Archive for October, 2011

Design and SEO – Striking the Balance

Wednesday, October 26th, 2011

Most companies pour their heart and soul (not to mention buckets of money) into designing their site so that it looks absolutely stunning. But what happens when Search Engine Optimisation comes into play? Striking the balance between making sure your site is top of the search results whilst maintaining its fantastic design can be difficult. Often, SEO experts and web designers will find themselves at loggerheads, the designer advocating a flashy front page and the SEO expert demanding that all the text be searchable.

What’s More Important?

They both have a point so it’s worth spending a little time figuring out how to make design and SEO work in harmony so that you can benefit from the best of both worlds. One needn’t necessarily suffer at the hands of the other and both specialisms should be given equal importance where possible.

The Complications

Web designers often want to avoid using reams of text on their pages as it can detract from their beautifully simplistic design, whereas an SEO expert will need to use that text to drive people to your page. Having said that, SEO experts also appreciate how important good design is for statistics and as the success of their work is largely reflected in conversions and paying customers, they want maximum impact.

A great SEO expert will focus on the quality of your content, rather than the quantity. Restricting the amount of text will result in fewer search terms being included, fewer visitors to your site and therefore fewer people to admire the beautiful design you have worked so hard on! With all of this in mind, the lesson is to ensure that both your design and your content is all about simplicity but where necessary, the content may have to take over in terms of importance so that the hit rate of the site doesn’t suffer.

The Ideal Team

Ideally, on any web design project, there should be three people working together:

1. A designer
2. A developer
3. An SEO expert

Depending on the size of the project, it may well also be prudent to recruit a copywriter and a project manager to ensure that all aspects of the creation process are covered.

With this ideal team, you can be sure that the end result is going to be stunning, functional and fully searchable. It’s crucial to have these three professionals working together as a team rather than coming into the project at various points so that there is a consistent approach to all crucial aspects of the project.

SEO Specialists

Employing a team of three people for one project may well be beyond the means of many companies, especially those who are starting out in their market. You can look into hiring self-employed professionals on a temporary basis rather than recruiting for all three positions but even this can be extremely costly, not to mention time consuming.

But there is an answer. In recent years, the demand for SEO alongside design has resulted in a new niche being carved in the industry: that of SEO specialists. These professionals understand both sides of the coin and can make it far easier to strike the balance with your website. They are experts in getting your site as many hits as possible without compromising the overall design of your site.

If you are looking for an SEO specialist, you might want to check out Zeno SEO. An SEO reseller, they can help you strike the balance and make your site successful!

Posted in Uncategorized |

How To Create An Impressive Blog

Monday, October 24th, 2011

Blogs are an essential part of any modern-day website design. Your reputable web design company will tell you that blogs immediately improve the usability and relevancy of your site, no matter which topic your website intends to cover, and make it easier for your target audience to engage and . They also form an important part of your eventual search engine optimisation campaign if they’re kept up to date with unique, keyword-rich content.

Here’s a basic list of the dos and don’ts of blog design to help you make the most of your site!

DO:

Spend time creating a simple, solid visual design. Incorporate a sense of style and branding into your blog with logos and images but keep everything clean and modest. Employ a professional web design company to take the hassle out of this task for you.

Consider your user’s needs above all else. This means that you need to make it easy for them to find what they’re looking for. Usability is key. Include the following for the best blogging experience:

Structured archives
Clear article categories
Effective widgets

Write about what you know! This is the number one rule within any blogging community. Readers want to stumble across well-written, thought-provoking content and this won’t be what you’re offering if you don’t know what you’re writing about.

Make sure you’re putting together 100% unique copy. Firstly, plagiarism is frowned upon and won’t score you professional brownie points; if you’re worried that your article is too similar to another, get hold of one of the many plagiarism checkers available on the web and run a check before you publish your work. Secondly, if users feel that they’ve heard your message before, they won’t be inclined to stick around. Try to put a distinctive spin on your posts where possible.

Write with your audience in mind:

If you’re a business, write about your expertise rather than your opinions. Users want to know that you’re the authority on your chosen subject and don’t want page after page of subjective waffle.
On the other hand, if you’re creating a personal blog, make it just that – personable. Try to offer your readers wit, humour and insight along with really useful information.

