1.    It sets the first impression

When your audience visits your website, it gives them their first impression of your business. They will look into it and judge your business within seconds. In these first few seconds, you want to make a positive impact on your audience.

If your website do not look nice or outdated, your audience will immediately have a negative impression of your business. They will not find your website appealing, which will put them off from your page. You will miss leads because they will leave your page for a competitor’s page.

Web design is important because it affects how your audience sees your brand. The impression you make on them can either get them continue on your page and learn about your business or leave your page and turn to a competitor. A good web design helps you keep your leads on your page.

2.    It aids your search engine optimization (SEO)

Various web design elements and practices influence how you publish content on your website, which in turn affects how search engine spiders crawl and index your website.

Aside from how content published on your website, certain web design elements can directly affect SEO in and of themselves. Web design can be difficult to understand if you are not familiar with how it works, but to put it simply, your code needs to be SEO-friendly.

The best way to ensure proper web design practices (and subsequent search engine visibility) is to collaborate up with a web design agency that knows what they are doing.

3. It sets the impression for customer service

Individuals can judge how you will treat them by looking at your website. Your design gives them understanding as to how you view your audience. If you do not put any effort into your website’s design, your audience knows that you will not put effort into helping them.

Your website is like a customer service representative. If your website is bright, modern, and inviting, your audience will feel more welcome on your page. You will give the impression that you are open and welcoming to new people who visit your website.

On the other hand, an outdated and unattractive site makes your business appear cold and aloof. People do not want to check out a business that does not value them enough to make a good first impression.

Think of your web design as the digital face of your business. If someone walked into your physical location, wouldn’t you want a friendly face to greet him or her and make him or her feel welcome? An updated and modern web design is the equivalent to a friendly face greeting your new visitors.

4. It builds trust with your audience

People do not trust poorly designed websites. If they see your poor design or the information looks outdated, they will not trust your site. They may view your site as seedy or shady because you do not have an updated web design.

Think about a individual looking to place a bulk order with a manufacturing company. They are spending a tremendous amount of money, which means if your manufacturing website design doesn’t convey trust, they’ll find another business to fulfill their order.

On the other hand, a professional site signals trust with your audience. They will trust your business and feel comfortable checking it out further.

It is important to build trust with your audience so they continue on your site. When visitors continue on your site longer, you create more opportunities for your business to capture those leads.

5. Your competitors are doing it

If you need a reason for why web design is important, here is a big one: Your competitors are already utilizing web design. If you want to remain in competition with them, you must use web design for your site.

You want your website to stand out from the competition. If you have an old, outdated, and low-quality website, your competitor’s will outrank you. Their well-designed website will perform better than your website.

This means you will lose leads to your competitors. They will attract more leads to their page because their page is more appealing.

Your website’s design is an opportunity for you to set your business apart from the competition. When you are competing with other businesses, you generally have the same services and similar pricing. You need that one thing that will make your business stand out from the rest.

A well-designed website is an opportunity for your business to display your unique features. You can show your audience why they should choose your business over the competition.

6. It creates consistency

When you are trying to get new leads for your business, you want to build up your brand. You want your audience to get familiar with your brand so they choose you when they are ready to convert. Online web designs are important because they help create consistency across your page.

You need to have the same fonts, styles, and layouts across every page on your website. If you have a different design on every page, this will make your site look unprofessional. It also makes it more challenging to build brand recognition because your audience will not know which colors to associate with your brand.

If your website is not consistent, people will bounce from yours to one that looks more professional. By building consistency, you keep leads on your page longer and get them familiar with your business. You will earn more leads and conversions down the line when you redesign your site for this key element.

Build your dream website today

If you’re ready to start building your dream website, contact us online or

Call us today at +233-20-076-5331 to speak with a strategist.

We look forward to helping your business grow!

