The Malaysia Now

For website designers isn’t the same as what it might’ve been 5-10 years ago when the Internet boom was still on. This post is a follow up to an already great article that has been posted by my buddy; Muid, over HERE. It was a concise explaination of the designers industry in Malaysia through his experience working and freelancing. A very respected website designer with very strong connections to his designs.

Our quotations and invoices seem to be rejected every time we send to them. What was the reason behind all this? They acclaimed that RM1,500 for a website is too much, leaving us completely berserk.

Following up the quote he made, I’d just like to say that that is now somewhat a dream price every freelancer wants for each project. I am dead serious that the prices requested by clients in the freelance world doesn’t normally come up to even RM1,000. Unless with reason that you’re doing some full fledge Flash website or dynamically driven website for them.

The world of earning an average RM1,000 per simple HTML website has been left in the middle of Dr.Mahathir’s leadership era. Now, with the increase of unemployed graduates with some turning freelance, the business is ever more competitive especially in price. Some have sunk so low that they merely charge RM10 per page for a website project. Is the client happy? Of course, they are. But ever questioned why and how can that be?

Simple. Clients only focus on things that look nice. They don’t take in concern how it affects the overall experience to their website. They also don’t mind if the design looks similar to an example because it looks nice.

If you’ve followed me so far, there have been two aspect as to why the website development market has plunged so low. It’s been created by freelancers who just perform projects to survive in the world and it’s by clients who just don’t appreciate design. Muid had mentioned in his post too on how experimental design isn’t accepted by the people still living under a rock or in peribahasa (or was it pepatah), “katak duduk dibawah tempurung”.

I’m adapting to the change of trends ever so often in Malaysia but will maintain principles I’ve already set when taking on a project. I just won’t tolerate clients who expect to add another designer to help spoil the market. If we (designers) as well as the general public who are our real clients, don’t work together to shift the market in Malaysia, arts and design might be in deeper waters towards extinction.

Do you think clients will ever change?

Website Mention Time

While waiting for my meat to defrost. And I think I’ve got quite a nice selection for everyone today. First up, we have a Melbourne website I picked up from CSS Beauty called, Scallywag Productions. Totally orange website with mild usage of white and greys. Website is totally done in xHTML and CSS. What the company does? They provide unique on-hold services for clients. I’ve not tried their examples so you can tell me later after visiting them HERE.

The website was designed by another Melbournian (I think) who’s website isn’t fully developed yet, but his work speaks for itself. Matt from Sketcho has done several projects and I really like the kids Flash website he did for Toyworld, HERE. It just put a smile on my face with the entertaining animations. You could visit Matt’s website, HERE.

And for the last website I have up for visiting today is really sweet and maybe another category I could add to my services. Anyone seen a good wedding website lately? Nope, not the Jessica and Nick type of website. This website belongs to Nate and Jessica who are to be married on the 9th October 2005. It’s a simple website on how they both met and felt with a simple gallery.

In Wedding Information, they’ve got something called wedding registries. I’m not quite sure what’s it about but I get the feeling those are items they’re letting people know what to buy. Visit their website, HERE and tell me what you think?

Qualified SEO Specialist?

I’m honestly not..or really not there yet. Haven’t heard of an SEO specialist? A quick breakdown from what I know is that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has taken a poll since web design standards had risen. Both work together in achieving a better functioning website. SEO is all about the processes and discussions to having your website found easily by search engines like Google, Yahoo, MSN and etc. You could find out more, HERE.

Why the need to be a specialist? To me, SEO isn’t just a small part of developing website. It might’ve been, but with the introduction of Google’s PageRank system and other algorithm methods to calculate the easy finding of your website, it’s a whole new ball game. The SEO topic has become as broad as web standards itself.

Being an SEO specialist makes you a consultant who knows almost everything needed to optimize and get a website up there..exponentially quick in search engines. You might think it’s ridiculous to hiring someone for that, but in my humble opinion, these elites are very capable if you were to hire one. Besides, I think you’d be more detered on the consulting fees than believing if all this mumbo jumbo works.

I’m not certain of the pricing they charge, but like every other consultant, I’d guess it could range from 1000-100,000. You think you got what it takes? Try the SEO quiz HERE and be phreaked…I was.

The Perfect Blog Layout

Isn’t conceived and given birth in an overnight effort. Since blogs emerged and are now being taken seriously by corporate bodies, blog designing is evolving with the need of standards compliancy and functional purpose. It’s maturing quicker than we think as more corporate blogs arise and adding to that, some companies are even hiring writers for their blogs.

So, with that cleared out. Let’s start what’s really needed in search of that ‘perfect’ blog layout. Well, you’d definetely need to figure out the content and try to narrow that down. Once that’s done, you’d want to see your competitors online who blog about the same thing. Then add something unique to your entries every time you’re posting. Even an additional cartoon to illustrate how you felt while posting might help.

Now comes the fun part with lots of work. But not to worry, there’s a very good guide that’s been written by Peter @ Almost Cool, HERE. I simply enjoyed his article and it gave me more confidence to make sure I’m producing a functional design for my upcoming revamp later.

In his article, his guidance on how to come about the perfect layout is a contextual visualisation to success. Whilst reading it, images were already forming in my mind on what needs I’d have to fulfill in my revamp later on. He strongly suggests that ideas should be sketched, arrow-ed, labeled, and scribbled if possible.

A perfect layout should be able to provide a richer user experience. One such example, as I quote Peter:

“Real” design flows from the content. It supports and augments it through non-verbal connotations and subconscious cues. It leads the user’s eye where you want it to be led.

I believe that the more columns you plan to use, the harder it is to guide to user’s eye. However, not to worry since colors can sometimes do wonders for you. I’m not really prepared to explain in detail my whole process on designing a blog but would place that somewhere atop my list after the revamp.

In the meantime, is your blog layout functional enough?