Most people are aware of the fact that content is a crucial aspect of any website design. Good content adds value to the site and retains interest of users. Unfortunately, most ignore the fact that apart from quality of the content, its presentation is also important.

For presenting the content in an attractive manner, paying attention to paragraph is important. Here, we will highlight some typesetting conventions and provide you with tips that will help you to adapt them for screens and devices.

The Typeface

Before discussing typeface issues, we would like to clear a myth. Most people associated with any website design company believe that one should exclusively use sans-serif font for body text. However, this is not true for every situation. In certain situations, you can opt for serif fonts. If modified properly, certain serif fonts can be legible and attractive.

Breadth of the font family should be the most important criterion, for selecting a Web font. Check whether the font includes italic and bold styles. Choosing such a font will ensure that you can place greater importance (by using italics/bold styles) to certain aspects of the paragraph.

The second issue related to typeface is rendering. Experienced web design professionals usually opt for embedded and system fonts (example, Verdana) for headings and body text respectively. The main reason why Verdana is popular is because it renders well at small sizes.

In case, you do not want to use Verdana, checking on-page demonstrations of selected fonts can be a great idea. To save time, avoid  experimentation with fonts containing the words ‘narrow’ or ‘thin’.

Font Size

Most of us are aware of the fact that all web browsers render content at 16 pixels automatically. This highlights the fact that 16 pixels is the general standard.

In our CSS style sheets, we write 16 pixels as 100%. This is a good idea, because it is similar to what the web browser would have selected for us. In case you want the paragraph content to be more than 16 pixels, edit the value. Opt for a percentage value that is equal to ‘whole pixel’.

Leading

Leading refers to the space between two consecutive lines of information. Leading affects readability, because it highlights rows of glyphs that one should cross from left to right. The main problem with leading is that if it is not used correctly.

If you put in excessive space between lines, the whole text will appear fragmented. On the other hand,
if you avoid using space, the paragraphs will appear cluttered.

Final Touches

We have discussed issues related to typeface, font size, and leading of paragraph text. We understand the fact that in certain situations, you may wish to modify certain paragraphs. Taking the help of special  combinators and selectors, you can target particular paragraphs and modify them.

Let us discuss indentation as an example. In web design, indenting the initial line of every paragraphs is the most popular way of dividing paragraphs into sections of information. However, the first paragraph does not require any indentation.

Therefore, you need to exclude this particular paragraph from CSS rule. Opt for the adjacent sibling combinator to target only those paragraphs that have a preceding paragraph.

Add a stylish touch to your content with the help of these tips.

In the website design industry, creative ideas will provide you with an extra edge. However, to stay ahead of others, you cannot solely depend on creativity. You need to follow certain techniques as well. Implementation of these techniques will impress the clients and bring you projects, thus guaranteeing you regular income.

Today, in this article, we will highlight few strategies that will help you get projects.

Adopt a Friendly Approach - Arranging a meeting with the client is the first step to acquire projects. While meeting with the client, opt for a friendly and yet, professional approach. Show a genuine interest in the project. This will convince the client that you are interested in investing your time and effort in the project.

Research About the Company - To impress the client, research about his/her company. Additionally, find out about the target audience  of your client’s company and its competitors.

Invest Time for Writing an Executive Summary - Executive summary refers to a brief description of the project. While meeting the client, carrying  this executive summary can be a great idea.

Keep this summary brief-one page is sufficient. Do not forget to include vital points in the summary. Use the summary to convince the client that you have understood the goals and nature of the project. Additionally, highlight the fact that as a web design professional, you possess the requisite skills to take up the project.

Show Your Work - To convince clients about your talent, show them samples of your work. This will help them to trust you and convince them that you can handle this project effectively.

Ask About Goals of the Project - This step is important. Unless you are aware of the goals of the project, it is impossible to work on it devotedly. Therefore, ask your client about the project goals.

Find Out About Your Competitors - Gathering information about your competitors will help you to understand their strengths and weaknesses. This in turn, will allow you to modify your strategies accordingly and stay ahead of the race.

Inquire About the Current Situation - To make sure that the client does not cancel the project suddenly, try to find out about the company’s current situation. Of course, this strategy will not be effective in every situation. Still, it would help you to stay on the safe side.

Prepare a Creative Strategy - Develop a creative strategy beforehand to impress the clients. For a stronger impression, justify the reasons behind choosing these strategies. If any technical requirements exist, explain them as well.

Highlight the Various Steps of the Project - To create a positive impression on minds of the client, explain the different aspects of the project. This will justify your stated deadline and fees that you are charging.

Discuss About the Budget - Divide the project into logical sections and note down the prices of each section. This will validate your prices.

Justify the Deadline - Discuss deadline of the project with your clients. Ask for a deadline that will allow you to finish the work comfortably. For best results, explain the reasons behind the stated deadline to your clients.

State the Resources - To convince the client about your credibility, state the things that you are planning to use for handling the project. If you require anything from the client, state that as well. This will allow clients to have faith in you.

Give your Contact Information - To simplify the process of getting in touch with you, offer clients your detailed contact information. State your mobile number, physical address, and office address so that it is easier for clients to contact you.

Finally, do not forget to follow-up. This will reflect your interest in the project and create a good impression.

Have you ever considered animal habits as your source of inspiration? It could be a good idea because each animal can teach us different lessons. Adopting certain habits and instincts of animals can help one to improve his/her productivity and work quality.

