How to tell if what you want is what you need?

Often the use of photography, huge bright images, a lot of decoration or visual effects are taken as a synonym for sale on a website (client’s main purpose). However, if not used with some brake this “plus” can be transformed into a “minus”, a big “minus”.

How to know which is the correct path? A skilled web designer knows that every project is a project but there are also a number of items that make the ideal base for a good creation & development:

I present to u a table with several Do’s & Dont’s in terms of thinking and designing a website. Who knows, maybe it will help you decide what’s best for you, and most importantly…what’s not.

Following the concept of this post:
Do share your thoughts with us, we would appreciate it very much.
Don’t stop visiting us, we promise we will do our best to deliver good and actual information to you.

See you next post with more trends, tips or issues about the world of Web Design.

Source:
webdesignledger.com

“What exactly is the goal of your home page?“

It is the first contact that you have entering a website, and can create a good or bad impression that will affect how people see the company or the major idea behind the purpose of it. If the purpose of the website is to sell something, or render a service, the home page design can cause the success or the failure of your business.

So it’s critical to have a strong and directional home page to accomplish our goals, for that in this post we’ll see some of the web design tips to improve your Homepage effectiveness and success.

1st Giving answers:

You have 4 main questions that need to be answered before you begin the design process:

- What is this site about?

- What it has to offer?

- Were can I go next?

- Why this site is better than another?

And also you can think of 3 different types of people visiting your home page:

- 1st time visitors

- Repeat visitors

- 1st time or repeat visitors reorienting themselves within your site

After responding all the questions above you can now establish the website “personality”, this means by doing so you’ll have a better idea how your website is going to be seen by the normal user.

Resolve the website “Personality”

For that use adjectives, I’m going to describe this website and joint down a list of adjectives to describe it. These adjectives will help me set the personality and drive the look and determinate the feel of the home page.

Example:www.pkarch.com

- Clean

- Professional

- Minimalistic

- Cool

- Refreshing

- Confident

The way you place your contents and the writing style you use reflects the website “personality”.

The tone and your choice of words should reflect the “personality” you want for you website. For example, a website for a Bank is going to much more formal than that for Music Store.

How do users think?

• Users appreciate quality and credibility. If a page provides users with high-quality content, they are willing to compromise the content with advertisements and the design of the site. “Content is more important than the design which supports it.”

• Users don’t read, they scan. Analyzing a web-page, users search for some fixed points or anchors which would guide them through the content of the page.
To learn and see how the user navigates your site you have software’s that can evaluate the website hot spot’s and more.

This video is an example of one of those programs:Eye Tracking Demo

• Web users are impatient and insist on instant gratification. Very simple principle: If a web-site isn’t able to meet users’ expectations, then designer failed to get his job done properly and the company loses money.

• Users don’t make optimal choices. Users don’t search for the quickest way to find the information they’re looking for. Neither do they scan web-page in a linear fashion, going sequentially from one site section to another one. As soon as they find a link that seems like it might lead to the goal, there is a very good chance that it will be immediately clicked.

• Users follow their intuition. In most cases users muddle through instead of reading the information a designer has provided.

• Users want to have control. Users want to be able to control their browser and rely on the consistent data presentation throughout the website.

Manage to focus users’ attention.

As web-sites provide both static and dynamic content, some aspects of the user interface attract attention more than others do. Obviously, images are more eye-catching than the text – just as the sentences marked as bold are more attractive than plain text.

Focusing users’ attention to specific areas of the site with a moderate use of visual elements can help your visitors to get from point A to point B without thinking of how it actually is supposed to be done.

Example:www.sumitpaul.com

The home page should be different from the rest of the site.

By sharing the same layout as the rest of the website you’ll turn your website boring, at the same time if the homepage serves a different purpose, why should it look the same as the others pages, you have to have a importance scale and at the top it should be the homepage, making the first good impression.

Homepage

Example:www.kissmeimpolish.com

Internal page

Example:www.kissmeimpolish.com/our-work

Give users what they’re looking for.

Have shortcuts to useful content. People want to have a quick navigation and you can use links to direct people attention to your most popular content, allowing a great navigation experience for the user. The Mozilla Europe website is a perfect example of that.

Example:www.mozilla-europe.org

Don’t overload your home page.

Your homepage must be appealing, so don’t cram it with tons of information that will make people disperse and they will not focus on the your main issues. Also the homepage must opens quickly our people don’t bother to wait for it to load correctly, the less they have to process the better.

This information was gathered in many blogs, here are some of them and also related articles:

www.sixrevisions.com

www.smashingmagazine.com

www.vanseodesign.com

www.bolducpress.com

www.psd.tutsplus.com

www.siteinspire.net

How much of us are preparing a strategy for a long time?

… Yes, you are right! We have to think before act, we have to restrict the chances of mistake… but, as you certainly agree, the bigger mistake is “not act”!

