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Unmatchable Web Design Trends of 2010: A Look Back

February 13, 2011 by antonentin 5 Comments

The Web Design trends for 2011 are yet to unleash. But, to look at 2010, it was all set with new horizon, and hot trends of design industry. Though, not a drastic departure from 2009, there was a definite shift in design aesthetics.

Even if you were not the part of the movement, be encouraged to dabble into these trends.

You may ask “Why”? Trends help designers to push forward and discover – What is next or what needs to be explored for perfection? In fact, ideas behind design trends are more important and designers should recognize it aptly. It helps you prepare for the coming seasons and of course, improve your site response rate.

Let us take a quick look what made web design trends of 2010 so popular?

Sketch or Hand drawn designs

Well, it is not exactly a new concept, but we know – it is still on the fringes of web design. Sketch in 2010 was more elemental part of corporate design. It was more of creating personalized standard web copy than fulfilling main focus of web design. However, it was not a smooth sailing for the traditional designers.

Many designers appreciated such designs but suffered from “I can’t really draw” attitude. However, such designs convey sense of closeness and improve the gap between web and personal interaction – The ultimate goal of Website development.

Large Headers and Over-sized logos

2010 has to keep an unforgettable impression on visitors. And, it did it well with over-sized logos and matching large headers. The header could take up to the entire screen but leave an important message (the catch line) for the visitors. The idea was brilliant. Visitors need not to face clicking phobia. Just a simple scroll down and the message were convincing enough to the visitors.

Slab Typefaces

Slab Typeface is a good visual treat to readers. Though, it has been used in traditional media for quite a long time, for Web, it was relatively new. Slab typeface is a particular font style where all the letters are capital and bold – to create a strong impact.

Initially, designers were reluctant to use it, as smaller logos and headers seemed understated. With new trend towards larger headers, slab typefaces got brave expression.

Typography

One of the most innovative, difficult and fresh design alternatives in 2010 – Typography simply rocks. The concept of mixing font sizes, twisting and moulding them to fit your purpose were unmatchable. Correct placement and creativity was all what enticed the readers. No need of overloading the site with tons of images and your job is done.

On page layout

The idea of single page message was challenging. However, it was rewarding too. In 2010, the approach was more minimal and seemed perfect for personal profile, blogs.

Large images

2010 Designers had a comfortable journey with humongous size images. It helped them using big statements in designs and conveys site’s voice.

Modal boxes

These were the latest add on, virtually everywhere in 2010. Modal boxes look like pop up and are easy to design and use. Designers realized this well, and it has a great future too.

Interactive design

The year showed – Flash is no more an annoying web design application. In fact Flash designs became more relaxed and professional last year. As visitors are getting more web savvy, Web designers moved towards the redeeming elements of flash. The days of interactive design are back in track.

Want to explore more on latest web design ideas? Ask design experts and researchers.

Filed Under: Web Design Tagged With: branding, graphic design, web design

Taking Your Site Brand To The Next Level

February 9, 2011 by Nile 12 Comments

Whether you have a site that sells products or if you blog, I have said many times that you are selling. Your visitors that you engage with and keep coming back identify and connect with you through your site. They remember things like your content, your layout, and your logo.

When it comes time that you want to take your site brand to the next level, these factors will change. How can you successfully take your site brand to the next level without confusing people?

Well, change is inevitable… which whomever came up with that phrase, I do not know, but it is true. You will have to change in order to grow as a brand. McDonalds has, Pizza Hut, Adidas, IBM, Apple, Chris Brogan’s site, and so on are brands that have had some brand changes for the better throughout the years. Whether it was through advertisements or actual logo tweaks or changes, they have done it.

As a blog owner or business owner, you will have to do this at some point. While I am sure you like to keep hold of some things, it might not always be the best idea, especially when you want to improve your image. You may have an idea of how you want to take your site, and have a web designer try to fulfill those wishes, but find out that you may have taken two steps back instead of two steps forwards with improving your brand.

While you do not want your site to look exactly like other sites, you can certainly learn from what is already out there on what you like or do not like, what works best for some of the leaders in your niche, and from articles like this one, how to improve your site.

Before even doing a design tweak or redesign, remember that as long as the general message you already convey on your site, through your content is consistent and that you keep engaging with your visitors (or even customers/ clients.)

Logo Branding

If you are doing a logo tweak, keep some part consistent in the transition, whether it be the words of your site or company, colors, or if you have a specific image you use, something needs to still tell people “You are you.” It might seem silly, but it is not uncommon for people to become confused and think your site was taken over by another company or person when you change up your logo.