In this article, we will discuss typical habits of certain animals. Furthermore, we will explain how adopting these qualities can help you to enhance quality of your work.

Lion

Lions love challenges. They are brave, powerful, and willing to hunt down every animal in the jungle. Likewise, a web design professional should be interested in taking up challenging projects. He/she should be brave because it will help him/her to come up with innovative ideas.

Lions are highly competitive and desire to remain ahead in the race. Similar to them, people associated with the website design industry should also try to stay ahead of their competitors.

Tiger

Tigers prefer a solitary lifestyle and look forward to challenging situations. Faster than lions, tigers can smoothly leap 10 meters or even more. While hunting an animal, tigers prefer to implement a strategic plan.

Tigers can inspire you to take up projects that are interesting and challenging. Similar to tigers, you should opt for regular breaks to create innovative designs. Additionally, to complete a project within a deadline, you can follow a strategic plan. This will help you to meet the deadline in a hassle-free manner.

Giraffe

As compared to other animals, giraffes possess several advantages. They are tall and can reach out to trees, thus consuming more nutrients. Another interesting fact is that giraffes can survive by sleeping 4.5-4.6 hours on average per 24 hours.

Similar to giraffes, website designers should grab more projects and enjoy the advantages. They must observe projects from another perspective and deal with them in a new way. To complete crucial projects, designers should learn to survive by sleeping 4-5 hours at night.

Turtle

Turtles possess the special ability to hide from predators. They do so by retreating into their shells and hiding in water. Turtles can adapt themselves with any environment quickly.

Similar to turtles, designers should possess the ability to retreat into themselves for creative thought. Furthermore, they should adjust with any situation within a short time.

Whale

A unique fact about the whale is that it never sleeps consciously. Otherwise, it will drown. For this reason, a part of its brain always keeps working for keeping it afloat.

Similar to whales, a designer’s creative juices should always flow. Web designers should stay alert in any situation and quickly select sources that can inspire them. In brief, as a designer, you should stay conscious in any situation.

Dolphin

Cute and lovable, dolphins are intelligent as well. Possessing a complex brain, they have the ability to hear things from a far distance. Dolphins are highly social and love interacting with people. They also love communicating via various mediums that can include whistles and clicks.

Similar to dolphins, a designer should listen to client requirements carefully. Furthermore, they must interact with clients to form a long-term relationship. This in turn, will help one to acquire repeat clients.

Camel

Camels are known for their strength and resilience. They can survive extreme temperatures and lack of water.

Adopting habits of camels would mean surviving long hours of work. Additionally, it would also mean adapting oneself to tough situations.

Cheetah

As one of the fastest animals in the world, a cheetah can run at a speed of 70-75 miles every hour. However, in-between running, a cheetah needs to rest. Similar to the cheetah, a designer should grab and complete a project fast. Additionally, they should not overwork, because this may lead to burn out.

Owl

Owls have powerful camouflaging abilities. Their hunting strategy usually includes an element of surprise. Similar to owls, designers should incorporate a surprise element in their design. Furthermore, they should try to adjust with any situation.

Opt for these powerful animal habits to improve quality of your designs.

A website can have different audiences. These can include curious visitors, past and prospective customers, and referral partners. Every audience has different requirements and may look for unique things in a site. To create an all-rounded web design, paying attention to needs of various audiences is critical.

You can achieve this by balancing crucial elements of a site. These elements can include content, graphic design, Flash animation, navigation style, coding, and call-to-action statements, etc. Ensuring that these elements complement each other will help you to develop a site that fulfills requirement of various audiences.

1.  Do not opt for an Extreme Strategy

Many website designers believe that implementing excessive elements can spice up a site. In fact, too many elements can make a site complicated. This in turn, can interfere with the desire of a visitor to find an element quickly. For this reason, using selective elements is critical.

We agree that this is a good strategy to simplify the site. However, this does not mean that you should stick to a single element. We discuss more about this topic in the next point.

2.  Avoid Over-emphasizing Requirements of a Particular Audience

If you use a single element and focus on requirements of a particular audience, others may feel deprived. Let us assume that you own a website design company. If you emphasize on including web design samples and avoid incorporating any useful information, it may satisfy your past clients (since they are already aware of your services). However, such a strategy can deprive prospective clients and people who have reached your site via search engines. Since they will not get any information about your company, they will not feel compelled to opt for your services.

In this particular scenario, the ideal strategy would be to include both design samples and relevant information.

3.  Questions you should ask

We discussed the importance of creating a site that considers requirements of various audiences. Now, the question arises, how you can balance these elements?

The best way to maintain a refined balance between different elements is by asking yourself certain questions. Honest answers to these questions will help you to understand how you should balance these elements. We highlight these questions.

• How are people finding your site?

This is the most critical question. Find out how people are coming across your site. Did they find your site via search engines? Did someone refer your site? Did they come to know about you at networking events? Finding out the source through which people came to know about you can offer you information about psychology of the visitors and their different requirements.

• What is their aim?

Every visitor has a different requirement. A past client may want to know whether you can take up a new project. Potential clients may want to acquire information about you. Curious visitors may simply explore your site.

Understanding aims of different audiences is critical. It will help you to create a site that gives equal importance to all audiences.

• What is the goal of your site?

For best results, considering goals of your site is also important. A site may want to attract new clients or acquire the topmost rank in search engines. Alternatively, you may want to connect with people. Understanding aims of your site will help you to fulfill your business goals.

