Design, should be organic. The web is constantly changing for one and I think we are beginning to understand through social that the changes are so pronounced that we need to constantly be updating what we do rather than have a stab at it every couple of years. I remember when people started changing tools so they were launched sooner and had a permanent beta tag. Beta equates to cutting edge to me and explains because something is cutting edge that sometimes things go wrong but in the main my experience of that is very minimal but we are willing to sacrifice some perfection so that users are getting a technologically and personal up to date experience that is relevant to know not after a couple of months of testing. Or we could go back to not using anything that was cutting edge anymore.
I'd like the same attitude being given to websites, though obviously we'd not put a big fat beta label on our sites. A client used to commission a web site from myself, we'd agree various elements of that to do with project management and at the end they'd get a finished product. The more I've been influenced by marketing the more I began to feel what does that work finished mean and feel like to me? The answer is perfect, certainly many of my websites from the past have been far from finished when launching if that's the definition. So the question is are we then happy giving the client this type of 'finished' website.
When a client used to get a new website they used to often comment they'd be in touch in so and so time when it would be time for a new website. Websites get treated more like houses, you make your home and that's it for a few years before you decide on the upheaval of moving, this certainly is not a mentality you can get away with on the web now and it's not about having the latest spectrum of social plugins or thinking ok you want freshness start a blog.
I've never like the we'll be in touch comments. As the designer I never like the idea of the death of my babies when they'd only just been born. Basically most clients, particularly in the early days very much took an attitude of I'll change the site when I feel it needs changing and then I'll want changes based on my own whim, looking back in the day a couple of sites that were upgraded were maybe not improvements, at least allround, because the original format was good and it worked. Sometimes it is also a case of what's not broke doesn't need fixing.
I look back at the early days and I never remember spending 1 minute looking at analytics data as indicator never mind trawling through trying to get inside the question how can we improve the site from the users perspective. Today if I travelled back in time and found myself I'd at least give myself a good slapping. Ultimately a site should be built for its' customers not it's owner.
Most will know this by now as it's been a well document topic amongst SEO's so if you have read anything about SEO. Search Engines can't read images, only bog standard content. Having a very graphical site will obviously damage rankings in the search engines. With some site's particularly those that are branded related it doesn't really matter but having key content message's in content that search engines can't read is a bad idea. There is nothing worse for Search Engines than using sophisticated menu type layouts that use Javascript and Flash. These practically hide your entire site from the search engines. If you what to find out what does that mean find Google's cache of your page and then click on the top right link which says 'text-only version' and voila.
Finding people who are ready to promote what we do is not easy so let no-one fool you, if you want to do social properly you have to build it gradually and be in it for the long haul. There are certain tricks like building up a big follow list in Twitter helps and hoping most people you follow will follow you back but social is build on interaction and interact with people and gain their trust you have to show you are trustworthy. But there are certainly things we can do that don't take time that covers the basic which are.
Have something to say.
It's a big social world out there, they're are all sort of different sites and there is all sorts of interaction which is very nichy it's just not all about Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
Use the network you are in to easily communicate with your connections so that when you have something to say you get it into your network.
Syndicate your content so as you build up a list of social networks that the content automatically get's posted without you having to do anything. Don't rely on syndicated content to be your only social interaction. So for example you would syndicate your blog post's to Twitter, Video Posts to Facebook.
Social is Plug in heaven. Use all the plugins from all networks to get your readers to syndicate you. Facebook particularly is getting particularly sophisticated with plugin's that detect you're on the page.
How long does it take for a user to make a decision on a website upon first seeing it? I've read reports that have average's as low as 3 seconds, others a little higher at 5. If we stick to 5 seconds then we can certainly say that most if not all users will make some informed decision by this point. This is an incredibly short space of time it makes two important statements that you must think about it before launching any site.
Firstly your site must have an immediate impact and communicate what you do and what you say in that five seconds. Secondly load speed has a significant impact on this. There is a real balance between these two points make a too rich website and it may take 3 seconds to load by which point users have already began to make an informed decision about the page without even seeing it. On the other hand it may load in the blink of an eye but if it looks dull and boring guess what? Your users will be bored and quickly go elsewhere. The good news is it is not always a decision between design and efficieny of the page. Many of the issues associated with time speed are fixed by tweaking the code and don't effect the layout of the page. For first instance you should not be using tables as a layout structure all those tr and td tags lead to what I call bloated code. Many pages have large chunks in comments. They are generally two of the biggest offenders. There are couple of great tools you can use that are free Google have a tool named Page Speed, which is used as a Plugin on the Firefox browser. If you go to Google Webmaster Tools, Google and sign up if you don't know what I am talking about. Go to Labs, Site Performance. This gives you figures on your Page Speed which you want to see in the green part of the graph as you know on averages it's going to be faster than your competitors which is what I call a 'competitive edge'. Click on the install button for Page Speed. The other tool is something called Y Slow. Both will need another Firefox Plug in to work - Firebug. Both work very similar run a page with the add on switched on and it will grade elements of your site based on performance. Some elements are technical but should not beyond most web designers ability
In case you missed, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and now G + then you won't know the web has gone social. Okey I know not news to anyone but how do we both incorperate the wider picture of what goes on daily in the socialsphere with what we do and how do we target buyers effectively. Most of these topics are pretty complicated but there are certainly basics we cover.
Studies have shown that Video increases conversion. If you think about why this maybe it makes perfect sense. Firstly Video is interactive, that means it is a perfect medium for lazy web users. The ability to have a 90 second video played for you at the click of a button is priceless, both for the user and the site owner. Having to read is too much of a bore on today's web, particularly if you're not quite sure your even interested. Video gives a face to an otherwise faithless website and it particularly if your trying to sell a service people like to know the face beyond. Video is a perfect medium for the modern web.
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