Los Angeles Web Design

7985 Santa Monica Blvd
Suite 310
Los Angeles, CA 90046

Phone: 323.737.7177

EMAIL

Programming

E-Commerce

Los Angeles Web Design offers a wide variety of eCommerce solutions. E-commerce or eCommerce, consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. The amount of trade conducted electronically has grown dramatically since the wide introduction of the Internet. A wide variety of commerce is conducted in this way, including things such as electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, e-marketing, online marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), automated inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. Electronic commerce uses the web at least at some point in the transaction's lifecycle, although it can encompass a wide range of technologies such as e-mail and telecomunications as well.

A small percentage of electronic commerce is conducted entirely electronically for "virtual" items such as access to premium content on a website, but most electronic commerce eventually involves physical items and their transportation in at least some way.

Success factors

In many cases, an e-commerce company will survive not only based on its product, but by having a competent management team, good post-sales services, well-organized business structure, network infrastructure and a secured, well-designed website. A company that wants to succeed will have to perform 2 things: Technical and organizational aspects and customer-oriented. Following factors will make business of companies succeed in e-commerce:

Technical and organizational aspects

1. Sufficient work done in market research and analysis. E-commerce is not exempt from good business planning and the fundamental laws of supply and demand. Business failure is as much a reality in e-commerce as in any other form of business.
2. A good management team armed with information technology strategy. A company's IT strategy should be a part of the business re-design process.
3. Providing an easy and secured way for customers to effect transactions. Credit cards are the most popular means of sending payments on the internet, accounting for 90% of online purchases. In the past, card numbers were transferred securely between the customer and merchant through independent payment gateways. Such independent payment gateways are still used by most small and home businesses. Most merchants today process credit card transactions on site through arrangements made with commercial banks or credit cards companies.
4. Providing reliability and security. Parallel servers, hardware redundancy, fail-safe technology, information encryption, and firewalls can enhance this requirement.
5. Providing a 360-degree view of the customer relationship, defined as ensuring that all employees, suppliers, and partners have a complete view, and the same view, of the customer. However, customers may not appreciate the big brother experience.
6. Constructing a commercially sound business model.
7. Engineering an electronic value chain in which one focuses on a "limited" number of core competencies -- the opposite of a one-stop shop. (Electronic stores can appear either specialist or generalist if properly programmed.)
8. Operating on or near the cutting edge of technology and staying there as technology changes (but remembering that the fundamentals of commerce remain indifferent to technology).
9. Setting up an organization of sufficient alertness and agility to respond quickly to any changes in the economic, social and physical environment.
10. Providing an attractive website. The tasteful use of color, graphics, animation, photographs, fonts, and white-space percentage may aid success in this respect.
11. Streamlining business processes, possibly through re-engineering and information technologies.
12. Providing complete understanding of the products or services offered which not only includes complete product information, but also sound advisors and selectors.

1. Providing value to customers. Vendors can achieve this by offering a product or product-line that attracts potential customers at a competitive price, as in non-electronic commerce.
2. Providing service and performance. Offering a responsive, user-friendly purchasing experience, just like a flesh-and-blood retailer, may go some way to achieving these goals.
3. Providing an incentive for customers to buy and to return. Sales promotions to this end can involve coupons, special offers, and discounts. Cross-linked websites and advertising affiliate programs can also help.
4. Providing personal attention. Personalized web sites, purchase suggestions, and personalized special offers may go some of the way to substituting for the face-to-face human interaction found at a traditional point of sale.
5. Providing a sense of community. Chat rooms, discussion boards, soliciting customer input and loyalty programs (sometimes called affinity programs) can help in this respect.
6. Owning the customer's total experience. Retailers foster this by treating any contacts with a customer as part of a total experience, an experience that becomes synonymous with the brand.
7. Letting customers help themselves. Provision of a self-serve site, easy to use without assistance, can help in this respect. This implies that all product information is available, cross-sell information, advice for product alternatives, and supplies & accessory selectors.
8. Helping customers do their job of consuming. Retailers and online shopping directories can provide such help through ample comparative information and good search facilities. Provision of component information and safety-and-health comments may assist retailers to define the customers' job

Let Los Angeles Web Design help you determine or enhance your ecommerce needs.

Database Design (back to top)

Los Angeles Web Design offers a wide variety of database design solutions. Database design is the process of producing a detailed data model of a database. This logical data model contains all the needed logical and physical design choices and physical storage parameters needed to generate a design in a Data Definition Language, which can then be used to create a database. A fully attributed data model contains detailed attributes for each entity.

The term database design can be used to describe many different parts of the design of an overall database system. Principally, and most correctly, it can be thought of as the logical design of the base data structures used to store the data - in the relational model these are the tables and views. However, the term database design could also be used to apply to the overall process of designing, not just the base data structures, but also the forms and queries used as part of the overall database application within the Database Management System or DBMS.

Determining data to be stored

In a majority of cases, the person who is doing the design of a database is a person with expertise in the area of database design, rather than expertise in the domain from which the data to be stored is drawn e.g. financial information, biological information etc. Therefore the data to be stored in the database must be determined in cooperation with a person who does have expertise in that domain, and who is aware of what data must be stored within the system.

This process is one which is generally considered part of requirements analysis, and requires skill on the part of the database designer to elicit the needed information from those with the domain knowledge. This is because those with the necessary domain knowledge frequently cannot express clearly what their system requirements for the database are as they are unaccustomed to thinking in terms of the discrete data elements which must be stored.

