By Robert Lockard

Imagine trying to beat Microsoft at its own game. Microsoft, the giant of software and Web browsers, seemed all but unstoppable in its dominance of the Internet with its Internet Explorer browser five years ago. However, a small browser, which was originally called Phoenix, debuted on November 9, 2004 and started giving Explorer a run for its money.

We now know this Web browser as Firefox. And it recently turned five years old. Happy birthday, Firefox!

I read about Firefox’s anniversary in the Webware article, “After 5 years, Firefox faces new challenges.” I talked a little about Firefox in my Submit Solution blog entry, “Google Chrome is the best Web browser.” I mentioned that it’s my favorite browser, even if it’s not exactly as fast as Chrome.

Many factors led up to the swift success of the Firefox browser. Microsoft got a little lazy on creating new features for Explorer. Plus, viruses were specifically designed to target Explorer, giving Internet users a strong incentive to try something new. Right on cue, Firefox arrived with its innovative tabbed interface, customizability and popup ad blocker. It was an instant hit, receiving 10 million downloads in the first month alone.

Firefox 2.0 was an even bigger success, gaining support from Web designers who started to comply with the new browser’s design standards. Google also lent a hand by embedding its search engine into the Firefox browser and giving Firefox a portion of the advertising revenue it received from searches through Firefox.

Google has now entered the fray with its own browser, Chrome. Who knows if it will be able to enjoy the same success as Firefox, but it’s a healthy thing to have competition, as Microsoft has certainly learned by now. Firefox is still going strong, though. It estimated about 160 million people downloaded the Firefox 3.0 version and more than 300 million have downloaded its current 3.5 version so far. For a five-year-old, Firefox is looking exceptionally strong.

Keep coming back to the Submit Solution Web Design Blog for great discussions on topics like this.

This is a complete version of the eHarbor Blog post: “Happy birthday, Firefox.” The photo of the Firefox birthday cake is from Flickr, and it is the copyright of Christopher Blizzard.

By the way, try saying the title of this blog entry three times fast. I’m no good at quickly repeating f sounds.

By Britnee Nguyen

If you’ve owned your website for quite awhile now, you may be wondering if you should get it redesigned. Well, this would depend on a number of factors, but most likely you should get a redesigned website. For example, if you’ve had the same website design since the 90s then you’ll definitely want to get it changed. So much creative innovation on the internet has occurred since then and continues to grow every day. You’ll want to update your website to follow the design trends and keep it functional to this day and age.

Most people are smart and have realized this and have regularly updated their website’s design. You might have just had it redesigned last year; does this mean you should do it again now? Here are some internet marketing questions you’ll want to think about if you’re contemplating a web design.

What should NOT be the purpose of the redesign? If you’re redesigning it just for the sake of it, that’s not the right reason. You don’t want to constantly be changing the overall look of it because then your customers won’t be able to connect certain look or design and attribute it to your business. If they’re always seeing a new design every time they go to your website, they’ll have no idea what your actual brand looks like. Be sure you have a purpose in mind when redesigning. You don’t want your website to be like one of those girls who shows up with a different haircut, style and color every week. That kind of habit doesn’t do well for your business branding.

What should be your purpose? The purpose of your web design should be for reasons such as your website is old-fashioned, you are changing the brand of your company, or you are targeting a different market or audience. When designing a website, you’ll want the feeling of it to connect with your target customer. If you’re targeting teenagers, then you’ll want the design of it to look hip and trendy. If you’re targeting mothers, you’ll want it to connect to the feminine, emotion, and motherly instincts. So if your current website doesn’t match your target customer, then you’ll need a redesign.

Remember, these questions when you’re asking yourself when you should redesign your website. It’s important to keep in mind that when you redesign, you run the risk of losing your branding and identity work that you’ve done with it so far. But if your website is old-fashioned and not reaching your target audience, then it might be more beneficial to change your identity anyways.

