Bitten By Design » Article

Is your websites message getting lost in the design?

Nick — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 22:25:18 +0000

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?

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Introduction for The Insights into Graphic Design book

Nick — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 22:03:33 +0000

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.

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The emergence of the iPad as a commuting companion and world changer.

Nick — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 03:49:07 +0000

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…

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Thinking about left handedness

Nick — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 09:40:35 +0000

After completing a major review on a clients website for disabled browser compatibility I was talking to a friend about it, and he was bemoaning that his new drawing tablet had a shaped pen with buttons setup for right handed users. As a left handed graphic and web designer I have spent years working with things designed for right handed users. Things like shaped ergonomic mice and trackball mice designed for right hand use. Even the computer keyboards are set for a right handed user with the keypad and arrow keys on the right hand side.

Years ago Colin and myself ran a freelancing design business called ‘Keep Left Design’ as both of us are left handed. Surprisingly about eighty to ninety percent of our clients were left handed as well. It was interesting to see how many people in creative roles were left handed.

Now, to the point of this little post. When does a physical preference for the use of the left hand get considered in the design process? I am fortunate in that living in Australia means I get to have my gearstick on the left.

Ever notice if there are double doors the left will invariably be the one they lock? It would be nice to have some consideration of ‘handedness’ in product and package design. Maybe the next two or three packages I design should be done to suit us lefties!

Any other good examples of poorly designed products for us lefties? Things like tin openers, vegetable peelers, and of course smudging pen ink when writing left handed (unless you twist your wrist around so you write from above rather than just straight across). Even poker machines are designed for righties!

Whilst I think of it, I used to have a left handed beer stein. It had small holes all across the top of one side which meant if it was held right handed it would spill down your front and not when held left handed.

One of my memories from starting primary school was on the first day we were all asked to write our names. Each left handed student was grouped to one side, as they thought left handed people were more rowdy or some stupid notion. I am disgusted in myself in that I probably wouldn’t have noticed if it didn’t happen to me. Okay, I was only five at the time, but never the less, it doesn’t change the fact I don’t think I would have noticed if I wasn’t directly involved. It was like the ADHD of it’s time.

Anyone got a left handed story to share?

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WordPress plugins and tips for administrators

Nick — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 22:05:37 +0000

These days wordpress is not only associated with blogging but content management as well. When I started working in the web, there was no simple off the shelf program let alone one that is free. I found wordpress and used it primarily as a content management system for myself, these days I am doing more article writing on my site (and for other sites too) which has allowed me to research different possible needs for the site.

So what ‘needs’ does my site have. Well, like every site on the net, I want it to rank well. This involves making sure I keep out all the spam comments using the built in akismet plugin. But that puts a strain on my site, so I am now using WP-ban to lock out repeat spam comment posters. A simple cut and paste of their IP address from the comment field and they are locked out of the site. The best part is that you can see the log of how many times they have come back and tried to enter the site.

So what other methods are there to improve my site for visitors. I recently installed a ‘related posts’ plugin, which simply adds five similar posts in a little list under the post. Surprisingly my bounce rate has dropped significantly as visitors stay on the site longer and read further articles on the site.

The lightbox plugin which allows for a very nice larger image to be dropped over a greyed out page. Reducing the need to navigate away from a page even to a page with a larger version of a picture on it is a good thing.

Adding in a random element or changing element can help boost return visitors length of stay. Good new content is the primary focus of retaining visitors and hopefully convert some to customers. The random element might be a random quote on the page or a different image in the background for every day of the month. Both are easily managed through a quote plugin or a banner manager being converted to change the background rather than a single ad banner on the site. Another way is to have holiday themes, this is something I am working on for my site where I will have the normal holidays set and I can easily switch styles for Christmas, New Years Eve, Independence Day, Valentines day, Melbourne Cup day amongst dozens of others. This will hopefully bring return visitor traffic to see what I have done for Valentines or for Halloween. It may be just a simple case of swapping the main title banner and adding a little cartoon mascot to the pages or perhaps even recolouring the whole site to a different colour like all greens for St Patricks day or all pinks for Mothers day.

