The 5 Best Web Design Schools in the Philippines

Even if you graduate with a degree in IT or Computer science it does not give you complete training in web design and development. That’s because the discipline of web design is always changing and new internet technology comes out every minute. Even veterans and experienced designers can gain benefits by taking a short course in one of these design schools. You can also enroll for a refresher or just to stay up-to-date with the latest trends.

5. Meralco Foundation Institute / Informatics (TIE)

These are the two pioneer web design schools in the Philippines. Meralco Foundation Institute (MFI) is a non-profit organization therefore the training fees as cheap. If you’re on a budget, MFI is the best school to enroll in.

Informatics is on the high-end but has convenient locations in the city, mostly inside malls. Their curriculum is up-to-date and certification is recognized world-wide.

4. Philippine Center for Creative Imaging

“The Premiere digital arts and Graphic design School in Philippines”

Philippine Center for Creative Imaging or PCCI is a multimedia and web design school Philippines located in the bustling business sector,Makati City. Intensive hands-on application is given attention in each course. The professors and owners themselves are leaders in online and offline graphics and multimedia organizations. Aspiring designers can pick from a variety of digital arts fields ranging from photography, graphic design web design.

3. University of the Philippines Information Technology Training Center (UPITTC)

“The most unique website design training in the Philippines”

UPITTC’s tagline is “Helping you Build a Solid I.T. Career”. I think that’ what most of us want from all the training we take. It is known for is its out-of-the-box teaching style.This unique approach which consist of a lot of class discussion, lab work and more on “practical” real world training versus textbook learning.

The faculty and trainers are mostly UP professors and consultants in the important technology sectors of the country. If you complete the course chosen and pass the final exam you will receive a prized certificate.

2. First Academy of Computer Arts

First Academy of Computer Arts provides training courses which include design theory, specialized expertise and harnessing creative imagination in digital graphic arts projects..Students learn design principles and gain hands-on experiences in graphic arts, motion graphics, web design and 3-D software through rigorous training programs.This is a top tier website design school in Philippines to get a certificate in digital multimedia design.

1.De La Salle University College of Computer Studies

If I were a new student looking for an IT school to get serious training, this is definitely the school I would go to. Most of the professors and teachers their selves are popular among the Philippines web development professional circle. DLSU multimedia training school concentrates in the evolving study of web development, graphic design and digital media. Students have the option to choose a course which they want to master varying from design, programming and even video graphics. De La Salle University is the first to offer a B.A. degree in multimedia arts in the country.

After finishing the course you take, don’t forget to continue studying on your own. Self-studying will still be the best school when it comes learning web design.

What Is Web Design?

Web design means to create, plan and update on websites. It also involves user interface, website structure, website layout, colors, fonts, contrasts, imagery and much more. Websites are formed combined by all these elements. Website design is more than just the visual aspect. But, it is more than that. The designing includes more elements like user habits, usability, navigation logic and many other things which would help in finding the information faster on the site. It also aims to simplify the usage so that everyone can use it.

It involves collecting of ideas and arranging them aesthetically. The created end pages can be accessed by end users. Thus, one needs to make sure that the web design is simple. Listed below are a few elements that will help you in creating a user-friendly site.

• Adding relevant multimedia

Adding appropriate audio and video will help the users to understand the content in an easier and quicker way. This would motivate the users to spend more time on the site.

• Proper navigation

Menus, site architecture and other tools must be based on how a user browses through a site. It should be such that the user can browse easily on the site.

• It should be interactive

An interactive user interface increases the number of user involvement. You can do so by adding in a comment section. You can also put in newsletter sign-ups and email forms so that they can know more about you.

• It should be compatible

The web page should be designed in such a way that it can perform equally on different operating systems and browsers. That will help you gain more number of views thereby increasing your site traffic.

• Using advanced technology

Using latest technologies provides designers the freedom to innovate and experiment. It allows the design to be professional and fresh each time.

