mobile phones, which have become the largest visitor in search engines superior to the computer.

Bootstrap is easy and flexible, and you can use it just by learning the basics of HTML, CSS, and Javascript languages ​​without using many complicated codes.

One of the most important features of the bootstrap is that it is open sourced and it was released with a MIT license and you can use it from GitHub where you will find it most popular.

Bootstrap is compatible with all browsers, not just updated browsers, but it is also suitable for Internet Explorer 8.

There are a lot of other features and all of these features make Bootstrap very important for all sites and it may be mandatory also because of the time saving it makes in writing the code, as well as making the site responsive, a new site cannot start without being responsive to all sizes.

In a conclusion, the framework was found to help programmers to facilitate the programming process using tools and libraries previously programmed, with the aim of helping developers complete their projects in a short period of time with the highest possible quality while providing the ability to control software modifications in a scientific and consistent way.

References:

Material Web Design vs Flat Web Design
20 Feb

Material Web Design vs Flat Web Design

By: Hanar Sabah, Date: 20 Feb 20

Material Design

Material Design is one of the design languages that is Android-oriented and is created by Google in 2014. It is used for designing interfaces such as website by designers and end-users with its own set of guidelines. We can say that Material Design is basically a design philosophy that acknowledges the technology behind interfaces. Material design has tangible UI and meaningful motion, and it is adaptive. It uses shadows, depth effects, padding, transitions, bevels, and animations, which makes the design look more realistic and stylish. The point is providing a high-quality outcome that looks good and is fun to look at while it is functional at the same time.

flat design vs material design

The Advantages of Material Design

  • It provides designers with guidelines, which makes it easier on designers since they don’t have to decide on the small details as they are already provided
  • It attracts users due to its three-dimensional style
  • It offers built-in APIs for animations, which is time saving for the designers
  • It indicates if a button is clickable or not on the application or the website
  • It provides its own color system that allows designers apply colors on their UI. This can be used as a guidance to use the right colors for the right products. Also, designers don’t have to think of which colors to use together since the system gives advice on that as well

The Disadvantages of Material Design

  • Validation from Google is needed to create a unique app because Material Design is created by Google, and they have their own rules
  • It does not let the designers be creative enough since it already provides many guidelines that should be followed
  • Batteries go low faster due to the use of animations

Flat Design

Flat design is a type of design that has a Flat style and is two-dimensional, which is used for both mobile, web application, and website design. Flat Design makes use of the least stylistic elements as it tends to focus more on its color, typography, and content rather than focusing on its look and shape. Flat Design does not use shadow, effects, color gradients, color contrasts, bevels, skeuomorphs, or any other feature that makes the design look more realistic, it is simply a flat design as the name indicates. With its simplicity and lack of stylishness, Flat Design is widely used for app and web design because it creates a comfortable environment to the UI due to the simple elements that are easy to click or tab, and also due to its visual clarity. This makes interaction between the interface and the user easy and effortless.

The Advantages of Flat Design

  • it is user-friendly
  • it is very adaptive, which lets designers make the apps as adaptive as they want. For example, they can create a web design that looks good on all the screen types.
  • it is readable and visually clear
  • it is legible on different screens
  • it is fast on both mobile and web interfaces

The Disadvantages of Flat Design

  • it lacks style and modern design features, which is not attractive for its users
  • the simplicity of the icons and shapes puts a limit on the designers, which does not allow them to be creative and go the extra mile
  • it is hard to tell if a button is clickable or not because it does not use any shadow or raised bevel to show that it is clickable

The Differences Between Material Design and Flat design

Flat Design and Material design are both used for mobile application, web application, and website design and they are both design styles. However, they have many differences. One of the differences between Material Design and Flat Design is that Material Design uses gradient and shadow to give the design a sense of depth while Flat Design does not use any shadow or gradient. In other words, Material Design is three-dimensional while Flat Design is two-dimensional. Also, Material Design uses animations while Flat Design does not. Another difference is that Material Design uses the Z-Axis while Flat Design does not use Z-Axis. Another difference is that Material Design is slower and takes more time to load due to its added design features compared to Flat Design, which has less design features.

Which One to Use/ Which One is Better?

Both Material Design and Flat Design are useful depending on the purpose, it could be useful for one purpose and useless for another. For a business which needs a simple design that is user-friendly, Flat Design would be the right option. However, if a business wants a design that looks good and is rich in terms of design features, then Material Design would be the right choice. As for designers and developers who want to work fast, Material Design is better to use as their tool because Material Design has its own guidelines and it is well documented. On the other hand, for the end-users, Material Design is better for the ones who are new to the world of technology because it focuses more on the look and appearance, which makes it look more like real world objects. However, Flat Design focuses more on its usability than the look, therefore it is better for the ones who are already familiar with the digital world.

What Can Standing Tech Company Provide?

Standing Tech Company can provide best quality website using both flat website design and material website design that would suit the business’s requirements along with all other varieties of products and services. We also provide services (Website Security, Website update and Maintenance) through our local experts in the region (Erbil, Sulaimaniah, Duhok, and Halabja).

References

  • GOYAL, A. (2017, April 26). Material Design vs. Flat Design – Which One is Better? Retrieved from octalsoftware: https://www.octalsoftware.com/blog/material-design-vs-flat-design-which-one-is-better
  • K, G. (2019, February 24). Material Design vs Flat Design – Which one to use? Retrieved from https://gowtham.design/: https://gowtham.design/blog/material-vs-flat/
  • Material Design. (n.d.). Retrieved from interaction-design: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/material-design
  • Savić, V. (2016, February 29). A SHORT HISTORY OF FLAT DESIGN. Retrieved from popwebdesign: https://www.popwebdesign.net/popart_blog/en/2016/02/a-short-history-of-flat-design/
  • What is Material Design and How Can It Be Used? (2016, March 3). Retrieved from Enginess: https://www.enginess.io/insights/design-trend-material-design

 

Do you Need A Website? Please Contact Us to talk with an expert!

