WebWorks & Graphics Blog



When to Change it Up?

May 4th, 2010

Ever get bored of looking at your own site?  Ever think if you get bored what your clients and visitors must think??  Ever want to take your design to the next level to show your clients that you care enough to stay on top of things???  Well, that is a business decision that  many of you suffer from just like myself.  First off, a little background about where my fear stems from: we have been running a pretty successful business over here for the past 16 months and it came to our attention that our site maybe does not reflect the quality of work we are capable of producing and produce for our clients.

So, after much contemplation about branding, marketing, and “keeping our image”, we’ve decided to take the plunge and re-design our site.  Now I know what everyone’s saying, “Like it really matters for you, you’ve only been in business a little over a year,” and you are right.  It is much easier for a new business like ours to re-design their website than a company who has been around for decades on the internet.  But who needs it more? Probably the company who got a website built in 2001.  Much has changed in the last year, imagine how much has changed in our industry in a decade!  It is quite astonishing.

Here are some telltale signs that you are in need of a new website:

  • scrolling text
  • jumpy animations
  • sound blasting at your visitors
  • annoying repeating background image
  • guest books instead of comments
  • poor quality GIF’s

If your website falls into any of these categories CALL SOMEONE NOW if you want to be in business a year from now.  Re-designing your site is important for other reasons as well;  launching of a new product, re-branding yourself, or the business climate or industry has changed.  These are all valid reasons to change things up.

Here are a few tips to make sure the transition goes smoothly:

  1. Try to get as much feedback from clients as you can.
  2. Find out what new features would help your existing clients.
  3. Find out what new features would help you gather more leads.
  4. Contact a reputable website design firm with a good eye and good references.
  5. Do not hire a freelancer unless they have worked for a design firm and have proof and references.
  6. Make sure the site gets backed up on the server in case of problems.
  7. Make notes of what you like with your existing site.  This can be text, images, functionality, pages, etc…

With this information you should be ready to revamp your business.  Take a chance too…don’t be afraid to get noticed…it might just be crazy enough to work…

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Do’s and Dont’s of Good Web Design

April 30th, 2010

There are tons of different artistic directions you can go with when choosing a style and design for your website.  To most people, this will be the first thing they judge you on.  This means you had better be on your design p’s and q’s if you are to have a successful presence on the web.  There are several elements that you should consider when deciding the look and feel of your site.

  1. Colors
  2. Layout
  3. Textures
  4. Pictures
  5. Typography of all elements
  6. Animations/Interactivity
  7. Menu Items

All of these represent the building blocks of a professional, modern website.

Before considering each element, it is instrumental to find a good starting point. Google other business that do what you do and see what you like and what you dislike.  Look at colors, layout, pictures, picture placement, everything.  Look at as many different sites as you can…the more the merrier. By doing this kind of research, you will start to see patterns in the way your industry best displays their business on the web.  You don’t want to completely copy a website however but use examples as a solid starting point.   Rest assured that once you go through each of the list items above and start to customize them for your business, the site will look completely different and unique.

Once you have a solid idea of what works in your industry, do a Google search for each one of the categories above to get a sense of the basics for each. Learn about what colors represent which emotions.  Choose hi-res photos for you site.  Choose colors in the photos that you are using for the site. Write down adjectives that describe your business and use pictures, textures and colors that represent those qualities.

When choosing a layout and menu items; keep the user in mind.  Stick with something clean and easy to navigate.  Most of the time, people won’t know about your industry; so you need to make it very easy for them to get through your site and learn.  Use big pictures.  Don’t be afraid of leaving white, or blank, space.  The less on the page,  the easier it will be for the use to concentrate on what you want them to know.  More is less!

When it comes to type, keep it simple as well.  Use standard serif and san-serif fonts (fonts with and without feet).  Using exotic fonts makes your site bigger, which means it takes a longer time for the user to load the page.  By tastefully using heading tags, bolds, and other CSS properties, you can create works of art with types which are easy on the eye and the brain.

