If you think you can’t compete with a Fortune 500 company keep reading, because even a bottomless advertising budget can be a waste if they make some of the dumb mistakes that keep popping up in the social media stratosphere. If you can avoid these mistakes, and more importantly learn from them, you can completely negate any advantage they have. Lou Malnati’s Pizza has roughly a fifth of Domino’s fanbase. That doesn’t sound impressive until you realize that Lou has 30 locations and Domino’s has over nine thousand. Dominos beats Lou 300 to 1. Yet they’re still keeping up with…
Read MoreArchive for the ‘Findings’ Category
The dominance of search
Last night I attended a presentation for web professionals in the Chicago area. It was organized through meetup.com. The presenter was Matt Moog, Founder & CEO at Viewpoints. You can see his slide deck here.
Among his many relevant points was the notion he referred to as ‘the dominance of search.’ Matt’s focus for the evening was specifically on sites that serve up social commerce, but I think the search issue is something any site needs to consider seriously. What Matt was referring to was his claim was that 50-80% of traffic across the web comes from search. This was a…
Read MoreAwesome Dev+Design Playground
Every so often I come across a company or community of developers (and designers) who put out great, inspiring, innovative work…for free.
I believe a big part of being an active member of any community, such as the “people who build websites community”, is to give back and provide people with the opportunity to learn and grow. On top of giving information and showing how things can be done and built, every now and then you come across work that is a notch above the rest.
Recently, I was browsing a popular design/dev website and came across this playground, built and maintained…
Read MoreHow to manage content during the website design process.
So what is content? It’s simple. It’s the stuff that goes on your website. The reason people come visit in the first place. The informative text, images, video, audio, etc… that keep people engaged and provide value to your users. You know, that stuff.
Content has to be one of the most important aspects to your site, right? After all, even if you have superb interaction, intuitive navigation, and stunning graphics, who is going to come to your site (and stay) without any worthwhile content?
Unfortunately, there are some who are disinclined to recognize the value of investing proper time and effort required…
Read MoreSocial (social) Media (media) Echo (echo)
I have growing doubts in this the advent of social media that this constant production of, and then echo after, of information rattling around the corridors of the Internet is an entirely positive thing.
Could an animal survive and thrive if it had extremely sensitive ears but couldn’t discern where the sounds were coming from? Perceiving the sound is only part of the equation. Answering the follow up questions in a split second is the other part. Where did the sound come from? When did it occur? What made it? Should I take action?
I’m sharing this observation because it seems like…
Read MoreA “new era” of web design…poster design
I can’t really put a finger on when it happened, but at some point in the not so distant past, web design broke through a pretty major glass ceiling. Up until this point web design was bound and constricted to what web ( and physical ) technology would allow it to do. Web technologies started with table based layouts, web friendly fonts and tiny display resolutions. It then progressed to CSS, web standards and the integration of application and interaction design. Now, with HTML5, CSS3 and new javascript methodologies, we are able to build creative and inspiring websites that are…
Read MoreWorking with an Agency: Don’t keep a dog and bark yourself.
One of the most challenging aspects of working in an advertising or interactive agency is managing sensitive agency-client relations. Taking clients down the path to creating a successful marketing message or making a recommendation that they may not agree with can be fun and exciting or it can be an emotional, difficult and even scary process. It seems like it should be easy. Clients hire us for our expertise in creativity, strategic direction and user experience. You are paying for our service, so why not use us to our full potential?
There is definitely something to be said for letting an…
Read MoreThe Bottom Line on Creating Website Content
The online world is all about content. What brings people, whether consumers or business clients, to a website? The obvious answer is: new ideas and information that solve their challenges and needs. Print, TV, radio and online ads can drive traffic to a website all day long, but what good is it if they get to the site and are bored or unsatisfied with the breadth of information and leave.
Or for that matter, what if they come once and like what they see and read, and then come back a week or a month later only to see the same…
Read MoreBeing a More Efficient Web Designer
1. Using Pre-made Form Elements
Often when designing a web comp we need to incorporate items that are part of the browser GUI. These elements, like it or not, are part of the overall design. So its often many designer’s habit to fire up their browser, find a checkbox, radio button, text input, etc. and grab a screen shot. However, there is a better way. The Designer’s Toolbox has done all this for us and organized every browser’s unique elements into an easy to use layered PSD file. Just keep them nearby and whenever you need a browser GUI element you can…
