Web Design East Africa

Zanzibar – the jewel of east Africa – attracts thousands of visitors each year including NGO workers on vacation, Italians looking for an even darker tan and some backpackers who just want to escape the concrete jungles.

Tourism is a source of income for many people on Zanzibar. Some tourists spend a lot of money, some spend less money and some does not spend money at all (that would be the NGO folks).

One of many ways to target tourists is via web sites. Unfortunately, several websites that promote companies, services and products on Zanzibar are falling behind. Some have not seen an update for years while others just look like cheap copies of other websites and some that just do not match any European’s expectations of what constitutes excellent content, web design and usability.

A good example of excellent web design that combines pleasant eye candy with actual content and usability is the website for the Serena Inn Hotel. Located on the western tip of Stone Town Serena Inn is probably one of Zanzibar’s best hotels. The Serena Inn Hotel is backed up Small Luxury Hotels of the World, an organisation that probably have funds enough to engage in some serious online marketing as well as web design.

One of the mistakes being made when creating websites in developing areas (East Africa) is the almost constant use of features that only works perfect when the visitor enter the website using a high bandwidth connection. Flash is one of those techniques and even though Flash is a good method to create good looking website, you should refrain from using it as much as possible. If you want to add some cool transitions and stuff like that you should read up on jQuery instead.

Fact: Content is king
People in Europe, the US, the Arab world and Asia come to local websites on Zanzibar for one thing: Information. Information should be your main content. Text is also the best way to attract visitors from search engines. It is kind of difficult for services like Bing and Google to index Flash based image galleries…

Text should be accompanied by images only when the images help promote the text. If you publish a text about safaris it make sense to include some images of animals and nature in the same text.

However, it is true you could also do it the other way around: Promote your services using images (and embedded YouTube clips, not self hosted) and use text to describe the images. It is all about striving for a balance between the both.

How to build a better website
Lets say that you are a tour operator. You offer safaris on land and/or at sea (diving) and want to attract as many customers as possible (who would not?). Forget about graphics and cool effects, and lets focus on the information/content:

1) Tell us about yourself
Show us a picture of you and your staff with full names included. Perhaps you want to include a short description of each person involved in your company. By being open about who you are, you will gain trust prior to the customers´ arrival. Lets hope that you then meet up to the expectations.

2) Tell us about what you have to offer
Describe each service with a fair amount of text and make use of images to enhance the product descriptions. We want to know that when we book your safari, you will give us what we think we are going to receive.

3) Provide us with a contact details
We want to know your name, the name of your business, if your business is part of larger organisation, if you are licensed (if needed), how to get to the point from where you operate, if you can arrange transportation from our hotel (and back), how large each group will be (up to maybe 5 or up to 20 in each group, can make a big difference for some and dhows can easily get very crowed…).

4) Add a decent amount of graphics
When you have created the actual content you may turn your attention to the framework. As always, try to refrain for using large image files for graphics, make use of what CSS has to offer and you will get almost as far as those you rely soley on cool grapics.

5) Forget about statics HTML, use a CMS
CMS, Content Management System, require a database and more than basic skills in mastering a webserver. But once installed the CMS will help you increase the rate at which you publish content, remodel for websites overall look and feel. Examples of good (and free) CMS are Joomla and WordPress.

Broadband in East Africa has reached one of the many bottlenecks to pass through on its way to become an every-man´s communication tool. One of the most important bottlenecks to deal with first is the non-existent fiber optic network between cities and rural areas of all East African nations.

You have the SEACOM cable on the shores but now what? True that many big cities probably soon will benefit from this, but who is going to pay if only a small percentage of the countries people get access to broadband? Thus, the roll-out of East Africa´s fibre network is of great importance.