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The System Unit

The system unit is the main component of the PC to which other components are connected. The system unit contains:

• Motherboard
• Microprocessor or Central Processing Unit (CPU)
• Memory (RAM and ROM)
• Power supply unit
• Disk drives

The Motherboard

The motherboard holds the microprocessor, memory chips (RAM and ROM), expansion slots, power connectors and any other microchips required for the PC to function. It is the actual heart of the PC as it determines the computational power of the computer. The main components of a motherboard are the following:

Photo of a typical motherboard

The Microprocessor
The microprocessor can be referred to as the brain of the PC. The microprocessor is also known as the CPU (Central Processing Unit). The microprocessor does the following:

• Carries out commands to make the hardware components perform actions.
• Processes data. This involves:
• Performing logical instructions such as comparing
• Performing mathematical instructions such as adding and subtracting

Although the instructions performed by the CPU are relatively simple, the CPU can execute many millions of instructions every second. This is what makes the PC such a powerful tool.

Memory (RAM and ROM)

RAM
RAM is used in many parts of the PC. It can be used to provide motherboard, video card, sound card and cache memory. System RAM is a form of high-speed memory; the microprocessor uses system RAM for the temporary storage of programs and data. Unlike disk drives, any information within RAM will be lost when a PC is reset or powered off. This type of RAM can be considered as the working space of the microprocessor.
RAM is measured in megabytes (MB). New PCs are generally shipped with no less than 64MB of RAM; however, many can be fitted with up to 512MB.
Speed of RAM is measured in nano-seconds (Ns): the lower the figure, the faster the memory access time.

ROM
ROM is a special type of memory holding information that has been programmed into it during construction. The PC user cannot change this information.
An example of ROM memory is the PC’s ROM BIOS (Basic Input/ Output System) chip. This ROM chip contains a set of instructions that the microprocessor uses when the PC is turned on or reset. For example, it contains the code that allows the microprocessor to communicate with the floppy disk drive and hard disk drive so that the operating system can be loaded.

Power Supply
The power supply is responsible for converting the incoming electricity supply to the 5v and 12v DC power that is required by the PC for it’s operation. The 5v supply is used to power the circuit boards on the PC. The 12v supply is used to power motor-driven devices such as hard drives or CD-ROMs. Many newer systems also require 3.3v or 2.8v, as current processors tend to use lower voltages. Devices such as CD-ROMs and floppy drives are connected to the power supply using molex or mini molex connectors. The motherboard connectors are known as P8 and P9.

Disk Drives
If data held in RAM is to be kept permanently, it should be saved to a disk drive. Disk drives are the storage area of a PC. A disk drive can be divided into logical areas called directories (or folders). These directories are used to hold the files that contain your data.
The data is recorded as magnetic fields on the surface of the disk. These fields are written in concentric circles (known as tracks) as the disk turns. These tracks are divided into equal-sized blocks called sectors. Each track and sector has a number that is used to remember where each piece of data is.

The 3½” Floppy Disk
The floppy disk represent one of the most common data storage devices. Each side of a high-density 3½” disk is divided into 80 concentric tracks, with each track divided into 18 equal sectors. Each sector is used to store 512 bytes, or 0.5KB of information. Data is transferred from the disk into the PC’s memory (or from memory to disk) one sector at a time. The total capacity of this disk is, therefore:
80 tracks x 18 sectors x 0.5 kilobytes x 2 sides = 1,440KB or 1.44MB.
The 3½” floppy disk drive is often described as a 1.44MB drive.
Floppy disks do not have a sealed covering like a hard disk (see below) and are not as strong. They must be treated carefully, which means keeping them away from dust, magnetic fields and high temperatures. The main advantage of floppy disks is that they are portable and can be used for transferring data between PCs, and for storage of data away from the PC itself.

Hard Disk Drives
Hard disks are the main storage devices of PCs and have high storing capacities of several Gigabytes (Gb) of data. Most new PCs are supplied with drives in excess of 10 gigabytes (GB), and disks are currently available with capacities in excess of 70GB. This high capacity is achieved in two ways:

• Data can be packed more tightly onto the disk
• A number of disks can be mounted together onto a single spindle A hard disk is made of glass or metal as opposed to the flexible plastic from which floppy disks are made, and is mounted in a sealed unit, usually fixed inside the system unit. Hard disks are also known as fixed disk drives.
   Hard disks are considerably quicker than floppy disk drives as they rotate much faster and the data is more densely packed. This allows much quicker access to data than a floppy disk. When there is no disk activity for a few seconds, the motor on a disk drive can be automatically switched off to prevent excess wear on the disk drive. The disk is sealed in a dust-free casing to protect the magnetic surfaces.
  The considerable quantities of data now held on modern hard disk drives, means that a disk failure can be disastrous. It is therefore imperative that any files on a hard disk are backed up systematically and regularly.
  
  A PC may be configured with one or two floppy disk drives and one or more hard disk drives. The most common configuration for a PC is one 3½” floppy disk drive and one hard disk drive.

Do not confuse RAM with disk drives. Disk drives are used to store programs and data permanently and they have slower read/write times than RAM has.

Monitors
There is a wide choice of monitors available for the PC, varying both in screen size and technology. In general, monitors range in size from 14″ to 21″ and use Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) or Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) technology. The most important factor in selecting a monitor is to ensure it is compatible with the display adapter and that it will support its maximum resolution. Other points to examine are the dot pitch and refresh rate of the screen. A smaller dot pitch gives greater clarity. Monitors with refresh rates lower than 75Hz may flicker causing headaches and eyestrain.

Keyboard
The keyboard is the main input device of the PC. It is used for giving commands to the PC or typing documents. Although a computer keyboard is based on the old typewriter layout, there are some major differences in the ways that keys are used. Computer keyboards also have additional keys. Learning to use the unique keys and special functions of the computer keyboard can save you time and make you more comfortable with your computer. The keyboard is like a typewriter but with special keys. You use these keys of combinations of them for special functions. Below you can find some of the most common ‘special’ commands of a keyboard:

Mouse

There are many, many things for the novice to learn so that they are able to navigate Windows. The first thing that you should learn to do is how to use the mouse to navigate Windows. The mouse is another equally important input device, like the keyboard, very simple to use. It is extremely useful for navigation in software environments and can save much time and effort comparing to the keyboard for similar use. Your mouse gives you the ability to point to, select, and move items on the computer screen.

Modem

A modem is a device that translates the digital signals from your computer into analog signals that can travel over a standard phone line. A modem on the other end of the line can understand it and converts the sounds back into digital information. It is the device that will connect you to the internet or allow you to communicate with a friend. Modems come in different speeds and are measured in bps or bits per second.  A 28.8 Kbps modem transmits data at speeds up to 28,800 bits per second. A 56 Kbps modem is twice as fast, sending and receiving data at a rate of up to 56,000 bits per second. Most modems today are 56 Kbps. In case modems come with your PC as external devices they look like the device above. The other alternative is to have the modem mounted on the motherboard so it appears as internal device of the computer.

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Repeating Events Daily

Create a new event or select an existing event to edit. Check the “Repeat” box to display a pop-up window with additional options. Set the “Repeats” option to “Daily.” With the default settings, your event will appear on every calendar day in the future. Optionally, you can change the “Repeats Every” setting to have the event skip a chosen number of days, or set the event to stop repeating on a certain date or after a selected number of occurrences.

Google Calendar includes two tools to help you keep your daily schedule. If you want to set an event to appear in your schedule every day, you can create it once and set it to repeat, rather than make a new item for every day of the calendar. You can also turn on a notification setting to have Google Calendar send you a daily agenda, which contains your schedule for the day.

Receiving Daily Agendas

To set Google Calendar to notify you about your schedule every day, click the drop-down arrow by the calendar you want to use and pick “Reminders and Notifications.” Check the “Daily Agenda” box and click “Save.” Google will email you your schedule every day at 5 AM, according to your account’s time zone. Unlike other notification options, you can’t receive daily agendas by text message.