User-Friendly Website
12 Feb

User-Friendly Website

By: Hemin Mohammed
Date: 12-Feb-20

In today’s business world majority of businesses relay on online advertising to grow their business scale. If we take Iraq as an example, businesses ranging from small size to large enterprises have at least some webpages viewing their products and services. More specifically Businesses in Kurdistan and its capital Erbil are among the most website owners across the country. Since website is a crucial element of digital advertising, it needs to be developed in a way that customers and viewers can use it easily and comfortably.

Nowadays web developers spending too much effort on the front-end development that include look and feel to grab the first impression of viewers. What’s more important is the easy use of the elements the web pages offer.

Standing Tech Company is one of the leading local companies developing websites, web applications and databases for all types of businesses aiming to grow their business from advertising to online presence, and leading sales. Our main office located in Erbil but we have experts in all the Governorates (Erbil, Sulaimaniah, Duhok and Halabja).

So to have a friendly-website you should include these essential characteristics while designing your website:

Responsiveness & Compatibility

Today with developed technology of smartphones, almost 80% of the average online users come from mobile phones. Therefore, to have a robust and easy to use platform, websites should be completely accessible and browsed in all mobile phones, tablets, iPads and other responsive devices. This will certainly add lots of traffic to websites.

responsive structure

Effective and simple Navigation

The first glance is very important for first time visitors. Hence the first landing page is critical in any website to make them stay longer on the website. So, to have a simple and attractive front page, the navigation (upper menu) has to be simple and well-structured. In below we will see an example of a good navigation which will affect the first glance of visitors:

Simple and elegant navigation (Simple and easy menu with using appropriate names for their products and services)

standingtech-simple-navigation

Whereas some websites use very complex navigation with too many menus and sub-menus that will confuse the users to find what are looking for.

So, websites should be designed in a way everyone can use it with minimum user experience. The information presents on the website must be very friendly to the target users. So, a well-structured website will drive too much traffic and users will stay for longer browsing the content on the website. This will of course affect the ranking of the website.

Position your Logo to be found easily

Don’t make users look for your logo or brand identity. Usually the logo is located at the top right or left corner of your website. This will help users identify your brand easily. The logo must be clickable and redirect the users back to the home page from wherever they are on the website.

standingtech logo

Fast Loading Performance

Nothing is worse than waiting for website to load. The main reason users leave a certain website is that it takes too long for a website to load, especially with slow connections. Therefore, the website loading time to be between 4 to 6 seconds as per standard. This will also effect on the ranking of your website as users will leave the website if it takes longer than that time.

loading-time

Using clear Call-To-Actions

Sometimes your put certain call-to-actions on a specific page and you are expecting users to do something with them. So, by adding a clear call-to-actions on your webpages, and in the most clickable areas, you’ll drive visitors to take the actions you want them to. A few examples of clear call-to-actions include:

  • “Click Here to Order”
  • “Download Now “
  • “Contact Us”
  • “Get a Quote”
  • “For more click here”
  • “Subscribe Now”

download button

Make Your Content Easy to Understand

Use a language that is simple and concise, and include headers, sub headers, bullets, and other formatting techniques to make it easy for readers to read and understand your content. Also, avoid using a complex and vague terminology. While it’s okay to use words that show you’re an expert in your field, it’s important to understand the knowledge level of your audience and to write first and foremost for them.

Simple Forms

Forms are a crucial part of collecting information from website visitors, from email newsletter subscriptions to membership payments. Applying user-friendly design to forms makes it quick and easy for people to complete and submit their requests and queries. Below is a simple form example designed by Standing Tech Company:

standingtech form

Balance text with visual art designs

Today’s website visitors are reading less and expecting more photos, videos, and interesting designs that work to organize your site and inspire engagement. Use high-quality images that enhance the text, but don’t overcrowd your pages, and use real photos whenever possible. Visuals will also help make your look and feel more appealing.

Choose appropriate colors

Choose the colors for your website carefully. You need to make balance between beauty and clarity. Not only does your color palette need to make sense for your industry, but the contrast between the background and text needs to be enough that the visitors can read text easily and not strain their eyes. Sometimes color represent a certain segment of customers. Some businesses have two color palettes for their B2B and B2C customers on their website to differentiate between a normal customer and a corporate one.

color template

Make content shareable.

Social media is one of the main factors to add traffic to your website by redirecting customers from social platforms to your website. To get the most out of social media today, you must create a type of content that is easily shareable. In addition to including social icons on each page of your website, you may also want to allow users to share specific pieces of information on your website across multiple social media platforms.

Create Search Functionality to your website

Experienced users will be expecting your site to have search functionality. If it doesn’t, they will likely leave and find a site that is easier to navigate. It’s a simple design feature that shouldn’t be neglected especially if the website has lots of content on it.

search

Consider Analytics

Google Analytics will give you quantitative insight into what pages should be listed in your main menu. Figuring out where your visitors are going on your website is important to understand if your layout is effective and make strategic adjustments. Lay the menu out with the most popular pages, first making it easier for your audience to find what they are looking for quickly.

References:

 

Do you Need A Website? Please Contact Us to talk with an expert!

12 Feb

Eight tips that enable you to apply simplicity theory in the design of websites

By: Bassel Tibi
Date: 12-Feb-20

In the past few years, web design in Erbil become trending and most companies depends on their websites to publish their products and services. Designing a web page has been affected by many different directions that are constantly changing, but there are many things that affect design and that cannot be eliminated with time, and one of these trends is Minimalism simplicity, That’s because this concept has always been very popular in various media over the ages.

