I am a Gold Coast web designer so naturally I have an opinion on
“ What is good web design? ”

Web design is about making your website's message clear and making sure it is able to be found by search

Web design is graphic design for websites.

Websites may be displayed for viewing on a traditional desktop computer but increasingly websites are being searched for and looked at on the very small screens of mobile phones as well as the many varieties of tablet, notebook and laptop computers right up to giant sized flat screen TV sets hanging on the wall in our lounge rooms.

Good web design still retains the basic premise of enhancing the transmitted information to an interested user so the information is clearly displayed, easily discerned and easily acted upon if required.

Successful web designs transmit information in a user friendly way.

User friendliness which is now referred to by more exciting and buzzed phrases such as "user experience design" (UX or UXD or UED) still describes whether the interaction between the user; who could be called the viewer, the searcher or the visitor; and the website (or app) is good or bad.

Here are a few good rules that I always try to follow:

  • Simple layouts that don't confuse the website visitor are desirable.
  • There should be a hierarchy of information that leads the user to where you want them to go and which hopefully predicts where the user wants to go as well.
  • The user should be able to easily understand what information the different categories on your website are likely to contain, no guessing required!
  • The website should be easily navigated by clear and easy to use menu and navigation options. At no stage should the user be confused or frustrated by insufficient directions or explanations as to where they are and how they can proceed in a meaningful direction either to continue within the website or to leave the website and surf to another website with more of the information they are seeking.
  • There should be valuable and unique information on the website.

Web design is about designing the layout of the page and the information contained in it so that it is CLEAR what the webpage's purpose is, so the experience of the user does not decline into an exercise in figuring out what is going on. There is not enough time in the user's life for confusion regarding a website they can always move on to the next one in the hope they can find the information they seek more easily there.

Am I a good web designer?

You would have to ask some of my customers about that, see some of my Customer's websites that I designed (Web design Portfolio) and ask one of my clients.

But since you asked, see below for some background information on why I think I am indeed a good web designer!
...well I would wouldn't I!

What makes me a good web designer?

  • Computer studies
    Since 1980 incl. programming in BASIC,Fortran, Cobol and Pascal. XHTML and CSS are a bit different but I can still bash code with a text editor which I think is important.
    Webpages are "programmed" using XHTML and JavaScript (when combined they are called Dynamic HTML or DHTML) and that is mainly my thing. Programming in PHP for interaction with MySQL databases is something I do but I am not an expert at, as I don't do it every day.
  • Graphic design work and study
    incl. many years as fabric screenprinter, a Cert. in Arts-Printmaking specialising in Computer Art and work as a graphic designer doing logos, shopfronts and swingtags.
  • Bachelor of Commerce
    from the University of Queensland included a major area of study in Information Systems and Computingas well as Marketing, Accounting, Economics, Finance and Statistics.These areas of study help me in my consulting work involving strategies to increase Sales and decrease Costs

The web is a fast changing environment and I keep up with all the latest news and trends via magazines, books and the web, I recommend these magazines;
for the web: Web Designer, Australian Personal Computer, Practical Web Design, Practical Dreamweaver
for graphic design; IT Graphics and Design Graphics
for photoshop/photography: Advanced Photoshop, Better Photoshop
and these websites: Sitepoint, WebProNews, WebDeveloper,

My background in graphic design and computer programming is probably what puts me ahead of the web design pack and being able to use Photoshop CS6 and DreamWeaver CS6 quickly and efficiently is a big plus as well.

Please feel free to ask my customers how they feel about my service and value.
(Go to their websites which are listed here , find their email link, then click and enquire).




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News An article I am writing about Semantic markup using HTML5 (failure) and Schema.org (success) and Rich Snippets (success) and Aria roles (success).

A minefield still in progress.

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Established in 1999 2019 will be Hard Web's 20th year of trading!
Hard Web is now in it's 19th year of trading on the Gold Coast!
The Web is now being served in many different hardware devices inluding tablet, mobile phone and ultrabook
The Web is now being served in many different hardware devices inluding tablet, mobile phone and ultrabook...
contact Hard Web to find out how you can optimise your website to suit different delivery devices.


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