So you’ve decided to hire a professional web designer to build your website. You spent some time looking for the right person or business. Eventually you found the right web designer that you believe will design the most remarkable, extraordinary website the Internet community has yet seen. Now what?

Explaining to the web designer the layout design you have in your mind can be a very frustrating process. You will find that putting the “picture” that’s in your mind into words can be a difficult task. Actually in most cases this is the biggest hurdle between you and the final outcome. No matter how talented the web designer is, if you can not communicate with him properly, in his own professional language, he may not be able to use his talent to achieve your design.

There are two possible situations you may face:

• You know what content you want on the website but have no clue how to present it to the user.
• You know what content you want on the website, and you have the layout in your mind, but you don’t know how to implement it.

In both cases you will need to explain your thoughts to the web designer. Most people who read the above lines are probably thinking that being in the second situation is better then being in the first situation. However, real life experience shows the opposite to be true. Giving a web designer the complete freedom of action regarding the web design based solely on the website content is usually a smart thing to do. You will find that explaining to the web designer what the nature of your business is, whether it’s a product that you want to sell or a hobby item, is much easier then trying to explain to him the template you want, or the color scheme you prefer, or some undefined shape or logo that you would like to have in the website header.

Actually for both of the situations, I would suggest you use the same approach, but with a minor modification to each situation. If you know of a website that has all the features you want or need, or a site that looks the way you want your site to look, be sure to give the site’s url to the web designer. Doing so will give him some idea of what you want. You will both be looking at the same thing but will actually look at it from different perspectives. Therefore, it may be better to give him more than one website as an example. The more websites you find that can express your feelings or needs, the easier it will be for web designer to understand your intention without you having to use technical terminology.

For St. Louis website design you’ll want to think about using the services of Clicked Studios. Located in the St. Louis area, they create first rate quality, goal oriented websites. Clicked Studios takes considerable care with your project to ensure the site perfectly matches your business needs.

Although you are the one who needs to express yourself to the web designer, you have to be able to listen to him as well. When he uses technical terms, ask for their meaning. Don’t finish any part of the conversation unless you are sure that both of you are on the same page. Remember, you hired an experienced web designer because you want a professional looking website and you couldn’t do it yourself. So, trust the web designer’s intelligence when he tells you something you want won’t work or isn’t the best way to achieve your goals. After all, you are paying him for his expertise. Don’t try to tell him how to do his job.

We’ve known about Microsoft’s picture password feature in Windows 8 since its developer preview was unleashed in mid-September. But now that we’ve had a chance to give it a spin, we can definitely say it’s a fun, convenient alternative to other system unlocking methods. In a nutshell, you choose a photo for your lock screen, and then define three touch gestures to draw on top of the photo in order to unlock your device.

In the Ice Cream Sandwich version of Android, Google has added a “Recent Apps” feature that pulls up a listing of most frequently used apps when you click the system bar icon. But in Windows 8, switching between open apps is much more intuitive and easy: A swipe from the left edge of the device will immediately pull up the last app you used (assuming it’s still open in a multitasking state). It’s a natural gesture, and one you’ll rarely use by accident. And best of all, it’s fast — like channel surfing for the tablet era.

Windows 8 also innovates with a unique, tablet-optimized approach that eliminates distracting “chrome” — in other words, all those busy interface elements that can junk up a desktop or app interface. In fact, it’s an OS-wide theme of Windows 8′s Metro UI. There are no menu bars, task bars, or navigational buttons permanently pinned to the display. In many iOS apps, you’ll find navigational buttons that persist across the app’s entire user experience. And even for apps that don’t do this, you’ll often still see that thin bar at the top of the screen that shows data connection strength, the time, and battery level. These are the very same elements that are locked to the iOS home screen.

The case is similar (and arguably worse) in Ice Cream Sandwich. You’ve got your three virtual navigation buttons at the bottom of the display that are persistent across the UI. You also often have a bar across the top of the screen (just like in iOS) that displays battery status, time, and icons that link to other information. Windows 8 does away with all of this. To see the time, battery strength and data connectivity, you swipe open your Charms menu. Once you’re done looking at these simple reports, you touch anywhere on the screen, and the Charms menu disappears.

One problem many mobile users suffer is that onscreen keyboards aren’t designed for a variety of hand and finger sizes. This is typically less of a problem on tablets, which usually have enough screen real estate to offer accommodating keyboards. Nonetheless, if you plan on using your tablet two-handed, typing with your thumbs, typing on a tablet isn’t so easy. Windows 8 offers a solution: It provides a split-screen keyboard so you can type with your thumbs. But wait, you say — Apple already does this in iOS 5. This is true, but Windows 8 goes one step further: You can adjust key size in the Windows 8 split-screen keyboard. You have three sizes to choose from, so if you’ve got the petite hands of a five-year-old, you can type on the small setting, and if you’ve got manly man hands, you can increase key size to large.

Citing intel from its own sources, 9to5Mac said yesterday that the new iPads will be codenamed J1, J2, and J2a, backing up previous information that it received.

The J1 is likely the Wi-Fi-only model, the blog’s Mark Gurman speculates, while the J2 and J2a are probably the cellular versions, offering the necessary mix of GSM, CDMA, and LTE to run on both 3G and 4G networks around the world.

The J1 and J2 codenames have been linked to Retina Display reports, 9to5Mac added, an additional signs that the next iPad will sport a higher-resolution screen.

As usual, the iPad 3 will likely be available with three different storage capacities. The current iPad sells as 16 GB, 32 GB, and 64 GB models.

Since Apple increased the maximum storage for the iPhone 4S to 64 GB, 9to5Mac sees a 128 GB iPad as a possibility. However, a 128 GB iPad with 4G LTE capability strikes me as a pricey proposition, and might have a tough time finding customers.

Apple yesterday sent out invites for a March 7 event in which the company is expected to pull back the curtains on its next iPad. A recent report claimed that iPad 3 shipments left China on Sunday headed for airports in Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York City.

Putting the two bits of information together, 9to5Mac believes pre-orders would start on March 7 or a few days later, while the new iPad itself will officially hit stores one or two weeks after the launch event.

Another item rumored to debut at Apple’s March 7 event is a refreshed Apple TV, according to 9to5Mac and other sources. Codenamed J33, the latest version of Apple TV could tempt buyers with a variety of new features, including Bluetooth 4.0 remote control, 1080-pixel resolution, and even support for Siri.