Stanford’s Guidelines to Web Credibility: Design your site so it looks professional (or is appropriate for your purpose). We find that people quickly evaluate a site by visual design alone. When designing your site, pay attention to layout, typography, images, consistency issues, and more. Of course, not all sites gain credibility by looking like IBM.com….
Tag Archive: Web Design
I have an Unhealthy Hatred of PayPal
Is it just me, or is PayPal really not all that easy to use. Sure, for simple transactions, but I’m trying to use some of their more advanced features. Maybe it’s just me and I’m going about it all wrong, but I’m trying to figure out how to install a “buy now” button on my…
Writing for the Web
One thing I like about Google is the personalized home page. On mine, I have the “Quote of the Day”, “Reuters Oddly Enough” movie show times, the weather both in Reno, NV and Portland, OR and the “Word of the Day” (today’s word is predilection). I also have a “‘How to’ of the Day”. One…
Alternate JavaScript Navigation
Using JavaScript can allow you to implement some pretty cool site navigation features. Unfortunately, using JavaScript for site navigation can create a site that does not allow the search engine to crawl past the home page. JavaScript navigation can be supplemented using CSS accomplishing much the same effect while allowing the search engines the freedom…
Double Check Your Dynamic Website
Search engines don’t have the trouble indexing dynamic sites that they once had, but dynamic sites still can present a myriad of issues. If you need to implement a dynamic system be sure to do your homework to find one that is search engine friendly. One of the best ways to test a dynamic system…
Don't Put Important Text Within Images
Website designers often like to utilize images when laying out a website. A good designer knows when to use an image and when not to, but some fall into the trap of trying to control the appearance of a site too much. When valuable text is placed within an image, the designer has ultimate control…
Avoid Designing All-Flash Websites
Flash sites are a lot like splash pages, the only people who seem to like them are the developers and site owners that use them. Flash can be a great enhancement to a website when used properly, it should not, however, be the whole site. All-flash websites have the same problems found with framed sites,…
Don't use Frames
Framed sites are basically composed of multiple pages all assembled into a single browser screen. Usually there is a top header, side navigation and main body content, and sometimes a footer. Building a site using frames is great to create an easily updated site-wide navigation system. That’s where the value of frames ends. There are…
Trash the Splash Pages
Splash pages are 100% useless to your site visitors with the noted exception of adding extra eye candy to your site. But eye candy, with no real additional purpose, can ultimately be a detriment to the conversion process. It seems that the only people who like splash pages are the website owners who had them…
Avoiding Common Web Design and Marketing Mistakes
There are some typical dos and don’ts of building a website. Sometimes we get caught doing something that looks cool without realizing that the audience is really not served properly or that we are limiting our marketing options. When building a website there are some common design practices that are ultimately counter productive to generating…
- "Our clients often tell us we're one in a million. Turns out we're really just one of a hundred thousand or so. But what they're really saying is that we get results that increase traffic, sales and ROI! Number one of a million? Yeah, that's where we put you when we velocitize your web marketing."