Layout Design Branding

When taking your layout to the next level, you have to really put it in your mind to not be attached to your previous site. Think of it as a good investment for the future. With a better image, you are. It is unfortunate that part of what attracts people to a website brand is the visual aspect. Even in simply designed websites, the visual aspects of it being clean, user-friendly, and legible are attractive. However, if you have a site that needs improvement, you might want to consult with someone on what they think. You might be surprised from whether it be a knowledgeable friend, your web designer, or a branding coach on how much you need to do to get to that next level.

Do not accept mediocrity. If you are being told that something cannot be done, especially for WordPress design, you are being told wrong. There are a lot of things you can do and next to nil that cannot be done. Imagination is the only hindrance, so break free being stubborn about change or being told “no” and embrace what could lead to further success.

Content Branding

As I said before, your content should be consistent with the message you want to convey to visitors, potential customers, or long time customers. You usually do not have to do much except make sure with your design format that you are showing the way to visitors on what you want them to see on your website. If you have an ebook, that needs to be somewhere visible. If you have special blog posts that are must reads, that too needs to be in a prominent place.

Have you done a site re-brand lately? Do you feel you have taken it to the next level? Are you still uncertain if your brand is still needing that extra oomph? For those who brand consulting, what advice do you have in this matter?

Filed Under: Social Media Tagged With: branding, graphic design, social media, web design

5 Ways Your Site’s Design Can Pop

February 6, 2011 by Nile 7 Comments

Design is not that hard for some, but others, it might not be as great. Designing a website should convey its own type of message to your visitors that enhance what content is already available on your website. Design elements that are strategically made to attract your visitors to certain places are certainly things you want to apply in order to successfully convert your visitors. Here are 5 ways to make your site’s design pop in a way to convert your visitor to other places on your website than just the front page.

Colors

Color is important. People are visual creatures. It does not matter whether you are male or female, things that attract people are well put together palettes or tasteful, yet attention grabbing colors.

Typography

Years ago, it was not possible to properly implement different types of fonts on a site to dress up a site. This took encouraging visitors to download fonts they did not have. Since those days, people can use Typekit or what I like to recommend, Cufon Text Replacement to change elements in their site- like headings (h1, h2, h3, etc…) or using it in their graphics.

When considering the right font, choose them not just on how cool it is, but also for legibility.

Sliders/ featured post tools

Featured content sliders really have made a great element for converting websites. While some of the theme developers out there are implementing the content slider just for your posts, you can break out of that and use images and direct to different pages or areas of your site, much like a banner ad, but with some tweaks, you can really make a successful conversion tool. One of the plugins I like for sites that do not have built in featured content sliders is the Easing Slider for WordPress by Matthew Ruddy. You can use custom images or use it for your posts. A similar example of this is here on the front page of Blondish.net

A featured article widget is nice to have in your sidebar. You can show people the way to articles you think they really should read.

Design format

Your design format is important. If you have too much space or things seem smashed together, it becomes a problem for visitors wanting to read your site or go where you want them to go. Good code and clean design is good. If you made your site by yourself, consult a web design friend for advice. They will know or they SHOULD know the best practices in web design.

Interactivity/ forms

Leaving a way for your visitors to communicate with you is an excellent feature. Whether it is the comment form for your blog entries, a lead form, newsletter subscription, social network icons, these will build that dynamic that other sites may not have. Make sure to give the impression to your visitors that your door is open to them and they can contact you. The number of doors, or methods you choose to leave available will exponentially increase that engagement factor on your website.

Of course, the methods above are very basic, but with some clean design and proper placement on a web page, your website can attract those you are trying to reach.

What methods do you like to use on your website to attract visitors?

Filed Under: Web Design Tagged With: blog tips, graphic design, web design, websites

Is Your Web Designer Really An Outsourcing Project Manager?

January 10, 2011 by Nile 9 Comments

There are so many freelancers out there, and there are people who get jobs and outsource them, claiming the credit of the designers they hire. These people are known as project managers, or depending on how they conduct business, they might even be considered con artists.

Being a project manager is okay. For myself, I do my own projects, but I am sure for traditional project managers finding a good freelancer is tough – especially one that is not with a team of people handling the project you really only want only 1 or 2 people to even have their hands on the project.

The problem is a lot of project managers are popping up with websites. While I could easily point out a few people, I will not. I will though give advice for people who are project managers or are contemplating on becoming one.

