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Archive for the ‘Website Design’ Category
The Art of Photography in Web Design
Browse through some websites currently out there and you might notice that photography dominates as the main artwork on many website designs. As a web designer, it would be great to hire a professional photographer and get exactly what is wanted and needed for a web design. In reality however, this scenario is not very likely. Fortunately, there are some great alternatives and resources to turn to.
Here is a quick summary of the different factors that influence what, where, and how to choose photography for a web design project.
Print vs. Web
Most web designers start out creating a photoshop document with the size intended to fit universally with all screen dimensions. However, print designers, literally design on a whole other scale. Photoshop is a program that shares compatibility useful for both the Web and Print documents. The two are unique forms of design that cross paths every now and then, but definitely have their distinguished members of the family. Below I am going to illustrate the main attributes of both and point out their differences. Read the rest of this entry »
Prepping for a Project: Utilizing Moodboards
At clickbrand, we like to use mood boards as often as we can. Mood boards are a great way to jump start the design process and help define the structures and goals of a project. It sets the tone, style, and overall feel of the design early on, without being convoluted with thoughts about the layout and architecture of the site. Often times, clients are unsure of what they want exactly, which leaves a project with many diverse concepts and ambiguous solutions. To design something based on these loose criteria would have a higher probability to result in something that the client might not be completely satisfied with. Read the rest of this entry »
TNS. Type Nerd’s Society. Where being a nerd is accepted! Period.
Is it real? Could it be? No, really?! Come on, you know you want to know more about typography! Typography is a very enticing and intriguing subject! Trust me you will be hooked after reading and viewing this entry!
I bet you never met someone so in love with typography? Well, I will try and make this short and sweet and show you lots of examples but bare with me 
! Read the rest of this entry »
Increase user participation by Increasing your trustworthiness
So you’ve done all the proper SEO stuff for your site, you’ve told everyone you know about it, and you’ve designed your site to look as professional as possible. Now that you have your website up and running, users should start flocking to your website, filling out forms, becoming a member of your community, or just generally clicking around and accomplishing the goal you had intended. In a perfect world, your website would be bustling with activity, but unfortunately, not everyone’s website always goes as planned. If you find that your user participation has been less than you expected, it may be an issue of trust, among other things.
Experience has taught many internet users to be skeptical of everything on the web. We’ve all been burned at some point by an untrustworthy website, so you have to prove to each and every user that you are worthy of their trust. You have to prove that the form users must fill out will not increase the spam in their inbox, or that the button you wish them to press will not bring them to an advertising site with endless popups and popunders. Proving your trustworthiness is no small feat, but here are a few tips that may help you.
The New Era of CSS: The why’s and why nots.
Why do we need a better CSS?
Not only is it essential for developers to have the upper hand in new techonology for programming but for the web designers too. CSS is rising and becoming more common. Some issues with this new revolution still arise, but it will definitely be an effective change in technology shared among the programmers, the designers and most importantly the user! There is the ability to have a lot more flexibility with alternative syntaxes, which benefits the programmer and design techniques that let the designers use a more wide variety of fonts (this is only the least of it). Some of these tweaks in the system will cut time in half in the developing of a website. Read the rest of this entry »
Designing a Button: Good Practice Tips
A good and effective button requires more thought and planning than meets the eye. Below are a few tips on what to keep in mind when designing your next button.
Purpose
The first step to creating a good button is thinking about Purpose. What is the purpose for this button? Is it just a connecting point for the user to get from one place to another? Or does it serve a more important purpose? Whether you want users to sign up or view a new product, there must be something that leads the user to perform the action you desire them to do. Different purposes will require a different design.
Once the purpose has been established, you can move on to the other factors necessary for creating a good button.
Tips for Designing Mobile Applications
Designing for mobile applications is quite different from designing for conventional computers, such as laptops or desktops. If you were to port a website, for example, to a mobile device, it would mean more than simply making a miniature version of it. Think of mobile applications more like a child of a main application, rather than a miniature version. The mobile application shares many of the attributes of its parent application, but like any real child, it is not miniature copy of its parent. Here are a few things to consider when designing a mobile application: Read the rest of this entry »
Design or Disaster, you pick.
Coding and Graphic Design come from two entirely different worlds. They have much different processes in Web Design. It’s a combination of logic and creation – right and left side of the brain. As a team, they play a huge role in a great looking website.
The importance of graphic design knowledge is underestimated by many web designers. In result of this, they struggle to create attractive-looking websites. With that said, the visual part of a website can really make a site look more valuable and credible – after all, you are representing the branding of a company.
Here are 3 Main points to keep in mind when thinking about a well-designed website:
How to Avoid a Web Design that Fails
In this era where technology and the Internet play a dominant role in society, it is important to keep up to date and not fall behind with your business. With any business, you almosthave to establish a web presence if you want to stand a chance to compete with others. It may be easy to put a website up, but many opt to go the route of designing the site themselves, or using designers who lack specific experience in Web Design. These sites often fail to recognize and utilize the aspects unique to Web Design, and therefore fail to be as effective as it can be.
So what makes a good website and how can you avoid making the same mistake as others? Here are a few tips on the key elements to what makes a good website:
