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Business Week's 10 commandments of web design
Business week just published its 10 commandments of web design.
Practical eye candy
This blog has been quiet for a couple of weeks now, and there has been a reason for that. We've been busy deliverying on half a dozen new sites - all of them quite large
We've built some really beautiful sites. What really excites us is how they are all being run by the CMS.
Normally content managed websites tend to a certain sameness and we feel we have stepped right away from that.
Great graphic design and a compelling message on the front page is one way to get passing traffic to stop and consider becoming your customer. To have this and a website that you can easily manage yourself is a winning combination.
Check them out.
...read moreCopywriting for the web
The keys to a typical website's can be reduced to
- creating valuable content
- converting of visiting readers to customers,
- creating high traffic to increase customers.
A vital part of this is making sure that the text content within the site is as good as possible. Getting support in this area from a copywriter guarantees
- clear communication
- compelling calls to action (converting visitors to customers)
- key word optimisation producing higher organic search engine results
We've started working with a very promising new copywriter who is specialising in writing for the web. We can't tell you how exciting this is. We have worked with a number of writers previously, and while they were good none of them really understood the medium of the web. It sounds like a subtle thing, but that lack of understanding often meant that the excellent copy just wasn't quite right for the websites that we were working on.
So we say welcome to Angus Gordon, of Usable Words and we hope to do a lot more work with him in the future.
Help is on hand (and offsite)
This week we are looking forward to becoming customers of Second Site, a new business that promises to make our business administration a lot easier.
We are still too small to hire a full time secretary, which means that currently, all those administrative tasks are still my responsibility. However from this week we will be welcoming Belinda onto our team. she will be taking up key tasks in front of house, customer support and communications, as well as office management. I think it will end up making a huge difference in our business.
...read moreBreaking the square
Web pages are basically made up of a bunches of squares and rectangles. Some of the rectangles are images, and some of them contain text, but basically everything is pretty boxy.
Because of that the average web page ends up looks pretty rigid and linear, and thus rather boring. Its partly because so many websites end up looking the same, but also because the rigid lines and fixed grid lacks visual tension and rarely lead the human eye from one point of interest to another.
When you are trying to get passing traffic to stop and look at you this is not a good thing.
Instead we have got increasingly interested in bending and breaking these conventions. We call it breaking the square.
...read moreWho's on first?
We've just had an interesting week, with a lot of deadline pressures. Dealing with these gave me some interesting insights.
We were having some frustrating conversations with one client in particular. By that I mean it was frustrating for both parties. On our end we couldn't work out why the customer was fixating on seemingly trivial details, while the customer was probably wondering why we seemed so incapable of following simple instructions.
Communication was hopelessly compromised. We were speaking the same language but totally failing to understand each other. We were arguing over technology and design points that just weren't critical, mostly because each side had no idea what the other was saying. Positions threatened to become entrenched.
It took me asking a really simple question to break the deadlock.
...read morethe web has a funny sense of memory
I was just writing the last blog post about youtube videos, and part of it involved a quick trip to my hockey club's web page. I was stunned to see that the picture in the top left hand corner was from my old team from over 10 years ago. What was even more amazing was that we appeared to be pictured near the opponents' goal, rather than our own - as was traditional.
Now that I revisit the site I see that it is a randomly generated image that changes every time you view the site. But what were the odds that I saw it that time :).
I had to click refresh about 20 times but I found the image again. Here it is. Don't look for me, I was at the other end of the field.
Good builders and bad builders
“But my nephew can build my website for $600.”
Yes he can, but the question you have to ask is “Should he?”.
We regularly hear statements like the one above, particularly from businesses that are just starting out, and are trying to keep costs to a minimum. Because the business owner has no background knowledge in the technical requirements of building a website, or the practical needs of a website that actually makes a business grow they are usually totally unaware of the cost of such a decision.
We also see a fair few websites that have been built by a professional website design or development company, but which have been built in a substandard way. This is a new and unregulated industry; the best techniques for building websites are constantly changing, as are the strategies that make a website successful. Many so-called professional businesses, particularly at the bottom end of the market, are sadly lacking in best practices.
Educating consumers becomes a challenge in itself.
The Ikalator 3000
Learning Javascript is so far the hardest thing I have taken on since starting here at Acorn. Somehow the HTML and CSS all kind of made sense to my designer brain. Even though I didn't know any of it when I came here it didn't take much to start learning what limits I could push with them. But to step into programming land is to stop thinking as an artist would, think like computer.
...read moreReferral rewards at the Harvest Home
We rely heavily on referrals here at Acorn. Not only is it a powerful and cost-effective way for us to find customers, but because trust and credibility are usually important criteria for our prospective clients, it seems to be one of the main ways people source services like ours anyway.
In recognition of this, to reward those who do pass business our way, and to encourage them to keep thinking of us, we have instigated a referral program.
...read moreBack to Carlton BNI
This week I'm back to my BNI chapter, the Carlton branch. It's been nice having a break away - principally getting to sleep in on Thursday mornings, but I'm looking forward to catching back up with everyone.
In case you have never heard of it, BNI (or Business Networking International) is a business networking group, which is great for small businesses, particularly in their early stages. I don't think that I would still be in business without it.
My business coach
I've just been to see my business coach.
Its hard to really describe what a difference he makes in my business. Sometimes I don't always notice the real difference myself. We just had a conversation reviewing the distance the business has travelled in the last few months. I hadn't noticed how much of the progress had come about because I was able to take advantage of Peter's experience and judgement. When you are trying to grow your own business you can't put a price to that sort of thing.
He really has made a difference in helping me love my business.
...read moreMy first blog post
This is my first post to the new blog. I just want to see how the post formats in both the detail and the summary (index) views. I will be playing with the layout until I get it right. ...read more
6 ways to wreck your website
Virtual thieves and virtual property
New Quoting process
New online help
New staff members
Value-added websites click with customers
Gorilla Print
free image scaling tool
Popup blockers
email newsletter campaigns
In the blink of an eye
Publish your way to the top.
Style properties
Writing for the web
Position Vacant
Adding some flash to your images
The Acorn website is launched
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