Conceptual schema

Once a database designer is aware of the data which is to be stored within the database, they must then determine how the various pieces of that data relate to one another. When performing this step, the designer is generally looking out for the dependencies in the data, where one piece of information is dependent upon another i.e. when one piece of information changes, the other will also. For example, in a list of names and addresses, the address is dependent upon the name, because if the name is different then the associated address is different too. However, the inverse is not necessarily true, i.e. when the address changes name may be the same. For example, assuming the normal situation where two people can have the same address, but one person cannot have two addresses.

Logically structuring data

Once the relationships and dependencies amongst the various pieces of information have been determined, it is possible to arrange the data into a logical structure which can then be mapped into the storage objects supported by the database management system. In the case of relational databases the storage objects are tables which store data in rows and columns.

Each table may represent an implementation of either a logical object or a relationship joining one or more instances of one or more logical objects. Relationships between tables may then be stored as links connecting child tables with parents. Since complex logical relationships are themselves tables they will probably have links to more than one parent.

Flash Animation (back to top)

Los Angeles Web Design started developing web site with Flash animation when Flash was still considered experimental. There are several myths surrounding the use of flash in web site development. Let Los Angeles Web Design help you navigate through the many misconceptions of Flash and how to best apply this amazing technology. Flash, refers to both the Adobe Flash Player, and to the Adobe Flash Professional multimedia authoring program. Adobe Flash Professional is used to create content for the Adobe Engagement Platform (such as web applications, games and movies, and content for mobile phones and other embedded devices). The Flash Player, developed and distributed by Adobe Systems (which acquired Macromedia in a merger that was finalized in December 2005), is a client application available in most common web browsers. It features support for vector and raster graphics, a scripting language called ActionScript and bi-directional streaming of audio and video. There are also versions of the Flash Player for mobile phones and other non-PC devices.

Strictly speaking, Adobe Flash Professional is an integrated development environment (IDE) while Flash Player is a virtual machine used to run, or parse, the Flash files. But in contemporary colloquial terms "Flash" can refer to the authoring environment, the player, or the application files.

Since its introduction in 1996, Flash technology has become a popular method for adding animation and interactivity to web pages; several software products, systems, and devices are able to create or display Flash. Flash is commonly used to create animation, advertisements, various web-page components, to integrate video into web pages, and more recently, to develop rich Internet applications.

The Flash files, traditionally called "Flash movies" or "Flash games", have a .swf file extension and may be an object of a web page, strictly "played" in a standalone Flash Player, or incorporated into a Projector, a self-executing Flash movie with the .exe extension in Windows. Flash Video files have a .flv file extension and are utilized from within .swf files.

Video in web pages

Flash is increasingly used as a way to display video clips on web pages, a feature available since Flash Player version 7. As a video format, Flash is liked for its ability to be displayed inside browser windows, not for it’s in this sense relatively limited platform compatibility. While there are other video file types that can be played on more platforms, typically 'out of the box' on the majority of operating systems, their browser plugins are limited in distribution. In contrast, the Adobe Flash Player is a dedicated browser plugin (also available as standalone player) and offers very good platform compatibility compared to other browser plugins. It is available for many popular platforms, including Windows, Mac OS X and, to some extent, Linux. Flash is used as the basis for many popular video sites, including YouTube and Google Video. One major flaw with multimedia embedded through Flash, however, is the considerable performance penalty placed on playback hardware as compared with a proper multimedia playback system. Many files that drop frames and skip audio when embedded within Flash play without any issues using normal multimedia formats on the same hardware.

Flash Video (.flv files) is a container format, meaning that it is not a video format in itself, but can contain other formats. The video in Flash is encoded in H.263, and starting with Flash player 8, it may alternatively be encoded in VP6. The audio is in MP3. The use of VP6 is common in many companies, because of the large adoption rates of Flash Player 8 and Flash Player 9

Animation

Flash animation is an animated film which is created using Adobe Flash animation software and often distributed in the .swf file format. It can be created in Flash or with other programs capable of writing .swf files. The term Flash animation not only refers to the file format but to a certain kind of movement and visual style which, in many circles, is seen as simplistic or unpolished. However, with dozens of Flash animated television series, countless more Flash animated television commercials, and award-winning online shorts in circulation, Flash animation is enjoying a renaissance.

In the late 1990s, when for most Internet users, bandwidth was still at 56 kbit/s, many Flash animation artists employed limited animation or cutout animation when creating projects intended for web distribution. This allowed artists to release shorts and interactive experiences well under 1mb, which could stream both audio and high-end animation.

Some hallmarks of poorly-produced Flash animation are jerky natural movements (seen in walk-cycles and gestures), auto-tweened character movements, lip-sync without interpolation, and abrupt changes from front to profile view. Although Flash is able to integrate bitmaps and other raster-based art, as well as video, most Flash films are created using only vector-based drawings which often result in a somewhat clean graphic appearance.

Flash animations are typically distributed by way of the World Wide Web, in which case they are often referred to as Internet cartoons, online cartoons, or webtoons. Web Flash animations may be interactive and are often created in a series. A Flash animation is distinguished from a Webcomic, which is a comic strip distributed via the Web, rather than an animated cartoon.

Today, Flash animations are being more and more widely used in the multi-user community with flash generators and embedded videos in user's profiles across the internet. Many popular remakes are appearing over and over again with the growing success in a less pioneered subject. Youtubes are popping up over the internet with Google video and Myspace video, and flash generators are too numerous to count. Many of the flash generators are now used for webmasters in menu creators but the dynamic lip-synching flash characters and font to image manipulators are still the most dominant.