My favourite tool is google analytics. Knowing all the data for my site is pure gold. Knowing which pages are the most visited and which are the last pages people check out means I can revise the design on those pages to add a better written summary, more content, self promotion banners or to rewrite the call to action to keep people on the site by redirecting them to other popular content.

Analytics combined with great content will bring in traffic that has a much better chance to convert from visitor to customer. Or if your site model is to earn from advertising on your site, you will find a higher volume of quality traffic allows you to charge more for advertising giving you more money to spend on the site which in turn increases your traffic.

If you don’t check and track your website to this degree, you are probably missing out on the true potential of your site. Try it for yourself, analytics is free after all, so you are guaranteed to get all the money you spent on it back!

Admin tools like backing up your database is a very important one as is the wordpress automatic update. It is also recommended to delete any plugins you are not using to help keep your database clear of extra unneccesary datafields. Getting rid of any unused images will help keep the site trim over the longterm.

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Chinarush vote for the Aussie boys!

Nick — Fri, 28 May 2010 07:27:14 +0000

Just heard about China Rush. Hop on to http://www.chinarush.tv and vote for the Aussie boys so we get a chance to see the series on tv here in Oz. They need all the support they can get. It only takes a second to post your vote.

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Online Print Services

Nick — Wed, 19 May 2010 08:08:32 +0000

These days sourcing the best print price is as simple as a quick web search. Many printers are now shifting their process to be an online integrated system where people can log a print job, upload the artwork and specify sizes, finishes and quantities all online at whatever hour of the day or night they have time to do it. Places like psprint have been doing it succesfully for a while now and the best part is that as a regular client I can get the same service I organise for my own clients. Invariably the price reduction from using an online printer means my clients can get extra prints or additional material for the same budget.

If you want convenience combined with good turnaround times you can’t go past the online print services. Not having to wait until business hours to organise the print run for me is great. As I am normally working all hours and sometimes my clients are located offshore the need to print locally for my clients is always a bonus if they want to pick up the print job themselves to save on delivery costs.

Although the most common print runs I do are business cards, I have had flyers, posters and banners printed in this manner without problem.

The only drawback to using an offshore provider is that you normally only receive a ‘soft proof’ which is simply the print ready PDF generated by the printer prior to doing the prints. If you carefully check the proofs (especially the colour breakup) I don’t think you would have any trouble. You can request a printed proof to be sent but that does slow down the process and in these days of instant gratification, waiting an extra couple of days can turn a happy client into a stressed client, and we certainly don’t want that!

Why not check out the custom sticker printing available online to start with.

Anyone have a favourite online printer that they prefer to use?

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Moonlighting and Daylighting

Nick — Wed, 19 May 2010 07:44:09 +0000

Over the years I have moonlighted as a freelance designer in addition to working fulltime or studying fulltime, more recently I have seen a few designers I have worked alongside engaging in daylighting practices. For those of you who are scratching your heads about that term, it is the practice of doing paid work for yourself on your employers computer during your paid working hours. Now the first few times I saw it happen I wasn’t overly impressed as they are literally stealing from their employer. They are getting paid to do work for their employer and not for themselves. I am sure it is tempting during quiet periods to check your emails and quickly knock out a simple change for one of your freelancing clients, but it just isn’t worth it in the long run, as technically your employer owns the work you have done during work hours on their computer.

I am not saying don’t do anything, I am just saying wait until your lunchbreak to hop on your iPhone and deal with any freelancing related requests. Even then, if your regular clients know you are only available during certain hours, most things can wait until after hours for you to deal with.

The worst example of this was someone I worked alongside who had asked about doing some “charity” work for his sister. It was all the promotional poster work for her business. Then he just happens to mention to us that he was paid for all the work he did. I swear the amount of time he had “jobless” tagged on his timesheets sometimes almost full days where he worked on refining his concepts for his own work, or the amount of time he spent developing his portfolio to send out to employers truly boggles my mind. Yes, he was fired, but the morale drain for the business employees that saw him doing his own stuff and when asked if he needed work to do, he suddenly had projects to work on. These people have no qualms about stopping work late afternoon to finish out the day watching YouTube videos, searching through the current positions vacant advertised online, or simplying facebooking for the last couple hours of the day. (or even trying to poach their employers clients for their own freelance work)