All of these issues are taking a big part of attention in marketing strategy today and, because of that, many studies are being done  about social marketing. I received some new information today that I’d like to share with you, and, who knows, help you in your “decision to act”:

“The study of over 1500 consumers by market research firm Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate Research Technologies found that 60% of Facebook fans and 79% of Twitter followers are more likely to recommend those brands since becoming a fan or follower. And an impressive 51% of Facebook fans and 67% of Twitter followers are more likely to buy the brands they follow or are a fan of.  Considering Facebook’s over 400 million users, the opportunity is great for social media marketers.”

In these revolution of marketing days, what was a best practice yesterday may no longer be necessary, and what you didn’t even realize is now a must-have, so this is a kind of alert that we have every day but that we have really need to take attention!

If you want to improve your brand, maximize your business, why don’t you try?

1)    Have a Plan, of course!
2)    Choose the right people to lead your efforts: is crucial to have the proper helmsman – search among your team and make use of the skills of each one in this area.
3)    Create corporate social do’s and dont’s.
4)    Experiment!

And don’t forget:

1)    Costumers are the lead at the moment: everybody has an opinion and don’t have ashamed of share it!
2)    Social is, must of all, personal: lose your “business speak” and be closer to your costumers; Join in, Engage!
3)    Where are your costumers? Go there… go where they are, be a part of them, create a relationship!
4)    Social is “be findable” and “connectable”: invest at your website, make it your digital face, and, of course, optimize it for the search engines – you could have the most beautiful face, but if you are “not findable” you don’t exist!
5)   And the last, but not the least,  there are no strict rules: just do it! Use your judgment (what works for me could not work for you), listen and watch, track it, and experience!

And then, give me your opinion… share it with us! I’ll be looking forward for that!

Despite the tourism sector dos not grow as desired, it has evolved intensely.

 According to EyeForTravel’s managing director, Tim Gunstone, there are six areas where travel companies should focus on:

 1) Online sales and channel management – the companies need to be exploiting this distribution channel and must understand how to sell online and across multiple channels;

2) Social Media – travel companies should embrace social media, but the social media strategy has to be well planned, at the risk of losing credibility in the market;

3) Mobile – companies need to know how to sell over mobile, a channel that offers a host of new opportunities and challenges;

4) Search and online marketing – travel companies must adapt their search strategies to take into account real time and multi-lingual search, as well as more complex search terms;

5) Ancillary and merchandising revenue – if companies have a large customer base, the opportunity to cross-sell products will grow. But they need to take into account the brand’s preservation;

6) Online payments and fraud prevention – online payments and security must adapt to products and target market in the online channel, as it has been changing and enlarging constantly.

 Source: http://www.hotelmarketing.com/index.php/content/article/6_ways_to_drive_more_online_travel_sales_in_2010/

“Pivot makes it easier to interact with massive amounts of data in ways that are powerful, informative, and fun. We tried to step back and design an interaction model that accommodates the complexity and scale of information rather than the traditional structure of the Web.

“With the new CSS3 and HTML5, designers and developers are trying to utilize the new features to create impressive designs. Sketchy and large background styles are fading out. Serif fonts and texturized background will be popular. Thanks to CSS3, we are going to see a lot of rounded corners, RGBA transparency, and drop shadows. With the rise of smart phones, mobile web design is going to pick up this year.”

@: www.webdesignerwall.com

Let´s know see some of the trends to 2010:

Big Headings

Big headings in header (as part of design interface) will gain more popularity in 2010, giving the top of the web-pages more importance.

Example: www.blackestate.co.nz

Serif Fonts

Most of the web sites that we see today were designed in either “Verdana, Arial or Tahoma” (sans-serif fonts), but that is going to change in this new decade. Serif fonts will get more attention. Not to difficult our reading but to bring new context to word’s and their true meaning, used very often in titles, phrases our citations.

Example: www.legistyles.com

Texturized Background

The big background trend is going to be gradually out-of-date and be replaced with subtle and texturized (particularly the light noise) background, that confers to the web-page elegance and also less visual noise.

Example: www.siblingrivalrywine.ca

Minimalism

This trend comes and goes every once in a while but it seems that during the 2010 minimalism is going to be one of the more prominent trends regarding the web design.

Elegance and simplicity is one of the trends that are more appreciated in web designs.

Example: www.informationarchitects.jp

Text Shadow

Lots of web sites are using text shadow to add more depth to text, and give highlight to certain menus or buttons.

Example: www.adiirockstar.com

Mobile Design

With the release of iPhone in 2007, web designers face a new challenge. With the increase of the users and the numbers of smart phones that support full CSS and Javascript, mobile design is definitely going to be the future of web design.

Lots of companyes are allready offering a mobile version of their web site.

Example: www.nclud.com

This information was gathered in many blogs, here are some of them and also related articles:

www.designtutorials4u.com

www.webdesignledger.com

www.webtoolkit4.me

www.uxpassion.com

www.siteinspire.net

The “Vila Joya Hotel Luxury Survey” study shows that 86% of respondents are willing to spend the same or more in luxury hotel products this year compared to 2009.