By Robert Lockard

That’s right. Google Chrome is the best Web browser by far, according to a study by Jacob Gube, the founder and chief editor of Six Revisions. Chrome v. 3 beat Firefox v. 3.5, Safari v. 4, Opera v.10 and Microsoft Explorer v. 8. Take a look at the results below.

You should definitely check out the whole chart by clicking on this link to the blog entry, “Performance Comparison of Major Web Browsers.” Fascinating stuff. I’ll discuss some of the highlights and their impact on ecommerce and Internet marketing.

I’m a Firefox user, myself, so some of this study’s results came as a surprise to me. I’m not sure if they will change my mind about which browser I use right now, but it’s definitely helped me think more about why I prefer one over the others. Here are some of the highlights of the study’s findings:

JavaScript Speed

Chrome won this competition with an average download time of JavaScripts in just 542.3 milliseconds. Safari was No. 2 with 863.9 milliseconds and Firefox was No. 3 with 1,230.6 milliseconds. Explorer was last with a comparatively long download time of 6,305.5 milliseconds.

JavaScripts are important because they are heavily used on websites like Digg, as well as in Gmail. It’s no surprise Google is the leader in this category because it definitely wants people to be able to quickly use its own applications.

Page Load Time

This study measured how long it takes each Web browser to download Yahoo’s main page. The trouble with these results is that they might be affected by how many other people were using the site at the time the study was conducted. Bearing that in mind, it’s interesting to see how close all of the Web browsers are to each other.

Firefox was the fastest with a download time of 1.34 seconds. The slowest time was 1.61 seconds and it was shared by Explorer and Safari. The difference between those two times is so small that it hardly matters which browser you use to download a website like Yahoo.

Browser Cache Performance

The same is true for both Page Load Times and Browser Cache Performance. Browsers often save a cached version of a Web page you have already visited so it can quickly bring it up again when you return to it. The download times of a cached page ranged from 0.72 seconds to 0.89 seconds, which statisticians would say is probably not a “significant” difference. Chrome had the fastest speed, while Safari had the slowest.

Other categories in the study had a wider variety of results, but I thought these ones were the most interesting.

This is all fascinating information, but what does it all mean? Why are fast download times important? If online users have to wait several seconds for one of your Web pages to download, they might just give up after a while and decide your site isn’t worth the wait.

We want our ecommerce websites to be fast enough for people, no matter which browser they use. But we should definitely focus on the most popular ones. That’s the subject of a whole other blog entry, though.

Keep coming back to the Submit Solution Website Design Services Blog for great discussions on topics like this.

This is a complete version of the eHarbor Blog post: “Which Web browser is the best?” The graph of the results of this study is the copyright of Jacob Gube and Six Revisions.

By Alyssa Udall (@udallyss)

In web design, especially for blogs, the header is extremely important!  This is the place where your readers will look first, the place where your logo is displayed, where your site navigation and other information can be.  One should not underestimate the power of a well-designed header to increase reader awareness and visitor loyalty.

This is especially relevant for blogs, whose primary goal should be to generate subscribers and loyal readers.  For e-commerce and other websites, the header is still important, but will most likely cater to a different feeling or need than a blog header.

Here are some things to think about when designing your blog’s header section:

1)  What’s the point of your blog? What do you usually write about in your blog?  Are you focusing on creativity, technical skills, or professionalism?  Your header should reflect your niche and should inspire your readers accordingly.  For example, if your blog is about something creative, your header should also be creative, and should inspire your readers, for lack of a better word, to create something!  Likewise, if your blog is about something technical, your blog header should reflect a crisp, clean and modern design to show this to your readers.

2) What is your blog about? Now that your header’s style reflects the type of mood you want to create around your blog, you need to think of a creative and effective way to communicate what your blog is about.  This can be done with a smart, memorable slogan displayed in the header, or creative graphics.  Either way, your header should show your readers immediately what your blog is about, and should do so in a way that will be memorable!