Just make sure the design is user-friendly so that the user does not have to spend too much time searching for the required information.

Also, the content present on the site should be of superior quality. The design and the content work hand-in-hand to enhance the information through text and visuals. The text on the site should be of superior quality and should at all times be useful and relevant. It should be such that it does not confuse the readers and gives them the information that they have been looking for. Also, the content should be optimized so that your site can be found by a maximum number of people.

Here’s How To Look For A Top Web Design Company

So, are you looking to hire a top web development company? Are you aware of the quality factors that you must look for in a top web design company? What makes one company different from the another? When you are an engaged business owner, you may not get sufficient time to learn about the workings of the internet. Hence, you might not even know what constitutes an exceptional and top web development company.

This article helps you to understand what factors to look for when you are looking for a top web design company. Here are some of the major things that you must consider before finalizing a web development company for yourself.

  • Experience of the web design companies
  • Team members
  • Previous work and portfolio
  • SEO marketing capabilities
  • Office location
  • Website project planning
  • Testimonials and references

Selecting a web design company is almost similar to selecting a builder for your house. Everyone wants a house that looks good, is reliable and serves its purpose to the fullest. In order to achieve this, the first step is finding a company that has a record of proven experience. Make sure that the company has been in the industry for at-least a few years and also ensure that the team members of the company have a good amount of experience in their work domain. Another factor when looking for a top web development company is to ensure that the company has a development team, and not just one team member working on the project. Having multiple members with different skill sets to work on your site, makes sure that the website gets developed in the best way possible.

  • Office location- Make sure that the location of your desired company is somewhere near you so that you can meet them in person, whenever necessary. Knowing exactly the location of your web design company will also prevent the happening of any kind of fraud that may occur with a company that is one person in their basement.
  • The kind of customer service they offer- Always what kind of behavior the staff of the company has with their clients. It speaks about how the company runs their business and develops the products. Make sure to find a company that will always answer your calls and respond to your queries, and makes an update to your website promptly.

To cut things short, you need to find a company that has proven results and one that you can trust with your business and projects. Although the process of selecting a web design company may be a tedious task, the above tips can help you easily make your decision. Go ahead with these tips and may you find a bet designing partner for your website.

The Ins and Outs of Responsive Web Design You Must Know About

What comes to your mind when you hear the word "responsibility." Something that falls into your line of duties? Or, Tasks that you need to accomplish? Well, you might be thinking wrong here. If you break the word Responsibility – you will get two words. Response and Ability. So, responsibility is nothing but your ability to respond. Today, for a change, we will be talking about responsiveness of an inanimate concept. And that is – website responsiveness.

What is Responsive Web Design and Why Is It Important?

To explain simply, Responsive website design enables your website to adapt to different devices and their screen sizes. It can include all the devices that we use to browse the internet including mobile phones, laptops, desktops, tablets and more. However, most of the IT firms that provide responsive web design services don't just go by the responsiveness approach. Rather, they have adapted the "mobile first approach."

The reason being simple. Today, nearly 2.6 billion people use smartphones and by 2020, this figure will reach over 6 billion. If you want people to get an access to your website on their finger tips and want to interact with them on a personal level, you must provide them with a responsive website. So, before you approach a company to provide you with mobile responsive website development services, you must find out certain things.

  • Find out what devices your audiences use to access your website
  • Find out the amount of traffic on desktops vs tablets vs mobiles

Also, you should know that every website browser has its own mobile version and displays website differently. And as you need to create website that is responsive on all browsers, you need to get it designed accordingly.

Things to Mull Over Before Creating a Responsive Website Design

Before you go responsive with your website, you need to think about certain aspects and jot them down. If you are non-technical person, you might not know about it. So, here is some brief on it.

a) Website Dimensions

It is very important for the responsive website builder to understand that there is nothing like a standard website size. And as there are thousands of devices available in the market, the screen resolutions and sizes change quite often. The purpose of browsing a website depends on the situation. For example, if a user is looking for a tutorial, they might resort to the desktop. And if one is browsing through news, they might prefer to do it on the mobile.

