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Global opportunity

The use of the Internet is now established for businesses of all sizes. Virtually any business can benefit from a website, but still many have yet to make that first step to online trading. There are many reasons that businesses give for not having a website, but cost and complexity are big concerns. But with the new website development software and modern web-hosting services, building and managing your own company website is neither difficult nor expensive.

Basic to advanced

We provide a range of courses for e-Business development, from the Basic Web Design course which leads students through designing and building a simple website in half a day, to more advanced courses where we look at online payments and search engine optimisation.

Hundreds of businesses have benefited from the Basic Web Design course, and students really do build and publish their first website in a morning!

The e-Business course reflects feedback from the basic course that many students prefer a little more time, but would also like to cover a bit more ground. In a full day we look at the basic design aspects in more detail, and go on to add more interactive capabilities to the websites.

Practical approach

As always the approach is highly practical from start to finish. We look at genuine business websites to illustrate the design principles and provide the best source of design inspiration. And no company seems too big to make mistakes. We show students how to take the best ideas from other sites, and we show some of the worst mistakes that even the best known companies can make.

From the best business sites, we show how to structure your information and use navigation to make it easily accessible. How it's simple to groups products together to help customers to find and buy products more easily. Above all, students see how to design a website around their customers, not around themselves.

The courses are supported by a simple step-by-step manual designed to help beginners through all the steps to designing their own business website - from how to steal the best ideas from other sites (and avoid the worst), through designing the site structure, building the site and publishing it to the Internet.

Step-by-step introduction

The Basic Website Design course looks at a range of design issues, and looks at some of the features that can be used to make an effective site. The course uses a simple step-by-step approach and is supported by a demonstration site and step-by-step manual - so students have a lasting reference of how different effects are achieved. Click on the image to the right to go to the site. A key aspect of the course is actually publishing a website to the Internet - we use 123-reg.co.uk for a simple and low cost introduction to web hosting.

Advanced design made simple

Following constant demand, we have now developed an advanced course to take students beyond the basics they learn in the Basic Website Design course. Using the familiar Serif WebPlus software, and the same step-by-step approach, we show students how to get more from the website - such as improved interactivity, e-Commerce and search engine optimisation.

Building the site

Serif WebPlus software makes building a first site simple. Using the latest version of WebPlus makes building a website as easily as making a PowerPoint presentation. We include a copy of the software within the cost of the training - so students leave the course with everything they need to build their own website.