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By Danielle Fernandez

How to crop on an iPhone, Your iPhone offers a slew of photo editing tools that allow you to crop, refocus and otherwise perfect your shots on the go. For quick work, you can perform minor edits as photos are taken from within the Camera Roll. The iPhoto app, however, is available free for all iOS devices and offers a much more sophisticated set of editing tools, from contrast and saturation sliders to airbrushing effects and photo filters. Whichever you choose, both native apps make easy work of photo cropping.

Photos App

Step 1

Launch the Photos app and select the photo you would like to edit. Alternately, you can tap the thumbnail of an image you’ve just taken in the Camera app to open it in the Photos app.

Step 2

Tap “Edit” at the top and then select the “Crop” tool.

Step 3

Drag the borders of the image to adjust the crop dimensions. You can reposition the image or zoom in and out by dragging and pinching your fingers. To use a standard, preset crop measurement, tap “Constrain” and select a size from the available dimension options.

Step 4

Tap “Save” when your changes are complete.

Your iPhone offers a slew of photo editing tools that allow you to crop, refocus and otherwise perfect your shots on the go. For quick work, you can perform minor edits as photos are taken from within the Camera Roll. The iPhoto app, however, is available free for all iOS devices and offers a much more sophisticated set of editing tools, from contrast and saturation sliders to airbrushing effects and photo filters. Whichever you choose, both native apps make easy work of photo cropping.

IPhoto

Step 1

Launch the iPhoto app and select the photo you wish to crop.

Step 2

Tap the “Toolbox” icon and select the “Crop” tool, which looks like two opposing right angles.

Step 3

Tap the “Options” icon, which looks like three dots, and set your cropping measurements to a standard aspect ratio. You can, for example, set the crop to a standard 4″ x 6″ photo size. You can also manually crop the image by dragging the photo’s borders inward.

Step 4

Reposition the image within the cropping frame using your fingers — you can, for example, drag the image around with your finger or pinch to zoom in and out.

Step 5

Tap the dial at the bottom of the screen and then tilt your iPhone from side to side to rotate the image within the cropping boundaries. Alternately, you can pinch and rotate your fingers on the screen to do the same thing.

Step 6

Tap the “Share” icon, which looks like a square with an upward facing arrow, to share the photo via social network or email. There is no “Save” button; iPhoto automatically saves your edits to a new file as you make them. The original file is not overwritten.

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Student stations

The student stations are the computers that the students will use on a regular basis. The processing power of each computer is dependent on the lab’s purpose. Even the lowest-end computer currently on the market is sufficient to work on office software or for basic programming lessons. If the lab is to be used for video or photography production, video game programming or virtualization lessons, higher-end computers with more processing power and larger amounts of memory will be required. The operating system of the client workstation is up to the teacher and/or information technology team that will maintain the system, but it should be locked down to prevent students from installing unauthorized software, communicating on the Internet or doing other prohibited activity.

Management Station

The management station is the computer that the teacher will use. It will usually be identical to the client station. The management station, however, will have direct access to the server and the management system of the switch, be able to monitor the client stations and have a better access to external resource such as Internet or communication software. The management station also has better security because it makes a more interesting target for students wanting to play hacker and because of its access to external resources.

Server

The server in a computer lab can be used to fulfill several needs. It should store a copy of each workstation’s operating system. The workstations can be made to connect to that server to reinstall the operating system in its clean but configured state in case of a virus or simply as maintenance. The server can also be used to filter the external information the clients can access, for example, blocking Facebook but leaving the Library of Congress accessible. The server can also store the profile of each student and back up their work from session to session.

Switch

Networking is one of the most important parts of computer labs, and in many school computer labs, a hub or a switch is one of the ways this can be accomplished. The switch is the network equipment to which all the computers are connected. A switch can be configured so the clients cannot connect to each other, to limit communication to groups created for a specific project and to grant or refuse access to external resources.

Other equipment

Optional equipment can include printers, scanners, cameras, projectors and headsets. Each piece of equipment should be carefully considered, as the investment needed (for the printers, scanners, cameras and projector) or the high breakage ratio (for the headsets) can adversely affect the budget of the lab and its ability to run smoothly.