3-D Animation (back to top)

• polygonal modeling - Various vertices on an xyz grid are mapped out. The vertices are connected in a linear fashion to form a polygonal mesh.
• NURBS modeling - Curves are formed by defining control points and attaching a "weight" to each one. The curve follows (but does not necessarily interpolate) the points. Increasing the weight for a point will pull the curve closer to that point. NURBS are particularly suitable for organic modeling.

The modeling stage consists of shaping individual objects that are later used in the scene. There are a number of modeling techniques, including:

• constructive solid geometry
• implicit surfaces
• subdivision surfaces

Modeling can be performed by means of a dedicated program (e.g., Maya (software), 3DS Max, Blender, Lightwave), an application component (Shaper, Lofter in 3DS Max) or some scene description language (as in POV-Ray). In some cases, there is no strict distinction between these phases; in such cases modeling is just part of the scene creation process (this is the case, for example, with Caligari trueSpace and Realsoft 3D).

Complex materials such as blowing sand, clouds, and liquid sprays are modeled with Particle systems, and are a mass of 3d coordinates which have either points, polygons, splats or sprites assign to them.

Machinima

Machinima, a portmanteau of machine cinema or machine animation)  is both a collection of associated production techniques and a film genre defined by those techniques. As a production technique, the term concerns the rendering of computer-generated imagery (CGI) using real-time, interactive (game) 3D engines, as opposed to high-end and complex 3D animation software used by professionals. Engines from first-person shooter and role-playing simulation video games are typically used. Consequently, the rendering can be done in real-time using PCs (either using the computer of the creator or the viewer), rather than with complex 3D engines using huge render farms. As a film genre, the term refers to movies created by the techniques described above. Usually, machinima productions are produced using the tools (demo recording, camera angle, level editor, script editor, etc.) and resources (backgrounds, levels, characters, skins, etc.) available in a game.

Machinima is an example of emergent gameplay, a process of putting game tools to unexpected ends, and of artistic computer game modification. The real-time nature of machinima means that established techniques from traditional film-making can be reapplied in a virtual environment. As a result, production tends to be cheaper and more rapid than in keyframed CGI animation. It can also produce more professional appearing production than is possible with traditional at-home techniques of live video tape, or stop action using live actors, hand drawn animation or toy props.

As machinima begins to break out of the underground community of gamers and becomes more widely recognized by mainstream audiences, tools are being developed to allow for faster and easier creation of machinima productions. A number of upcoming machinima products are expected to provide machinimators with original assets, as well as advanced features such as a timeline, gesture and sound creation, and precise camera tools.

Although most often used to produce recordings that are later edited as in conventional film, machinima techniques have also occasionally been used for theatre. A New York improvisational comedy group called the ILL Clan voice and puppet their characters before a virtual camera to produce machinima displayed on a screen to a live audience.

Second Life Machinima

A number of machinima have been created using the virtual reality engine of Second Life, which supports in-world editing of character appearance, object creation and skinning, and the recording of events.

Application Design (back to top)

What do we mean by application design?  We prefer to work directly with all our clients to ensure that any product we sell them meets their needs and has been customized to their specific requirements. Application design can therefore encompass a wide range of levels, from some simple customization of DB and form to full scale applications involving many databases with web interfaces and multiple user roles.

We adhere to stringent self imposed guidelines for design and coding, and have received excellent feedback from clients who appreciate the extra time taken to add comments to code to make it more understandable to less tech savvy users.
Web Application Design

Los Angeles Web Design eBusiness Solutions is a reputed Website Development Company known for creating a specification and eCommerce Development plan for any Web based application, no matter how unique or complex. Our custom website application design practices are well documented and highly respected in the industry, as our portfolio is full of sophisticated projects that are tailor made for individual businesses.

Custom Application Design Methodology

Our project team works closely with clients during every step of the process to confirm that their Web design requests are met. We pride ourselves in creating final products that are not only technical and visual masterpieces - but they also fulfill the vision, needs, and desires of your business.

Based on the collective experience of our staff, Los Angeles Web Design’s custom application methodology ensures every project begins with a well-defined plan, and the final results are consistent and reliable. Los Angeles Web Design’s eBusiness solutions development methodology is a step-by-step process, with each step building upon each other.

We work closely with clients to understand their individual business logic. By conducting a detailed analysis of your specific goals, our Website Development Company ensures full comprehension of individual business needs. We then work with them through each step of the custom website application design process to ensure accuracy and client satisfaction.

Our Custom website application design process consists of six distinctive steps:

1) Define: At this stage, proper preparation and effective strategy are crucial. By working with clients to gather relevant business information, strategies, as well as a competitive analysis. Los Angeles Web Design defines business objectives and prioritizes achievable goals through eCommerce development.

2) Design: Our design process covers everything from visual design to information functionality. By creating navigational schemes and user flows based on audience type, Los Angeles Web Design‘s web design effectively communicates, reinforces, and enhances your existing brand.

3) Develop: From website design and Internet marketing to custom website application design; our eCommerce Development process is focused on our customer. The pieces we develop for you will be consistent with your exciting branding and will easily integrate into your current website design.

4) Test: Your business solutions must work in a variety of environments to be successful. Acquiring assistance with these adaptive measures is where our detailed testing procedures come into play. Los Angeles Web Design actually tests for compatibility by actually running your solution with new computers and software. We tirelessly test for accuracy and functionality with all of our custom application design projects.

