Just discover the magic of photography? Surely you want to start taking fabulous photos right away. Although this is not possible you can learn some easy things that will help you start taking nice photos in a couple of days.

First of all you should become familiar with your camera. Read the manual as many times as needed to get accustomed to it. Moreover the usually contains a lot of useful tips.

Than get accustomed to the digital photography terms. The most important ones are: barrel distortion (causes the edges of an image to look curved, when the position of the camera lens is at its widest angle), shake (caused by movement when taking a photo resulting into a blurred image), digital zoom (simulated zoom), exposure values (also called EV, numbers that refer to various combinations of lens aperture and shutter speed).

The next thing to take into account is light. Light is the most important factor when it comes to photography. You can takes photos in natural or artificial light and the different light can make the same photo look different. There is a lot to learn about light so the easiest way to start is to experiment taking photos of various objects in various light conditions.

Despite the sophisticated digital photography tips, there are some simple but often neglected things you should learn and master.

Avoid noise in your photos by being careful with the ISO settings. The higher the ISO the less light is needed for the exposure. Noise will reduce the quality of your photos by making them less clear and sharp.

Do not shake camera while taking a photo. Well, sometimes it is hard to say that you are moving the camera and still your photos are a bit blurry. This is caused by the hand movement that you cannot even recognize. You can take a tripod or use another camera support. Be very careful when taking night photos or any photos under low light as the movement of the camera can do more damage in these situations.

Use to use the shutter button correctly. It is amazing how the simplest thing can go so wrong simply because you cannot use the shutter button the way you should. Most of the digital cameras have two level shutter button. You should press it to the middle to focus and than press again to take the photo. Master this by practice and you will quickly see the difference.

More and more people are getting fond of web design. Whether for work related purposes or for personal-use purposes. Some people get short courses to study web designing and some rely on e-learning and get web designing tutorials on-line. For people who works as a web designer, they know the do's and dont's of web designing, for most of them at least. For those who don't, especially those who are new in the field, here are some basic tips that would help in enhancing your web designing skills.

Keep your index page short

For the convenience of your visitor, don't place all your content on the index page. Remember that you can use several pages on making a web site. Having a single-page site with all the contents there will make a visitor dizzy and confused.

Create a toolbar or menus easy navigation

This will make your visitors stay in your site longer. After reading the content of your page, it is more likely that your visitor will look for other pages on your site that would interest him. Using short, clear and precise words will also help the visitor know the content of the page where your link is going. I suggest to place the navigation menu on top and the other main links on the right hand side menu. You can also use a drop-down menus if you have many links.

Clean layout design

Align the contents of the page properly. You can use as many tables as you need to be able to insert the images or whatever you need for the page. Beginners tend to put as much images as they can, thinking it would be nice to look at, but it is advisable to put minimal photos. For a safer design, you can also use templates.

Use uniform fonts

As much as possible, use only two to three kinds of font face and the suggested sizes are ten to fourteen points. Just use different font styles, italics for instance, to emphasize keywords. Also, use a font that is available on all computers to prevent having a messed up design.

Cross browser compatible

Keep in mind that there are other internet browsers other than what you are using. At least make sure that your codes and design are compatible to the major browsers like Internet Explorer 5+, Mozilla Firefox 1.0, Opera 7.0 and Netscape Navigator 6+ .

These are just basic tips and suggestions on web designing but are guaranteed useful. These can be used as guide on building your own site but still the overall design is in your hands.

Over the last decay, an increase number of research were conducted to determine ways Information Technology can assist in meeting special needs to ensure universal accessibility. Findings to date suggest that by being more knowledgeable about accessibility issues, Web designers and developers are able to accommodate end users with special needs.
As we enter the knowledge age, it is no longer acceptable that people with limited or no vision are on their own when it comes to accessing the web, nor those with mobility problems are on their own when it comes to use a hardware.

To ignore website accessibility raises moral, business, and legal issues. It is morally wrong to discriminate against disabled people on the web simply through lack of thought, consideration, or awareness. Many business web sites designed without considering accessibility issues result in loss of revenue. Some countries, such as the US, UK, and Australia has introduced legislation that requires organizations to adhere to accessibility issues.

