Monday, 28 July 2014

Open Source Content Management Systems For Convenient Content Publishing

If you wanted to publish content on the web only a few years ago, it would be quite a daunting task, as it would require quite a few technologies such as HTML, XML, CSS, and JavaScript to get your content published.

Fortunately, there is a solution available now, called content management system, which allows you to publish content on the Internet.   Today, there are various CMS systems available, which can either be commercial or open source content management systems.

Just as commercial management systems have evolved, open source CMS have also evolved and are enjoying a great deal of popularity in the market these days. Some of the benefits of using open source content management systems are as below:

1. There is no need to pay for accessing most open source content management systems. This is because most open source content management systems are community managed.  You can even change the code yourself to meet your specific requirements.

2. Unlike commercial Content Management Systems, which place restrictions on the redistributing the code, or even changing the code, open source content management systems, do not place such restrictions. Hence, you are free to distribute, and even redistribute the code. Hence, you can leverage your expertise to bring in a new version of the open source in the community.

3. You can install most open source content management systems on almost any platform. Most commercial systems are restricted in their capability to install on the platforms of your choice. Since most open source CMS are managed by the community, it is easier to find a wide range of templates and plug-ins that meet most standard business requirements.

4. Finally, you need to pay in order to access support from commercial content management systems, which is not the case with many open source content management systems. Here, community forums usually chip in to answer your queries, which can be escalated to higher members in the community hierarchy.

Hence, open source content management systems have come of age. Publishing content on the Internet has never been as easy as before!

Friday, 28 March 2014

User Experience Design

There was a time when there was only text on webpage which laid emphasis on giving more information to the users. Internet was mainly used for disseminating information related to science and government bodies etc. However, with time there was an improvement in technology. Today with speedy internet connections available to users, information is available to users at any place and at any point of time. People in the modern times use internet for gaining information, connecting through social media and for shopping online.

Owing to the sudden growth in the web and internet technology, there are a number of choices available for the user. There is a lot of competition among websites. The products and services available on the website hugely determine the success of a website. However, the experience of the user on the site plays a very important role in helping a website reach heights of popularity.

User experience design is a novel technology introduced to improve the looks of a website. User experience design is also called as UXD or UED. It is related to various aspects of the experience of a user on a website. Some of the aspects included under user experience design are interactivity, user interface graphics that are used on the site and interaction with the user.

There are different elements of user experience design. It not only focuses on aesthetic aspects of a site but also on various other things that are involved in the improvement on the website.

Web design starts with website information architecture. It is very few people who are aware about how important information architecture is for user experience web design. It is very essential to design it. The information architecture is based on the way potential users will love to navigate through the website and go through the content. This is what user experience design helps in achieving. Another aspect if this design is the visual elements related to website design. It is also called as visual design. The visual elements are site aesthetics, arranging different elements on a webpage, website colors, typography etc.