Add links to your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn profiles to make it as easy as possible for users to share your content.

Write an introductory blog post. This helps your readers understand your mission as a blogger and get to know you a little better before they read on. If you’re writing on behalf of or for a company, be sure to include a short profile about yourself and your experience within the particular field and readers will be more inclined to take you seriously.

DON’T:

Overcrowd your blog with the following:

Images
Graphics (including Flash animations as these slow down the load time of your page)
Banners
Widgets
Adverts

Too many of the above and your blog will look cluttered, unprofessional and too difficult to read.

A light-coloured font on a dark background is considered a sin by many professional web designers, as it can make your text very difficult to read. However, in some cases a dramatic backdrop may help communicate your message and suit your brand.

Stray too far from the topic. By all means present different aspects of your work to your readers but don’t write about something that’s too far removed from the norm or your credibility will suffer.

Forget to update your blog! Many bloggers start their project with a lot of enthusiasm that wanes over time. Once users realise that your blog hasn’t been kept up to date, they’ll simply head elsewhere and consider your output out-dated and irrelevant.

Cram too many links into your articles. While the odd high-quality link to a relevant source here and there can greatly improve the visibility of your blog in the right circles (and help your SEO campaign!), too many links scattered throughout your page will look spammy.

Ultimately, you need to experiment within your niche to determine what works for you. There are several elements that lay the foundations of a blog, such as the layout and structure, but once it’s been set up by a web designer its direction and success are entirely in your hands!

Tags:blog, blog design, blog structure
Posted in Web Design Work |

What Should Be On My Homepage?

Friday, October 21st, 2011

It’s a simple question, but one worth thinking about from time to time. What should you really include on your homepage? And why do so many designers get it so wrong?

Imagine you are a business owner that has recently ventured online. Your website’s homepage is the face of your business. However you intend to drive traffic to your site, you can guarantee that the majority of your potential customers will head straight to your homepage, as it is regarded as the central resource. Because your homepage creates that all-important first impressions for consumers (users will judge the relevancy and trustworthiness of your site in seconds), you need to make sure that it not only looks clean, professional and uncluttered, but that it points users in the right direction and offers links to as many different pieces of information as possible.

If you’re a web designer, creating a functional yet appealing homepage is definitely no mean feat. Below is a list of points you should consider when designing a homepage for your clients, and while many of these factors may be regarded as common sense, you’d be surprised how often they’re overlooked. Other points are just suggestions and pointers – ultimately, you need to work out a fool proof homepage design process that’s going to work for you, every time.

Many designers believe that working backwards leads to better results. Once you have the entire structure of the site in place, you can then decide what needs to take priority and how your homepage should be arranged.
Make sure that logos, slogans and contact details are displayed prominently so that they can be found easily.
Display calls to action such as telephone numbers, contact forms, online chat options etc to persuade the user to get in touch.
Add a few lines about the mission or purpose of the company/website at the top of the page. There’s no need to go into a lot of detail here, as many designers recommend providing users with a link to a more in-depth ‘About Us’ page underneath the text to save creating a content-heavy homepage.
Create a clear, simple tab at the top or at the side of your page which will act as a directory for your users. Include your ‘About Us’ page, ‘Contact Us’ page and any category pages that are relevant to your business.
Set up a ‘search’ box to enhance the usability of the site.
Use relevant images and graphics to convey your message. While these shouldn’t take up the whole of the page, quality images can leave a lasting impression and grab the attention of the reader from the moment their eyes land on the page.
Link to your blog. Blogs are an essential part of contemporary web design and are there to be read!
Spell-check any content on the page and make sure it’s interesting and informative. Nothing turns off users more than badly written text! Ensure that any content is well spaced out and easy to read.
Link to your social media accounts via your homepage. This makes it easy for users to follow you using whichever medium they prefer and shows that you’re committed to engaging your consumers or fans in conversation.
Make sure none of the links you create are broken.
Write your meta data properly with the aim of your site in mind. It’s the little details such as the meta titles that will attract the wrong kind of attention if they’re poorly written or irrelevant, and this will also damage your chances of ranking well within the search engines.