• Is anything contrary in your site?

While designing a website, ensure that you do not put in contradictory elements by mistake. Remember that if contradictory elements exist in your site, it may confuse your visitors. For this reason, make sure that all the elements complement each other.

Considering these 4 questions will allow you to create a site that pays attention to requirement of various audiences.

Incorporating educational video content in your website can be an innovative way of increasing traffic. Posting traditional videos, however, is a time-consuming and expensive affair. In such a situation, website owners can opt for Skype recording software to prepare intriguing video content.

In today’s post, we will offer a brief description of Skype video interview and explain its benefits. Thereafter, we will discuss whom you should interview for creating Skype videos.

What are Skype videos?

Skype is a reliable software application that allows users to make video and voice chat and calls over the Internet. With the help of this application, you can conduct interviews of experts and record them. Thereafter, you can incorporate them in your website to attract attention of target visitors.

Benefits of Skype videos

You may wonder why you should incorporate Skype videos suddenly in your website. To answer your query, we have pointed out the major benefits of using Skype video interviews in your site.

• With Skype video interviews, you can add a unique touch to the traditional presentation of content. Users may find this presentation refreshing.

• This strategy guarantees return visitors. This is because of the fact that people who have checked your previous videos may feel curious to know whether you have posted any fresh video. This in turn, will compel them to visit your website regularly.

• Apart from creating a powerful buzz amongst your target audience, creating Skype videos can help you to connect with eminent personalities of your industry. You may ask them valuable suggestions. Additionally, you can request them to write a guest post for your site.

• Implementing this strategy will help you to create a positive image of yourself. People may consider you as an innovative personality who is willing to implement fresh ideas.

Whom should you interview?

We have mentioned earlier that you can record interviews of eminent personalities, related to your industry. However, apart from famous personalities, you can also interview other persons. These can include-

• Existing customers- You can arrange an interview with an existing customer, where he/she mentions how your product/services benefited him/her. This will encourage potential customers to trust your company.

• Rivals- Many people may not like the idea of interviewing one’s rivals. However, if you market this video properly, it would stimulate curiosity of the people. Chances are high that they will check the video to find out your rival’s opinion about your company.

• Writer- If someone has written a book about the topic that your site highlights (for example, website design), interviewing him/her can be a great idea. Visitors would definitely want to know what a writer has to say about your website design company.

With Skype videos, possibilities are endless. You can record and upload interviews within a short time. This will save you money and time. However, you need to market these videos properly. For example, you can inform visitors about the publishing date of your videos via newsletters, emails or social networking sites.

You can also create a video library, which would be a useful resource for people looking for data about your subject matter.

Various ways of perking up the overall look of a site exist. These can include playing with colors, textures, and background patterns. However, if you want to implement an unconventional strategy, opt for character designs.

Most visitors will agree that character designs brighten up a site. At the same time, the designs lend a unique identity to the site. Character designs can make users feel comfortable and win their hearts with their friendly approach. However, you have to use these character designs in the right manner.

We offer few tips that will help you to incorporate characters in web designs and create a powerful impact.

1. Try to use hand drawn characters

Using hand drawn characters, while designing a website, is a great idea. They add a personal touch to the website, making it appear more friendly and inviting.

Using hand drawn characters in web design can encourage visitors to leave comments and interact with the site regularly. Of course, you need to put in great content as well. Otherwise, readers will not be interested in leaving comments.

2. Opt for a detailed character

Creating a character that highlights purposes of the site is advisable. This will justify presence of the character in the website. If you have a web design company, for example, you can create a cartoon character with brush in hand and make it stand against the image of a blackboard. Write purposes of your site on the blackboard.

This strategy will add a unique quotient to your site. Furthermore, it will leave a memorable impression on the minds of your target audience.

3.  Create a character that your users can relate to

Creating a character that users can relate to, can make them fall in love with it. The reason is that people love characters that possess humane qualities and at the same time, are a little distinct. Of course, the process of drawing such a character may not be easy. You need to make users understand the viewpoint of the characters.

Most people are aware of the fact that as compared to text, images can deliver a message faster. Consider this secret, while designing the character. If you have a burger delivery service, for example, draw a character that is eating a delicious burger. By viewing the character, visitors will able to interpret purposes of your website easily.

4. Using characters in sites with simple designs is a great idea

If you want to pep up a simple website, opt for character design. It can brighten up the site, while retaining its simplicity at the same time.

Using bright colors, while creating the character, can be a great idea. The reason is that it can attract attention of the users. To make sure that visitors notice the character, you can also place it against a contrasting background.

5.  Use them in creative ways

Many people think that the best way to fill up empty spaces of a site is by incorporating ads. Placing ads may be necessary from a commercial point of view. However, if you want to add a personal touch to your site, fill up the white spaces with creative character designs.

Remember that it is not compulsory to put character designs in headers. You can place it at any suitable place to convey your message to the visitors.

The importance of character design lies in the fact that it always makes visitors smile. Combine it with good content and clean web designs and you may end up creating a stunning website.

Web designers opt for background patterns to create interesting websites and draw attention of users. Earlier, patterns were mostly limited to lines, flowers, and swirls. However, these days, designers are experimenting with various types of patterns to create a powerful effect. If you are interested to know how you can utilize background patterns to create a sizzling effect, read on.

• Find out your target audience

In the web designing industry, the golden rule is to develop designs that match preferences of your target audience. If you create website designs ‘just like that’, there are high chances that people won’t even bother to view them. For this reason, before you start designing, always figure out your target audience.