3) What do your readers need to know? Now that your readers are inspired by your header and know what your blog is about, what else do you need to convey to them through the header?  Use the rest of your header space wisely in order to display the most necessary information about your blog.  For example, you should consider site navigation, categories, pages, search bar, social media icons, etc.  What option would best suit your blog?  What would contribute to the ease of use and ingenuity of your blog?

Once your header is redesigned according to these simple guidelines, you will see the difference it makes with how your readers become more involved in your blog.  Remember, the header is the first place your readers will look… make sure you give them a good first impression!

The good example of blog header web design in this post are from Vectips and Web Designer Wall.

By Robert Lockard

In the Wall Street Journal article, “Why Email No Longer Rules,” I found a fascinating argument against email and for social-media sites, like Twitter and Facebook. Email is on its way out as the primary means of sending online messages.

For a dozen years or so email was the freshest, easiest way to keep in touch with people over long distances without having to pay big phone bills. Now it’s old hat. Basically, the paradigm of online communication has changed and we’re all going to have to change with the times.

What do you think? Is it a good thing that email is being replaced by instant communications? I think it’s great for ecommerce. With the aid of instant messaging, tweets and wall posts, online marketers can serve their customers much better and faster than ever before.

Response times for online communication have shrunk from hours to minutes, to now just seconds. By responding to our customers’ needs at a rapid pace, we can increase our customer-retention rates and make sure the people we do business with feel valued and respected. We can also quickly identify and assist potential customers and other leads who visit our ecommerce websites.

I don’t think email will go away anytime soon, though. It’s still a great tool for holding somewhat private conversations away from the peering eyes of other Internet users. There is definitely something to be said for privacy and discretion online. We don’t want to reveal confidential information in public forums, but we want to have a positive presence on Twitter and Facebook. It’s a fine line we have to walk.

As search engines keep working harder to add social-media sites to their search results, the value of tweets and Facebook updates could increase. Just make sure your social-media communication points people to your website where people can actually make purchases and build your online rankings.

If you would like help getting a great website design, I recommend you contact Submit Solution’s professionals. They are extremely effective at delivering captivating website designs that help increase your conversion rate of visitors into customers.

This blog entry is a complete version of the eHarbor Blog post, “Is email finished?” Keep coming back to the Submit Solution Social Media Blog for more exciting updates like this.

By Britnee Nguyen

Most designers and artists in general are creative. This is a plus when it comes to original creations, but can sometimes be a downfall if they are working for a client and only think about creativity and not other things. Especially in the field of web design, when you’re creating a website for a client, be sure to keep their needs in mind. They don’t just want a nice-to-look-at website, but one that functions well and can make them a profit.

When creating a website, be sure to include tools that can be made available to the client if they want to make any changes themselves. This includes content management tools or e-mail marketing tools. Make these available to the client so they have the freedom to change things to their liking without always having to go to you. It’s basically just to make things easier and operational for the client.

Designing a website can be a fun, creative process, but if you’re doing this for a business owner, they want it to be profitable as well. So keep in mind that how you design it will be search engine friendly for free website submission and user friendly for potential customers who visit the site. Remember that people don’t just go to websites to look at them, but to use them too. Talk with your client to see what they specifically want to achieve with their website and go from there.

If you’re not sure if something should be placed in a certain area or if your design fits the client’s needs, have someone you know do a run through of it. Ask someone who has never seen your created website before and ask them to do certain tasks like “find the purchase button” and ask what their eye is drawn to first. This will help you evaluate if your placement and design is meeting the needs of a client.

In your business transactions when web designing for clients, always keep in mind that creative design goes hand-in-hand with web presence. You need both for the website to succeed. Make sure to keep the client aware of your process in designing the website and do everything you can to make it not only pretty, but successful and profitable.

By Britnee Nguyen

Barack Obama may not only be known for being the first African-American president of the United States, but also for his innovative presidential campaign using great design throughout it. In looking at the history of Obama’s website design, we can learn the lessons behind each design that was created. Websites need to cater to the audience at the time being and sometimes those audiences change over time; therefore, the website needs to change too.