The East African Fibre Summit that is being held in Nairobi 22-23 September 2009 will address these issues among other things. Among the speakers is a Swede, Anders Comstedt, who has a previous career as CEO for companies in the fibre network roll-out business in Sweden. See also: “Submarine cables on the beach now what?“

When you build websites aimed primarily for East Africa you have to make sure that even low bandwidth users can access it. Keep on reading and learn more about the Clesto CMS that bridge the gap between static and dynamic websites.

Static websites is one of the best ways to keep websites small in size. Static websites is also a good way to begin a web developer´s career since knowledge about HTML and CSS is crucial for making dynamic and database driven websites.

Dynamic websites rely on databases and you as a designer need more than average skills to manage the website. Fortunately there are several Content Management Systems available for free. WordPress is such as CMS although many still consider WordPress as a blog platform and not a platform for creating larger websites.

Clesto CMS is the bridge between static and dynamic websites. The free as well as the paid version does not rely on a database, all you need is FTP access and basic skills about HTML.

Clesto CMS is a product by Swedish SEO master Jim Westergren and thus Clesto is a serious choice for you when looking for a SEO-friendly CMS. The paid version ($90 per website) gives you extra admin UI menus for SEO, a spam free contact form and more.

Get Clesto CMS

• Visit www.clesto.com/download
• Unpack and upload the files to your FTP
• Visit www.yourdomain.tld/admin
• Choose a password and you have a website that you administer through a graphic user interface

Sharing of ideas, tools and methods is a core feature of the Internet. With the help of your website, blog and social media you have the tools needed to establish yourself as a trustworthy resource that visitors return to in search of answers.

Online marketing is not easy. The concept of “free” is even harder to profit from. Thus it is important that push yourself into delivering the unexpected to the unknowns, whereas “the unknowns” are people just like you who browse the web in search of answers. Eventually the unknowns will turn into paying clients. Continue reading to learn how to reach this goal.

Tool #1 – Your company website
Here you present your products, services and also tell the visitor how to get in touch. But there are way to many company websites out there that only give a description of the company. Take it to the next level and make sure you only publish texts that tell your customers how they will benefit from hiring your company.

Tool #2 – Your company blog
If your website is static, your blog is dynamic. Use the blog to inform your customers and potential customers about everything that is related to your products and services. Update atleast once every seven days and remember to stay on topic.

The blog is a more personal way of getting through and with even basic strategies you can excel in the art of blogging. Things to remember about blogging in the name of your company is to remain personal, transparent and open to new ideas. Use the blog as an alternative away of communication.

Tool #3 – Your company in social media
Establish your company in all the major social media services. Create a Facebook account, register at YouTube and participate in Google Groups. These are just a few and make sure you invest time in services that are relevant for your audience. For companies in Africa, Afrigator is a good place to start.

Use social media the right way and you will create a buzz surrounding your company. Do it wrong and other users will view your company in a totally different perspective.

Social media is all about relationships and genuine conversations. You can add “shouts” and publish your blog´s RSS feed here, but do not miss out on the opportunities concering creation of long lasting relationships. Be genuine in all things you do here, invest a great deal of time in helping others and participate rather than using social media as yet another marketing channel.

One thing that we need at this early development stage is content. Content is king and we need appealing content to serve the needs of our visitors.

Let it be your company´s products/services, tell us about your latest achievements and help us create an online resource targeted at the growing East African market for web design!

Our offer to companies – One Unique Page on WebDesignEastAfrica.com
If you represent a web hosting, web design and/or web development company in East Africa you are more than welcome to submit to us the following:

• Company logo (max. width x height: 500 x 200 pixels)
• Company description (max. 500 characters)
• Company products and services description (max. 300 characters)

You may include one or two links in line and you’ll get one sidebar link as well. There is a free offer with no strings attached. For more information about this free offer – drop us a line @ contact@webdesigneastafrica.com

Our offer to bloggers – Guest Writer Account on WebDesignEastAfrica.com
Get your blog listed, spread the word about your blog and promote your blogger identity. If you are into web design, web hosting, domain names and/or web development AND have your own blog focusing on that, please contact us @ contact@webdesigneastafrica.com on how to become a guest writer/blogger here.

