Effectiveness
Dec 4, 2008 General, Page Layout
First off id like to say that this blog entry pertains specifically to design but I do believe these principles apply to many (if not all) aspects of life.
When faced with huge tasks, effective use of your time is critical. Its probably the deciding factor of whether or not a project turns out amazing or just average. Effective designers usually have a system they follow and these systems allow you to follow a routine with your workflow. What’s great about having a routine is that it takes the guesswork out of the process and allows you to free your mind up to concentrate on being creative.
Without any question the place where I developed my understanding of the importance of this concept was while working at snowboarder magazine. Here we had a small crew that consisted of a photo editor, two editors, copy writer, and an art director. it allowed us to move quickly and make our own decisions but there was no room or time for mistakes. each month we delivered a 200 page book (magazine). The only way were able to achieve this was through strict teamwork and effective use of time.
The term effective is very critical here. To be effective you need to measure twice and cut once. Get the best photos on the page, place them so they have the most impact, then set the type around them. Photos create the visual impact so they take priority over the words. Once you have the items in place and the type is set…….bring in some design elements, align everything and hit save. Now move on.
Move on? thats right. this is what being effective is about. Don’t tinker with it. The fact is - the page has its pictures in place and the type is set with a basic design underway. So basically the article is 90% done. At this point you should hit save and move on to the next article. This way you can get more pages out the door and as you get closer to your deadline you can gauge how much time you have left go back and hone your designs. Once you have a great deal of the articles assembled and saved it frees up your mind up to come up with cool colors schemes or layout styles knowing the nuts and bolts of the project are in place. I cant tell you how much time this system saves and it allows you to produce great work at a fast pace.
Earlier on I mentioned that these principles can be applied to many (if not all ) aspects of life. Take golf for example, every exceptional golfer has a rock solid and identical pre shot routine. It takes the guesswork out of preparing for the shot and frees up your mind to focus on the task at hand which in this case is making a great shot. This applies to personal habits as well. your morning routine if its evolved enough becomes automatic allowing you to plan for the day rather than dig around for your keys. The concept is a simple one but I strongly believe that having a routine is the key to being effective.
Masonite wins Best Design Award. THAT Agency receives bragging rights.
Nov 26, 2008 Page Layout, Web Design Trends
Award: Best of the Web. Category: Building Products. Competition: Strong. Read the rest of this entry »
Building companies have huge budgets and great products. The goal of the award winning site, Masonite, was to indefinitely match everything that they build, provide, and stand for. Masonite chose THAT Agency to get the job done.
Tags: agency awards, building professionals, website awards, website design
Goal Oriented Design
Aug 18, 2008 Page Layout
Many times as a designer I’ve found myself lost in a sea of client feedback and design changes. Most times it’s best to step back and ask yourself (and sometimes the client) “is this going to achieve the site’s/home page’s goal?”. When designing a home page it’s best to stick to the program and have definite goals in mind. Without that initial direction the home page really has no other purpose than to look good and possibly give the user the right impression. Having conversion goals, whether it’s a phone call, an email form or an online purchase these goals are important.
Often times as a designer we’ll have several goals for the home page and organizing them in a logical hierarchy is the best and most practical solution. The best way to get this done is to sit down with the client up front, before design even starts and lay out exactly what the client expects to gain from the home page. What does it need to “do” and which items are more important than others. Direct a user to specific conversion page, incite a user to pick up the phone or inform them of the latest special offer.
Once this is accomplished keeping to that goal should be just as important to you in design as it is to the client in conversion. When you or clients find yourselves lost in a sea of changes and ideas take a step back and make sure you’re not watering down the message/goal and you’ll have a much more enjoyable design/conversion experience.
How to keep people on your site
Jul 29, 2008 Page Layout
We live in an information-saturated world. There are more than 5 billion websites out there so people have a lot of choices. This means if people cannot figure out what your site is about almost immediately they will move on to the next site. So how do you make sure they stick around long enough for you to really get a chance to persuade them to buy your product or use your service? You need to control your visitor’s eyes of course. Don’t worry it sounds a lot more complicated than it is.
First of all, you need to provide a quick summary of your site. This does not mean you have to write a paragraph about what your company does. Actually that is quite the opposite of what you should do. You just need to find a way to let your visitor know what you do as soon as he gets on the page. There are many ways to do this. If you are in the retail business you could feature one of your products on the page; this lets the consumer know what kinds of products you are selling and lets him know he has come to the right place. This hotspot or feature spot also works as a great starting point, this is the place your visitors will look at first and then work from that place. If you know what they are looking at first it is easier to direct them to the next place you want them to look.