You can explore Google Analytics to find out which web page size would suit your website and take a decision thereafter. Professionals offering responsive web design services may also be able to help.

b) Get At least 3 Layouts Designed

It is very important for the responsive website builder to understand that there is nothing like a standard website size. And as there are thousands of devices available in the market, the screen resolutions and sizes change quite often. The purpose of browsing a website depends on the situation. For example, if a user is looking for a tutorial, they might resort to the desktop. And if one is browsing through news, they might prefer to do it on the mobile.

For any responsive website design to work properly, it is important for it to have 3 layouts having different browser width. Take a look at some ideal sizes:

  • Small: Under 600 px – The way content can be seen on smartphones
  • Medium: 600px to 900px – The way content will look on tablets, netbook computers and tablets.
  • Large: More than 900px – The way content will look on PCs.

These layouts must have similar graphic and text features. However, these should be designed in such a way that the content can be displayed at its best on the devices. It is always advisable to scale down the page to fit small size.

Benefits of Responsive Web Design

Responsive website design renders advantages to businesses, designers, developers as well as users in the ways given below:

Fast development as cost-effective rates

It takes lesser time to make responsive web designs as compared to making a mobile app. And as we know, time is money. Get in touch with a company that provides mobile responsive website development services at competitive rates. Even if you have to spend more than what you would on creating two websites, it will save your finances spent on configuration, maintenance, and other upgradations.

Better Conversion Rates

Making your website responsive is not just about lessening the amount of bounce rate. It is about rendering a stable and interactive user experience across all devices. And once you do that, they are sure to keep coming back and bring the other users. If you have a website that looks professional on different platforms, your users will never get frustrated or go to your competitors.

Wrapping up

We thrive in the world of internet of things and virtual realities. So, the more the variety of devices, the more would be the need to make complex responsive web designs. If you want to meet with the accelerating demands of customers, it's time you consider hiring a responsive website builder for your website.

Three Crucial Points On How Responsive Web Design Affects SEO

Mobiles and tablets are the latest trends in town. People are switching from desktops and laptops to their little devices just because of its super-portable nature and unparalleled usability. That is the reason almost everything you do in a desktop can be executed from your mobiles in today's date. As a result, responsive web design is also experiencing a massive reception from the people around the globe.

When every little particle is coming online, it's quite natural that internet will be a huge part of this phenomenon. And when we talk about the internet, mentioning websites is just matter of time. We have been quite used to with opening the websites on desktops. But now, mobiles are an integral part of our lives when it comes to visiting a website.

What is Responsive Web Design?

Responsiveness in the web designing world means fitting a website in various screen size and resolutions. So, the website you are visiting on your desktop can easily be accessed on your mobile or tablet without any side-wise scrolling. Each of the buttons and texts will fit your screen size and fingertips which is awesome in the world of busyness.

But what if I don't make my website responsive?

As responsiveness is the trend, it is quite clear that if you don't make your website responsive, it will have its own consequences! Besides the usability and accessibility, there's much more to fear!

SEO is a vast part of your online business's success. And ignoring responsive web design will be a lethal threat to your SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Today, we will discuss how your website's SEO gets affected by your website's responsiveness.

Bounce Rate

Bounce Rate is one of the factors of SEO which play pivotal roles in your website ranking. When a visitor lands on your website, he or she needs to spend an amount of time on your website and your website's aesthetics, functionality, and information would persuade them to stay. When you don't have a responsive website, the users browsing your website from mobile is not going to have a good experience in terms of usability. So, the end result would be closing your website ie bouncing back from your website. This would increase the bounce rate and you are losing in the race of SEO.