Advice to Web Design Project Managers:

Be transparent about your business. If you are outsourcing, make sure your client is aware of it. Putting on your website that YOU are the one designing is a untrue. For some clients, it could be very alarming, especially if they want to keep their project under a Non-disclosure policy. Be truthful with your designer and developers as well.
Be prepared to negotiate with a web developer or designer if you are claiming their hard work. While you paid for it, if the details of licensing is involved, you might face some legal issues. (Some project managers may put their link up on the client’s finished site, but allow the designer to put the work as a “joint project” in their portfolio.)
If you are wanting to provide web design work that is affordable to clients, you might not be able to afford a web designer, especially a talented one. Some of the freelancers out there may have a minimum set on projects. Make sure if you get paid, they get paid decently.

As for anyone who has had their site done by a freelancer, it is important that you know how your site is being done and when it is yours, what you can do. If the project manager is not able to explain, then it is more than likely they did not design the website.

For some people, this might not be important, but for those who want to keep their projects private, a project manager who outsources is not always the best choice. For some web designers and developers, project managers can be nice to have, but truthfully after personal experience with several, the honest ones are just about “a dime in a dozen.”

What is your advice to outsourcing project managers? What is your advice on how a client can find out in the most polite way how their project is being handled?

Our Sponsor:

Project management is a growing field in the graphic design and marketing world. Many undergraduates are choosing to receive higher education in order to advance their careers. (Project management degree online Retrieved March 30, 2012)

Filed Under: Freelance Tagged With: freelancing, project management, web design

Is Designing Your Own Site Hurting It?

December 15, 2010 by Nile 6 Comments

When you decided to start a website, you may have looked into what it took to put one together. It may have become intimidating and you did not know what to do. A lot of business owners face this. Not every person out there is naturally gifted with creativity, nor has the patience to learn HTML or any type of markup language.

Most business owners want to get on and have some control over their website, or be able to hire someone to do it at a fair cost without the fear of being screwed over from service or price. Some are so intimidated that they with design their own sites.

So, for those embarking on this method – Is designing your own site hurting it?

It depends.

Yes it does hurt to design your site on your own.

You know your content, but often the tools you might choose will not be the best ones out there. I know college students telling me they bought themes from their professors that when I took a look, it was just one hot mess I just about cried. It was shameful.

People are being screwed over even when they want to design their own website. They are not finding the correct tools, nor the best advice.

While things may seem so simple, ALWAYS research before stepping right into investing ANY time or money into building a website. Make sure before you build the site that you have a clear focus and a general outline of what you want for your website to begin with. As a web designer and developer, I often have clients who have no idea what they want. That is not a problem. I ask questions to hopefully give them an idea of what information they need to put together in order to help me give them the best product possible.

Doing it alone only makes you, the site owner have to question yourself:

Who do you want to target with your website?
Where do you want to promote your site at?
What type of design (color, possible design elements, or the general framework) do you want for your website?
What content do you want to put up (plan your pages)?
How much do you want to invest in both time and money?

I keep meeting clients who want me to maintain their static websites because it takes too long for them to do it. And you know what – they could be managing it a lot faster with (content management systems) CMS like WordPress. Even with some of the premium themes out there for WordPress, it makes putting a site up that much faster and easier. Though I love being paid, I like to make sure my client has the means to have control over their website and this is a great way to do it.

No it does not hurt to design your site on your own.

Maybe you have done the research? Maybe you can dabble in code or wing it? However, you may be missing things like optimizing your site for local listings. Your competition may be ranking higher because they went that extra step.

It is fine if you want to be in control, but there is always room for improvement, especially if you are wanting to succeed. Why not invest a little and reap more rewards? If you have a static website, you should be aware that WordPress is a content management system, and no longer just a blog platform. You can have an entire website built on WordPress. You can even forgo having a blog on it. Editing and adding pages is really as easy as typing an email up in your Yahoo, Gmail, Hotmail, or even Outlook.

The point is, regardless of how you get your site up and running, make sure you are doing it the right way and always willing to improve. Business owners with open minds are always open to things that will eventually mean making money.

Did you design your website yourself? Do you have recommendations on good resources for business owners who want to design their own websites the DIY method?

Filed Under: Blogging Tagged With: marketing, web design

Freelancing: Why A Revision Limit Is Necessary

November 18, 2010 by Nile 2 Comments

Whether you won a project in a freelancer website or acquired a project in person or through social networking online, it takes time to get a project done and communication between the service provider and the client. It is the communication that is important and one of the largest failures that can happen during a project.