5) Launch: All the work finally pays off when your digital masterpiece is finally unveiled on the web. After final testing and approval, Los Angeles Web Design launches your application to go live to the public. As a full service Website Development Company that continues support even after ideation, we provide all appropriate documentation and any product support that you may need.

6) Maintain: When everything is live, the work is not done. To stay current, web content must be maintained to provide the most well informed presentation possible. Stay on top with Los Angeles Web Design versatile web design solutions; we analyze feedback and adapting our technique and procedures as our customer's situation changes. Our goal is to ensure the highest return on investment to you by creating the most effective application available for your business.

Request a Consultation

We appreciate your interest in our company. To have a Los Angeles Web Design representative contact you, please complete the information below, or simply give us a call, 323-737-7177. Email.

IT Solutions (back to top)

Los Angeles Web Design has many IT experts to assist in achieving client’s goals. Some of out experts have over 30 years IT experience. Today, the term information technology has ballooned to encompass many aspects of computing and technology, and the term is more recognizable than ever before. The information technology umbrella can be quite large, covering many fields. IT professionals perform a variety of duties that range from installing applications to designing complex computer networks and information databases. A few of the duties that IT professionals perform may include:

• Data management
• Computer networking
• Database systems design
• Software design
• Management information systems
• Systems management

Web Site Maintenance (back to top)

Los Angeles Web Design offers both pay-as-you-go and monthly payment plans. We have been providing clients with personal and friendly maintenance service for over 16 years.

Los Angeles Web Design is the professional's choice for one-stop, cost-effective web site maintenance. We take care of the details so you and your staff can get back to doing what you do best–running your business!

We've been doing website maintenance for over 16 years. Call us for a free consultation. We also do copywriting and copyediting informed by standards for online presentation and usability.

Call us today at 323-737-7177 or email us to get started!

Option 1: Pay-as-you go. Need it now? Rush service available.
Option 2: Monthly Plans invoiced monthly.

All Web Site Maintenance plans include:
- Testing after every edit
- Full Backup copy of your website
- Monthly, detailed invoicing
- Communication by e-mail, 5 days a week.
- Friendly, personal service!

Call us today at 323-737-7177 to update your website:

• Product changes and additions
• Updates to calendar or events
• Add breaking news or upcoming events
• Add photos, graphics, graphs and charts
• Text re-writes and improvements
• Site remodels and makeovers
• Keeping the homepage fresh for return customers

• Have a web expert at your fingertips whenever you need one–no need to train your staff.
• Fast Turnaround. Most requests completed the same day.
• Cost-Effective. Fresh websites make more money.
• Detail oriented. You already have enough to think about.

• Complete backup of your website
• Professional edits–your web site maintains its quality
• Economical and convenient

Shopping Carts (back to top)

Los Angeles Web Design has been providing shopping carts to clients ever since the first shopping cart appeared on the Internet over 15 years ago. Shopping cart software is software used in e-commerce to assist people making purchases online. The software allows online shopping customers to place items in the cart. Upon checkout, the software typically calculates a total for the order, including shipping and handling (i.e. postage and packing) charges and the associated taxes, as applicable. These applications typically provide a means of capturing a client's payment information, but in the case of a credit card they rely on the software module of the secure gateway provider, in conjunction with the secure payment gateway, in order to conduct secure credit card transactions online.

Some setup must be done in the HTML code of the website, and the shopping cart software must be installed on the server which hosts the site, or on the secure server which accepts sensitive ordering information. E-shopping carts are usually implemented using HTTP cookies or query strings. In most server based implementations however, data related to the shopping cart is kept in the Session object and is accessed and manipulated on the fly, as the user selects different items from the cart. Later at the process of commit, the information is accessed and an order is generated against the selected item thus clearing the shopping cart. Although the most simple shopping carts strictly allow for an item to be added to a basket to start a checkout process, most shopping cart software actually provides additional features that an Internet merchant uses to fully manage an online store. Data (products, categories, discounts, orders, customers, etc.) is normally stored in a database and accessed in real time by the software.

Shopping cart software typically consists of two components:

Storefront: the area of the Web store that is accessed by visitors to the online shop. Category, product, and other pages (e.g. search, best sellers, etc.) are dynamically generated by the software based on the information saved in the store database.
Administration: the area of the Web store that is accessed by the merchant to manage the online shop. The amount of store management features changes depending on the sophistication of the shopping cart software, but in general a store manager is able to add and edit products, categories, discounts, shipping and payment settings, etc. Order management features are also included in many shopping cart programs.

Blog Design (back to top)

Los Angeles Web Design can meet all your blogging needs. A blog is a website where entries are written in chronological order and commonly displayed in reverse chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

Blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (artlog), photographs (photoblog), sketchblog, videos (vlog), music (MP3 blog), audio (podcasting), and are part of a wider network of social media

There are various types of blogs, and each differs in the way content is delivered or written.

Media type -
A blog comprising videos is called a vlog, one comprising links is called a linklog, a site containing a portfolio of sketches is called a sketchblog or one comprising photos is called a photoblog. Blogs with shorter posts and mixed media types are called tumblelogs.

An Artlog is a form of art sharing and publishing in the format of a blog, but differentiated by the predominant use of and focus on Art work rather than text.

A rare type of blog hosted on the Gopher Protocol is known as a Phlog

Device -
Blogs can also be defined by which type of device is used to compose it. A blog written by a mobile device like a mobile phone or PDA is called a moblog.