WordPress is one of the most popular web publishing platforms of today. It is open source (free), it has a very large user community and there are tons of themes and plugins available.

• Go for WordPress.com if you want to set up a free blogging account. Your blog address will be “username.wordpress.com” and you can pay extra to use your own domain name.
• Go for WordPress.org if you want to download and install your own copy of the platform. This website use self-installed WordPress and there are several beneficiaries in doing so.

For bloggers
If you want to start a blog there are several services available. Among them there are two service that your probably are familiar with; Google and WordPress, whereas the latter is the focus of attention in this post.

Get started:
Visit wordpress.com and signup for a free user account. Make sure you pick a username that is representative of yourself, your blogging agenda and the like. A couple of minutes after registration you receive your login details, use them and start publishing blog posts. It is as easy as that!

For business owners / web developers (devs)
Self-hosted WordPress is recommended if you intend to build an online business website. Not only will you receive full control of the installation itself, you will also be able to add themes, plugins and modify the CSS file – If you choose the free WordPress.com version all these feature come with a price tag.

Get started:
Visit wordpress.org and download the latest version. Prior to installing WordPress you’ll need hosting with atleast one MySQL (version 4.0 or greater) database included as well as PHP support installed (version 4.3 or greater). Make sure the hosting of your choice meet up to the requirements.

Install WordPress
Note that you need a hosting before installation of WordPress is possible. If you have that and still do not know how to proceed, please refer to the official documentation.

Trial & Error is the way to go if you want to learn WordPress. If you need further assistance on how to setup self-hosted WordPress, consult any web design or web development firm in your area. If you still face problems do not hesitate to contact us.

Although broadband connections reach more and more users all over Africa, low bandwidth connections is still and fact that will remain true for many people the years to come.

When designing web sites aimed at an African audience you must remember the bandwidth issue. It does not matter how cool you think you latest Flash creation is. If your visitors lack broadband connections they will probably never get a chance to view it.

Here is a short list of things to consider early in the developing process of your future web site. These suggestions are in no way the only ones you need to learn about. However, it is a good start and everyone should be able to grasp it.

Separate code and content
If you build static websites you’ll have to live with having a large amount of code and content on the same page. But if you work with dynamic content it is easier to separate them both. Use CSS to style your website, set borders, margins, fonts and so forth. The CSS file is also the place where you set the foundation for your overall layout using div tags, class tags, id tags – Tags that you then include on the main page.

Keep websites small
Less is more and you should always look for the fastest (meaning; smallest) solution when developing websites. No matter if you work with static or dynamic websites, try to minimize the amount of effects, images and (for experienced developers) HTTP requests.

Use easy navigation
Refrain from using Flash or unnecessary JavaScript in your navigational menus. Plain text is easy to navigate through for both visitors and search engines.

Content is king
Your users look for information on various topics, give it to them. If you are a photographer it makes sense to include several bandwidth consuming features on your website like images. But text providers should keep it small but yet informative enough for your visitors to stick around.

Limit the use of images
Unless you are into photography and similar enterprises, please do not use an excessive amount of images on your website. If you want to add color, borders or rounded corners – use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) instead.

Learn more
Visit www.aptivate.org/webguidelines/

With the advent of broadband Internet connection on its way to a potentially large East African user base, web development is still a fairly small enterprise of most sub-Saharan and/or east African nations.

Web Development range from personal blogs, to small business websites, to e-shopping, to social media integration, and all the way to a fully digitalized society that overcome obstacles in government-citizen and company-customer interaction.

Being one of the first European hosted websites to focus solely on East Africa, webdesigneastafrica.com aim to provide developers, users and others with all there is to know about web publishing.

Our goal is to become your #1 resource for news, documentation and case presentations – all related to web development.