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Category: Website Development Page 1 of 5

Websites With Infinite Scroll: Pros And Cons

April 24, 2015

With online businesses wanting to create better and seamless user experience, a lot of companies are opting for websites with an infinite scroll. Infinite scroll websites are coded in such a way that they continuously load content as a user scrolls down a web page. The best examples of such websites are Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. However, infinite scroll website is not always the right choice for every business. Whether or not you should implement infinite scrolling depends upon the type of information that you want to present to your website visitors. Read on to know the pros and cons of a website with infinite scroll design:

Pros

  • Keeps Users Engaged: Infinite scrolling is a good option for websites that need to keep the users engaged for a longer time. As the content continues to appear, users keep on scrolling down the web page. Having to click on a ‘see more’ button might break the link of the users.
  • Great For Mobile And Touch Screen Devices: Infinite scroll design is a perfect fit for mobile and touch screen devices. Users just need to scroll down to view more information without having the need to load a separate web page. The information on these websites is presented in boxes which are quite appealing for the users to click to tap for more.
  • Easy To Manage Real Time Information: Websites that have to provide real time information to their users work well with infinite scroll design. For instance, continuous updating of news feed on Facebook allows the users to conveniently scroll through the entire content.

Cons

  • Lost Footer Information: One of the biggest drawbacks of infinite scroll design is that users are unable to reach the footer. People often refer to the footer for important information about the website such as contact details, social media links, copyright information, terms of use etc.
  • Inability To Search Specific Information: Users need to scroll through the entire page to search for anything specific on the website. Similarly, they cannot skip anycontent to view something that interests them.
  • Mapping Problems: Without pagination, users may feel disoriented about where they are on a particular pageor where the previously viewed content has gone. Infinite scroll websites do not have any back button to view the page visited earlier.

Before making the move towards an infinite scroll design, make sure the page design rightly matches the purpose of your website. We, at Centex Technologies, provide complete web design/development solutions to businesses. For more information, call us at (855) 375-9654.

Bandwidth Management For Fast Loading Websites

May 19, 2014

With so many websites on the internet today for every topic under the sun, users always look out for getting the maximum information in the least amount of time. To be regarded as a user-friendly website, the single most important criterion is the time it takes to download the webpage. The quicker it loads, the better it is. Even if you have the best of website designs and layouts, if it takes too much time to load, the user will want to skip browsing through it.

Following are some tips that will help you to better manage the bandwidth of your web servers so that the time taken for loading a particular website can be reduced.

  • Firstly, it is important to understand the meaning of bandwidth in context of web servers. Bandwidth refers to the bytes of data that are transferred from the web server that contains the files of user interest, to the user’s browser. The larger the file size, greater will be the bandwidth consumed.
  • The next step is to analyze the monthly bandwidth that you will require on your web server or web host so that your website can be easily loaded on a user’s browser. The bandwidth needs vary from website to website depending upon the type of content that is used and number of visitor visiting the website. For example, if your website makes use of multimedia-rich content such as videos and sound clips, the amount of bandwidth required would be more than a website that simply uses plain text content.
  •  Also, it could be the case that you envisage expansion for your website in the future, with more number of users expected to visit your website. So you will need to focus on having more bandwidth so that the website loads fast and does not become inaccessible in the event of many users accessing it.

Proper management of bandwidth will not only make your website download faster, but also help you to keep the costs for web hosting under control.

We at Centex Technologies develop user friendly fast loading websites. For more information, call us at – (855) 375-9654

E-Commerce And Handheld Devices

May 30, 2013

It is not an over exaggeration to say that e-commerce is rapidly going on to become “m-commerce”, with mobile devices serving as a major component of traffic to e-commerce websites. With the undeniable role of handheld devices as a shopping channel, it is becoming imperative for owners of shopping websites to optimize their mobile site designs, and monitor end-user statistics round the clock. Mobile commerce sales are expected to increase manifold over the next couple of years, accounting for a whopping 24% of retail e-commerce by 2016.

Needless to say, business owners have an exciting resource to tap in the form of mobile e-commerce, and need to be channelizing a major part of their efforts in this direction. The first step is to ensure that your website is optimized for mobile devices, whether this means creating a new mobile site, or changing the design of your current website into a responsive one. The biggest mistake that one can do is assuming that users shall adapt to their existing e-commerce website on their mobile devices. With all the well-optimized mobile sites to choose from, chances of that are bleak.

