Noam Web Design Blog | Web Design & Development Blog by Certified Experts

It’s obvious than having the right tools at your disposal can make all the difference in your work. You’ll be more productive but as you are able to focus more on what you do (rather than how to do it) you’ll create the right context for your creativity to thrive!

I decided to start a new series of posts on this blog dedicated to the tools I use every day that transformed the way I work and made it possible for me to achieve better results and produce more work, while spending less time in front of my computer!

For some of work that I do, file comparison and folder comparison is absolutely essential. I use Beyond Compare every day. In fact, it’s probably the single software I use the most when working on any web design or web development task. I even often prefer it to the operating system default functions when copying files, creating backups, etc. I highly recommend giving it a try!

We recently posted solutions to the most common problems people are having with Magento 1.4 (whether you are upgrading your Magento installation or starting with a fresh Magento 1.4 installation).

Another very common problem is when JavaScript files aren’t referenced properly – which creates a bunch of errors and functionality problems. (more…)

With the recent release of Magento version 1.4, many people are having trouble upgrading their current Magento installation, or installing their template on a fresh Magento 1.4 installation. A quick search online and you’ll find countless entries and posts stating that Magento 1.4 is buggy, not working, horrible, etc. Particularly when you browse through the Magento forums.

In fact Magento 1.4 is different than the last previous stable version (1.3.2.4) but you should definitely be able to upgrade your installation, or install your custom template on a Magento 1.4 installation! Here are the most common issues and how to fix them! (more…)

Here are the simple steps to install a new theme in your Magento installation: (more…)

Finding a good web host is no easy task! There are so many options out there that you could spend days, if not weeks, researching the industry, comparing web hosting companies, reading reviews, and trying out different hosting services.

Luckily for you we’ve worked with dozens of hosting companies over the years, and we have some good suggestions! (more…)

Since I posted the code to add new products on your Magento home page, we got a bunch of requests on how to display new products per category, instead of globally.

If you only want to display new products from a specific category – it’s easy. All you have to do is make sure that in your catalog, you’ve set products “as new” only to products that belong to that category.

If you want to display new products on the home page, but want them organized  by category – we have a very easy way to achieve this  very quickly! Simply add this code in your CMS page: (more…)

Every time you’re considering working with anyone on a project, ask yourself “why would this person work for cheap?” It is particularly true when it comes to web design and web development and this is something I tell pretty much anyone that inquires about working with us.

You’ll be able to find cheaper companies to work with. But you won’t be able to get the same value. Every dollar you invest here at Noam Design will yield an unbeatable value for your project.

You have a limited budget? Reduce the project’s scope. But don’t try to get everything done under your budget because in the end that’s the more costly road! Instead, reduce the project’s features and be more flexible about the creative process. Brainstorm with your project manager on what can be achieved within your budget. But don’t shop around for the team that’d give you everything on earth within the smallest budget.

Where you can save costs is being smart about using resources. That’s why we created Template Action – you can download a template and setup an award winning website at a ridiculous price. And you can get such a great value because we don’t have to deal with pre-sales discussions, back and forth emails and phone calls during the creative process, time spent in meetings, etc. We created great websites you can easily manage and edit – if you like one of them you can purchase it for less than what a single consultation would cost you. It’s that simple.

Start your designs with the content that goes on the page – not the other way around.

Don’t design “boxes”, “areas”, or “structure” and then fill them out with the content you think will go there.

Instead, start by designing the main elements based on the content that you want to communicate on the page. That way you’ll be sure to include the content right away into your design strategy. Content is what matters most.

Start with the content and how you want to display it. That title, that image, this slogan and that short text. Here goes the navigation, there the main call to action. Here some additional content/options. How do I want to display these elements in order to make sure I will achieve my goals? The rest should follow.

Related posts:

• Web Design Is All About Content
• Attractive Content Rules Web Design

Debugging is a normal part of web design and development. What’s unclear about that? Web developers don’t “create bugs”, or “make mistakes”. It’s just the way it goes. I’ll explain more about that below but for now consider this simple analogy:

When you write a book or a paper – you don’t expect the publisher to publish your first submission, do you? Your copy will go through series of edits, corrections, error fixing, rephrasing, rearranging, proof reading, etc… Often this phase can take longer than the time it originally took you to write the paper or book itself! That’s the way it goes. (more…)

Keep this well in mind when creating content for your website! Any website you get from Template Action or Website Temple comes with an extensive (yet very  easy-to-use) Content Management System, or CMS. You can quickly and easily edit and update your website any time, without training or prior web design coding knowledge.

This will give you a lot of power over how your website will look. And that’s because web design really is all about content! (more…)