In June 1999, the Disability Discrimination Act (1999) has been used to fight for access rights in
Australia. The 2000 Olympic Site Games, jointly developed by Sydney Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games (SOCOG) and IBM was found inaccessible to the blind users, and SOCOG was fined A$ 20,000 [1].

The purpose of this paper is raising awareness among web designers and developers, to achieve universal web accessibility goal. The paper looks at the disability issues and the existing assistive technologies or methods used by disabled users to assist them in accessing the web.

Afterwards, the paper reviews guidelines for good web site design, and provides analysis for designing an accessible website. Furthermore, the paper highlights on the challenges and gaps in the web accessibility area.

Literature Review:

Two years ago, a Conference was held in 'London' and attended by representatives of commerce, industry, government, and the IT Sector aiming to raise awareness of the potential benefits of assistive technology to disabled users. The outstanding number of speakers highlighted through number of cases how technology can transfer lives. 'Sue Bassoon' a Business Development Manager at IBM said: "IBM's goal is to have a speech recognition system as good as the human ear by 2010" [2].

The objectives of this literature is two folds: (1) explain how a particular disability (e.g. visual impairment, mobility restriction, hearing impairment) can impede the use of the web, and what can be done to accommodate special needs; and (2) show how web designers and developers can construct accessible web sites to end users with disabilities, such as visual or hearing impairment.

(1) Disability Issues

The section begins with a descriptive part concerning disabled user functional limitation and dependence on assistive technologies.

A- Vision Issues:

A web user who has no sight (totally blind) is likely to use the screen reader technology to reads a load the content of the web page. Other web users, with partial or poor sight need to be able to enlarge the text on web page using a screen magnifier.

B- Mobility Issues:

A web user may have mobility problems as a result of an accident or disease such as:(loss of limb, Injury, or aging process). The technologies used by users with mobility problems are:

- Sticky Keys: For users with one finger typing.

- Filter Keys: Ignores repeated strokes for people with hand tremors.

- Mouse Keys: Permits moving pointer with numeric keypad.

- Serial Key: Permits access to alternatives for mouse and keyboard functions such as Foot Mouse.

- Eye gaze: A video camera that racks eye movement as the user look at an on screen keyboard. It is customizable as how long a key must be looked at to be recorded. When system has identified the key looked at the symbol appears and the user look at next key.

C- Hearing Issues:

A web user may be deaf or experiencing problems with hearing due to the natural aging process. To assist those users the audio or video need to be translated to the ASL (American Sign Language) language of the deaf, in which certain signs represent words.

(2) Design for Accessibility

In the above section, the paper provided readers with a general knowledge about disability issues, disabled users, and the existing assistive technologies. This section is intended for web designers and developers, because it provides them with tips and guidelines on ways to design a good and accessible website. There are two main aspects to take into account:

I- Look and Feel

Web designers need to present a user friendly interface that addresses specific ability needs. The designer should be able to describe ways disabled users interact with a website, and how they move through the pages and how they achieve their goals. Below, are helpful tips that designers need to consider when designing an accessible website.

- Web Designers & Developers; should follow the four principles of visual organization in the process of designing a website which are: Proximity, Alignment, Consistency, and Contrast.

- Web Designers & Developers; must avoid using HTML tables to control the layout, instead use style sheets.

- Web Designers & Developers; should use legible fonts, and font size to allow disabled users to easily change them from the browser interface.

- Avoid poor color contrast in your design, and do not use color for meaningful description.

- Avoid the use of animation, and flash which may affect users with photosensitive epilepsy.

- Avoid using Frames because it can pose problems for technology used by some disabled users.

- Try not to use graphics for menu and button forms.

- Avoid hiding menu items (using DHTML or applets)

II- Content

Web designers should organize content in a way that can provide ease of use and simplicity. Below, are helpful tips that designers need to consider when designing an accessible website:

- Use a clear language, and write short sentences.

For example, a web page should provide blind users with a short summary of what they can find. A Search Functionality is important because a blind person can't scan the page, and will generally trust first result he/she receives.

- Add Accessible tags and attributes by using rich set of tags to enhance accessibility. For instance, an ALT tag is used to provide a text equivalent for images within a website. The ALT text description is what the screen reader or talking browser will read to the blind users .