So where do you position this feature spot? Luckily most pages have a similar layout so most readers tend to all look to the same places when they first get to a page. If you don’t know where hotspots are you can check out this map from Google. The darker the area the more time visitors spend looking at that spot.
Aside from the feature spot your site needs to have a headline. Just like the headline of an article draws you in the story the headline of your website should draw in visitors. It should convey a central message that relays what your site is about.
Finally, a good way to get a message across quickly is by using images. People are drawn to images more than text because they can get a large amount of information with very little effort. Images let you show your customer instead of telling them something.
Now to make sure that you have achieved your goal you can test your site. To do this you will need to requite someone who has never seen the site. Ask them to sit in front of your computer and pull up the site. After two seconds close the browser. Do not warn them that you are going to do this. Then ask them the impressions of you r site. What did the notice, what do they think the site is about, did they trust the site? Using their answers you can go back and make adjustments where needed.
http://www.site-reference.com/articles/Website-Development/Controlling-Your-Visitors-Eyes.htm
Tags: website usability
How to Plan a Website
Jul 22, 2008 Page Layout
Most people know that the first step to creating a website is planning. What might be a little more unclear is how is the best way to go about planning a site.
Your 1st step should be to find websites that are serving a similar purpose as the one you want to build. Next, you should asses the strengths and the weaknesses of those sites. Use the sites to get ideas of what you would like to incorporate and what needs work.
For the second step get out a piece of paper and a pen (you can also you a pencil). On this paper jot down all your ideas about how you picture your site. Answer the following questions:
• “What are your goals in creating this website, what overall information do you want to convey?
• Who is your audience? Students, prospective students, faculty, staff, community, or a combination of two or more of these? What will be their goals in using your website?
• Are there different goals for different audiences? If so, what are the goals for each?
• Does the written content for your site already exist, or will someone be creating it?
• If the content exists, how and where is it currently stored?
• How often does the content change?
• Are there constraints on the information you want to display? For example, a page on this website should only be visible to students enrolled in a specific course.
• What interaction do you need between your site and its users? Do you have a database from which you want to extract and display information? Do you have forms that site visitors will need to complete?”
From: http://west.wwu.edu
Once you have answered all these questions and have written down all your thoughts it is time to make an outline. Think of this outline as a sort of table of contents of what will be found on your site.
From this move on to the 3rd step; a flow chart. This will allow you to have a visual representation of your site. You will be able to see clearly which pages link to each other and how your users will go through the site.
Finally make actual sketches of how you want each page to be laid out. Now this does not have to be perfect but it will allow you to have a good idea of what the final page will look like.
Now you are ready to get on the computer and actually make your site. Enjoy and don’t forget to check some of the design rules that I often talk about!
Page Design Basics
Oct 8, 2007 Page Layout
Page design can be much easier if you apply these 4 basic principals: proximity, alignment, repetition and contrast.
Proximity:
The principal of proximity tells you to put related items close together. Things that aren’t related should be farther apart. The amount of separation between items or groups tells your reader how the material is organized.
Alignment:
The principal of alignment tells us one thing: Each item on the page should align with another item. The alignment of items creates organization and stability. How you align things can also draw attention to different parts of the page.
Repetition:
Repetition, or consistency, means you should repeat aspects of the design throughout the project. Good repetition ties your work together. I consider this principal to be my secret weapon. Establish good design elements and then reuse them - it not only speeds up the process it is what separates good design from bad design.
Contrast:
Contrast is the best way to add impact to your page. Create contrast by using type headings, photography, textures, or color. Figure out what the focus of the page is then use contrast to exploit that focus.
These principals represent the foundation of good design. When applied correctly, you’ll be surprised at how they not only improve your page but also increase your productivity.
WHITE SPACE
Mar 29, 2007 Page Layout
There is a tendency with clients to add a lot of things to their websites or advertisements. The logic is simple: If there’s space - why not use it? Get something in there - anything. Use that space - it will help us to sell more.
This kind of approach leads to overcrowded and cramped designs. Another downside to this is user distraction. The extra item, logo or link that has been added now distracts the user from the original goal of the page or advertisement. The real point is to funnel the user towards a particular destination or action. If they get distracted - they leave and the “conversion” of interest into a sales lead is lost.
We encourage simplicity, its a better approach. Especially on the web, where users have a reduced attention span. Theres a statistic that says websurfers have a 70% shorter attention span than magazine readers. So a simple, clean look using lots of whitespace is the way to go. Oh yeah, one more thing, the white space doesn’t always have to be white. It can be any color!