Genre -
Some blogs focus on a particular subject, such as political blogs, travel blogs, fashion blogs, project blogs, legal blogs (often referred to as a blawgs) or dreamlogs. While not a legitimate type of blog, one used for the sole purpose of spamming is known as a Splog. A Slog (Site or website log) is a section or 'slice' of a regular business website, which is seamlessly integrated within the regular website structure but is produced with blogging software.

Legal status of publishers -
A blog can be private, as in most cases, or it can be for business purposes. Blogs, either used internally to enhance the communication and culture in a corporation or externally for marketing, branding or PR purposes are called corporate blogs.

Blog search engines -
Several blog search engines are used to search blog contents (also known as the blogosphere).

Blogging Communities and Directories -
Several online communities exist that connect people to blogs and bloggers to other bloggers, including Blog Catalogue and MyBlogLog.

Portal Web Sites (back to top)

Los Angeles Web Design is a leader in providing low-cost and dynamic portal web sites. A web portal is a site that functions as a point of access to information on the World Wide Web. Portals present information from diverse sources in a unified way. Popular portals are MSN, Yahoo, and AOL. Aside from the search engine standard, web portals offer other services such as news, stock prices, infotainment and various other features. Portals provide a way for enterprises to provide a consistent look and feel with access control and procedures for multiple applications, which otherwise would have been different entities altogether.

A personal portal is a site on the World Wide Web that typically provides personalized capabilities to its visitors, providing a pathway to other content. It is designed to use distributed applications, different numbers and types of middleware and hardware to provide services from a number of different sources. In addition, business portals are designed to share collaboration in workplaces. A further business-driven requirement of portals is that the content be able to work on multiple platforms such as personal computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and cell phones.

It is often necessary to have a centralized application that has access to various other applications within the same enterprise to share the information across the applications. Also the various users with different roles accessing the different applications prefer to have a single access point to all of them over the Internet. They like to personalize the applications and have the coupled applications coordinated. Above all, the administrator users like to have administrative tools all in a single place to administer all the applications. All these are achieved through portals.

Since all the applications share information through portals, there is better communication between various types of users. Another advantage of portals is that they can make event-driven campaigns. Below is detailed list of advantages of using portals:

• Intelligent integration and access to enterprise content, applications and processes
• Improved communication and collaboration among customers, partners, and employees
• Unified, real-time access to information held in disparate systems
• Personalized user interactions
• Rapid, easy modification and maintenance of the website presentation

Below are the properties of portals:

• Look and feel
• Consistent headers and footers, color schemes, icons and logos which gives the user a feel and sense of consistency, uniformity, and ease of navigation
• A portlet is an application within a browser window, displayed in an effective layout
• A portlet is itself a web application
• Portlets are aggregated by the portal page

Custom Applications (back to top)
Tailored to Fit Your Needs

Los Angeles Web Design develops and maintains custom Web solutions to help businesses meet their ever-changing needs. Web-based applications offer customers increased flexibility over traditional client-server applications. The increasingly mobile workforce demands the ability to access the application anytime, from any computer via a Web browser.

Because Los Angeles Web Design solutions are built using standard Web architecture, they can be easily integrated with legacy systems, such as existing sales or financial services applications, and with mobile devices.
Los Angeles Web Design follows industry standards and utilizes object-oriented programming when developing custom solutions. From requirements gathering to testing and change orders, Los Angeles Web Design engages the client at every step of the development process to ensure exact needs are met.

Learn More

Los Angeles Web Design offers a variety of options to build a truly customized solution. Contact Los Angeles Web Design to find out how we can deliver a Web solution tailored to your exact needs. Email
 

Virtual Worlds (back to top)

Los Angeles Web Design has developed and pioneered the use of virtual worlds. The most popular virtual world that Los Angeles Web Design is currently developing in is Second Life. Please contact us for a free tour within Second Life and let us show you all the exciting possibilities with your possible new Inworld Business. We build In-World Business solutions as extensions to existing web site businesses as well as inworld projects for new marketing campaigns and entrepreneur ventures.

A virtual world is a computer-based simulated environment intended for its users to inhabit and interact via avatars. This habitation usually is represented in the form of two or three-dimensional graphical representations of humanoids (or other graphical or text-based avatars). Some, but not all, virtual worlds allow for multiple users.

The world being computer-simulated typically appears similar to the real world, with real world rules such as gravity, topography, locomotion, real-time actions, and communication. Communication has, until recently, been in the form of text, but now real-time voice communication using VOIP is available. This type of virtual world is now most common in massively multiplayer online communities (Active Worlds, There, Second Life--although not games, per se, but more like virtual environments that can include gaming--Entropia Universe, The Sims Online, Red Light Center, Kaneva, Weblo).

The term metaverse comes from Neal Stephenson’s 1992 novel Snow Crash, and is now widely used to describe the vision behind current work on fully immersive 3D virtual spaces. These are environments where humans interact (as avatars) with each other (socially and economically) and with software agents in a cyber space, that uses the metaphor of the real world, but without its physical limitations.

In Stephenson's words, the "Metaverse" [is] my invention, which I came up with when I decided that existing words (such as "virtual reality") were simply too awkward to use [Snow Crash Acknowledgements]

3D Web
Virtual spaces are at the core of Web 2.0, and one recurring theme is that a metaverse will develop out of work to create a 3D Web. The Metaverse Roadmap Summit in 2006-7 produced a 50-page public foresight report on 3D web developments that are moving us toward the Stephenson vision.