- Use clear link descriptions, and include links that a user can click to skip repetitive regions of the page.

- Ensure the pages are usable when scripts, applets, or style sheets are turned off or not supported.

- All audio and video content should contain captions, transcription, and descriptive information.

Analysis:

It is estimated that 20% of the population has some kind of disability. The internet opens a new window of opportunity and independence to disabled users from reading news to banking to conducting business. For example, by using the screen reader technology a blind user can listen to the latest newspaper published electronically. Similarly, a user with mobility problem who can not go out shopping to buy a newspaper, nor use a keyboard or mouse independently, can rather use the eye tracking software that allow people to use a computer with nothing more than eye movement.

Nowadays, organizations are asking designers to make their web sites accessible and for good reasons. First of all, the more people who can use a site, the more potential it can generate. Online stores, in particular have a great deal to gain, since many people with functional limitation problems, find it much easier to shop online. Most Web designers are not personally opposed to the concept of making web sites accessible to people with disabilities. In fact most accessibility errors on web sites are the result of ignorance. A large proportion of web designers and developers have simply never thought about accessibility issues. A small proportion of web designers (4%) do not understand the needs of users with disabilities; another (46%) understand some of the needs of users with disabilities. While only (26%) of designers understand most of the needs of users with disabilities and can accommodate them [3].

The Challenges and Gaps of Web Accessibility:

In this section, we highlight the challenges and the requirements posed by user needs, to access the web. We argue the need for a new approach to address accessibility issues, and include it in each and every web project life cycle.We recognize that the vast majority of disabled users face challenges when accessing the web. Why is this? Is it the lack of technical solutions to meet their needs – absolutely not! You will hear today that there are new technological solutions to address even most extreme form of disability. Is it cost?

Again it is not! Some technical solutions, cost nothing at all, and already exist in software. So, What then? Is it that web applications are being developed that present challenges to accessible design? Is it lack of knowledge and skills to meet their needs?

There does seem a general lack of awareness of web accessibility issues. Web Designers and Developers, need to have a better approach to tackle the problem in each phase of the web development process. For example, during the requirement analysis phase a web developer must define the target audience of the site, and should take into account people with a combination of disabilities. In addition to this, during prototyping phase a web designer must have the knowledge to accommodate end users with special needs, and also the skills to meet their expectations.

Moreover, testing the web site using different technologies is critical for a successful web site, to ensure it meets the accessibility standards and user requirements [4]. Therefore, in each phase of the web development process, accessibility plays an important role. Accessibility and Usability should be completely embedded in web design and development cycles from beginning to end.

The future looks bright for web accessibility. It promises to educate web designers and developers about accessibility issues, through training courses offered at universities.

Conclusion:

The Internet offers independence and freedom. But, this independence and freedom is limited to certain users. Many websites are not created with accessibility issues in mind. Whether it is the Web Designer lack of knowledge or ignorance, they exclude a segment of users that in many ways benefit from the internet [5].

In short, designing accessible websites does not require an enormous effort or time. It simply, requires commitment, and accountability, to achieve a universal goal.

Good web page design software makes it easy to produce good-looking websites. (Our website reviews the easiest ones to use.) But the content you select and how you organize it is the difference between visitors staying longer than 3 seconds or not. I've identified 10 common mistakes made by web design newbies:

1. Too Many Advertisements


Making money from your website is fine, as long as you don't get too greedy by jamming too many ads everywhere. (Of course, by doing this, you will make less money anyway.) What's "too many?" Go to your website as a visitor, and have someone else look it over, too. Trust your first impression and compare it to what your friend or family member thought about it. If you do have ads, make sure they're not too intrusive or obnoxious--like flashing banners, for example.

2. Using Flash Intros; a "Splash Page" with a little movie


Bad idea! Don't use a Flash intro on your website. Only rarely is it ever done tastefully and appropriately. Even when it is done well, it's a waste of effort. It's just too risky and the rewards are NONE. No matter how cool a flash intro may look, it has never, ever proved to increase traffic or website "stickiness." It almost always has the opposite effect.

3. Too Many Plugins


Keep any media that uses plugins to a strict maximum of one per page. For example, if you've got Flash, then you shouldn't have a media player, or if you've got a little program run by Java then you shouldn't have Flash as well. Don't be tempted to plug in stuff on your website just because you think it looks "cool."

