Put your marketing hat on and have a good hard look at your website. Is it selling itself? No, not how good it looks because I am sure it is totally awesome but is it doing it’s job for you?

Are you getting lots of client leads or is it just sitting there ticking over and giving you a trickle of leads? Some of my friends sites are gorgeous affairs with the most beautiful work laid out in what is a complex yet visually stunning way. My site which is a quick and straight foward affair with none of the bells and whistles gets me more income at the end of each month. Why? Because most of the viewers of their sites are other designers who go ‘wow’ but don’t convert to clients. Mine which isn’t so fancy has a focus of informing people and giving them everything they may want in easy to digest bites of information along with an easy to navigate format. If it is hard for someone to find your details then you are unlikely to get the work. They will navigate away and find someone else to contact. It is also why I have avoided any use of flash as a lot of people like myself do their browsing via iPhone or iPad.

What is your prime goal for your site. Do you have one? Does it do this? Could it do it better? How?

For example: Have you tried different formats and checked the statistics in comparison to see if you get more conversions in three months one way over another.

Did you have a copywriter work on your website blurb? What is your primary selling point? Are your calls to action working for you? Which pages are losing you the most traffic?

Every six months you should be reviewing your site in comparison to your traffic and developing the site to capture more of the traffic and convert it to clients rather than visitors. This may simply consist of placing a banner or call to action on a popular page reminding people about your services and to contact you for work they may need doing.

How often do you review your site in this way?

At present I am working on a book called ‘Insights into Graphic Design’ the following is the introduction to the book which I am planning to have available for purchase by the end of the year.

After more than a decade and a half working in graphic and web design, I have seen the industry shift from traditional offset printing to a digital basis. Not only that, but digital design has gone from simple graphics on rather ugly static pages to amazing dynamic flash portal site experiences. Gone are the days when a designer didn’t need to think past a logo further than the business stationery. These days a corporate identity design will include all print uses of the logo and the digital uses. These can be everything from use on the website and advertising banners to signatures at the bottom of emails. Then you will find that all the uses and versions need to be set in a style guide for the business.

Design is an ever shifting medium that is influenced by the advancing technology of computing and printing, but also by the mediums in which we use to communicate. Twenty years ago there wasn’t the need for mobile interface design, now with the huge market saturation the smartphones have, all your emails and business software can sit in your pocket along with music, games and video.

Designers have to stay on top of emerging technologies and upskill themselves lest they are left behind by other designers more willing to embrace the new. Even in the last five to ten years the expectation is that any designer can do print AND web. Not all can, and those that don’t understand the new media are missing out on a large percentage of the going work.

My book is only intended to impart some of my knowledge on each of the chapter subjects and hopefully inspire or give some extra help to other designers.

This morning I was on the train next to someone using the iPad to read articles, flip through magazines and view a short video clip. Now if he had copies of all those magazines and printouts of every page that he trawler through, he would have had a huge bag of stuff to carry around. Of course this is the primary function of the iPad. It is an e-reading tablet first and foremost. The web browsing seemed fast and responsive, but they may have been stored locally. Now I know everyone says ‘it is just a big iPhone that can’t make calls’ well yes, it is. But compare it to other e-Reading tablets in the market, do you want a monotone screen over a full colour one?Most competitors don’t even run a full colour screen let alone all the apps the iPad does. So you still complaining about lack of phonecalls? Skype announced an app that will work with the iPad. Only drawback is you need to have the app running all the time in case people try and call you.

However tempting it is to get one to use as a portfolio of my work, I am thinking I may wait until the second generation is out for improved battery life and the possibility of a camera included in the iPad. But if the numbers of take up of the unit are correct, the biggest purchasing market for the iPad is iPhone users. If you have an iPad or plan to have one, invariably you will have an iPhone. so really, if you view the numbers from a market perspective, people already have phone and camera functions in their iPhones negating the need for those functions in a tablet device. I know people would replace their iPhone if the iPad could make calls, but practicality wise it is easier to slip your phone in your pocket and answer calls unlike the tablet which would leave you carrying it around all day with you.

Maybe we will see the next device being strapped to our forearm in a Dick Tracy style video communicator watch. We have the technology, it is just how far will we allow it to change the world. Just look at computers. These are computing machines designed primarily to decrypt encoded messages. Which lead to business computing, personal computing, the internet, mobile computing and cloud computing. From there it is anyone’s guess!

I can easily see the iPad taking off and replacing the morning paper and magazines on the commute to and from work. Perhaps newsagents should be data points where you can cheaply download the papers or magazines on your way past to the train station. Free newspapers like the MX could be emailed or wirelessly broadcast at the main train stations daily negating the need for printing.

I already see a lot of people Reading books and articles on their iPhones, (I am one of them too) and the reduction in eye strain and having an easier read would be a big selling point.

It is just that you will need a bag to carry it with you, unless the next handbag/manbag craze is the iPad case.

If the way we read changes due to the iPad, we will see a major shift away from printing and into the all digital sphere. Which will be great for pollution and waste material. True there will be waste from packaging and manufacture, but does it equal the amount it saves? You tell me…