Once you have figured out your target audience, develop designs that will arouse their curiosity. If you have a website that specializes in online delivery of flowers, use flower as your background pattern.

• Ensure that visitors can read the content

People usually visit sites for acquiring good information. Of course, beautiful graphic designs are critical for attracting their attention. However, after a certain point of time, they will start looking for information.

If the background patterns overpower content of the site, chances are high that visitors will leave it after few moments. For this reason, ensuring that content is visible is a great idea. Maintain a refined balance between background patterns and text of the site.

• Do not fill up the whole site with patterns

With the help of right patterns, you can add a classy touch to the site. However, some designers end up using patterns just for the sake of it. This in turn, can create a negative impression.

Remember that if you fill up the whole site with patterns, visitors may find it a bit overwhelming. Therefore, implement patterns only in selected areas.

• Ensure that the pattern matches theme of your site

If the pattern of your site differs from that of its theme, it will confuse the viewers. If you have a site that sells honey, for example, you can use honeycombs as the background pattern of your site. This will help viewers to understand purposes of your site quickly.

• Lighter patterns are perfect for simpler web designs

If your web design is simple, using lighter background patterns can be a great idea. Light lines and colors can make the site appear neat, professional and yet, classy.

• Use patterns intelligently

Apart from increasing overall appeal of the site, patterns can direct the user’s eyes to the content. For fulfilling this goal, you have to use patterns cleverly. You can use it as either a background or a border. This way, it would enable visitors’ eyes to identify the content easily.

Many people think that corporate sites cannot use background patterns. However, this is a wrong concept. Using right patterns can add a professional touch to any site and enhance its overall appeal. Try it now!

A major goal of an e-commerce website is to grab and retain attention of its users. Thousands of e-commerce sites are available in the Internet. Therefore, to attract interest of the visitors, you need to incorporate unique designs and user-friendly features in your e-commerce site. Additionally, you should consider the latest e-commerce web design trends and implement them, provided they suit the purposes of your website.

• Opt for big fonts and images

In the website design industry, big fonts, images, buttons, and logos have become the ‘IT’ thing these days. E-commerce sites are all about attracting attention and big design elements (such as fonts, images, and logos) can fulfill this goal perfectly. Therefore, while creating the site, opting for eye-catching images and bold titles can be a good idea.

However, in the midst of experimentation, do not forget to ensure that your site is easy to use and navigate.

• Opt for a minimalist look

The current trend in the website designing field is to opt for a sleek and minimalist look. You can achieve this look by playing with colors such as grey and white. However, if you want to choose bright and yet, sober colors, pick out blue or green.

To create a soothing effect, do not include more than 3 colors in the palette. If you want to spice up the site, opt for hues of the chosen colors. Additionally, use clean and neat designs. Avoid overloading your e-commerce site with unnecessary images or information, because they will distract the users.

• Retro is the buzzword currently

In the web design industry, retro has made a major come back. Retro-inspired pictures and creased paper structure can stimulate curiosity of the visitors. Of course, it may not always be easy to create the retro style. In such a situation, you can outsource the designing part or contact experienced web designers.

• Incorporate pixel-perfect elements

Many people these days explore websites via mobile devices. To simplify experience of these users, one should opt for pixel-perfect elements. Ensure that the buttons, toolbars, and menus appear amazing on iPads, as well as on high-resolution laptops.

To ascertain that your web page does not contain any blurry areas, zoom every element and check, while designing the site. It can be added here that software, such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator has simplified the process of creating perfect e-commerce web designs.

• Use sliders

Sliders have become a popular marketing technique these days. Slider breaks down the content into small paragraphs, thus encouraging visitors to browse it. Another advantage of slider is that it offers valuable information, without taking up excessive space.

• Video marketing can retain interest of visitors

Video marketing has become a popular choice amongst web designers, with almost every site incorporating informative videos. Many believe that videos retain interest of readers, because in the presence of another person, users do not feel bored.

We have discussed popular e-commerce web design trends of 2011. Despite the craze for latest trends, remember that an e-commerce website should give importance to usability. Consider the fact that if visitors do not find necessary information or experience poor navigation, they would simply close the link. For this reason, always include user-friendly features in your site.

Many young people these days are willing to become graphic designers. Benefits of being a graphic designer can include good money, creative satisfaction, and flexible timings (you can work as an employee or a freelance graphic designer).

Since graphic designing is a lucrative career option, many youngsters are willing to know about the skills that are necessary to break into this field. Of course, an exact definition of a perfect graphic designer does not exist. Still, we have pointed out few traits that a good graphic designer should possess.

1.   Latest technological expertise

It may sound harsh to some, but fact remains that mere sketching and pencil-drawing skills will not help you to acquire a good job in the graphic designing industry. Recent technological advances have altered the concept of graphic design. Today, even a small-scale firm opts for computers to create and modify designs.

For these reasons, to become a graphic designer, you must possess a basic knowledge of using computers. More specifically, you should be aware of graphic software, such as Corel Draw, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, and Freehand.

If you are planning to become a designer but yet to know graphic software, start gathering information about it. Remember that searching for graphic designer jobs, without possessing the essential skills, would result in a futile search.

2.   Print production knowledge

Graphic design has a strong association with printing. In most cases, clients ask designers to print their creations. For this reason, many companies these days hire only those candidates who possess at least fundamental printing knowledge.

