The Best Website Designs: A Review

We recently stumbled across a website called 'The Best Designs' and it has an enormous collection of some of the best experimental and trending website design in the world. It's a great collection, but how useful is it to the small business owner and to marketing professionals like ourselves? Most of the websites on Best Designs are creative professionals like us, and are extremely image heavy. There's not a lot of content information and some of them are 'Scrolling' websites, which means they're one page and you're taken around the website via javascript. Not very SEO friendly.

If you didn't know, Integraphix not only builds websites, but we also are a Chicago marketing company that assists with Brand messaging, Identity, Logo Design and Graphic Design, and Internet Marketing. We have a unique perspective on how websites should be built. Let's take a look at some of the contenders.

The Importance of the Web-Page Lead Capture

Web Developers in Chicago

Personal Trainer's Website Design

If you're a business owner and are putting together your website, you've probably come across the term 'Lead Capture' or 'Lead Capture Page' and wondered what it is and why it's important.

A Lead Capture plays a vital role in generating leads and customers for your business. This form, or page, grabs attention and provides a quick way to contact your business or join an email list for your business. This will provide a list of potential customers and contacts to which you can market your business. This page needs to appeal to your target market in terms of design and language used. And you have seconds to capture that attention, or those readers/visitors typically won't return.

As a web and graphic designer, you know your job entails helping your client sell their service or product. Your ultimate goal is to help viewers understand a message and, in turn, reap benefits for your client. Developing a process to follow each time you take on a new project can help tremendously in achieving results you and your client are happy with. Whether you’re a graphic designer, web designer, programmer or otherwise, having a system set up will help you get the work done faster in addition to keeping things organized and the designer/client relationship a positive one.

Project Initiation

One of the most important steps in the design process is accumulating the information you’ll need. This is usually achieved by either a face-to-face meeting with the client, a questionnaire, or even a Skype meeting if you really wish to establish a personal relationship with your client. In gathering this information, you now know your client’s objectives and can focus on the details for inclusion in your brief.

The Brief: Although it may seem like more work than necessary, a design brief has a couple of key benefits, no matter how big or small the project seems to you:
It ensures the client knows what he or she wants from the project
It acts as your point of reference during the project

The more information the client provides initially, the better the result for the both of you (especially the client). Topics for inclusion in the design brief may vary but a few good starting points may be:
Corporate Profile – A summary of the business
Market Position – An evaluation of the company’s service/product in relation to the competition.
Communication Task – What’s the message trying to be conveyed and through what means (e.g. taglines, body copy, photography, etc.)
Target Market – Demographics — the age, gender, income, employment, geography, lifestyle of those the client wants to reach.
Objectives – What quantifiable result does the client want to achieve?
Schedule/Deadline – A realistic schedule of how the project should proceed.

At this stage it’s also a good idea to accept a deposit for the first half of the project...read more!

Web Design Changes Due to the iPad

The iPad has recently gained tremendous fame worldwide. A huge mass of people are getting attracted to this newly emerging device. We can already see people using an iPad whether they are in a bus or a coffee shop. Why it has become so popular in such a short time?

The answer is, it’s such a computer that you can simply hold in your hand and read like a book. It’s a more intimate way to interact as now you can lounge with the computer rather than having the difficulty to sit with it at a desk. This technology change has turned the world of website designers upside down. It has led the web designers rethinking about their design tactics and even the way they code. The designers have started designing specifically for the iPad because it seems undeniable that the device will hold strong position in the future. To give a more positive user experience web designs and layouts must be more compatible to the iPad.

Web Design Layouts: A (or F) to Z

There are specific ways to layout a website that work with no problem. F and Z. It has to do with the way our eyes track the screen (or a book) and how we digest information on that website. Let's pre-empt this conversation with one thing: Not everybody uses these layouts, or even cares to consult them when designing websites - this is typically why some websites fail in terms of conversions and sales. Here's why:

The F Layout
This layout has to do with Search Engines, Blogs and informational pages like your 'About Page' or 'Services Page'. Take a look at this handy image provided by WebTuts. If you notice, the 'hot spots' are in the general shape of an 'F'. This is where our eyes are looking the most - in the upper left hand corner, down the sides, and somewhat floating into the middle of the page.

HTML 5 Cheat Sheets (for download!)

HTML5 is changing and adding new techniques almost on a weekly basis, and it can become hard to remember all the new features, much like any new software or coding language can be. Fortunately, Web Design Ledger is on top of things, and InMotion Hosting designed these lovely cheat-sheets that developers can download. See them below!

The cheat sheets are broken up into three graphics:

• Tags
• Event Handler Content Attributes
• Browser Support

Each differentiates between the new, existing, and unsupported features of HTML5. The clean visual grid is easy to run through, lending itself to be a very practical tool for a busy designer/developer. The most useful aspect of it all – it is print-ready for you to pin up on your wall for quick and easy referencing.

HTML5 Cheat Sheet By InMotion Hosting - A Virtual Private Servers Provider

See more below the cut!

Top 5 Web Designs of 2011

There has been a lot of development over the past year in Web Design, and this collection of colorful designs is no exception. Designers move away from the traditional and embrace abstract use of typography and design to create a true web design experience when you're in their online space.

Take a look at these top 10 web designs of 2011 and see what you can pick out as trends, and perhaps, what you can come up with for 2012.

The Importance of Content Marketing

Article Writing & Content Writing Services

It isn't a surprise that content is a very important and popular aspect of marketing for any business industry and size. Businesses know that creating high quality content takes time and research, and like other things, cutting corners isn't an option.

Bing wrote a very eye-opening article about content and content distribution:.

“As the author of the content, you don’t have much to worry about. Your deal is to write and then be seen across a range of websites. The websites, however, have some cause for concern, as the engines are unlikely to simply rank the same article highly over and over, just because that article appears on a different domain.”
The trend I see growing in content marketing is the same thing that happens in many industries, a few bad apples ruin it for everyone. Prime example is Google’s recent Panda updates which really put a spear through many content farms that used to syndicate content or accept sub-par quality articles simply for the sake of ranking.

Web Design Inspiration: Single Page Sites

Web Design is not an easy thing to implement. There are several issues to contend with before the design can be agreed upon by all: Creative Department, Developers, SEO specialists and Client alike. Websites are typically several pages, and in some cases involve thousands of pages of products and/or content. Which makes these next websites all the more impressive. They don't so much qualify as websites, but rather landing pages, but all the same: the fact that they get their message across in one page is impressive. Take a look at the best of the best of 2011.

Blog Design Aesthetics and Mistakes to Avoid

This article is targeted mostly at those who blog and get paid to do it or make money from their advertisements or through subscriptions, but when it comes to blog design, there are commonalities between unpaid and paid bloggers. There are also several common mistakes that need to be corrected or avoided in order to make your blog a successful one. For a design company, these should be no brainers, but for the general population, these are good tips! So listen up bloggers! There are some major pitfalls that you should be aware of.

1. Overwhelming Advertising
We all want to make money. But blasting your readers with ads all over your website is the easiest way to lose readers and turn off potential readers. Do NOT let ads take over your content - people do not visit blogs to look at the ads. They visit blogs to read what you've got to say. If you're only offering ads: don't expect a return reader. IF you must use advertising to support yourself or your blog, choose tastefully placed ads that are easy to see, but easy to ignore if the reader chooses to do so. Ads themselves are not the turn offs - it's that your site has ceased to be a blog and become a advertising page. Thankfully our Chicago Marketing Company blog doesn't have a ton of ads since it's through blogspot, but if you're designing your own blog website - don't put a ton of ads on it.