Some of the scenarios involve:

The client know what they want, but unable to communicate it.
The freelancer did not read the original project and understand what was needed, nor asked the necessary questions up front to clarify the project.
The freelancers is not resourceful enough or not knowledgeable to complete the project successfully.
The client has the project done, but unsatisified.
The client likes the project so far, but requires numerous revisions.
The client requests for something outside the agreed project contract and expects the freelancer to do it for free (freelancer has previously stated their terms on extra services.)
The client does not have complete content or information to send and has to be asked a lot.
The client still has no idea what they want.

The problem is that a lot of freelancers, and please note that I do not say most or all, because not every freelancer does this – they block off an amount of time for a project. Sometimes the service provider will have several projects scheduled over the course of a few days, a week, a couple weeks, or more. It all depends on the comfort level the freelancer has when taking on a workload.

Especially in web design, and sometimes other types of freelance work, it is imperative to at least have over 90% of the work completed before showing the client. 100% is even better.

Let the client look over the first proof.
Have the client put together a list of feedback, much like a checklist so everything that is missing or needs to be done can be tackled.
Go over revision checklist and fix or answer questions if an explanation is needed (sometimes the client will put questions in.)
Send back completed revision checklist for client to check for a second proof.
If all is good, great. If there are a few more, ask for another revision checklist and repeat process until satisfied.

Personally, I allow for 3 revisions. For anyone with a busy workload, more than 3 revisions is too much time being spent playing cat and mouse trying to go through each individual request. Make a list!!! In putting this policy of 3 revisions, or whatever number you have for yourself, you are effectively making your workload more efficient.

No freelancer is psychic – although I have had a few that I have gotten the project right on the first proof, communication is key.

What is your revision policy with clients?

Filed Under: Freelance Tagged With: freelancing, online business management, web design, writing

Freelancing: Keeping A Positive Reputation With Former Clients

November 10, 2010 by Nile 2 Comments

I have had to encounter some fairly bad feedback for other freelance web designers from my clients who had issues with the “freelancer who is sensitve.”

What I mean by this is when a client decides to take up a new freelancer to design parts or all of a site to make it far more effective, both in usability and to look better aesthetically. The previous designer/ developer feels hurt and starts somewhat of a cyber temper tantrum by withholding information.

The information could be hosting information, need to know info about the site to pass on to the next developer, and even login information. It can be really frustrating, especially if the client is running a business that the lead form is not working or even some part of their e-commerce is broken.

I have 2 pieces of advice on professionalism in this matter – for the client, and for the freelancer:

To the Freelancer

1. It is not your website. You were paid to do the job and yes, you spent all that time on the site, but it is not to be considered like family. Be a professional, suck it up, and release the information needed to the client.
If you want to succeed, you need to give a good and everlasting impression. Regardless if the project you had once worked on was contracted out to another designer, if you left with a good reputation, you might just receive a surprising recommendation down the line.
With holding things like login or anything that was agreed upon as the client’s property in the design contract can be put in court. Be smart.
Do not talk smack about former clients on social networks. It is unprofessional and overall, immature. Future potential clients, if they have access to viewing your social network talk streams would definitely be turned off by such behavior.

To the Client -

If is not your fault if your designer is not cooperating with you. It is your website and you are entitled to all information, files, and anything agreed upon in your design contract with the developer.
It is okay to be nice and give a few days, but tough love is necessary, especially if it is losing you money. Be prepared to warn a developer that is not cooperating with releasing your website’s intellectual property, that you are within your rights to seek arbitration.
Be aware that if your case involves that the designer is not releasing web hosting login information that you paid for, that you will need to find out how to get your web hosting account back into your hands. Go directly to the web host, put in your case, and make sure to ask them how you can establish that the account is yours and not the designers.
In worse case scenarios, there are people who have hosted their clients and have deleted everything. If you can afford it and if you have enough documentation to prove your case, you can seek out legal retribution.

As said, it is important to keep a positive reputation with clients, both current, and former ones. You never know if a client might come back later or refer someone else. Due to some of the online tools to measure your reputation, both your own words and former client’s words can come up. One example that comes to mind is StepRep.

If you are a developer, have you heard of incidences where a client has had a nightmare experience in wrestling their account away from a previous designer? Any other stories that relate? What tips do you have for both freelancers and clients in this matter?

Filed Under: Freelance Tagged With: business, freelancing, social media, web design

13 Awesome Social Network Icon Sets

October 8, 2010 by Nile 6 Comments

Social networking sites have brought webmasters to seeking ways to entice their visitors to follow. Other than normal linking, social network icon sets can be a nice visual touch.

It is a good thing that there are generous web and graphic designers out there willing to take the time to make social icons for the hundred of social networks out there. Below are 13 places I think that have the best social network icon sets that bloggers, business owners, and well, any type of site owner can download and use.