Site Usability

One of the big reasons visitors bounce back from your website is the site usability. Site usability is the metric by which we decide how much the site is usable to a particular user. When your website is not responsive and you need to scroll it horizontally on your mobile device, it will diminish the site usability. Users will bounce back from your website and they can land on your competitor's site as well!

Page Load Time

Page loading time has popped up as one of the most crucial aspects of good website ranking in the recent few years. The studies have proven that on an average, a user stays 5 seconds on a website while loading before closing it. So, if you don't make your website mobile responsive, it will take huge time to load. So, you can do the math and come to the conclusion what would happen if you don't go for a responsive website design service.

The above three are the main disadvantages if you don't avail mobile responsive websites. When you know the drawbacks of a non-responsive website, it would be the wisest decision for you to ask the website design company you've hired to make your website mobile responsive while designing.

What Exactly Is a Good Web Design?

A good web design has a potential to engage the visitors & convert them to potential buyers. A website is said to be serving its purpose if it has the potential to generate online leads. Nowadays, it has become mandatory for the business houses to have an online portfolio in the form of websites. The webs provide them the flexibility to reach the targeted audience. But converting targeted audience into potential buyers & customers is certainly a challenging task. Your website plays a crucial role in this. If your web has a good design, then it can easily serve that purpose. The most pertinent question is how to design a good web. Presented below are some of the points that will help you in this.

Attractive Theme: The theme or the webpage design of any website is very important. It is recommended to use the theme which perfectly manifests your business. For example, if you are selling natural products, then you can select any of the themes which match with your products. If you are into the fashion industry, then colorful themes would be considered as appropriate for your business.

Infographics: The statistics suggest that the websites that lack in the infographics attract less traffic as compared to the websites that have the rich infographic. It is recommended to provide rich infographics in the websites as visitors get easily attracted to those. A banner containing useful text has a positive impact on the mind of the visitor. This eventually increases the chances of conversion. The designers should keep one thing in mind that the banners should reflect the business motive of the company. This also offers a better impact on the mind of the people.

Interactive Interface: It is recommended to have an interactive interface on the website. What exactly does this mean? It means that you should design your website in such a manner that it offers flexibility to the visitors. Your visitor has come to your website after spending time on several other portals. If (s)he faces any issue or gets confused, he/she will waste no time in navigating to some other website. So, you must provide easy to use interface on your website. The call to action button should be provided in a clear manner so that visitor can easily make purchases.

User-friendly Navigation: The user-friendly navigation is very important to enhance your conversion rates. Too many links in the menu bar and side bar create confusion. Avoid providing too many links there. It is recommended to put only important links in the menu or sidebar. These will help in the easy navigation of the website.

Go Mobile Friendly: It is mandatory to have the mobile friendly responsive website. The reason being most of the internet users are using mobile phones to access information. If you have the mobile compatible website, then it ensures s better browsing experience which eventually results in conversion.

Surefire Tips To Enhance User-Experience With Clean Web Design

In today's changing digital marketing landscape, creating the online presence is easier said than done, but not impossible. The very thing you need to make a change in your strategy is designing a breathtaking web design that drives in more and more people and increases your sale as well as conversion rate. While making it possible, you should keep the user-experience in your mind, as this is the key to your customer's heart that holds them on your website for a longer period. If you are one of the folks that fresh off the boats, here are some cool tips and tricks that help you design a beautiful, working and useful website. So, let's get started.

  • Simplify Your Navigation: The tour of the visitor to your website should be simple and not so confusing. Thus, you have to create a simple navigation plan for each and every page of your website that takes your customer to the right page without letting them lost in the design.
  • Use Professional Photos: Photos are the important part of your website, thus, they have to be true and attractive that gives your audience a reason to shop. Additionally, they have to be of small size to not make a bad impact on the speed of your website.
  • Organize Your Content: It's your website and not a book, thus, you have to organize your content the way it attracts the readers and gives them a reason to go through it. It has to be properly placed to catch the attention and add experience to your writing.
  • Make It Mobile-Friendly: A mobile-friendly website is the one that delivers best user-experience and if you don't want to let your audience down, do invest in the mobile version of your website. Make it responsive to drive traffic and web spiders to increase its position.
  • Use White Space: Give your design a break and make it easier for your audience to understand it. Make sure you use the white space professionally in web design, so, it lets it breathe. It plays an important role in satisfying the visitors by its look and design.