We hear a lot of complaints from Internet users that some sites are very complex and difficult to deal with, which limits the user’s interaction on the site. Simplicity in web design works to enhance the user’s experience of the site, in addition to improving the general site shape.

In the world of simplicity, the principle of “least, best” is considered one of the most well-known principles, especially when applied to web design in the twenty-first century. Standing Tech company can provide and create an ideal user-friendly website relying on the following explained 8 amazing tips that enable you to apply simplicity theory in the design of websites.

Using Flat Design:

Flat Design, is a new trend in the world of web design, inspired by the physical simulation of skeuomorphism, as if we were designing a writing interface in a very similar way to a real notebook.

The flat design is characterized by its simplicity and avoids things that were considered aesthetic beforehand, such as the effects of three-dimensional, the use of shades and gradations. It depends on two or maximum 3 colors which are consistent and harmonious with each other.

Major companies have begun to go to flat designs such as Microsoft, Google and Apple, Apple has introduced a flat user interface design in the latest update ISO 7, and Microsoft has applied it to the new Windows 8 Metro interface.

You can see the magnificence of the flat design when you enter the official Microsoft website. You will notice that the icons and illustrations have a two-dimensional appearance, that is, without shadows and effects, in order to appear completely flat.

Use and distribute white spaces on your site’s pages:

White spaces (also known as passive spaces) are those spaces that do not occupy space with an element as text, image or any visible element. These spaces are distributed in a coordinated and correct way that makes the design readable quickly and comfortably to the eye, and it is one of the basic criteria that make your design simple and elegant.

There is one of the major sites that use white spaces, but we aren’t recognizing it because we are using it constantly, this site is the famous Google search engine, which contains only a search rectangle and a group of links below it and a large white space, since the goal of the site is to search, these white spaces makes user focus only on the search bar. White space in the design is the backbone of Minimalism design and is one of the varied and effective tools that can add a special advantage to your design. When used well, these spaces can help to balance the design, and cancel the mess inside, so help the user to breath!

Stay away from unnecessary:

Think about what is important for the content you provide or the functionality of your site, then focus only on these things and try to eliminate anything else that does not directly relates to this content or this function.

Remember that these elements that you keep will affect the readability and usability of your site, so leave it only if necessary. In order to make sure that the people who visit your site perform a specific procedure that you have specified, such as an online purchase, a phone call, or filling a specific form, you have to reduce the options available to them so that their focus is on the service you provide, so reducing options and moving away from what is not necessary is another example of design simplicity.

One of the websites that take great advice in reducing options is Gengo, which offers professional translation services. If you look at the image below, you can see its landing page, see how simple site design and avoiding setting many options makes the user focus only on the service that the site provides and is writing or downloading text until it is translated. In this way, the Gengo site converts the site’s users into customers who request the service, which increases the site’s revenue.

Use large fonts:

If you really want to appreciate the concept of Simplicity in web design, you should look at Brian Danaher’s website, who is an art director, painter and designer. As you can see, the site mainly depends on two things: large broad lines that help you to read easily and page layout that depends on a single-column layout, some people may consider that the design of this site is extremely simple, but it is It still accomplishes two very important goals:

  • Since the page layout is based on only one column, Brian is able to direct the user’s focus towards the goal that he has set for the site, who is Brian Danaher, and how people can communicate with him.
  • Brian succeeded in using the contrast in the colors of the lines and background, which gave the site a special and wonderful character.

Easy navigation:

Some people ignoring the navigation menu when designing their website, but it can have a big impact in adding a touch of simplicity to your website, the page list that is beautifully combined with the background of the site has a great importance in making the site characterized by simplicity.

If you look at the website of the photographer and designer Cristian Ordonez, you can see the simplicity of the browsing list used on the site and how it does not extend across the entire home page view but is designed in the right corner of the site. In addition, they are designed in a way that there are no sub menus so there are no different or additional layers for browsing. If you look closely, you will see that the menu colors are brilliantly combined with the background colors.

Use the colors to draw attention:

You can add some colors in some specific areas of your site, which makes the site to be characterized by simplicity in addition to that it becomes easy for the user to focus on the important things in any page of the site.

By adding some colors here and there on your site, you will draw the attention of users to specific important subjects. One of the websites that embodies this smart use of colors is the 960 Grid System, which works to organize the development of websites. You will immediately notice the use of the yellow color on the view demo, download links, and also the blue color will attract your attention in the Twitter logo on the left corner of the site, and that if you click on it will take you directly to the Twitter page of the designer and owner of the site.

Load Time:

How long does your site take to load?

If your site takes longer than ten seconds to load, most readers won’t stick around. Associated Press statistics show the average user’s attention span is decreasing, not increasing.

If you’ve forgotten to consider load time in your web design, you’ve forgotten a critical element of a user-friendly site.

What that means is that if you design a website that loads quickly, you’re probably giving your client an advantage over the competition. Who doesn’t want that for their clients?

Mobile Friendly:

The key to usability is how your website appears on mobile devices. A user-friendly website is a mobile-friendly website. Every website should have a site that appeals to mobile users.

Conclusion:

If you apply all of the above the rules and advice well, then you will have applied the concept of simplicity carefully, which will help to increase the site’s revenues if you reduce the options in front of the user so that he can focus his attention on the service you offer. Standing Tech company with its professional team in Erbil can help you to create, design and serve your succeed website that will help you increase your revenue. In general, your simple design of the site will make it clean, neat and clean, thus making it easier to navigate the user. This is the biggest reason why you should use this new approach in designing your websites.

Internet connectivity in Erbil becoming stable and faster each year, and the technology trends in using Web Apps , web design becoming a major thing for each company.

References:
https://gengo.com/
http://briandanaher.com/
https://www.vandelaydesign.com/user-friendly-web-design/

 

Do you Need A Website? Please Contact Us to talk with an expert!