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Types

• The traditional one-room computer lab has morphed into three common types of computer labs: the classical lab with desktop computers, the mobile laptop lab that moves from classroom to classroom, and the mini-lab located in an individual classroom for a teacher to use in her daily work without having to leave her classroom . In addition to these three basic types, some schools and districts, like the Irving Independent District in Irving, Texas, are moving to a 1-to-1 laptop program where all students have their own laptop. This effectively makes every classroom a computer lab.

Function

• The computer lab serves as the center for teaching computer use to whole classes, usually by a specialist computer teacher. Classroom teachers also use the lab with their classes for research, or for creating technology-based projects. Technology specialists use the computer lab for teacher in-services where they instruct teachers on various aspects of using computers in educational settings. The traditional computer lab often serves as the location for networked printers and scanners that are used by the whole school.

Features

• A computer lab comes in several configurations: the most common are the “U” shape and the square models. The “U” or square configurations allow the teacher to monitor student activity. Several large tables in the center of the room provide space for offline work. Projectors, smart boards, scanners, printers, software and a variety of peripherals like digital cameras and camcorders are usually stored in computer labs.

Size

• The number of computers in a lab vary from a few computers in the case of a mini-lab to as many as thirty plus computers in a traditional lab. A mobile lab usually resides on carts that have power management systems so that the laptops can be charged when they are not in use throughout the day. Cart configurations vary with up to twenty laptops in one cart, although ten laptop carts are easier to move from classroom to classroom.

Considerations

• When designing a computer lab, three key issues must be carefully considered. The computer teacher needs to decide whether to utilize wall space for whiteboards or bulletin boards. Whiteboards are effective in instructional activities, while bulletin boards provide space for displaying student work. Scheduling is an issue that requires creative planning. The computer teacher or technology coordinator can place a sign up calendar on the front door of the lab so that teachers can reserve free lab time for their classes. A mobile lab has similar a scheduling problem that can be solved the same way. Monitoring student computer use is the third issue. Computer lab management software allows the computer teacher to control all computers in the lab from a single workstation. This is vital for keeping students on-task during whole class instruction.

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Computers allow students to perform good research and also communicate with different education providers. This help students understand the topic better by experiencing different forms of teaching. Computers also help teachers in tutoring  students. Teachers can also communicate with students using the computer. Teachers can form a group chat and interact with the students, also teachers can post homework online, and all students have to do is just go online, answer those question and hit submit. This also saves paper, making us save more trees. When students get projects, computers help students perform extensive research which gives them a wide range of answers to solving that problem.

Computers also help teachers recording grades, calculate average and keep track of students to see if they are present or absent. Teachers also use computers to create presentations for the class and also find videos that can make that particular topic easier to understand. Computers also help the little children. Parents can download math, science, reading and grammar softwares on the computer and this helps your child develop basic educational skills for school, also the kid at move at his or her own pace without feeling rushed.

To every advantage there is a disadvantage but looks like the advantages of computers outweigh the disadvantages of having computers in the class room. People feel computers are distract students from studying, they feel instead of researching with your system, you are rather playing games or chatting with a friend or watching a video. But these problems can be solved by setting restrictions on that system, like blocking internet access to some websites and grant access to only educational websites. People who also grew up in a pre-computer age feel computers are killing the feeling of the classroom and making things too easy for the kids, but that’s the point of computers or technology in general, to make research, education and our daily lives better.

In conclusion, I belive computers revolutionize the way we study, they make education easier and faster. We can easily find information with just a touch of a button. And also be released to different sources which show us different ways to understand a particular topic, equation or idea. I believe computers have helped the education world in general.

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Source: BBC News

Mark Zuckerberg has tried to reassure sceptical lawmakers about the safety of Facebook’s new digital currency, Libra.

At a fractious hearing in Washington, members of congress attacked plans for the payment system, warning it could be abused by criminals and terrorists.

Mr Zuckerberg was also questioned over claims he had lied to regulators in the past.

But the Facebook boss promised Libra would not be launched anywhere without the approval of US regulators.

He said Facebook would leave the Libra Association if the consortium tried to launch a cryptocurrency without permission.