To master print design, you need to understand print layout software, such as Quark Express, and Adobe. Additionally, you should have an in-depth knowledge of concepts, such as master pages, grid layout, and color separations.

3.   Creativity

Surveys reveal that while hiring graphic designers, employers look for people with strong creative and aesthetic sense.

A designing industry thrives mainly on creativity. Unless you are creative and possess the ability to come up with unique designs, you will not succeed as a graphic designer. Graphic and logo design industry is a fiercely competitive field, where creativity will help you to gain an additional edge over your rivals.

4.   Educational background

Educational background plays an important role in the designing field. All those who are looking for entry-level graphic design jobs should possess a bachelor’s degree. However, if you want to work as an assistant graphic designer, a diploma certificate would be sufficient.

5.   Good communication skills

Most jobs these days require candidates to possess good communication skills. This is also important in graphic designing field, because here you need to communicate with clients regularly.

Apart from verbal skills, strong writing skills are crucial. The reason is that many times clients ask designers to write a tag line or brief description of their products.

6.   Portfolio presentation

A well-made portfolio is a valuable resource available to a person, who is seeking a job. Surprisingly, many choose to ignore it. They believe that a person who has an experience of more than 10 years in the designing field should create a portfolio. However, this is a wrong concept.

Your portfolio acts as your representative, highlights your personal and professional accomplishments, and points out your values. Remember that a well-made portfolio can create a strong impression on minds of your prospective employers.

Apart from all these skills, knowledge about web designing can act as an extra advantage. Upgrading your skills regularly is equally important.

In large-scale corporations, the process of offering and receiving feedback is formal and systematic. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the web design industry. Website designers usually have to seek feedback on their own. Moreover, providing designers with feedback depends on the attitude of users. This further complicates the issue.

Despite the problems associated with offering and receiving feedback in the website design industry, its importance cannot be discounted. We explain why feedback is important and how to make the most of it.

Importance of Feedback

Website designing is a creative activity. However, web designs are usually used to fulfill practical goals. These can include increasing visitors, enhancing conversation rate, and fulfilling business targets of a company. To meet these goals successfully, website designs should be able to connect with the audience and fulfill their requirements. Herein lies the importance of feedback.

Receiving feedback regularly sharpens your skills and helps you to polish your craft. Furthermore, it helps you to understand pulse of the audience and thus, modify your designs accordingly. Feedback is somewhat similar to the trial and error method. It helps you to realize your weak areas, work on them, and finally, improve.

How You Can Use Feedback Constructively ?

Receiving feedback is not enough. You have to understand the point of view of the users who have provided you with feedback, evaluate it, and select the right suggestions. In brief, you should take informed decisions.

Here are few tips that will help you to use feedback constructively and improve your skills.

• Start early

Many web designers ask for feedback, only after they are completely done with website designing. If you opt for this method, changing anything in the website (at a later stage) will be a more tedious process. For this reason, you should request for feedback, soon after you start the work. Consider feedback a critical part of the web development process.

• Be open towards feedback

Web designing is a creative job. Therefore, it is natural that some will love your designs, while others will hate it. Even if you receive a negative comment, do not take it personally. Remember that visitors do not have any personal grudge against you. Understand the fact that negative feedback will help you to realize your weaknesses and grow.

• Do not ask feedback from experts, always

Many people may find the above suggestion surprising. After all, most of us look for experts’ opinions about web designs. Despite the craze for suggestions from experts, fact remains is that common people can offer you a fresh and interesting viewpoint about your designs. Remember that, when it comes to feedback, honest suggestions always score high.

• Approach directly

While asking for feedback, adopt a direct approach. Avoid wasting time of the respondents. State your objective clearly and keep the questions short.

• Understand that it is an ongoing process

To grow as a designer, you need to ask and evaluate the feedback regularly. This will help you learn new things and stay in touch with the latest trends. Consider the fact that receiving and evaluating feedback is a continuous process.

Feedback helps you to understand weak areas of your designs and improve them. While asking for feedback, keep your questions brief. Do not target only the experts as your respondents. Rather, ask for feedback from people who may not possess an in-depth knowledge about website designing.

Bounce rate refers to the percentage of people who click on a site and then leave it, without exploring other pages of the website. High bounce rate indicates that the website has failed to retain the interest of visitors for a long period. We discuss few common reasons that can contribute to a high bounce rate.

1. Loading Issues

Web visitors have short attention span. If your website takes excessive time to load, there are high chances that your visitors will move on to other sites. Factors that usually interfere with loading time can include Flash designs, buffering of videos, and large pictures.

To improve bounce rate of a site, a website design company should pay attention to all these factors.

2. Lack of Good Content

Most people visit sites to find useful information. If your site contains poor quality or duplicate content, it will fail to retain interest of the visitors. To nurture the audience’s curiosity, provide them with valuable content. While incorporating content in your site, consider the following factors.

• Use an attractive headline. Remember that a good title encourages visitors to read rest of the article.

• Provide your audience with relevant and fresh content. Post topics related to latest news and issues.

• Grammar of your articles should be perfect. Correct grammar creates the impression that you possess good knowledge. Readers usually react positively to a well-written article. Ensure that the text of your site has a professional look.

• Web viewers do not have the patience to read huge articles. Therefore, keep your articles short and minimum. Avoid repeating the same information in your articles. Length of the articles should vary between 300-600 words. Do not include slang or abusive words in the text.