4. Confusing Layout and Navigation


Many websites seem to make the simplest task take several steps to achieve. Remember that web surfers are in an extremely short attention-span mode and won't stick around to try to figure out your website. This is where choosing good web site design software pays off.

5. Unclear Website Theme


It's easy to get tunnel vision about getting all the little tasks done to your new website and forget the big picture. What I'm talking about here is the need for you to have a main theme/main purpose for your site...One that is completely obvious in the first 3 seconds of someone landing on your homepage.

Think of television commercials that you finally figured out after seeing several times, because it wasn't clear what the ad was about...It's not that you weren't smart enough to figure out those ads; you simply didn't invest the mental effort--very slight though it may be--into figuring out the ad the first time.

Because watching T.V. commercials is often no different than surfing the internet as far as the mental effort you're willing to devote to it. But with the internet, your visitors are only going to see your site ONCE--for about 3 seconds before making a decision to stay or leave. If they leave, they're never coming back, unlike T.V. commercials. So you have to make your message and your site very clear. Slight confusion = Instant Back button or the red "X."

6. Broken Links


You should check all your links regularly to make sure that they all still work. Think of the times you find a site that has links that don't work: You instantly make some assumptions about the site--like it's outdated and unprofessional. It's the same feeling you get when you see simple words misspelled.

7. Weird Fonts


Never get too cute and creative with your website fonts. Stick to the most common web fonts like Verdana, Arial, Times New Roman, and Tahoma. Besides, many of your visitors won't have other fonts installed in their browsers and computers, so all they'll see is gobbledygook. If you do want to use non-standard fonts, then limit it to graphic header images or logos--where they're displayed as part of the image.

8. Bad Sized Fonts


It's important to keep your text around the standard size--like 10, 11, or 12. Making text too big or too small makes it hard to read and is a great way to get your visitors to leave immediately.

9. High-Contrasting Webpage Colors


You've seen those webpages that have a dark background with bright-colored or white text. Or sites with very bright or very dark margins, which contrasts with the actual webpage content. All of these puts a strain on the eyes, which makes it hard to read and = Instant Back Button. The tried and true method is to use black text on a white background.

10. Auto-Sizing Webpages


Look at this webpage: craftown.com and you'll see an example of how not to use auto-sizing webpages. The idea behind auto-sizing webpages is to use the whole desktop real estate instead of limiting the page to say, 750 pixels wide. This way, on small monitors the webpage looks large enough to read. But the problem comes with larger monitors where the text gets stretched way further than is normal for reading. And nowadays, most people have larger monitors. The fix? If you do use auto-sizing webpages, be sure to limit the text to a specific pixel amount. If you don't know how to do this, get a web design pro to do it or don't use it at all.

African Webmaster struggle daily in the pursuit of relevance in the Global outsourcing industry. Outlined below are the common problems facing African Webmasters and their possible solutions:

Problem #1 - Finance - Lack of funds to invest in training, equipment is a real challenge for African Webmasters due to a dearth of training resources and lack of money.

Solution: Sourcing Finance will always be a challenge for everyone irrespective of their class, status and chosen profession. You can source used computers from merchants at low rates and make good use of the Internet for upgrading your knowledge of your industry.

Problem #2 - competition - Competition can come from larger business, fellow freelancers, BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) Companies in India, China, Ghana, Kenya etc

Solution: There will always be jobs for a skilled and cheap web designer no matter the increased competition, put in more effort in whatever design jobs that may come your way and let your skills speck for you.

Problem #3 - Lack of sales prospects - Nothing can reduce a person ego than being out of work, the feeling is likened to be fired from secular employment.

Solution: Make Yourself Known by giving free seminars in your local community, create posters and distribute it in your neighbourhood, stores, restaurants, hotels etc. You can also make use of online Job Boards and websites which periodically lists web design jobs suitable for freelancers.

In conclusion, African Webmasters need not dread the trio evils of Lack of Finance, competition And lack of sales prospects. They should rather concentrate their efforts into using the Internet as a tool of accessing readily available free training resources and also as a mechanism of reaching out to the thousands of potential clients out there.