Web Design
10 Feb

Web Design

By: Vareen Azad, Date: 02/10/2020

What is Web design?

Web design is the way toward arranging, conceptualizing, and organizing content expected for the Internet. modern website architecture goes past what things look like (feel) to incorporate how things work (usefulness). Website design isn’t constrained to sites as it incorporates different uses, for example, web applications, versatile applications, and user interface design.

These days, an ever increasing number of clients peruse the web utilizing various gadgets, in various screens. They change in size, from work area screen to tablet and Smartphone screen. The web improvement gets troublesome, accepting all these various choices in size. By following some website designs, the work process is kept increasingly sensible. Building a responsive site isn’t simple at all while creating for various gadgets.

Web design layouts

When considering the layout styling for a website it’s significant to take into account the planned purpose and target audience of the design. The process of layout customization is merely a matter of knowing how best to present the website content. Following are the main layouts of website:

Website Functional elements

Website functional elements

Types of website design

Despite the fact that you may go over articles online that discussion about an entire bundle of web designs styles (fixed, static, fluid, and so on), in the present versatile first world, there are just two different ways to appropriately structure a site: versatile and responsive sites.

Adaptive websites

Adaptive web design uses two or more versions of a website that are modified for different screen sizes. Adaptive websites can be divided in two main categories based upon how the site detects what “version” needs to be displayed.

Adapts based on device type, this means the site knows what version to display (ex: desktop or mobile). And Adapts based on browser width, the website uses media-queries and breakpoints to switch between versions.

Responsive websites

Responsive websites use a mixture of flexible grids (based on percentages) with breakpoints to create a tradition look at every screen size. Unlike adaptive sites that adapt only when they hit a breakpoint, responsive websites are constantly changing according to the screen size.

The Past, Present and Future of Prototype and Product Development. Going Ideas to Products isn’t a simple undertaking. It requires some investment, ability and a procedure to plan and build up the result of tomorrow. With the level of internet usage in Erbil among clients today, it is basic to begin with a site for your private venture. Not exclusively will a site permit you to build up a nearness in our current reality where your intended interest group lives, it will make it simpler more individuals to look, find, and get in touch with you.

Living in the improvement nation like Erbil, a website is presently a need for a business, enormous or little. On the off chance that you have a business and don’t have a site, you are presumably losing various extraordinary open doors for your business. A site itself can be utilized to achieve a wide range of advertising methodologies to enable your business to develop. The web has a far more wide reach than some other type of publicizing. While it requires some investment to develop enough traffic to your site to have a beneficial effect on your organization’s advertising effort. In Erbil there are companies that will help you to develop your business and provide web development services like Standing Tech Co.

Standing Tech is a leading solutions provider of Information Technology, Business Management and Training Services which bring a comprehensive portfolio of integrated solutions around IT platforms, outsourcing, business consultancy, besides offering a wide range of training programs.

Standing Tech Co. provide clients optimal services aligned with the latest technologies and strategies which serve clients with utmost integrity with an ambition of long-term partnership.

Standing Tech Co. website development provide proper reflection of your company’s physical presence on virtual presence to deliver your services online with the same quality you deliver in real life. The size and sections of any website is custom built for your business needs. From the technology, to the process, to assembling the right team, every aspect of the effort requires planning, communication, and experience. However, all our websites are fully developed, tested, and offered for several different companies who serve in banking, education, marketing, e commerce. Etc…with ensuring the following features:

Having a website doesn’t just lead your business to exist in the digital world; it helps it to thrive in the physical world as well. A website helps a business in various areas of growth involving your customers, your reputation, and your visibility in your community and industry. While building your website with Standing Tech Co. they will guarantee that your website will:

Generates Leads

A website helps your business by producing leads with calls-to-action. A call-to-action is a button or text on your website that prompts someone to provide their contact info for a specific purpose.

Saving Time

A website can save you time and money as a business owner. Think of your website as a talk you’d have with a person interested in your services, whether on the phone or in person.

Promoting Your Business

In addition to giving data about your business, a website permits you to exhibit your business’ items and administrations. Contingent upon your business, you can have a photograph display or arrangement of your work, a blog where you can stand apart as a specialist in your general vicinity and give valuable data, and even a segment for client tributes. This permits clients to perceive how and why they should utilize your business, which settles on their basic leadership simpler.

Expanding your reach

With a website, anyone can find or blunder upon your work, not just people in your area. SEO, or search engine optimization, works to get your business found by people conducting online searches, putting your business in front of more than just the people who are walking by.

 

Do you Need A Website? Please Contact Us to talk with an expert!

26 Nov

Why right to left web designs is not easy

By: Vareen Azad, Date: 24/11/2018

The Middle Eastern market is developing at a fast pace, and, therefore, interest for IT items is additionally blasting in the locale. So regarding the development of websites, Middle Eastern countries need a website design that is not only compatible with their needs and comfortable for their users, but that is also appropriate to their language standards, making a serious alteration process very important. Given that most dialects talked in the Middle East are composed and perused from right to left like Kurdish and Arabic languages. Developers while designing websites they face a range of problems when creating products in those languages. Although this might seem like not that big of a deal, IT development for right-to-left (RTL) languages entails paying attention to a number of peculiarities.

By the way that the RTL showcase is moderately new, and very few assets are accessible to encourage engineers and only one out of every odd organization give RTL configuration yet Standing Tech Company gives a full assembled RTL plan for clients and their involvement with RTL advancement has empowered them to gather an intensive rundown of tips that are valuable for anybody building up a RTL item, (for example, a site or portable application). The way toward adjusting a site to a specific region, is basic for any interface, regardless of whether just a little measure of substance is there. As various regions and distinctive dialect bunches have different highlights, engineers must consider these distinctions while making a site. A portion of these structures might be difficult to see, especially without the assistance of a local speaker. These highlights are especially apparent with regards to structuring and creating sites for the Middle Eastern market.