• Avoid copying content of other sites at all costs. Post interesting and original ideas. Original content will convince the readers that you are serious about solving their problems and offering useful information.

3. Poor Web Design

Poor website design can contribute to a high bounce rate. Therefore, paying attention to website designing is critical. Ensure that the design is neat and user-friendly. Additionally, consider the following issues.

• Your domain name should be brief. The ideal length of a domain name is 10 characters or less. Additionally, opting for one-word domains can be a great idea. Remember that if viewers have to type a long URL, they may feel frustrated.

• Use a memorable domain name. This will help the users, when they would revisit the site.

• Your domain name should contain words that are easy to spell. If you use words with complicated spellings in your domain name, visitors can land up in any other web page.

• Opt for simple and yet, creative web designs

• To capture interest of the viewers, use an attractive header.

4. Navigation is Important

Navigation can have a strong impact on the bounce rate. Poor navigation will force readers to close your site and explore other sites.

• The navigation system should tell your visitors exactly what to do. This will help them to explore various pages of the website.

• To attract attention of the visitors, highlight the web navigation buttons.

Considering all these issues will help you to lower the bounce rate of your website. Encourage your readers to provide you with feedback. This will help you to understand your flaws and work on them.

Most website designers will agree that working with clients involves various difficulties and challenges. All website designers, at some point of their lives, have faced clients who refuse to respect their work and pay money.

However, in this article, we will not focus on these issues. Rather, we will discuss about certain things you should request from your client (asking for money is obvious, so we are leaving that out).

1. Complete Contact Details

Obtaining complete contact information of your client and displaying it on your site is important. The reason is that, it will help you to earn credibility and trust of your future clients.

Many times, people want to contact previous clients of a company or a freelance designer to know about their experiences. This is why, displaying contact information of your past or current clients can help you to avail greater number of projects.

Additionally, acquiring the contact details will help you to stay in touch with your clients. Maintaining a warm relationship with all your clients is important. It can help you to receive more projects and enhance your business revenue, especially when things are moving slowly.

2.  Testimonials

Similar to contact details, testimonials provided by your past clients can enhance your reputation amongst potential ones. Put them in important locations, such as in the home page of your site. If space is an issue, use a ‘read more’ link and encourage your visitors to refer to more testimonials.

Request your client to write a short testimonial, highlighting your positive aspects. Remember that, incorporating a lengthy client testimonial in your website can create the impression that you are trying too hard.

3.  Request for Design Credit

Website designers who are involved with print works can request clients to provide them with web design credits. Remember that if you manage to avail a credit somehow, it will have a positive impact on your business.

However, availing this credit may not be an easy task. Most large-scale clients are not willing to provide web designers with credit. If you are working with start-ups or small businesses, things may be a bit easier. In exchange for the credit, you can offer them a reduced price.

4.  Referrals

Referrals can be a good way of creating awareness about you and your experience in the web designing field. If your client is satisfied with your work, you can request him/her for referrals. To motivate people further, you can offer them a finder’s fee.

Working hard and sharpening your skills is critical for your success. However, to avail projects, you should convince people that you excel in your field. Client testimonials, contact details, and design credit can help you to fulfill your endeavor.

Often, as part of their marketing campaign, webmasters will use “coming soon” or product anticipatory pages before launching their websites. To create a successful “coming soon” page, follow these guidelines:-

• Establish Your Identity- Design a powerful “coming soon” page that will establish your corporate identity. Use your corporate colors, logo and fonts in the teaser-page design. Your website design, which is likely to be more extensive and detailed, is bound to look different from your teaser-page; however, using your corporate colors and symbols will help viewers identify your website instantly once it’s launched.

• Tempt Visitors- Include a “sign up” or “subscribe” option in the “coming soon” page to collect customer data. You can promise your subscribers exclusive first-come-first-serve offers post site launch to tempt them to sign up, or offer your subscribers few free and downloadable items on the spot, post subscription. Nothing works like ‘FREE’! Exploit it to collect customer information.

• Convey an Interesting Message- A “coming soon” page is not meant to include your company’s history, instead, is to create anticipation with the help of a short and interesting message. For instance, favmovie.net “coming soon” page says, “This winter only in your browser.” It’s short, but interesting enough to compel users to visit their site once it’s launched.

• Go Viral- Post a video of your company/products/services in the “coming soon” page and include a “share on social media” option. Visitors may share the video if they like what you are offering and this will help your website become popular.

• Design Something Special- Use more graphics than text in your “coming soon” page to make it attractive; use Flash where applicable to make your page interactive. Your “coming soon” page should be interesting, fun and informal. For instance, squidchef.com’s “coming soon” page uses an image of a purple squid with a chef’s hat against a background that looks like an ocean. The imagery goes well with the company name, though the site actually offers WordPress themes.

By using a “coming soon” page intelligently, you can create anticipation for your products/services before they are launched. Hype can go a long way to enhance the popularity of your website. Of course, quality will sustain in the end, so make sure what you offer, gives your customers their money’s worth!

Since the day man started creating something unique, others have been copying or stealing it. This is especially true of the Internet, and no one knows it better than us, at WebGuru.

Very recently, our site’s content was copied by another: http://www.webguiss.com/

Naturally, it was highly frustrating, not only because content was stolen from our site, but because our content writers would have to write all pages again to make pages free of duplicate content, (and we had only just updated our site 6 months ago!) .