Important Links To Include On Your Homepage

To summarise briefly, you need to somehow link to the following areas for the best results:

Blog
Social Media Sites – links to Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, Digg etc
‘About Us’
‘Contact Us’ (if this is a separate page)
Terms & Conditions of site usage
Sitemap or XML Sitemap
The client login area (if applicable)

Tags:design, first impressions, homepage
Posted in Web Design Work |

How To Design A Logo

Thursday, October 20th, 2011

Website design has always been considered as a science – and a science shrouded in myth and complicated code! But if you’re going to survive as a modern-day website designer, you’re going to have to look past the traditional-looking reams of HTML and consider the actual branding of your website before you start adding in all that fancy functionality.

Clients want more bang for their buck these days and as a designer you will also be expected to suggest ways of branding the new website for the target audience. Your clients will want a site that communicates their business properly, and their logo is an important part of the layout. But how do you go about creating a logo that fits in with the company you’re trying to promote?

Points To Consider

The first thing to remember is that your logo says a lot about the organisation it’s going to represent. Consumers will associate the logo with everything the company stands for – this means that its design will have to inspire confidence and trust in the brand and an underlying sense of authority and presence. Before you start, do a little investigation into the logos of famous brands, as these have obviously stood the test of time!

What Should My Logo Look Like?

Your logo needs to look strong and simple if it’s going to have the desired effect. Create something that makes a statement without losing its relevancy. Make sure that it has a ‘classic’ look about it rather than let it succumb to the latest design fashions, as it will quickly begin to look dated.

Above all else, your design also needs to be practical. Speak to your client about how the logo will be used – is it being designed uniquely for the website or will it have to be scaled up and down for use on banners and business cards simultaneously? To make sure that the logo is multi-functional, we always recommend that you create the design in a vector application such as Adobe Illustrator rather than a raster application such as Photoshop. Vector graphics are made up of paths (straight or curved lines) that can be scaled quickly and easily, whereas the pixels and colours used to form the impression of an image in Photoshop lose their quality when the size of the logo is adjusted.

Choose your colours wisely. If the client uses a limited palate of corporate-looking colours, stick with these, as they will be associated with the business. If you’re starting completely from scratch, stick to a maximum of three colours and, as a rule of thumb, avoid shades that are too bold or intrusive.

Companies want a logo that still looks professional when printed in black and white. Don’t rely too heavily on block shading and test it out before you sign the project off.

The fonts you decide to use must look contemporary and, of course, legible. Make sure that any wording (ie subheadings) will still be readable if scaled down to tiny proportions.

Your Individual Logo Design Process

As with any web design work, it’s important to have a process in place that suits you. Develop your own unique logo design procedure and stick to it. While you can adjust it as and when you need to, here’s a good example of a basic logo design process:

Study your design brief in detail to develop a good understanding of what the client wants. Take their needs into consideration above all else.
Do some research into similar logos. Check out the logos of your client’s competitors and work out why they’ve been successful (or not!)
Brainstorm your ideas and start your initial sketches. If you’re stuck for inspiration, stop worrying about time constraints and let your imagination run wild. Remember, the best designers have allocated weeks and sometimes even months for their logo design process, and added pressure will stem your creativity even further.
Once you’ve finalised your idea, learn how to use your software according to your requirements. Choose an application that you feel comfortable with or that you have already used to produce great results.
Send your first draft to the client and ask for feedback and recommendations.
Make any adjustments if needs be. Part of offering great customer service as a web designer is being able to take criticism on the chin and change your designs if the client isn’t 100% satisfied.
Finally, make sure that the logo is available in all necessary file formats for the client. You don’t want your customer to be chasing you for a file in a few months’ time!

Don’t Undercharge For Your Logo Design Service

A commonly asked question is ‘how much should I charge for my logo design service’? Well, your fee depends entirely on the amount of labour that went into the project. If you designed your logo as part of a wider branding job, it’s best to round up the costs for the entire piece of work rather than charging for individual components. The one thing you have to remember is that you need to charge an honest rate for your logo design – it can turn out to be a complicated process

Make sure you charge an honest rate for logo design – it can turn out to be a complicated process and if it’s good enough it will be of great value to the company anyway!