Demand for the creation of right-to-left (RTL) websites has grown over the years due to the fact that Arabic is the 4th most popular language globally. According to Arab Media Outlook, 60% of Arabic speakers prefer browsing internet content in Arabic. The lack of currently available content in Arabic & Kurdish and the existing need for this content among users is sure to continue this growth. But off course there are some difficulties and limitation of developing a RTL website design as below:

Differences & Difficulties in RTL design

When designing and developing an RTL website, the decisions that need to be made can oftentimes be confusing for those used to designing LTR projects. Applying a mirrored structure should help those starting out ease into the transition.

The creation of web services and localization of already existing products for the Middle Eastern market is stipulated by certain features that can differ vastly from English (left-to-right) websites. The set of rules and design solutions used for LTR websites are of little value when developing websites for an Arabic or Kurdish RTL audience. This is because RTL websites require a different structure, typography, and imagery. At first glance, it might seem like an Arabic website is just a mirrored copy of an English one. However, it can involve a lot of effort to make a page with mirrored content appear properly on a screen. The below content re the creation of RTL projects including potential problems and solutions, below:

WRITING AND VISUALS

The main and most obvious difference between LTR and RTL languages is seen in the direction of writing. In RTL languages, writing and reading is done from right to left. This directional change affects the structure of the website, as well as typography, icons, and images. To design an RTL project, flipping or mirror every piece of content is a must, with a few key exceptions. To understand what to mirror and what to change entirely, it’s important to imagine the motion of time which flows from right to left in Arabic & Kurdish language. For example, a list of icons that displays a specific sequence should start from the right side on an RTL website. With the help of some basic rules, designing an Arabic & Kurdish website can be fairly straightforward. However, when multilingual platforms are involved, it’s crucial to plan out the architecture of the projects properly in order to avoid language conflicts when switching from LTR to RTL languages.

When beginning work on this type of project, developers should spend time designing both LTR and RTL versions since each of these is equally important for a successful end result.

Font problem may also appear in RTL designing, If the client doesn’t own a license for a right-to-left font, and if the standard fonts that come free with design software are not suitable, the question of which font to use can cause problems for designers who do not often work with these languages. This is easily resolved if your DTP provider already owns licenses for a variety of foreign-text fonts, which is a good reason to work with professionals who are familiar with issues surrounding right-to-left DTP.

So for designing Kurdish, Arabic or any other right-to-left language, you have to be sure to work with a Language Service Partner who can provide Arabic-language DTP as well as translation. Fully localized content should look as though it has been developed specifically for your audience, especially with respect to formatting and design.

NUMERALS

There are further differences with Arabic & Kurdish when it comes to numbers. Most Arab countries use the more traditional Western Arabic numerals. Western Arabic numerals are slowly becoming increasingly popular, even in more conservative Arab countries like Saudi Arabia. This feature is important to consider when localizing dates and icons and should match what is most commonly used by the locale.

TYPOGRAPHY

Appropriate consideration ought to be given to Arabic and Kurdish typography. To keep up simple clarity, striking typeface ought to be stayed away from. Emphasized text style is additionally not utilized in Arabic or Kurdish. There are other typographic highlights to mull over include:

  • aligning text to the right side.
  • shortening days of the week, months, etc. is commonplace in English, but is not appropriate in Arabic & Kurdish.
  • resizing font to preserve text readability. Traditional Latin typography fonts won’t fit properly with text in Arabic & Kurdish and therefore font sizes should be increased in the Arabic & Kurdish version;
  • factoring in the length of words as most Arabic & Kurdish words are shorter than those in English;
  • words in LTR languages don’t change their direction and neither do digits (like phone numbers with international dialing codes). These are still displayed on RTL websites as they would be on LTR websites.

IMAGES

In addition to the fact that images make a site outwardly appealing, they pass on a specific thought. Picking a picture requires proper choice, considering social characteristics with regards to recognition.

Flags for the Arabic and Kurdish rendition of a site can be reflected, however best practices prescribe choosing singular pictures for every form of a site. Basically mirroring an even picture may result in contorted showcase when exchanging among LTR and RTL renditions of the site.

ICONS

Mirroring icons in an Arabic interface should be done with proper caution. Sometimes mirroring or flipping isn’t necessary and sometimes it is. Basic guidelines are as follows:

  • Symmetrical icons, as well as icons without an explicitly specified direction (such as camera, download, user profile, etc.), don’t need to be flipped.
  • Icons with an explicit direction should be mirrored. For example, the back button should point to the right in the RTL version.
  • Icons that describe movement or text direction should be mirrored (such as text alignment icons, progress charts, etc.)
  • Icons featuring English characters don’t need to be mirrored, but should be localized.
  • MIRRORING ELEMENTS

Below is a complete overview of elements that may be found in a website’s layout and whether or not these should be mirrored in RTL projects.

  • Navigation buttons & logo — a logo is usually placed in the left upper corner of English websites. Oppositely, In RTL websites, the logo is placed in the right upper corner. This principle also applies to the menu and navigation buttons which should be displayed in reverse order.
  • Form fields — headings and icons that refer to a given field on a form should be placed in the opposite position on RTL websites.
  • Video and audio players — video and audio players should not be mirrored because they represent playback progress instead of the flow of time.
  • Dates — Arabic & Kurdish-speaking users have their own calendar, but they are also used to the standard international date format.
  • Calendars — calendars need to be mirrored. Monday will be displayed on the right side and Sunday on the left one.
  • Tables — columns of tables must be mirrored.
  • Browser interface — Internet Explorer and Opera display scrollbars on the left side on Arabic & Kurdish websites.