One objective of this study was to identify the factors that most influence the consumer regarding the consumption of luxury and the price they are willing to pay. The first place is occupied by the Service provided, followed by Quality.

The food and the relaxing experience are crucial in choosing a luxury hotel. Nowadays, the consumption of “gourmet dining” and SPA experiences appears at the top of consumer preferences.

Most respondents also revealed that the budget available for luxury goods and services is approximately 15% of their annual income.

The preferred brands: Ritz at hospitality and Moët & Chandon in the food & beverage sector.

The study included respondents living in Portugal, United Kingdom, Ireland and other countries such as Spain, Denmark and India.

It was conducted by “Hotel Vila Joya” in partnership with ILM consultant.

Source: Journal Publituris February 2010

Web Analytics

New tools, features and functions, as well as new software progressions had been taken place in web analysis world and have been keeping marketers closer to the user behavior.

The social media and mobile channels continue to grow and marketers need to know deeply the consumer actions.

We think marketers should be aware of these developments and understand how they can maximize their analytic tools.

Here, we present you some priorities marketers should follow in 2010.

Everything is measurable

Adobe’s acquisition of Omniture (a leading analysis provider) made possible a more comprehensive view of user behavior.

The combination of the two companies will increase the value Adobe delivers to customers. For designers, developers, and online marketers, an integrated workflow — with optimization capabilities embedded in the creation tools — will streamline the creation and delivery of relevant content and applications. This optimization will enable advertisers and advertising agencies, publishers, and e-tailers to realize greater ROI from their digital media investments and improve their end users’ experiences.

Free Tools

Google Analytics’ free tools are extremely important for marketing tasks.

These solutions permit marketers to customize what is being tracked and how dashboards display analytics reports.

Multichannel analysis

Marketers should plan multichannel campaigns. It will be crucial to conceive cross-channel behavior and identify patterns.

The next stage integration

The trend of social media analysis will help to implement strategic marketing campaigns to promote a social marketing mix. In 2010, marketers need to see social media as a marketing channel that contributes to the revenue results. Once again, web analytics needs to be considered!

Mobile devices

Measuring and analyzing mobile devices users, it is ponderous that marketers find new ways to use this medium. They need to connect with mobile users so they can expand relationships through a several number of different platforms.

Analysis to live by

The analysis will be the most important work of a web analytics professional. Along the way, marketers should be able to bring the data together, considering analytics from the beginning of a campaign and making persistent optimizations.

full article at: http://www.imediaconnection.com

ITB Berlin 2010

Find what’s new in e-GDS – Global Distribution Solutions. xyzt, s.a. will be presenting its online booking platform, during ITB 2010, held from 10 to 14 March in Berlin.

The company has already showed the world its innovations at WTM 2009, one of the leading world tourism fair, such as ITB is. 

A set of news makes e-GDS B2C Version 5.0 enable to increase direct sales on the online channel. Highlight to the Dynamic Packaging that allows hotel services and product’s cross-selling. And the customer can do this in a simple, safe and efficient way! 

e-GDS CRM (Customer Relationship Management) permits better relationships between the hotel and the client. This module integrates directly with the booking system. e-GDS CRM is the full solution to manage contacts and loyalty points. 

The new modules are fully integrated with the others: e-GDS B2B (Corporate / Agency), e-GDS CMS (Content Management System) and e-GDS Channel Manager (Distribution Rate and Inventory Management). 

More than 7 thousand exhibitors from all over the world…

Be one of the 160 thousand visitors expected! 

Get in touch with e-GDS, the integrated solution that responds to the online hospitality big challenges and opportunities! 

We would like to invite you to our stand (119) to present you all e-GDS’s news! To more information, please visit our website at www.e-gds.com. 

We look forward to your visit!

Social Media

Marketers agree that social media is one of the most helpful tools to make e-mail campaigns prosper with more objective, successful and important e-mails.

Social media allows the sharing of opinions, that will extend the reach of those “socialized” e-mails campaigns, by letting people do the sharing with others who they feel will be interested in receiving emails.

Social media websites grant “word of mouth” to succeed and enhance SEO results with no extra efforts!

Building an e-mail list, getting names and e-mail addresses can be easier by starting with social media, like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. Answers to questions about how often do people want to receive e-mails or how often do they have time to dedicate themselves to e-mails can provide marketers useful information on frequency and timing of e-mails sends.

See the article below and think about it!

Pepsi recently became one of the first companies to pull its Super Bowl ad spend and redirect it to social media.  Breaking a 23-year tradition, Pepsi instead will invest in a social media campaign called the “Pepsi Refresh Project.”  The project will enable people to start communities for charity projects that need funding.  People get involved by suggesting and voting to determine which projects get funded by Pepsi.

Reading news like this, it’s easy to think that social media is choking off all marketing efforts.  Truth is, for email marketers, social media is one of the most useful tools available to make campaigns bloom with more targeted, relevant and successful emails.

full article at: http://www.mediapost.com