No…request or threat mails don’t work; the site copying our content never did quite take it off and there’s a high probability, even updated content from our site will be copied by them. Unless we drag them to court for copyright infringement (which is a long-drawn process), there’s little chance we are getting our content back.

Obviously, for any company in our situation, it seems easier to get hold of the content team and drill out new textual matter from them than go through a court ordeal.

Point is…when someone steals your creative work, it’s frustrating, irritating and infuriating!!

Copycats Are Everywhere!

You may have heard the words “piracy” and “plagiarism” several times and they both mean “embezzle something that you don’t own”.

Piracy means illegal distribution of products such as, books, software, DVDs, etc, and it hurts both an industry, and an individual. Plagiarism is copying someone’s work, or idea, such as their website design, logo design, content, etc, causing a more or less personal loss of the person whose work has been copied. In short, piracy and plagiarism are the two menaces against “original” work.

PLAGIARISM

Forget the dictionary meaning! If someone plagiarizes your work, it means the person has no creativity. These people don’t have enough skills to create something original. They copy-paste other people’s articles, graphics, etc. and claim it as their own work. It’s the easiest way to earn fame.

Some smartasses will only tweak colors and font styles to make a graphic their creation, or change order of facts to make content their own. If you challenge them, their excuse is, “it’s inspired, but original.”

• Graphics Plagiarism- Some lame graphic designers do it everyday. Template vendors are among them. These people are like parasites that live on fame someone else deserves.

• Text Plagiarism- Happens all the time! Chunks of text from here, chunks from there, shuffle order of bullet points, shuffle order of phrases, click Thesaurus for synonyms and voila!…you’ve got new content!

• Online Plagiarism- If you find this blog post on someone else’s site, it means we are already victims of online plagiarism at the time of your reading.

PIRACY

The past 20 years has seen a massive boom in technology. New technology was launched in the market, and with it, gadgets, tools, etc. Luxury became necessity and so increased piracy. Besides, original products cost a lot. Pirated electronic gadgets, softwares, are available really, really cheap. End result…stuff the original; money rules; get the cheaper and pirated version!

Piracy and plagiarism happen all over the world. We blame copycats and pirates for the crime and have laws to punish them. Truth is, the root of the problem goes much deeper. If people themselves don’t stop drawing “inspiration”, buying or downloading pirated products, this hydra will keep growing, no matter what legal punishment any country bestows.

As for us…we are already changing our content…

Creating interesting headline is a challenging aspect of content writing and web design. A catchy headline encourages visitors to click the page and read the content. If you do not opt for an enticing headline, there are high chances that your content will be lost amongst millions of others available in the Internet. An example will make the concept clear.

Recently an online news article that contained the headline’ New Report Ranks Top U.S. Cities for Bedbug Infestations’ attracted people’s attention. While millions of articles on the same topic have been published, what was special about this one? This headline highlighted an intriguing element-fear, which raised curiosity of the visitors. And for most people, infestation of bedbugs can be a frightening issue! Here are few tips that will help you to write engaging headlines.

Opt for brainstorming sessions

Yes, it is true.  Brainstorming sessions will help you to avoid using clichéd terms and come up with eye-catching headlines. Use creativity, intelligence, and basic knowledge to make your headlines different from others. Opting for clichéd terms will convince the visitors that you are a lousy writer and probably are not serious about making your articles interesting.

Use the secret weapon

Visitors usually look for good and valuable information in the Internet. With the help of creative headlines, you can convince them that your article contains useful information. For example, if you are writing an article on weight loss, using a clichéd title such as ‘How to Lose Weight’, may not generate much traffic. On the other hand, choosing an interesting headline such as ‘Secret Tips to Lose Weight’ can stimulate interest of the visitors. However, avoid using this technique on a regular basis.

Asking questions can be a good idea

A simple way to make your headline interesting is to ask questions. It gives an idea about the theme of the article and evokes curiosity of the readers. For example, instead of writing ‘Tips for Parenting Toddlers’, you can use the title’ How to Parent Toddlers Effectively?’ The latter title creates a powerful impression and convinces the readers that your article contains useful tips.

Short titles are effective

Research studies reveal that as compared to long titles, short ones are more effective in captivating interest of the visitors. Long titles can irritate people and discourage them from exploring the content. Keep your headlines short and simple.

Use command titles

Command headlines create a proactive image and urge the readers to take an action. In fact, it can be a powerful marketing strategy. A great example of command headline can be’ Opt for Eco-Friendly Products-Be a Hero’. This headline convinces the readers that the article explores environment-friendly products and reasons for buying them.

Though headline is a crucial aspect of content, one needs to pay attention to the body of the article as well. If you do not include valuable information in the text, there are high chances that the readers will not return to your site. Therefore, to garner maximum traffic, pay equal emphasis on title and body of the content.

On 4th August, I posted a few primary points on how users determine website design and what psychological factors influence their on-site behavior. This article continues from where I left of…

5. Fitts’s Law

According to Fitt’s Law, the time and effort required to reach a target depends on the distance and size of the target. The layout structures of websites will determine how easy it is for users to find their way through websites to reach their goals or find information they are looking for.

Let’s take the classic example of a clickable element. A click button or click text that is very small will require precise movements to target a click. This is typically true of website hyperlink texts in mobile devices.

Small clickable surfaces take longer to activate and lowers the overall usability of the website. Hence, surface areas of interactive items should be of sufficient size and users should be able to zoom pages and enlarge texts for better readability.