 

It is conceivable to make viable utilization of a right-supported route menu gave the visual format unmistakably passes on the planned collaboration with the menu. In spite of the fact that the underlying communication time might be more noteworthy with a right-hand route contrasted with a left-hand route, this ought not be critical.

Clients are not liable to be more befuddled and sever their utilization of the site because of a right-hand route. They may very much want a right-hand route abstractly. Future investigations will affirm or invalidate these discoveries, however unmistakably more research is required. A closer examination of the execution of flat route menus may demonstrate that a best adjusted route menu performs best. Studies demonstrating extra favorable circumstances of a right-legitimized route, for example, more grounded spotlight on page content, ought to be led to enable Web to webpage planners settle on educated choices about the design of a Web page.

For right-to-left languages, the entire layout needs to be oriented right-to-left, not just the text.  In English, we read tables left to right, but Arabic-language tables need to be oriented right to left.

In conclusion, web designing for Arab & Kurdish website users does not finish with having content translated from a foreign language. It requires consideration, attention to detail, and the conscience that, while common practices, such as mirroring, may be applied, Arab & Kurdish users are already used to certain tools and results of left-to-right interfaces.

 

References

 

Do you Need A Website? Please Contact Us to talk with an expert!

How Websites become the first choice on Google
17 Nov

How Websites become the first choice on Google

By: Vareen Azad, Date: 08/11/2018

Search engines take advantage of reverse broadcast networks to help save time and money. They are moment answer frameworks that give ultra-focused on publicizing. Numerous individuals think web indexes have a shrouded motivation. This basically isn’t valid. The objective of the search engine is to give brilliant substance to individuals looking through the Internet. Web search tools with the broadest conveyance arrange offer the most publicizing space. Google is viewed as the internet searcher with the best significance. Their advancements control the heft of web seeks. Specifically, Search engine optimization (SEO) refers to methods that help your website rank higher in organic (or “natural”) search results, thus making your website more visible to people who are looking for your invention or service with search engines.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is frequently about making little alterations to parts of your site. At the point when seen separately, these progressions may appear incremental enhancements, however when joined with different improvements, they could noticeably affect your site’s client experience and execution in natural indexed lists. You’re likely officially acquainted with a significant number of the subjects in this guide, since they’re basic elements for any page, however you may not be making the most out of them.

So, why is it important for your business‟ website to be listed on search engines?

On Google, there are more than 694,000 ventures search each second.  Consistently that your site isn’t recorded on Google, you are conceivably passing up hundreds, if not a huge number of chances for somebody to visit your site, read your substance, and possibly purchase your item or administration. Honing SEO rudiments, and additionally further developed procedures after those, can radically enhance your website’s capacity to rank in the web indexes and get found by your potential clients.

How Search Engines Work?

Search engines have one objective – to provide you with the most relevant results possible in relation to your search query. If the search engine is successful in providing you with information that meets your needs, then you are a happy searcher. And happy searchers are more likely to come back to the same search engine time and time again because they are getting the results they need. So the below figure is the process of the search engine optimization:

process of the search engine optimization

In order for a search engine to be able to display results when a user types in a query, they need a document of accessible data to look over. Each web crawler has exclusive techniques for social affair and organizing site content. Despite the particular strategies or techniques utilized, this procedure is called indexing. Search engines actually attempt to check the whole online universe and file all the data so they can indicate it to you when you enter a pursuit inquiry. How would they do it? Each web crawler has what are alluded to as bots, or crawlers, that always examine the web, ordering sites for substance and following connections on every page to different pages. On the off chance that your site has not been ordered, it is unthinkable for your site to show up in the indexed lists. Except if you are maintaining an obscure online business or endeavoring to swindle your way to the highest point of the internet search engine results page (SERP), chances are your website has already been indexed.

Getting on Google’s first search result Organically

There are some ways to get on the Google’s first search result, and one of them is the organic, or natural, method and they are

Website structure:

Having a good and organized structure while building your website will help users find the information they want in the quickest and simplest possible way, this is your main objective. There are some phrases that users normally search and every website must have them like:

  • About Us –A well designed about page that contains important and clear history about the company, business, person,…etc will help to improves the credibility and reliability of a web site.
  • Contact Page –contact information like email, phone, map and business address will help users to feel secure and trust more about the content.
  • Privacy Policy –Search engines, like Google, like it when websites have a privacy policy in place.
  • URL Structure:The arrangement of your permalinks should describe the basis of the content of each webpage.

Website content:

  1. Quality and Length of Your Page Content– developed website’s pages must be full of unique and useful information that will benefit your ideal customer. The longer the better, as long as it is high quality. The goal of google in providing search engine result is to show users the best and most relevant information according to what they are searching for. So creating quality content website means many different things to many different people, but there are some specific features that must be focused on and they are:
  • Adding value: Ensure the substance content of what you post is really helpful for your customers. This will likewise help create inbound connections, which thus will support your rankings in Google.
  • Growing readability. Ensure you’re utilizing right sentence structure and spelling. Figure out how to deliver content for the web, which implies short sections, short sentences, and heaps of blank area on the page.
  1. Avoid advertisements above the fold- One of Google’s most up to date activities needs to do with bringing down the rankings of destinations that utilization notices over the overlap. Except if you’re producing critical income from outsider promoting, this shouldn’t be an issue.
  2. Pictures: There is nothing more awful than arriving on a website page and being looked with heaps of content. Not exclusively are pictures an incredible method to separate segments of content, yet they likewise fill in as a chance to speak with the web indexes. Since web indexes can’t tell what an image is by checking it, they search for hints in two spots. Each image you transfer to your site will have a record name. At the point when the image is embedded on your site, the image’s record name really lives in your site’s sources code, or HTML. Since the web search tools filter your site’s code, you should utilize document names that depict the image. For instance, „red-sneakers velcro.jpg‟ is substantially more helpful than „pic12345.jpg‟. Furthermore, you can give the web indexes an additional hand by including alt labels on all photos on your site. Alt labels are short pieces of code that enable you to label every photograph on your site with a short content ad spot.
  3. Mobile Friendly Website– now a day most of individuals are currently utilizing cell phones to look for data on the web. So your site ought to be streamlined for cell phones and simple to explore so clients on any gadget can discover what they require rapidly and effortlessly.

A website which is mobile friendly is more likely to reach a better rank in Google. Google launched some search algorithms. Algorithms are computer programs that look for clues to give you back exactly what you want.” (Google InsideSearch “Algorithms”). The algorithm was aimed to give an improvement to mobile-friendly pages in Google’s mobile search results. This change will affect mobile searches in all languages worldwide and will have an important influence in search results. Thus, users will find it easier to get appropriate, high quality search results that are adjusted for their devices.

Google algorithm’s update:

Panda

The official name of this algorithm is Panda which is published on February 24, 2011. The updated developed to decrease the occurrence of low-quality, thin content in the search results, and to return unique, compelling content in the search result.

Penguin

Penguin lunched on April 24,2012 which was created for targeting link spam and manipulative link building practices and the objective was to down-rank sites whose links it deems manipulative. Since late 2016, Penguin has been part of Google’s core algorithm; unlike Panda, it works in real time.

Hummingbird

Hummingbird algorithm lunched on August 22, 2013. It helps Google better interpret search queries and deliver results that match searcher intent.

Pigeon

Pigeon algorithm lunched on July 24, 2014 (US) and December 22, 2014 (UK, Canada, Australia). One of Google’s biggest-impact algorithm updates was implemented for the purpose of local search results, and local businesses normally saw the effects of the update in their website’s analytics data.

Mobile

On April 21, 2015, Google lunched mobile-friendly update that guarantees mobile-friendly pages’ rank at the top of mobile search, while pages not enhanced for mobile are filtered out from the SERPs.

RankBrain

On October 26, 2015 google lunched RankBrain algorithm which is part of Google’s Hummingbird algorithm. It is used to sort live search results to help give users a best fit to their search query.

Possum

The Possum update lunched on September 1, 2016 ensured that local results vary more depending on the searcher’s location: the closer you are to a business’s address, the more likely you are to see it among local results. Possum also resulted in greater variety among results ranking for very similar queries, like “dentist denver” and “dentist denver co.” Interestingly, Possum also gave a boost to businesses located outside the physical city area.

Fred

Fred lunched on March 8, 2017. Which is the latest of Google’s updates, Fred aims websites that interrupt Google’s webmaster guidelines.

  1. Creating Backlinks: Backlinks creates when an external website links to yours. Many people goes into link acquisition before they’ve creating a strong foundation of their website. A well-optimized website makes your link building more effective. Link building strategy works for some aims like first emerged as a means of increasing your ranks and visibility in search engines results. Google takes two main things into account when dragging in pages for its search engine results pages (SERPs); the significance of a page to the query, and the authority of that page. It measures authority based on the types of sites linking to that page, as well as to the entire domain, so at the end, the more links that is provided in the website, the higher your pages are going to rank.
  1. Keywords in Page Content– while entering keywords to the search engine, google will search for these keywords and if your website has these key words in the text and titles of the pages, you will rank better for those keywords on googles search result. Write your content for humans, but do keep Google in mind. Don’t use too many keywords. When in hesitation, keep it natural sounding. If you’re going to accomplish the goal of getting to the top of Google, that goal wants to be within your reach in the first place. Therefore, you need to pick the right keywords.
    To find the best keyword for your business you have to understand exactly how keywords work, and how they will make back their money from local search engine optimization and pay per click campaigns. One of the most fundamental steps when starting your search engine optimization campaign, is finding targeted keywords that prospects will use when finding your local business online. In fact, if you were to add up all search engine traffic that comes from the most popular keywords, it would not even come close to the amount of traffic that comes from searches using those more unique queries. This is called the theory of the long-tail. So long-tail keywords are so effective because they target people who are looking to perform a specific action, like buy something, or looking for a specific piece of information, like a how-to or a service that can solve their problem. By choosing to optimize with long-tail keywords, you will find it easier to rank on the search engines, drive qualified traffic, and turn that traffic into leads and customers. So long tail keywords are gold. As the below chart shows that The page that sits in the first position for a search query gets 32.5% of all the clicks for that search. By Anything below 4th position and you’re below 10%. Which means that the page in first position will get five times more clicks as the one in 5th position. That means going after keywords with less competition can make up for a keyword having less overall search queries. That’s because you’re more likely to get more clicks from less competitive terms.

Search Result Position

Domain & URL

  1. Authority of Domain Name – The more you’ve claimed the domain, the better. The more pages of value content you have on your domain name, the better. Additionally, incorporate watchwords in your area name in the event that you can (despite the fact that Google says this does not specifically affect your rankings, it could help impact a client to tap on your site versus a competitor’s).
  2. Secure Pages – Your site pages should load by https so they are secure. Google, and ordinary people, as to see secure pages, regardless of whether you’re not preparing charge cards or acquiring individual data. In their Chrome program, Google is presently marking all pages that heap with a SSL as Not Secure. Try not to be one of these devious sites…get a SSL introduced by your web facilitating organization with the goal that every one of your page’s stack safely.
  3. URL Structure – If your page URL’s are human readable, that’s a good thing.

