Category: Web Design

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Your Website’s Call-to-Action is Its Central Purpose

September 9, 2009

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Say a new visitor to your website finds you through a search engine. They’re impressed with your content, which was written to get their attention. They like your professional design, which establishes that you’re a trustworthy brand. So then what? Give them a call-to-action and tell them what they should do, that’s what!

What to Ask When Designing for a Target Audience

August 12, 2009

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When people first come to me to design a website for them, one of the first things I ask them is who their target audience is. Knowing who a website’s visitors are (or will be) is crucial for designers to know, because it helps us make all of the design decisions that [...]

4 Special Usability Concerns of Dark Websites

August 6, 2009

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Dark websites seem to be growing in popularity lately. If done properly, they can convey a sense of elegance, sophistication, sleekness, and/or professionalism. But in order to create a great dark website, web designers need to pay attention to some special usability concerns that come with the unique territory.

Flash Banners: Content and Design Considerations

July 7, 2009

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Flash banners can be a great addition to a website and can be a great way to convey important information in a visually attractive manner. In order to make them as effective as possible, there are some important content and design considerations that should be kept in mind when creating the banner.

Last Things I Do Before Launching a Website

June 30, 2009

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Launching a website can be a very exciting, yet frantic, time for both my clients and myself. With the end of the project in sight, it’s easy to forget to do some of the basic things that can greatly affect the initial success of the new website. Here is my list of what I do [...]

Make Your Homepage Content More Usable

June 23, 2009

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No page on your website is more important than your homepage, which is why it needs to make a strong first impression on your visitors. To make sure that happens, you need keep in mind some of the unique usability concerns when it comes to writing content for your website’s homepage.

Clear Instructions Will Improve Your Form’s Usability

June 2, 2009

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From a web designer’s perspective, creating a better and more usable form usually means coming up with a nice, clean design. That’s definitely true, but it’s not 100% accurate, because how usable your form is also depends on how well you’ve written the instructions contained within it.

Tips to Make Your Hosted Search Tool More Usable

May 28, 2009

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Hosted search engines allow you to easily incorporate a search function onto your website. Almost all of them give you some form code to put on your website, but you don’t have to use that code as they give it to you – you can customize it in order to improve its usability.

9 Ways to Make Your Links More Effective

April 16, 2009

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Links are one of the most fundamental building blocks of successful content on your website, yet many people create them – knowingly or unknowingly – in ways that decrease their effectiveness. Here are some tips that you can use when writing links within your content that can help improve their overall usability.

Design Drop-Down Menus According to the “3 W’s”

April 2, 2009

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Drop-down menus are one of those “love ‘em or hate ‘em” elements in web design. Many designers or developers shy away from using them, and I used to be no exception to that. As I’m learning more about them though, I’m coming to embrace them – as long as they meet my “3 W’s” criteria.