The prime focus while treading into the zone of mobile commerce should be to ensure optimal user convenience. You need to understand that users who are shopping on their handheld devices are not simply visiting your website, but are also comparing prices, looking for coupons, reading reviews, and performing a whole lot of parallel functions at the same time. You want to keep your web design as clean and light as possible, to ensure quick loading, easy call-to-actions, and absolute user friendliness. This ease of navigation could give you all the competitive advantage you need from a user’s perspective.

The two options that e-commerce website owners are faced with while trying to enhance mobile user experience are-

  • Creating an altogether new mobile site
  • Adopting responsive web design

The latter option is more feasible, as it makes it possible for companies to have a single website that adapts to whichever device it is being viewed on. While the upfront costs of implementing responsive web design might be higher than those of creating a mobile site, it saves significantly more in the long run. Now that mobile commerce is definitely here to stay and grow with each passing day, it would be prudent of business owners to take necessary steps to make the experience of their mobile users an optimal one.

What Is Responsive Website Design?

May 16 2013

With tablets, smart phones, and other handheld devices are gaining tremendous popularity, website designing is no longer just about how your website looks on the large screen of a computer. Interestingly, according to a recent survey, 45% of the American population owns a smart phone, as compared to 31% that owns a tablet device. No wonder, Mashable has named 2013 the year of responsive website design. So what exactly is responsive website design, and how huge is its impact on the world of internet users?

To put it simply, responsive website design is a dynamic approach to website designing, where emphasis is laid on maximum user satisfaction, by enabling flexibility in browsing depending on the device being used to access the website. The basic difference between traditional or “adaptive” websites and modern, “responsive” ones, is that while the former are based on multiple fixed width layouts, the latter rely on multiple fluid grid layouts.

This means that each page on a responsive website is built based on proportion rather than pixels. This is what makes responsive websites “respond” to the device they are being viewed on, appearing different on different-sized screens. Some websites are also following a mixed approach, whereby they adapt fluid layouts only for small screens, maintaining the use of fixed layouts for large and medium screens.

With the number of devices and browsers with which websites need to be compatible, responsive website design will definitely form the base of the way websites are built in the coming years. By adopting responsive website design, website owners do not need to create different websites for different-sized screens, but instead can use the same website over all platforms.

Some of the key things to ensure before switching to responsive website design for your website are whether you can afford this switch, how long the process shall take, and whether an immediate switch would be beneficial for your business. Checking the statistics of your website users to see how many visit you through mobile devices could be a good way to start. You can do this simply by selecting “audience” followed by “mobile” in Analytics report. You also need to have a content plan in place, and might want to consider whether developing a mobile app for your business would be more beneficial.

It is a good idea to start off with mobile design and gradually progress to larger screens. You can gradually up step your website’s responsive design by enabling features like swiping between columns on touch devices.

Centex Technologies serves Austin, Dallas and Killeen areas in Central Texas. For SEO, Ecommerce Website Development, CMS Development, call us at – (855) 375-9654

Meetup.Com For Promoting Your Business In Austin TX

April 8th, 2013

If you are a believer in real-life relations and the power of face-to-face interaction, Meetup.com could be a godsend for you. This website provides the perfect merge of the online world and the offline world for businesses, making way for a well-rounded promotion strategy. The website, founded in 2001 following the infamous attacks on the World Trade Center, has ever since become the destination of choice for likeminded people willing to extend their relationships beyond virtual interactions. While Meetup.com is a great website for people seeking to meet people with similar interests in real life, its potential for businesses is also worth tapping.

Most business owners are already well aware of how powerful social media websites can be in putting themselves out there and interacting with existing customers as well as potential clients. Just imagine how fabulous it would be, if you could reach out to these people beyond the barrier of a computer screen, and have a real interaction with them- Meetup lets you do just that! The great thing about this kind of interaction is that not only can you put across your point in a much more efficient and assertive way, but you can also build relationships that are likely to last longer than online interactions.

Meetup.com has a very user-friendly interface, which is powered by an intuitive layout, making it easy to get started and operate the website. It is as simple as signing up on the website and searching for groups and meet-ups related to your business in your area. Once you find a group of your interest, you can join it as a member, after which you shall be notified of all the meet ups of that particular group. As a business owner, it is important to remember to have an effective plan in mind of how to promote your business at these meet ups.

The key to efficiently promoting your business on Meetup.com is by keeping it as genuine as possible, and avoiding indulging in over-promotion. The entire purpose of meet ups is to share ideas and knowledge, and that should be kept as the prime focus at all times. Business promotion must be done subtly, ensuring that you do not come across as too pushy at any point. It is always a great idea to  conduct follow-ups with any links established through these meet ups.

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