All the above tips are very easy to follow and increase the user experience, so, invest your time and efforts in the right place. If needed, don't hesitate to hire a professional website designing company that takes your business to the next higher level and make you win the cut-throat competition.

6 Tips for Improving Your Web Design in 2018

If you are planning to improve your website design, you need to consider a lot of factors. Given below are a few tips that can help you do things the right way. Read on to know more.

1. Plan

First off, you should make sure that your site could meet the needs of your visitors. In other words, you must have a solid plan in place. In other to put together a good plan, you need to interview some of your existing customers. You can ask them what they like and dislike about the design of your site. Then you can make the necessary changes.

2. Unnecessary Elements

Some elements of your site may not provide the value or message you want to deliver. For instance, lengthy articles, complicated animations, and too many images or videos are bad for user experience.

It’s important to keep in mind that the visitors have a short attention span. On average, visitors spend 8 seconds on a blog or site. If they find your site appealing, they will stay. Otherwise, they will click away.

So, make sure you use images and videos sparingly. In addition, keeping articles between 500 and 1000 words is a good idea.

3. Social Share Buttons

It’s great to have quality content on your site. But if you don’t allow your readers to share your content, you can’t get the attraction you need. So, we suggest that you add social share buttons on your site. This will help you get tons of traffic from social media sites as well.

Ideally, you may want to place the bottom on either the bottom or top of each blog post. These buttons will allow your readers to share your posts directly on their favorite social media site.

4. Calls-to-Action

As soon as your visitors visit a web page on your site, what do you think they will do next? At the end of each blog post, you should have a call-to-action button. This button could be a link to another post or a product or service you want to sell.

5. Images

On a web page, images are used o make the content more compelling and convey the right message. You can choose from tons of images. But make sure you choose high quality, relevant photos.

You can get photos from stock photo websites, which will cost you a small amount of money. You can also shoot photos in your own office if you have a good quality camera and required skills.

6. Navigation

Navigation is one of the most important elements of your site. it’s a type of map that shows the primary places on your site that the visitors can check out. It’s disappointing for the visitors to land on a site that has poor navigation interface. So, it’s important that your site can provide your visitors with the information they need in a few seconds.

So, these are some important things that you should keep in mind when designing or re-designing your website.

2018 Web Design Trends That Businesses Need to Consider

There are a number of web design trends that have begun to make an impression online. For this reason, some cool examples of such trends are now being used. Read on to know more about what these design trends are all about, and why they could benefit businesses that use them in their WordPress web designs this year.

Vivid Color Schemes

In 2014, Google introduced Material Design, and this pushed the limits of the things designers could do up to that point, particularly in terms of color. Due to the success of Material Design and the things it has allowed designers to do with vibrant colors in a controlled setting, designers are given the stamp of approval to do more experimentation with it this year.

Vibrant color schemes could probably be the tamest part of the trend. There will be further experiments in the presence of gradients, photo saturation and double exposure.

Rebellious Typography Options

First of all, this is clearly about the header text and nothing else. The rules that have been established with regards to the legibility of standard test should always be followed. With that being said, header text particularly at the upper portion of a home page is entirely different.

In 2018, there will be a major change in the way this header text is styled. It will become

  • bolder
  • transparent
  • oddly spaced
  • strangely deformed
  • randomly placed

and it is anybody’s guess what other techniques designers will think of.

It goes without saying that web designers will enjoy pushing the limits of text in 2018.