Finally, use animations to make your site easier to understand.  Have menu items animate when rolled over or clicked.  Animate important links or graphics by important information.  Don’t incorporate animations just for the sake of having them. This is a waste of development type and download time for the user.  Most likely you’re not directing the website toward children so don’t treat your users like kids by overloading your site with your version of Looney Tunes.  Keep it simple and useful! Caroline Waxler from Inc. Technology has some very great tips on this that you should definitely consider as well. Check out her very insightful article  here :

KEYS FOR DESIGNING A SUCCESSFUL SITE

Now that you have a solid grasp of the many elements that make great design, it is vital that you hire someone who can handle the job and teach you until you have mastered it.  Sites like Craigslist are ok; but they are a big gamble! Google web design businesses and companies and do the research. In the end it will be worth your time and money to hire the right company for the right job.

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Connecting with Social Media

April 28th, 2010

The wide array of social media platforms have all become part of our every day  lives.  It’s quite obvious :)   Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter,  Linkedin, Google Wave  or the new craze,  ChatRoulette, people are hooked and hooked.  These days I’m  sure  you’re finding yourself asking the same old daily question : when and where  is the right time to chat online? Well ask no more.  Here is a great little flowchart made by Mathew Honan. It’s seriously hilarious and fool proof.  Have fun.

click to see the full size.

Nima Kazerouni

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Posted in Funny | 1 Comment »

 


Make an Impression With Your Website

April 27th, 2010


Try to remember the last time you needed something… If you’re like me or many other millions of people around the world, the first thing you do is probably go to Google and start typing.  For me my last big purchase was my lodging in Costa Rica a few weeks back.  This is a little story of how a good website can make or break you…read closely if you want your business to succeed.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and just say it, “THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR IN TODAY’S BUSINESS CLIMATE IS YOUR WEBSITE.”  Obviously, I mean this…  Businesses both new and old underestimate the way the internet has changed the way people perceive and eventually pick businesses they deal with.  There is nothing more important than having a clean, updated (not updated in 2004), informative, and polished website.  It doesn’t matter if you have been around for 50 years or 5…  If you want to keep getting new clients you need to keep your website updated with a new design that follows current web design standards.

This leads me back to my example.  As I was scouring Google with my Firefox browser (if you use IE please leave now…ha just kidding.  Just download Firefox already…) I was opening tabs left and right.  I must have had 25 tabs open all displaying the different pages of hotels, houses, and places to stay in Costa Rica.  Next I’ll show you how I browsed them and eventually picked the ones we were going to stay at…

  1. I closed sites that obviously had no effort put into them.  These sites were unpleasing to the eye, outdated, or just didn’t function properly.
  2. I closed sites that looked like they were built by the owner or were templates…this shows to me two things; One: the owner doesn’t want to spend the money, which means the owner isn’t making much money, which means the place probably looks like their janky website.  Two: the owner think his or her place isn’t unique enough to have a beautiful custom site built.
  3. I browsed through to the remaining sites (only about 6) and picked 2 based on their photos, reviews, and prices.


My example attempts to show you how much of the world surfs the internet.  They want to see a custom site, they want to see professional photos, they want to see the effort put into the site because it directly reflects how much effort you put into your business and making your customers happy.

This is GREAT news for small businesses.  If small businesses have better websites than some of their bigger competitors they have a much higher chance to get noticed and be competitive.

You can contact firms such as WebWorks & Graphics, who specialize in high-end custom website development, to help you make the most of your web presence.

With a little bit of effort you can see the results.

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Posted in Business Development, Web Design Tips | 2 Comments »

 


Another important reason why your website needs to be running at top speed!

April 20th, 2010

Website speed and the amount of time it takes for your website to load is obviously very important to the web surfer deciding whether to stay on your page or hit the road to another more efficient website. This is common sense.

However, now there is another important reason to make sure your website is running as smooth as ever. Google has recently announced that it will be taking into account the loading speed of your website into your ranking visibility online.

Hold on a second. OMG!  This is so huge for all businesses fighting in the highly competitive virtual  world. Google consequently states,

I think the average smaller web site can really benefit from this change, because a smaller website can often implement the best practices that speed up a site more easily than a larger organization that might move slower or be hindered by bureaucracy.

So you heard it from Google. Make sure your website is up to date because every little bit of coding matters when taking into account your website’s speed and efficiency.

Here at WebWorks and Graphics, our Coders and SEO guys understand this only too well and we are here to help you make your website as efficient as it can be. Get competitive and take your website seriously; because you know GOOGLE is.

Nima Kazerouni

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Posted in SEO Tips | No Comments »