Internet Technology Blog » Design

Staged by Susan | Website Design

Admin — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:13:16 +0000

In the Greater Oklahoma City Metro Area, if you are considering staging your home or redecorating your office, to get the designed look you want and the first impression you need, Home Staging with Staged by Susan delivers. Regardless of the challenge, we’ve been there, we’ve seen it, and we’re ready to put our experience and skills to work on your project.

Staged by Susan

If your property is on the market – whether it’s vacant or occupied, well worn or new construction – Staged By Susan can make it shine and get it the attention it deserves. Staged By Susan can also guide you through creating the professional or commercial space that will help you find and keep the good clients and customers every business seeks. We are also prepared to give the home you’ve always loved, the look you’ve always wanted. By helping you de-clutter your world, we can turn a frustrating space into a magnificent place.

Contact Merchant Metrix, Inc. for a professional Website Design for your business and online store.

Thom Dillon | Author

Admin — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 21:45:45 +0000

Thom Dillon is an author, actor, and TV producer from New Jersey. He has been an several episodes of “Walker, Texas Ranger” and “Touched by an Angel”. Recently he wrote a book called “Hathaway”, about a young private eye who enlists in the Army after the US enter WWII, and his struggles with love, loss and everything in between.

Thom Dillon Author

This is a nice 3 page Web site with no big tricks and mirrors. Just a nice slide show of images if you click on Thom’s head shot on the home page. Our photographer also took over 100 headshots for Thom to use on this Web site and in his other work.

Contact Merchant Metrix, Inc. for a professional Website Design for your business and online store.

Take Five Hair Salon

Admin — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 21:44:05 +0000

Take Five 4 Human Grooming, is an upscale salon located on Historic Campus Corner in Norman, OK. They have been at that location for over 15 years and since opening has expanded into an annex location that is also a hair salon. Within the first location, they have expanded upstairs where they now offer a full service spa complete with 30, 60, and 90 minute massages.

Take Five Hair Salon

Take Five 4 Human Grooming recently had celebrity stylists Brandon Martinez in their salon and they are the first salon in Oklahoma to begin carrying B. The Product hair product line by Brandon Martinez.

Contact Merchant Metrix, Inc. for a professional Website Design for your business and online store.

Star Trek Finds

Admin — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 21:42:23 +0000

Star Trek Finds is an online “Everything Star Trek” site. They have a stream from eBay of all current the Star Trek auctions, a feed from Google for both Star Trek News and Star Trek Collectibles News, as well as a blog with updates on everything star trek.

Trek fans, this is the place for you! Bookmark this site immediately!!!

Star Trek Finds

Contact Merchant Metrix, Inc. for a professional Website Design for your business and online store.

OK Master Naturalists

Admin — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 21:40:55 +0000

OK Master Naturalists are in organization in Oklahoma dedicated to nature and the preservation of it, from the animals and insects to the plant life. They train and certify volunteers to every aspect of working in nature. They receive in-depth training on ecological principles and Oklahoma’s ecosystems. Certified volunteers then provide outreach services including maintaining bird boxes, monitoring man-made wetlands, construction of viewing areas. You can also work with youth outreach groups and volunteer for a variety of other fun and exciting jobs!

OK Master Naturalists

This Web site was designed so that each time a user enter the site, or navigates to a different page, a different creature of Oklahoma would appear as the header image. We also provided OK Master Naturalists with a blog to keep their members and volunteers apprised of new and upcoming projects!

Contact Merchant Metrix, Inc. for a professional Website Design for your business and online store.

IT Mine Field

Admin — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 21:39:10 +0000

Navigating the IT Mine Field is a book about the IT blind spots that leave your business vulnerable. How to more effectively spend your capital on IT. How to communicate with an IT Service Provider so you get what you want/need. How to tell if you’re being hoodwinked by an IT Service Provider.

Navigation the I.T Minefield

This Web site houses two forms that email the author with the given information as well as a link to purchase her book, paying with PayPal. Nothing fancy, but it’s about ease of communication and the ability for the customer to navigate. After all, that’s what the book is all about.

Contact Merchant Metrix, Inc. for a professional Website Design for your business and online store.

Hardwood Innovations

Admin — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 21:37:06 +0000

Hardwood Innovations is located in Oklahoma City, OK and specializes in building custom cabinet doors any way you want them. They have tons of pre-designed ideas for you to look at and choose from, but they can build to your specifications as well.