This transition is a real challenge facing modern MMORG style applications. However large their user base, none currently scale to the demands of a 3D Web. Second Life may have to change its business model significantly (towards financial and virtual asset management) if it is to go beyond its current architecture. P2P experiments such as Croquet may achieve the transition at the grassroots level.

Virtual World Economics
Economic activity within virtual worlds cannot stay unregulated. The key development may be that of a global microcurrency platform. Inworld transactions have already gone to a global market where work is done (and real income generated) by players in developing nations, and paid for out of the residual leisure income of people in wealthier nations. At present there are a small number of exchange points (e.g. Second Life's LindeX) where conversion to and from real currency can be regulated to avoid money laundering or other illegal financial transfers. Just as the internet comes into conflict with the real world with issues of freedom of information, applications that work towards the metaverse will come into conflict with fundamental areas of real world social and economic activity.

The social and economic impact of the metaverse was at the core of Stephenson's fiction, and is still an open question today. Will the massively multi-user metaverse architecture become a massively regulated architecture as the applications and infrastructure scale up to global metaverse dimensions, or will regulation be achieved in code through open protocols and secure e-commerce layers.

Systems Integration (back to top)

System integration is the bringing together of the component subsystems into one system and ensuring that the subsystems function together as a system. In information technology, systems integration is the process of linking together different computing systems and software applications physically or functionally. The systems integrator brings together discrete systems utilizing a variety of techniques such as computer networking, enterprise application integration, business process management or manual programming.

A system is an aggregation of subsystems cooperating so that the system is able to deliver the over-arching functionality. System integration involves integrating existing (often disparate) subsystems. The subsystems will have interfaces. Integration involves joining the subsystems together by “gluing” their interfaces together. If the interfaces don’t directly interlock, the “glue” between them can provide the required mappings. System integration is about determining the required “glue”.

System integration is also about value-adding to the system, capabilities that are possible because of interactions between subsystems.

In today’s connected world, the role of system integration engineers is becoming more and more important: more and more systems are designed to connect together, both within the system under construction and to systems that are already deployed.

Audio/Video Streaming (back to top)

Los Angeles Web Design will convert your video, DVD, or audio into web streaming media. Please give us a call for a quote.

Streaming media is multimedia that is continuously received by, and normally displayed to, the end-user while it is being delivered by the provider. The name refers to the delivery method of the medium rather than to the medium itself. The distinction is usually applied to media that are distributed over telecommunications networks, as most other delivery systems are either inherently streaming (e.g. radio, television) or inherently non-streaming (e.g. books, video cassettes, audio CDs). The verb 'to stream' is also derived from this term, meaning to deliver media in this manner.

In general, multimedia content is large, so media storage and transmission costs are still significant; to offset this somewhat, media are generally compressed for both storage and streaming.

A media stream can be on demand or live. On demand streams are stored on a server for a long period of time, and are available to be transmitted at a user's request. Live streams are only available at one particular time, as in a video stream of a live sporting event.

WebCasting

The generally accepted use of the term webcast is the "transmission of linear audio or video content over the Internet".

A webcast uses streaming media technology to take a single content source and distribute it to many simultaneous listeners/viewers.

The largest "webcasters" include existing radio and TV stations who "simulcast" their output, as well as a multitude of Internet only "stations". The term webcasting is usually reserved for referring to non-interactive linear streams or live events.

Rights and licensing bodies offer specific "Webcasting licenses" to those wishing to carry out Internet broadcasting using copyright material.

Webcasting is also used extensively in the commercial sector for investor relations presentations (such as Annual General Meetings), in E-learning (to transmit seminars), and for related communications activities. However, webcasting does not bear much, if any, relationship to the idea of Web conferencing which is designed for many-to-many interaction.

The ability to webcast using cheap/accessible technology has allowed independent media to flourish. There are many notable independent shows that broadcast regularly online. Often produced by average citizens in their homes they cover many interests and topics; from the mundane to the bizarre. Webcasts relating to computers, technology, and news are particularly popular and many new shows are added regularly.

Video On Demand

Video on demand (VOD) systems allow users to select and watch video and clip content over a network as part of an interactive television system. VOD systems either "stream" content, allowing viewing in real time, or "download" it in which the program is brought in its entirety to a set-top box before viewing starts. The latter is more appropriately termed "store and forward". The majority of cable and telco based VOD systems use the streaming approach, whereby a user buys or selects a movie or television program and it begins to play on the television set almost instantaneously.

Often, nowadays, the term encompasses a broader spectrum of delivery devices, referring not only to set-top-boxes but also computers, mobile phones and indeed any system that can receive on-demand audio-visual content over a network.

Podcasting

A podcast is a digital media file, or a series of such files, that is distributed over the Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and personal computers. A podcast is a specific type of Webcast which, like 'radio', can mean either the content itself or the method by which it is syndicated; the latter is also termed podcasting. The host or author of a podcast is often called a podcaster. The term "podcast" is a portmanteau of the name of Apple's portable music player, the iPod, and broadcast; a "pod" refers to the iPod, and "cast" to the idea of broadcasting.

In other words, a podcast is a collection of files (usually audio but may include video) residing at a unique Web feed address. People can "subscribe" to this feed by submitting the feed address to an aggregator (like iTunes - software that runs on the consumer's computer). When new "episodes" become available in the podcast they will be automatically downloaded to that user's computer. Unlike radio or streaming content on the web, podcasts are not real-time. The material is pre-recorded and users can check out the material at their leisure, offline.