Tags:branding, design, logo, project, web design
Posted in Web Design Work |

Web Designing – Choosing The Right Colours

Saturday, October 15th, 2011

Web designing is not just a commercial, technical undertaking, but an aesthetic skill. One has to concentrate on content as well as visuals. One of the most important factors that determine the visual quotient of your website is the moderation, mixture and application of different colour schemes. Choosing the right colour, using a good balance, sharpening the contrast when necessary—all of these help enhance the aesthetic appeal of your website. Different colours have personal meanings for different viewers, but more importantly, they have certain general associations, which you could use to your advantage. Different websites have different colour demands, and it is a good idea to in some deep thought before choosing the colours that represent your site.

Different colours give out different messages. So depending on what kind of website you are designing, you should be careful about varying, combining colours. For instance, Green is one of those colours that has an extremely soothing effect, especially if you’re using a spring shade. This is because green is immediately associated with the natural world, which is always associated with tranquillity and equanimity. So green is a good colour for a website that deals with spirituality, environment, meditation, peace.

Blue is a corporate colour. It is a good choice for entrepreneurial site, as it is a colour that is associated with assurance, efficiency, accuracy, strength. It is also a peaceful colour. It is associated with the watery world, which is often a source of peace, stamina. It is also associated with the sky, which again, is associated with ambition and reaching upwards. It is one of the most commonly used colours for business and technology websites.

Black can be used to create a variety of effects. Black can evoke very strong reactions, so be careful how you use it. It can be used to create an aura of mystery and secrecy. It is extremely useful as a background in websites that display photographs video thumbnails. It sets off other colours by contrast. It is a good choice for art websites, or even online comic strips.

Grey is quite a dull colour, so it can be used to create an effect of urbane decadence. Purple is a colour that is associated with richness, luxury, royalty. It is a good colour for websites that are selling drapes or fashion clothes. It gives a certain degree of class and sophistication to the content. It can also create a mood of indolence and opulence. It is quite a grand colour, and can be used to give an impression of flair and flamboyancy.

Colours like orange and yellow are associated with youth and energy, They add oodles of zing to your website, but they are daring colours and may not be to everyone’s liking, so you have to use them with discretion. Use them in requisite amounts, and don’t use them in large quantities, as they can be quite a turn off for some.

These could be perfect colours for websites dealing with youth initiatives and enterprises.

Tags:colour, colours, dfesign, web
Posted in Web Design Work |

Edging Closer Towards Web 3.0

Friday, October 14th, 2011

We’re all familiar enough with Web 2.0 now. The term was originally coined at a media conference way back in 2004 by O’Reilly Media. The basic concept of Web 2.0 stems from the introduction of applications that encourage user-generated interactivity. Social media is closely associated with Web 2.0 because it allows users to get involved in the content that is shared by their peers. It’s also a result of the little things we take for granted, such as being able to post a review about a product that will be viewed by others searching for that particular item.

Web 3.0 is essentially the next step up. It’s not necessarily technological advancement, but a change in the way we use existing technology and an expansion of personalisation. It can’t be defined by individual achievements, as every net specialist has their own opinion about what it will involve, but will without doubt change how we use the web, and how we approach a new project as a web design professional.

Experts expect the web to take on a life of its own and to become intelligent enough to generate new information without any help from the developers behind it. An idea that is commonly discussed in relation to Web 3.0 is that of the ‘semantic web’. This term means many different things to many different people, but basically it implies that computers will be able to understand the data it’s processing beyond the letters and numbers.

There are a number of integral flaws to the idea of the semantic web, identified by experts such as the journalist and blogger Cory Doctorow. Cory’s argument primarily dealt with the flaws and fragility of metatagging, the concept of which would form the basis of a semantic web. In a nutshell, people can fool the algorithms behind the semantic web so that they won’t reflect their true interests or activities. There are also a number of privacy and censorship issues surrounding the idea, with the notion of anonymity almost impossible.

Despite these underlying issues, many are still convinced that your Web 3.0 browser will eventually be able to act a bit like your PA. After you’ve used your browser several times, you’ll have created a virtual log of your likes, dislikes, hobbies and interests (much of which will be documented through your social media footprint as you sift through Facebook, Twitter and the vast quantities of other well-known social networks). Once it‘s collected enough data about your personality, you can expect to be able to type in a direct question and receive a tailor-made answer in an instant, meaning you don’t have to trawl dozens of webpages to get the same result.