Hardwood Innovations

This Web site is extremely unique. On the home page you will see a rotating slide show of cabinets that Hardwood Innovations built. This was done using a quick loading flash viewer. Inside, you will also find a 3 minute movie that is also run through flash. Lastly you will find a unique online quote form that once submitted is run through a file that converts it to a PDF, then it emails Hardwood Innovation’s customer service a unique URL that will display the PDF quote just as if the customer printed it out.

Our photographers also took the slide show images on the home page and the images of the wood grains.

Contact Merchant Metrix, Inc. for a professional Website Design for your business and online store.

Green Dragon Herbals

Admin — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 21:34:55 +0000

Green Dragon Herbals is an E-Commerce Web site using the Merchant Metrix “Search Engine Friendly” Shopping Cart. Green Dragon Herbals specializes in herbal lotions, perfumes, massage oils and edible body powders. They have integrated the concept of “Mind, Body, and Spirit are ONE” into the formulation of their entire line of natural products.

Green Dragon Herbals

Contact Merchant Metrix, Inc. for a professional Website Design for your business and online store.

Frugality Online

Admin — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 21:31:51 +0000

Frugality Online is a site that houses four online blogs that discuss the meaning of being frugal. The four frugal areas include;

Frugal Menus
Frugal Recipes
Reducing Waste & Recycling
Stretching a Dollar

Frugality Online

Contact Merchant Metrix, Inc. for a professional Website Design for your business and online store.

Tips and Tricks | Choosing Your Web Designer

Sheridan Broderick — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 21:38:05 +0000

It can be stressful when you finally take the plunge and decide to dive into the World Wide Web, but having that online presence is invaluable to you and your business. The trouble is that you don’t want to get stuck with a designer who does a terrible design, does a terrible job at developing it, or (worst case scenario) BOTH! Unfortunately there are people out that who are just looking to make a buck, whatever the cost to you.

So what can you do about it? Well, knowing what questions to ask is always a great place to start, so that’s where I’ll start. Here are the 5 top questions you need to ask your potential Web designer.

Do you design in tables?

If their answer is yes then hang up the phone on them! This method of producing Web sites is outdated and obsolete. It’s ok to use tables for data and micro-information, but if the entire Web site is one GIANT table, just walk away. Industry standards are pushing the use of CSS to style and layout Web sites.

Do you design for ALL browser and ALL computers?

Not all browsers display a Web page the same, like not all computers show a page the same. A Mac and PC have different fonts pre-installed on them and different computers have different monitor resolutions.

A normal Web site should be constrained to 770 pixels in width. This eliminates a viewer having to scroll to the right to see the whole page.

The acceptable fonts to be used are; Arial, Times New Roman, Verdana, Trebuchet MS/Helvetica, Georgia, Courier New, and Lucida Sans.

There are literally thousands of browsers out there, we can’t design for all of them, and so we try to design for the masses. Firefox, Internet Explorer (IE6, IE7), Chrome, Safari, and Opera are the most widely used browsers and should be tested when designing.

Do you know basic Search Engine Optimization?

Every designer should have a basic understanding of Search Engine Optimization and how to optimize a Web site for search engines. If the site is designed structurally for SEO then you can have an SEO specialist go in later and bump your rankings if you need it. This includes the proper use of header tags, internal linking, breadcrumbs, meta-data, and overall structure.

What programs do you use?

Any designer worth considering will use an Adobe Photoshop-like program for all of their graphics. There are free photo editing software’s out there, but they do not produce the same result. Heck, you’re paying them all this money; you want it to look professional.

For the actual development of the Web site they can use anything from Notepad to Adobe Dreamweaver and get the same result… if they’re good. You want someone that can hand code and that doesn’t rely on a WYSIWYG editor to produce the code for them.

Do you have a portfolio I can look at?

You are asking this person to design and develop, in many cases, your first impression to the world. It’s gotta look good! You want it to represent you and your business well. However, new designers can still be good too; you want to see anything graphical they have done. If it’s a bumper sticker… was it laid out nicely? Is there a good use of color? Is it readable?

Remember, you are interviewing them. They should be friendly; you will be talking to them often, as well as knowledgeable. Your Web site is extremely important your success and if it’s not done right the first time, you will be paying for it later on – literally.

Please contact us at Merchant Metrix if you are interested in custom Website design. We’re here to serve you!