References:

  • Rigotti, B. (2017). How to Get Your Website on the First Page of Google – Step by Step Guide. [online] Cristers Media. Available at: https://cristersmedia.com/how-do-i-get-my-website-on-the-first-page-of-google/ [Accessed 5 Nov. 2018].
  • Berman R, Katona Z. The Role of Search Engine Optimization in Search Marketing. SSRN Electronic Journal. 2011. doi:10.2139/ssrn.1745644
  • Shreves R. Joomla! Search Engine Optimization. Birmingham: Packt Pub; 2012.
  • Google Mobile Friendly Algorithm Coming April 21st, 2015. TheeDesign. https://www.theedesign.com/blog/2015/google-mobile-friendly-algorithm-coming-april-21st-2015. Published 2018. Accessed November 8, 2018.
  • Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Starter Guide – Search Console Help. Support.google.com. https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7451184?hl=en. Published 2018. Accessed November 8, 2018.
  • Neely P. Why Long Tail Keywords Are SEO Gold – GetResponse Blog. GetResponse Blog – Online Marketing Tips. https://blog.getresponse.com/long-tail-keywords-seo-gold.html. Published 2018. Accessed November 8, 2018.
  • Inside Search. Fighting Spam. [Weblog] Available from: http://www.google.com/insidesearch/howsearchworks/fighting-spam.html (Accessed November 13, 2018)

 

Do you Need A Website? Please Contact Us to talk with an expert!

Web Development Trends in Iraq
28 Oct

Web Development Trends in Iraq

By: Vareen Azad, Date: 27/10/2018

It’s not surprise that the web industry level been raising to higher level since 2008. From its ability to produce to its potential to sell, every aspect of the online platform that has adapted to the changing consumer demand. Take any website for example, from its content, layout, development and design, everything has been given a new meaning and purpose since before, website was used only to display text oriented content with just a couple of pictures hidden at the top or at the bottom.

The trends in the Web Designing in Iraq are never calm at all. They are getting in advance. All the new features in the design are used and enhance the website visibility. The trends that come with the time are having their own functionality and deal with all the scenarios effectively. The trends are introduced for the ease of the users so that they can revisit the site and explore something good and appealing.

During web designing, designers are getting so much effectual and efficient that they watch the position of the website of the business in the industry before redesigning. This is because they want to show their clients and want them to get familiar with the digital presence and its significance in their business. The latest trends in the design of the web that has been implement in the design are more likely commercial design to make it more trendy and famous among the audience like advertising and online shopping websites that has a big trend nowadays. For this, standing tech company played a big role in developing web trends by always providing flexible plan to customer that goes into several steps as shown in the below:

Web Development Plan

In order to stay relevant on the web, Standing Tech Company stay updated beyond what is hot today and look into tomorrow. 2017 & 2018 was an eventful year for the face of web with a variety of new JavaScript frameworks. The focused points and trends among developers specially in 2018 are:

Mobile Friendly

With the development of e commerce, developers tried to make websites more mobile friendly. It redefines suitability and user experience to whole new level when you are able to browse and purchase products on a smaller screen device without compromising any functionality of the original website.

Multi languages

According to the Common Sense Advisory, 75% of consumers worldwide prefer to buy from websites in their own language. Even if they speak some English, or their mastery of the English language is good, trust is much higher when purchasing in their native tongue. That’s why most of the Iraqi websites has Arabic and Kurdish languages beside English language and there are some differences between English websites with Arabic and Kurdish languages. Since Arabic & Kurdish are one of the most difficult languages to design for we because it reads from right-to-left (RTL). The right-to-left aspect is more complex because the entire web page needs to be flipped horizontally.
It is still relatively direct to build a single language site. But designing multilingual sites that include Arabic & Kurdish will require cautious planning to guarantee the design does not have any conflicts when switching from LTR to RTL, or vice-versa and here is when Standing company plays a big role.

Upwardly Responsive

Yes, it’s quite everywhere in web designing articles, blogs and forums how much responsive web design means to the 21st century website. According to Statista portal, number of smartphone user in Iraq in 2017 was 33.34 million and its growing ever since. With the growing number of people using smart phones and tablets, the need for mobile compatible web designs are higher.

Dynamic Search

websites have hundreds, possibly even thousands of keyword types and variations, with details, names and availability of these varying from day to day. Keeping on top of this would be difficult, maybe impossible, through traditional keywords. Dynamic Search efficiently removes this requirement and automatically sets customer’s targeting criteria based on what it identifies on site.

High Resolution Images

When it comes to images you need to be as much exposure as possible, because a good looking image is the USP (unique selling point) of a product. Without the HD quality and different angles, your product and your commercial website cannot compete. That’s why these points have been developed. Most customers in Iraq believe in the power of visual conviction and tend to add images to describe product more than text itself.
Without learning the latest trends of a certain region developers cannot succeed. With the help of these latest web designing trends of Iraq developers can not only learn about the customer preferences, but also the leading marketing techniques the top ranking websites are use. Remember, good marketing decisions are based on knowledge, not numbers.

References:

  • software, t. (2018). Iraq mobile cellular subscriptions 2002-2017 | Statistic. [online] Statista. Available at: https://www.statista.com/statistics/498374/number-of-mobile-cellular-subscriptions-in-iraq/ [Accessed 27 Sep. 2018].
  • Advisory, C. (2014). Survey of 3,000 Online Shoppers Across 10 Countries Finds that 60% Rarely or Never Buy from English-only Websites. [online] commonsenseadvisory. Available at: https://www.commonsenseadvisory.com/default.aspx?Contenttype=ArticleDet&tabID=64&moduleId=392&Aid=21500&PR=PR [Accessed 27 Oct. 2018].
  • Tech, S. (2014). Standing Tech Company For Information Technology. [online] Standingtech.com. Available at: https://standingtech.com/ [Accessed 27 Oct. 2018].
  • Miller, B. (2016). Above the fold, revised edition. [Place of publication not identified]: HOW Books.
  • Souders, S. (2007). High performance web sites. Farnham: O’Reilly.

 

Do you Need A Website? Please Contact Us to talk with an expert!