Though podcasters' web sites may also offer direct download or streaming of their content, a podcast is distinguished from other digital media formats by its ability to be syndicated, subscribed to, and downloaded automatically, using an aggregator or feed reader capable of reading feed formats such as RSS or Atom.

Certain podcasts can even be live and interactive. Dozens of podcast enthusiasts can be on at once, with the "host" being able to control their audience in the same way a radio host can.

Internet radio (aka e-Radio) is an audio broadcasting service transmitted via the Internet. Broadcasting on the Internet is usually referred to as webcasting since it is not transmitted broadly through wireless means but is delivered over the World Wide Web. The term "e-Radio" suggests a streaming medium that presents listeners with a continuous stream of audio to which they have no control much like traditional broadcast media. It is not synonymous with podcasting which involves downloading and therefore copyright issues. Nor does e-Radio suggest "on-demand" file serving. Many Internet "radio stations" are associated with a corresponding traditional "terrestrial" radio station or radio network. Internet-only radio stations are usually independent of such associations.

Internet radio "stations" are usually accessible from anywhere in the world—for example, to listen to an Australian station from Europe or America. This makes it a popular service for expatriates and for listeners with interests not adequately served by local radio stations (such as progressive rock, anime themed music, classical music, 24-hour stand up comedy, and others). Some Internet radio services offer news, sports, talkback, and various genres of music—everything that is on the radio station being simulcast over the internet with a netcast stream.

Custom Programming (back to top)

Los Angeles Web Design provides custom programming in common languages such as PHP, Perl, XML, LSL, XHTML and DHTML  Let us provide you a free estimate for your custom programming needs.

PHP
PHP generally runs on a web server, taking PHP code as its input and creating Web pages as output. However, it can also be used for command-line scripting and client-side GUI applications. PHP can be deployed on most web servers and on almost every operating system and platform free of charge. The PHP Group also provides the complete source code for users to build, customize and extend for their own use.

PHP primarily acts as a filter. The PHP program takes input from a file or stream containing text and special PHP instructions and outputs another stream of data for display.

Perl
Perl is a general-purpose programming language originally developed for text manipulation and now used for a wide range of tasks including system administration, web development, network programming, GUI development, and more.

The language is intended to be practical (easy to use, efficient, complete) rather than beautiful (tiny, elegant, minimal). Its major features include support for multiple programming paradigms (procedural, object-oriented, and functional styles), automatic memory management, built-in support for text processing, and a large collection of third-party modules.

Perl also takes features from shell programming. All variables are marked with leading sigils, which unambiguously identify the data type (scalar, array, hash, etc.) of the variable in context. Importantly, sigils allow variables to be interpolated directly into strings. Perl has many built-in functions which provide tools often used in shell programming (though many of these tools are implemented by programs external to the shell) like sorting, and calling on system facilities.

Perl also takes features from shell programming. All variables are marked with leading sigils, which unambiguously identify the data type (scalar, array, hash, etc.) of the variable in context. Importantly, sigils allow variables to be interpolated directly into strings. Perl has many built-in functions which provide tools often used in shell programming (though many of these tools are implemented by programs external to the shell) like sorting, and calling on system facilities.

Perl has many and varied applications, compounded by the availability of many standard and third-party modules.

Perl has been used since the early days of the Web to write CGI scripts. It is known as one of the most popular dynamic languages for writing code.

Web Hosting (back to top)

Los Angeles Web Design is not a hosting company. If you already have a hosting provider for your web site or need assistance in determining a hosting service we will work with you accordingly.

Common types of hosting services include the following:

• Shared web hosting service: one's Web site is placed on the same server as many other sites, ranging from a few to hundreds or thousands. Typically, all domains may share a common pool of server resources.
• Virtual Dedicated Server: slicing up a server into virtual servers. each user feels like they're on their own dedicated server, but they're actually sharing a server with many other users. The users may have root access to their own virtual space.
• Dedicated hosting service: the user gets his or her own Web server and gains full control over it (root access for Linux/administrator access for Windows); however, the user typically does not own the server. Another type of Dedicated hosting is Self-Managed or Unmanaged. This is usually the least expensive for Dedicated plans. The user has full administrative access to the box, which means the client is responsible for the security and maintenance of his own dedicated box.
• Managed hosting service: the user gets his or her own Web server but is not allowed full control over it (root access for Linux/administrator access for Windows); however, they are allowed to manage their data via FTP or other remote management tools. The user is disallowed full control so that the provider can guarantee quality of service by not allowing the user to modify the server or potentially create configuration problems. The user typically does not own the server. The server is leased to the client.
• Colocation web hosting service: similar to the dedicated web hosting service, but the user owns the colo server; the hosting company provides physical space that the server takes up and takes care of the server. This is the most powerful and expensive type of the web hosting service. In most cases, the colocation provider may provide little to no support directly for their client's machine, providing only the electrical, Internet access, and storage facilities for the server. In most cases for colo, the client would have his own administrator visit the data center on site to do any hardware upgrades or changes.