There can be no argument about the importance of design in attracting Internet users to a particular web site. No one would bother to explore the contents of a site if it does not contain eye-catching graphics that can please the visual sense of the users. With so many kinds of web sites existing online, it is extremely challenging to attract users and keep them interested in the site.

But a web site developer does not simply apply graphics freely on a site. Graphics should be used in the correct manner, or else, users might get turned off because the graphics featured just overwhelmed or confused them.

While it is true that attractive design is important for reasons that need not be explained, the choice of design must be carefully considered against the fulfilling the needs of users. When done successfully, it could be safely said that the web site has achieved its goals.

Graphics used in the Internet is inextricably linked to multimedia. Multimedia is a combination of graphics, text, sound, and animation to express a message to users. The multimedia features that will be incorporated to a web site should be dependent on the content. In general, multimedia and graphics should serve as supports to content, and should have precise, instructional purpose.

According to research, animated images can facilitate the transfer of learning in a positive way if it is utilized to show a vital part of the concept that is being illustrated. On the other hand, animation can serve as a barrier to user recall and performance.

Here are the guidelines in incorporating graphics to web sites:

1. Justify the usage of the graphics


The most obvious problem that can be seen on web pages is the over-usage of graphics. The main downside of this is that complicated, unnecessary graphics can take a long time to download, and this, of course, will not sit well with users. The graphics to be applied should support the transfer of data and should also be in relation to the accompanying text.

2. The difference between graphics with text-redundant data and those containing information that is non-redundant is that the former facilitates and ushers in the learning process, while the latter does not either help or slow down learning.

3. Consistency should be a priority in graphic design

4. Web pages should be marked up so that text will be downloaded before the graphics. In this way, the users will know immediately if the page has the information that they are looking for, and if not, they will be able to save precious waiting time knowing that they do not need that certain page.

5. The loading of graphics should be controlled as such that loading will commence from top to bottom, and the users scrolling down the page will encounter said graphics.

6. The downloading of pages should be fast in order to save users waiting time, and in order to reduce the chances that they will get frustrated that they will abandon plans to download. Here are several ways to achieve fast download periods:

-Keep the physical size of the graphics to a minimum


-Images should be combined in order to minimize the number of server connections. Remember, the more connections that exists, the slower the download time will be


-Decrease image resolution


-Limit the colors that will be used for the images


-Limit the use of animation

Animation is very much a part of web graphic design. The primary difference between web text and graphics and contents that are print-based is the dynamics. Moving displays attract the attention of users as long as the frequency of the display is regulated. Too much animation display can irritate and distract users. An animation that is perpetually moving can destroy the readable quality of the web page.

The usage of blinking texts should be avoided. It has long been regarded as an overused feature and the latest browsers no longer support it.

In designing a web site, there always exists a conflict between the desire to have total control over the appearance of a page and the need to permit users to establish their own preferences. The general appearance of the page should be made by the designer, but there are certain elements that users should have control over, such as color and text background, and the option whether to display graphics or not.

It takes a considerable amount of effort to establish and maintain the attractiveness and efficiency of a web site. If the guidelines above will be followed, all the efforts of web designers will bear desirable results. They only have to remember that the benefit of the users will always be the basis for everything.

To make a profit with web site design, you have several ways. Web site design can make profit with designing professional and quality websites and selling them to the customers. Better website design can get money to the website owner and the business owner in the form of more clients and more visitors. A better looking website always attracts more traffic than a not so well looking website. Web site design is the key in getting money and making profit.

You can use the following ways to make a profit with website design.

Great layout- Create a great layout of the website to get more traffic to the website. The layout should be balanced and visually appealing. Balancing can be done by using colour, texts, frames etc. The colour and the fonts you use should make it look fascinating.

Professional design - The design should look professional in the first look. People love something sophisticated and classy. Give it a look that says it is exculsive and for somebody special.

Use best technology- Use the best technology available for web site design. For example you can use XML, jhoomla, html and so on.

Make it easily accessible- Make your website easily accessible. It should not take much time to get itself loaded in the browser. People do not like website that takes too long to open.

Use softwares- Use softwares that are available for website design. It will givd the website a better look as well as many features. It will be easy to design a better website with the softwares.