Asymmetry

Users have gone through enough training to understand the way websites work such as:

  • using the top navigation in locating other pages
  • scrolling down a web page to continue reading
  • clicking flat, colored buttons to get additional information

With the fundamental principles, designers can now experiment with grids and layouts with the use of unforeseen changes, plus asymmetrical balance as a means to astonish and captivate users throughout their journey.

Experimental Animation and Video

Animation and video are additional ways by which web designers will change design, but not in the ways that we have seen it being used in the past. Demonstration videos, as well as scroll-triggered animations will always be around but in 2018, there will be more experimentation on video usage by means of particle backgrounds, augmented or virtual realities, cinema graphs and animated thumbnail images.

Micro Interactions

Big and bold animation is not always necessary. This is particularly true nowadays, since colors and typefaces have become bolder and have gone against safer and more traditional norms. In its place, we are going to see more of micro interactions in 2018. Therefore, designers will be able to use animation as a reward for users that engage with websites. Instead of constantly throwing movement at visitors, this slight touch will surprise and please visitors whenever they engage with less noticeable elements on the website.

Importance of Responsive Web Design in 2018

A website with responsive web design is a site that is able to adjust to the screen it is being utilized on, regardless of what device it is. The website consequently reformats to give the user a superior experience that is appropriate to their device and can give your site various advantages & in addition be in accordance with Google recommendations.

Increase in mobile usage

Over the last five years, mobile browsing has increased very rapidly, and more recently, with the launch of 4G, it’s become almost as speedy as desktop browsing. Over that, the price of data plans has routinely dropped over the last few years, which means an ever-increasing number of individuals can comfortably spend hours tooling around and browsing on their phone, with no financial repercussions.

It is important that to have a responsive web design which works better on a smartphone or other mobile device screens, due to a large number of people who could be using your website through a smartphone or tablet.

Benefits of responsive web design

With a responsive site, all content and pages are adaptable to all screen resolutions and devices. Whether you’re seeing a site on your cell phone or a laptop, it will be bound together and easy to navigate despite the varying screen sizes. Providing an ideal experience for the client no matter how you look at it, responsive web design means your user can read and navigate the web page with least resizing and scrolling.

Responsive web design can enhance user experience which will convert into a positive impression of brand and business. If the client can access site easily on all platforms, will probably come back to the same site for more business in the future and it more than likely means a higher conversion rate for the website. In reality, as we know it where so much traffic comes from mobile devices, it’s essential that you’re accommodating this factor through your website.

Responsive website design is now also important as a ranking factor. Websites that are responsive will generally load faster which is probably going to support the website ranking and decrease the bounce rate. Responsive web design can also make social sharing easier, helps to grow a bigger audience for the brand.

SEO campaigns and website support are also a much smoother process with a mobile-friendly website. Responsive web design implies you just have 1 website to take care of; it’s also quicker and more affordable than making a stand-alone mobile application in addition to your desktop website.

Responsive Web Design is Especially Crucial for E-Commerce Sites

Do you know what one of the most serious issues for online stores is? Abandoned shopping carts. People getting bored or getting cold feet midway through the registration procedure, and essentially taking off. Billions of potential sales disappearing.

You must inquire as to ask why individuals are abandoning their purchases, and past the conspicuous doubts component, you have the way that a considerable measure of online stores still has long and challenging registration forms, an issue aggravated by poor responsiveness

The less demanding you make for customers to make buys on your site, the more deals you will appreciate. By incorporating responsive design, you’re gaining an edge on the competition, and giving your customers an uncontrollably smoother experience.

SEO and Digital Marketing

It’s long been confirmed that mobile speed and responsive web design is an effective ranking factor used by search engines to decide as websites rank, so ensuring that mobile-friendly design is a priority that improves your website performance in more ways than one.

Another shelter is that mobiles are hugely more social media friendly, with clients considerably more liable to exchange over to a websites social media links on mobile than on laptop or PC. And we as a whole know how significant social media marketing can be to any business.

Freelance Web Designer | WordPress Developer | Hong Kong