Nov. 3, 2004: During the days when Obama was running for Illinois Senator, his website looked like this below. This is an archival shot of the website some some of the link buttons are missing. Other than that, I’d say his website is pretty average. There’s no dominating colors he’s chosen to use throughout his site and no logos. I also didn’t see any catchy phrases used. So overall, it got the job done of electing Obama as a senator, but it was probably other efforts more than his website that impressed the voters.

Feb. 6, 2007: Here’s Obama’s website wiped clean almost 2 1/2 years later. All it reports is that Obama is starting a presidential exploratory committee. I think this was wise to clean his website from his last campaign and start new. To only have a small explanation of Obama’s plans at that time was good for the time being as he prepared to go out with a bang when he started his presidential campaign. So although the website design was pretty much nothing, it worked for his purposes at the time.

Feb. 24, 2007: As Obama announced to start a presidential campaign, his website transformed into this. It has the Obama ‘08 presidential seal and has several places to click to watch “BarackTV”, news reports, upcoming events, and how to get involved. The best parts of this website is the red “donate” button they’ve created. Drawing attention to that helps guide potential donors to quickly see where to donate their money. Another great part about this website is the toolbar at the bottom that gives easy access to the user to register to vote, Facebook, Youtube, and Flickr about the website and campaign.

July 11, 2007: A few months later, the website still looked the same, but with extra features added such as more social networks were added to the bottom tool bar. “The Obama Story” is a new  button on the page as well as “Obama Store”. If you notice in the picture, they are reporting on “Where We Stand” and thanking their current supporters. This website was designed this way to cater to the current supporters. After Obama had announced his campaign and people jumped on board, the website changed by providing ways for people to support more such as with Obama store items and mobile campaigning. Compared to the last website design, they were just trying to get the word out and get Obama’s stand on issues out. Now, they are thanking supporters and essentially supporting their supporters in their efforts.

Jan. 16, 2008: The final design of Obama’s website is the most consistent. It was consistent not only through the website, but also with his messages of  “Hope” and “Change”. His website evolved from telling every issue he stood for and seeing if people would support him to a website with simple messages of hope and change. By this time, most of America knows who Barack Obama is and what he wants. So the website doesn’t really need to delve into that fact like it did in earlier designs. He just needed to stay consistent in his mission and goals and convey that through his design. In this campaign, (unlike his Illinois senator campaign) his innovative web and graphic design played a huge part in him winning the U.S. presidential election.

By Britnee Nguyen

The layout of your website plays a vital role for those who visit it. If it’s cluttered, hard to navigate, or just isn’t pleasing to look at, then your viewers will not bother to look around the rest of your website to see what it offers.

There are some quick, easy guidelines you can follow when designing your website. Many free wordpress themes follow these guidelines, and if you’re making your own design, you can follow them too.

Don’t Be Scared of White Space: Look through any magazine and you’ll see how things are laid out nicely and the use of white space is apparent. White space makes for a cleaner look. White space is good, there’s no need to cram all of your information, pictures, graphics into one area.

Make it Easy to Navigate: Navigation should be consistent throughout your website. If your navigation bar is at the top on your homepage, make sure it’s the same on all your other pages so your users know where to look to find what they’re looking for. Consider adding in a search box to make it even easier to find stuff for users.

Don’t Use Large Files or Graphics: When you put large files or graphics on your site, it can take some users forever to upload the images. This increases download time, and frankly, internet users are not patient and will not wait. Be sure you use average-­­­­­sized files that will work for all your visitors.

Use a Normal Font; it’s Hard to Read Fancy Ones: Use a simple font so it is easy to read on a computer screen; also, use a simple color like black. Keep the same font through out your website to maintain consistency.

Don’t Go Crazy With The Colors: Come up with a color scheme to use through out your website. It should convey your brand and is pleasing to the eye on the computer. Don’t use too many colors, or else that will create a chaos look on your website.

Follow the above guidelines for simple website designing. If you want a professional web designer to do more amazing things to it, visit Submit Solution where website design is one of our specialties.

Flickr Photo Credit: yellowbrother