So how do we know when Web 3.0 is in full swing? Put simply, we won’t know until it hits us!

Tags:concept, design, future, web 2.0, web 3.0
Posted in Uncategorized |

The Importance Of Colour In Website Design

Monday, October 10th, 2011

Once you’ve established the direction of your site, drafted up a template and resolved any functionality issues, it’s time to have a chat with your client about the actual branding of their website. As a designer, this is an essential part of the build process and will often have a huge part of play in the eventual success of the site – after all, clients want a site that portrays their sense of professionalism and capability within their industry, and the aesthetics of the end result have to match the company’s message. Part of this conversation should definitely revolve around the colour scheme of the new site – but why is the psychology behind your individual choice of colours so important, and how can you avoid turning potential customers off simply by spending a bit more time analysing your HTML colour wheel or CSS colour codes?

Practicality

You don’t want to overpower the user with loud, offensive colour arrangements. People browsing the web know what to expect from a first-class website and want to land on a page that’s sleek, chic and clean-looking. Busy backgrounds draw the attention away from the content on the page and can actually make your text difficult to read, which won’t encourage your user to hang around!

If your client has already provided animations or images for use on their site, think about how your chosen colours will sit alongside these elements. You can of course customise the colours to match logos etc.

Usability

Users want to be able to navigate your site easily and efficiently, without being put off by reams and reams of ill-matched colours. You need to consider the fact that a large proportion of internet browsers are visually impaired and don’t want to come across a scheme that is harsh on the eye.

The first rule of thumb is to keep your design simple by picking two or three main colours and sticking with them. Each colour could also be used to identify different elements of your site. Links should be coloured consistently – many designers recommend that standard links be coloured blue and ‘clicked’ links be coloured that traditional-looking maroon colour often seen on some of the world’s largest websites. Of course, this scheme is up for negotiation depending on the look of your site!

Bear in mind that dark backgrounds can be overbearing for some. It’s likely that the content could be difficult to read against a darker backdrop, especially if there is a lot of text per page.

Consider the capabilities of ALL of the major browsers and remember that different system render colours in different ways. You may feel that you need to accommodate for this by using web smart colours (colours that will largely appear the same within any browser), but it’s often up to your preferences and priorities as a designer.

Remember the benefits of white space in your design! Keep your colours spaced out well for maximum impact with minimum clutter.

Finally, if you’re concerned that you’re completely wide of the mark with your chosen colour design, why not take a sneak peek at some of your competitor’s sites? Conducting some research into what works (and what doesn’t) on similar sites to your own will help you determine which colours to avoid completely.

Psychology

Going back to a previous point, it’s essential that you discuss the overall image of the site with your client at the earliest opportunity. This ensures that, as a designer, you’ll come up with something spectacular first time around and won’t be asked to revise your ideas (or, if you do receive a little criticism, it’ll be easily rectifiable and won’t take up too much of your time). Establishing your client’s brand will make your life a lot easier and allow you to pick and choose colours that fit in with their vision of the site. However, the impact of branding has a lot to do with the psychological effects of colour, so you need to be aware of the implications of each colour and the meaning it may have to your targeted audience.

There are a lot of things to consider here, but you mainly have to remember that colours evoke different emotions which will vary from person to person. The subjective understanding of the colour depends on the traditional background and culture of the user. For example, in Europe the colour yellow is widely considered to be a happy, positive shade, whereas in Egypt it’s associated with death and mourning. Do a little investigation into the true meaning of the colours you’re going to use for your client and make sure that they don’t conflict with the intended audience’s perception of the company!

A great technique for contemporary web design is to make your page appear more 3D with the use of shadows, varying gradients and transparent effects. These sorts of tricks can add a classy, high-tech depth to your site and will normally compliment any sort of colour scheme.

By bearing these points in mind, you’ll be able to use colours to your advantage to create a balanced, stunning site that will prove a definite hit with your client, no matter what their original brief!

Tags:colour, design, psychology, web, wheel
Posted in Web Design Work |