Moonlighting is something I stopped doing for a few years, mostly to have some free time to watch movies and so on. These days I kick myself because that could have been a perfect way to build up my freelancing to a point where it was nicely ticking over with regular clients filling my pipeline of work. Even if it’s just the odd one or two projects here and there, it is extra income you would not have had and you are building client satisfaction and testimonials. It’s great for your portfolio and can give you much greater experience in dealing with clients, managing projects and invoicing. The experiences gained through moonlighting can help you when you go fulltime for yourself. That’s a pretty big step but something a lot of designers aspire to.

Thing is, most employers don’t feel threatened by a bit of moonlighting (as long as the clients are yours and have contacted you and have not been poached from your employer). If you sit down and discuss it with them, you might find they are open to you doing some extra work for yourself. If caught daylighting, it throws open all sorts of problems as they can fire you or sue you for any work you did whilst in their employ. Remember some businesses have strict policies in the employment contract stating all work done by you during your employment with them is considered theirs, or any freelancing work done will bring about your immediate termination.

Do you have any opinions on this? I would be very interested in hearing them.

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What is the future of design?

Nick — Sun, 09 May 2010 21:52:08 +0000

In my opinion the only direction is to an all pervasive digital environment. We won’t print posters we will have poster screens where the file is sent to for display. Each billboard can be remotely changed and have exact appearance timing controlled via a database. You obviously are thinking what a waste of power, it may be a waste in your opinion but once installed screens don’t need you to print the posters onto paper (or plastic for the rolling billboard designs) they need to be delivered set in place and then when replaced a month later thrown in the rubbish causing landfill. I guess you need to balance one over the other. But if the billboards are 3D they will have an edge over normal posters. Plus you will be able to animate them or further into the future even have them interactive with their surrounding environment or viewer. Think Jaws movie promo in Back to the future 2.

Information touch screens or info apps relative to your location (run off your built in GPS) would be the new local news source removing the need for small local papers. The ones we get go into wet layers on the garden beds to stop weeds.

The iPhone and iPad are just the forerunners of the turning point in multipurpose touch screen tools. Once we find a way to run energy efficient wi fi networks for minimal cost then everyone will embrace the digital age like never before! I have lived through the main advances in computing and mobile communication for the masses and I can’t wait to see what’s coming next!

Will this mean the death of traditional design skills? No as the skills are all based in a theory that is above the tools that are used to implement a design. Yes you will need to learn the new tools as well as the basics. I can see designers learning colour theory and life drawing along with broadcast design formats for the various mediums like HD or 3D.

The web itself is the medium that for me has brought about a lot of this change. Mass communication and globalisation has meant even little known designers can be seen the world over as instantly as they load their designs up to their sites.

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Picking a web host for your website

Nick — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 13:58:32 +0000

Now the average person simply asks their web designer or developer for their recommendation on web site hosting. But lets be honest, not every developer is going to stay up to speed with the latest and greatest in the market, they are going to stay with the one that has been working for them. Which is fine, but with a little research online you can find great deals that can save you a bundle.

More importantly you can see feedback on each of the hosts and find out if the one your developer loves so much is as good as they initially thought it was, or if it has been bought out by a bigger company and their service is now lacking.

For domain hosting you don’t need much that’s overly special for a personal page, but when you start looking at business hosting solutions, you really need to make sure the site is up online all the time and you have the option of running your own scripts, along with the option for encrypted data transfer and the like.

Recently I have thought about swapping hosting providers, only to save myself some money. Places like the Web Hosting Geeks gives you a rating on each of the providers and lets you compare packages in one spot. I know I am surprised my current host is not even in the top ten! But this gives me a good starting point in finding out which alternative providers I can go for.

The fact I can get the same as what I already have for a lower price is pretty tempting!

With the speed of change on the web getting faster and faster it might pay for you to not renew your web hosting and look for a better solution. A year is a very long time on the internet, and if you don’t stay on top of things, you are going to be left a long way behind very quickly.

Check out the options for yourself, you will be amazed at the deals on offer.