• Facebook’s partners yet to commit money to Libra
• Facebook’s digital currency dealt another blow

Mr Zuckerberg’s appearance before the US House Committee on Financial Services comes after a tough month for the Libra project.

Eight of the 28 founding members of the Libra Association – set up to independently govern the currency – have pulled out of the project. They included Mastercard, Visa, eBay and PayPal.

Meanwhile, regulators around the world continue to express concern about the project. The G7 group of nations has vowed to block it unless Facebook can prove it is safe and secure.

There are concerns the currency could be used for money laundering, disrupt the global financial system, or give Facebook too much control over user data.

Mr Zuckerberg told the hearing he understood the reservations about Libra but was determined to persevere with the project.

“I get that I’m not the ideal messenger for this right now. We’ve faced a lot of issues over the past few years and I’m sure there are a lot of people who wish it were anyone but Facebook that was helping to propose this,” he said.

“But there is a reason we care about this and that’s because Facebook is about putting power into people’s hands.”

He said Libra was a prime example of “American innovation” and could help more than a billion adults without a bank account worldwide.

Facebook would not control the Libra Association and would instead occupy only one seat on a governing board of five, he added.

However, his testimony was largely met with scepticism as members of congress focused on the social network’s past failings in areas such as data protection.

Democrat Maxine Waters, who chairs the panel, pointed out the social network was the subject of an antitrust investigation. She said it had “allowed” Russia to interfere with the US election in 2016.

It had “huge” reach, with an audience of 2.7 billion users, she said.

“Perhaps you feel you are above the law?” Ms Waters said.

“It would be beneficial for all if Facebook concentrates on addressing its many existing deficiencies and failures before proceeding any further on the Libra project.”

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Source: BBC News

The BBC has made its international news website available via Tor, in a bid to thwart censorship attempts.

Tor is a privacy-focused web browser used to access pages on the dark web.

The browser can obscure who is using it and what data is being accessed, which can help people avoid government surveillance and censorship.

Countries including China, Iran and Vietnam are among those who have tried to block access to the BBC News website or programmes.

Instead of visiting bbc.co.uk/news or bbc.com/news, users of the Tor browser can visit the new bbcnewsv2vjtpsuy.onion web address. Clicking this web address will not work in a regular web browser.

The dark web copy of the BBC News website will be the international edition, as seen from outside the UK.

It will include foreign language services such as BBC Persian, BBC Arabic and BBC Russian.

But UK-only content and services such as BBC iPlayer will not be accessible, due to broadcast rights.

What is Tor?

Tor is a way to access the internet that requires software, known as the Tor browser, to use it.

The name is an acronym for The Onion Router. Just as there are many layers to the vegetable, there are many layers of encryption on the network.

It was originally designed by the US Naval Research Laboratory, and continues to receive funding from the US State Department.

It attempts to hide a person’s location and identity by sending data across the internet via a very circuitous route involving several “nodes” – which, in this context, means using volunteers’ PCs and computer servers as connection points.

Encryption applied at each hop along this route makes it very hard to connect a person to any particular activity.

To the website that ultimately receives the request, it appears as if the data traffic comes from the last computer in the chain – known as an “exit node” – rather than the person responsible.

As well as allowing users to visit normal websites anonymously, it can also be used as part of a process to host hidden sites, which use the .onion suffix.

Tor’s users include the military, law enforcement officers and journalists, as well as members of the public who wish to keep their browser activity secret.

But it has also been associated with illegal activity, allowing people to visit sites offering illegal drugs for sale and access to child abuse images, which do not show up in normal search engine results and would not be available to those who did not know where to look.

In a statement, the BBC said: “The BBC World Service’s news content is now available on the Tor network to audiences who live in countries where BBC News is being blocked or restricted. This is in line with the BBC World Service mission to provide trusted news around the world.”

On Wednesday, the BBC also announced the UK’s first interactive voice news service for smart speakers.

People using an Amazon Alexa-powered device will be able to skip ahead and get more information about the stories they are most interested in.

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