• Business Plans
• Strategic Plans
• Budgets
• Mission Statements
• Goals
• Objectives
• Strategies
• Competitive Analysis
• Market Analysis
• Market Shifts
• Product Development

Marketing & Sales:

• Marketing Plans
• Marketing Audits
• Market Analysis
• Product Development
• Product Launch
• Marketing Communications Plan
• Advertising Plans
• Advertising Audits
• Pricing Analysis
• Competitor Analysis
• Sales Promotion Plans
• Opinion Surveys
• Focus Groups
• Distribution Expansion

Business Development & Acquisitions:

• Strategic Plans
• Deal Finding
• Deal Analysis
• Pricing & Valuation
• Marketing Audit
• Management Audit
• Technology Audit
• Interim Management

Business Start-Ups:

• Business Plan
• Financial Plans
• Market Analysis
• Location Selection
• Temporary Assistance

Business Development & Acquisitions:

• Strategic Plans
• Deal Finding
• Deal Analysis
• Pricing & Valuation
• Marketing Audit
• Management Audit
• Technology Audit
• Interim Management

Call Now to Arrange a Free Consultation

Or click here to send me an E-mail, and we will call you. Let's get to know each other, and discuss some of your most pressing problems, during a brief, confidential, visit in your office. We will freely share our ideas with you, even though there is no charge for this meeting, and no obligation.

Why I Offer a Free Consultation

We want your business. That's no surprise. But we hate selling. In fact, like most people, we need an ice-breaker.

Our initial free consultation will help you to get to know us better. You won't need to worry about how much our meeting will cost you. And we won’t worry about all the valuable advice we give away. So we can both relax and share ideas.

Then you'll see why other business owners continue to seek our business and marketing consulting services, and you will want to as well.

Like our other clients, once you get to know us, and we contribute to your success, we know you will never forget, and you will continue to seek our consulting services long into the future.

Yes, here is the catch:

Of course, neither you nor we can afford to give away the store all the time. So we only make a limited number of free consultations each month. And we make them on a first come first serve basis. So the sooner you call the sooner we can get together and start solving your problems.

Website Consultations (back to top)

Whether you need a website or want to make the one you have more successful the task can be frustrating to get all the details together. That's where we come in. We realize the how daunting the task is, and we know it's easy to get swallowed up by eager salespeople hawking their products and services.

Before you leap into any design or hosting contract, let us guide you along the way. We'll give it to you straight up. We'll tell you exactly what you need and how much you should be paying for web site services.

It's been our experience that educated clients are successful clients. And successful clients are happy clients. We like happy clients! But, whether or not you choose to contract Los Angeles Web Design or not the most important thing to us is that you make informed decisions. Do you really need a database driven website? How much should you be paying per month for hosting your website? Should you buy the whole package complete with Flash intro and all the bells, whistles, etc? Or maybe you're in a business where you are wondering the pros and cons to those package deals.

Before you make these decisions, schedule a consultation with us. Get your list of questions ready and give us a call. There's absolutely no charge nor obligation on your part. We're happy to help you!

Phone: 323-737-7177 or Email

Website Critique (back to top)

Make your Website the Best It Can Be with our Critique Service
If you are considering a re-design or are wondering how to proceed with an ineffective website, you’ll need a website critique from one of our online business specialist.

Our Website Critique service assesses your website according to industry standard practices involving:

• Architectural Logic
• Navigation access to home page
• Navigation consistency
• Search engine compatibility
• Help pages and Site map
• Mandatory Links (Home, Privacy, Contact Us, etc)

• Clarity of services
• Quality of service information
• Decision support
• Special offers & promotions
• Product images and illustration quality
• Cross-selling or up-selling capabilities
• Availability of testimonials
• Sales office support
• Quality of contact information
• Guarantees, warranties, etc.

• Look & feel relative to your company's branding
• Site wide design consistency
• Unique features
• Appropriate use of Multimedia or Flash

• Search Engine Rankings for main keywords
• Page Titles
• Meta Tag Description field
• External links
• Form validation to ensure correct information collected
• Page Rank

• Value Proposition Clarity
• Positioning
• Home Page Who, What, Why
• Contact form, thank you page, e-mail confirmation
• Ease of Skimming
• Typography
• Format & layout
• Appropriate Use of Headers and Links

• Browser compatibility
• Monitor resolution settings
• Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
• Page Download time
• Graphics compression
• ALT tags for images
• Use of pop-up windows
• JavaScript formatting

These aspects of your website critique are fundamental for success and include implementation suggestions.

You could spend months of research and days of company meetings and still not get the detail and value contained in this analysis for a one time fee.
Give Los Angeles Web Design a call to schedule a website critique.

Web Site Makeover (back to top)
How is your Website performing?

Are you getting the traffic that you expected?

Would you like to know what you are missing?

We offer a FREE evaluation of your site to help you determine if it is optimally designed and functioning at its full potential. We will evaluate how effectively your Website represents your company's message and how easily and prominently your Website is found on the Internet.

Your site will be evaluated on the basis of Website Optimization WSO fundamentals.

A website makeover project may involve designing a new visual identity, reformatting the navigation for an enhanced user experience, updating content, optimizing your site for search engines, or all of the above.
Whatever your goals, our goal is to help you transform your website into a tool that works for you...and one you can be proud of.

Los Angeles Web Design offers free web site makeover estimates. Please email us or give us a call at: 323-737-7177

Free Quotes (back to top)

"How much does a website cost?" We hear this all the time. The thing is, websites are much like houses in the way that different houses have different prices. Depending on what you want in or on them and how fancy you want them, the prices will vary. Los Angeles Web Design will work with you to design a site that fits your needs and your budget. Our quotes are always free and there is no obligation. And don't worry, no information you provide will ever go to anyone else other than the Los Angeles Web Design team.

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