Entries for category 'Design'

With the recent announcement of Internet Explorer 9, the discussion of which browser is the best seemed approprioate.  For many people out there, Internet Explorer is the browser of choice if not simply because it came with their installation of Windows, and it's what they are familiar or comfortable with.  Though many people have been flocking to the many other browsers out there.  There are plenty of reasons for that too.  Hopefully we can cover a few of those reasons here.

Wouldn’t you like to know what visitors to your site are thinking?  Certainly an unhappy or pleased visitor could email you through your capture form, but I’ve discovered a better way.  One of my clients turned me on to a new program; it’s great for all flavors of sites, but extraordinarily important for ecommerce sites.

So you’re going to hire your own team to build your business website.  But wait – is that really the cost effective way to do it?  At the very least you’ll need a web designer and developer and probably a technical writer if you aren’t skilled in writing.  And do you know how to best optimize your page in the search engines?

When creating your website you should make sure you can answer this question.  How does our website fit into our short-term and long-term marketing strategy?  The website will be a key element of any marketing strategy so keeping the focus on the role it will play is imperative.  

Well, the simple answer is that they are all optimized to be hearty, robust, competitive, unique and original!

Now, seriously, I bet you never even considered that these three items have many similarities so let's explore this......

Even if you're not planning on selling online, a well-crafted site is an essential for any business. Many times we hear my business is very small, just me and a couple employees and our product really isn't sold online so why do I need a website?

Common Factors of Social Media Success

Question: Don't you think its tough to measure social media?

..."These doughnuts are a family tradition". "I wait all year long to get my fix". "Just the smell brings back such great memories".   Do these sound familiar to you?

They both should inspire someone to buy!

After spending a little more time with the mobile web, there's a bit more to be said about issues surrounding designing websites for the mobile browser.  Differences in phone technology as well as new software technologies in development are changing the field of mobile web design.  This post takes a look at some of those phone issues and new developments.

With the rise of the iPhone, Google Android, Palm, Blackberry and several other touch screen phones out there that are not only web enabled, but offer a browsing experience similar to the one we are familiar with on desktop computers, the need for mobile friendly websites is becoming greater. I've had several web enabled phones, but the most recent one I purchased has given me a much more fluid and intuitive web experience. It's shown me, though, that most websites aren't coded with mobile phones in mind.

Episode 4 of the Sitepro Podcast is now available. The Sitepro Podcast was created to help educate clients and the community about various aspects of web, video and other multimedia content. Hosted by Sitepro's own Steve Allingham, the next four episodes of the podcasts will focus on the the Grace Lutheran Foundation and all the multimedia work that Sitepro has produced for them. Be sure to subscribe to get all of the episodes of the Sitepro Podcast.

We’re not going to focus on the design or the layout of a website, although we may mention some basic elements that will relate to the design, but more importantly, we’re focusing on how the website is structured so it can be successful.

There’s no question on arguing how a website can help you obtain a successful online presence and that it’s the most effective marketing strategy one can have as a designer or a company. A successful website should already have basic information where a site visitor can learn, identify and quickly understand how you can help. Essentially, a website provides a solution to a problem.

Are pictures worth a thousand words?  In regards to websites, most definitely true.  Images are a very powerful way to convey many different things about you and your company.  Images also add visual concrete evidence to back up text in your website.  Studies have shown that our brains are more easily drawn to familiar real life objects than words.  A good image captures attention, conveys emotion, and can even tell a story.  Large, dominant images tell the viewer’s eye where to look first.  Directing the viewer’s eye along a very specific path has been designed into the website.  

First we’ll look into what is Lorem Ipsum? Then we’ll head into the magical wonders of why creative designers and publishers use lorem ipsum in their initial designs.

Usability testing determines the success (or failure) of a website. Site visitors click through the site with the mouse and decide what the next step should be. Whether your site is a product driven site and the main focus is to generate a profit through people buying things, or a content heavy site with just loads of information to educate or get a point across, all site owners have one purpose in mind and a single goal to accomplish, how will the site visitor interact with the web site and how they think.

Statistics are important data to business industries. However, statistics regarding browser display and the trend of advancing forward are important concepts to web designers and developers. As computer technology advances, the size of monitor screen is increasing; thus resulting in technology companies designing and developing sites at a wider scale. However, this opposes a problem for the general public, especially businesses and individuals who are still utilizing smaller monitor resolutions or viewing sites at the ancient resolution of 800x600 pixels.

The old cliche Keep It Simple Stupid applies to website design as well.  Though it's certainly my job to design whatever will make the client happiest, I always do my best to explore options and explain to clients how visitors might get lost on their site based on the overwhelming amount of information they feel is needed on one page or another.  Recently, one client had me build in widgets on the home page summarizing and linking to nearly every part of their site over the course of several revisions instead of keeping the home page simple and building a flow through the site to ensure critical information was highlighted on the appropriate page.

I touched on some of this briefly in a previous article, but I'd like to take some to review why it's so important to keep things simple for your site visitors.  Read on after the break to learn some of the benefits to bringing focus and simplicity to your site.

The sitemap page is a critical addition for SEO and allowing search engines to crawl your site. Over the last year or so, sitemaps have been evolving. Once the standard stand-alone page that simply linked to every page, designers have found clever ways of integrating a sitemap into the framework as a usable site tool. Learn more about this new trend after the break.

Since the Internet went mainstream a little over 10 years ago, having a website has been an important part of a business marketing plan. You operate a website to communicate your message to the rest of the world, to encourage purchases, or maybe even to sell products online. Your site exists for visitors to visit, read everything they want to know, and then become a customer.  It’s that simple, right?

Not exactly. A website must go beyond one-way communication, meet definable customer needs, and achieve company goals. Most websites are too wordy, asking viewers to read the site like a book instead of finding ways to use the site as an interactive branch of the business. Text-heavy sites are built with the incorrect assumption that visitors will patiently click one page after another and read every word, eventually finding what it is they are looking for. These sites fall short of quickly directing visitors to critical information, and fail to encourage an actionable goal out of their visitors. Read past the break to learn how your site can avoid the same fate.

Your company’s logo is a symbol representing your business.  It serves as a visual representation of your place in the industry, your company’s culture, and your attitude to clients.  Have you thought about what your logo says about your company?  Read on to learn just how critical a clean, well-designed logo is the cornerstone to a solid brand.