6. Cognitive Load

Cognitive load describes how a person’s learning performance is reduced when he has many things to do at once. In other words, the more the number of tasks, the more time taken by a person to accomplish them.

Accessibility of information on your website should be easy. The more tasks you give your users (complex navigation to reach specific information) the slower they are and more confused they become.

Keep things simple on your site. Make navigation easy so visitors get to information faster. Smart layouts will help your users use your website effortlessly.

7.    Zombie Browsing Effect

Zombie visitors are highly focused visitors who target what they seek and cannot be easily distracted by display items on your website. The more people get used to your website, the more likely they will succumb to the zombie effect.

Imagine a supermarket. Once you know where to find what you are looking for, you will rarely waste time looking elsewhere. This explains why stores sometimes change their layouts; it helps grab customer attention and exposes them to new goods while they hunt for specific goods.

Zombies avoid exploration and will ignore their surroundings. Basically, they are one-track buyers who are averse to trying out new and different things. Thus, overcoming the zombie problem can be a challenge.

A distinctive website design will help grab attention and engage zombies on your site.  Streamlining your content (arranging them in order of importance) will streamline your traffic. Too many advertisements will cause zombies to ignore all your messages while single points of interest will attract them. By allowing visitors to customize your website according to their preference (iGoogle), you can reduce the zombie effect.

8.   Conditioning Models

Conditioning is the process of instilling predictable behavior. Years of conditioning results in the same predictable behavior in similar environments every time. Human habit is ultimately the result of conditioned behavior.

There are two types of conditioning: classical conditioning that modifies involuntary reactions and operant conditioning that modifies choice.

• Classical Conditioning

In web design, the trends and patterns that a website follows help users to associate events with likely outcomes. When people close pop-up windows, they are typically exhibiting learned behaviors. This is the result of classical conditioning: pop-up windows= obstruction to site browsing=close pop-up windows.

Leverage classical conditioning to streamline your website. Learned responses use up less cognitive power. A sudden change in the layout of your website means a new experience for the user and hence, more cognitive power usage. Although this increases the users’ learning curve (reduces zombie effect), training users to change their natural response to adapt to new experiences can take years. This explains why many sites will stick to color stereotypes for specific websites.

• Operant Conditioning

In operant conditioning a person doesn’t react because of learned behavior but because he choose to react in a certain way. Humans learn from trial and error. Anticipation of an outcome teaches a pattern of behavior.

Priming is a method through which you can affect operant conditioning. By telling people to “contact us with queries” you are telling your users to take a definite action. If you don’t suggest it, visitors will not think of it as an option.

Visitor comments benefit your website while spamming them causes you to lose a dedicated customer base. Your website’s calls to action, such as buttons, link texts, will encourage visitors to participate. Your website’s security and privacy settings must make sure they do not spoil overall use experience by security breaches and data leakage.

In Conclusion…

The web is a people’s portal. Hence, human behavioral psychology plays a critical role in how we design websites.

Human behavior is the result of how we interpret what we see and how we choose to act thereof. Very often, a user’s initial reaction to a website will have no bearing on the site’s merits, but only its appeal. Any user when idly browsing the web will always be attracted to websites with interesting color schemes, layouts, and images than simple websites with neutered designs.

Any action a user takes on a website will be determined by a series of decisions he makes upon visiting that website. The human mind makes highly logical decisions. Most of what users do will be guided by personal preference and habit. It can also be safely concluded, that a user’s action on a site will frequently be misguided by what he has learnt, seen, and is used to doing.

Of course, no two users will think and act the same way. But generalization on user behavior patterns can be drawn nevertheless. This article by no means enunciates hard facts about human behavioral psychology, but only theories honored by time.

1.  Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory

The “silent visitor” makes up the majority of website users. The silent visitor, or lurker, isn’t socially inclined and will not go beyond browsing a few web pages and reading. For a website design to work, it must fulfill visitor needs, although what web users prefer is up for debate.

Abraham Maslow, who was a humanist psychologist, came up with the famous “hierarchy of needs” theory to show what humans require to reach a point where they decide to participate or interact on a website.

At its core, Maslow’s theory speaks about how the average visitor must be infested with a sense of growth and increasing self-esteem upon visiting a website. In other words, a website must treat its visitors with respect to help him reach his ‘pinnacle’ or the point he starts becoming active on the website.

Maslow defined levels of importance that reflect how and what humans prioritize and what they require for ‘self-actualization’, i.e., appreciation of their surroundings and to achieve personal growth.

Based on Maslow’s theory, we can conclude the hierarchy of needs of website users as the following:

• Accessibility: A website that is easy to find and can be used by all.

• Stability: A consistent and trustworthy website.

• Usability: A website that is user-friendly and flexible.

• Reliability: A website that is consistently available, without downtime.

• Functionality: A website with web features that offers value to its users.

• Flexibility: A website that is intuitive and adapts to what its users want and need.

2.    Attractiveness Bias

Your website’s design is neither the sole reason for its success, nor the sole cause of its failure. But beauty is attractive to people. Although content continues to be the most important catalyst in a website’s success, fact remains that a good-looking website will attract visitors before a similar, and perhaps a more resourceful website, with poor design.

Of course, it is important visitors get over their first impression of beauty to dig deeper and appreciate the finer features of your website, like content, usability, flexibility, etc. Point in line, beauty is a temporary attractant that is remarkably useful in drawing visitors to a website. Personality rules in the end.

To establish a long-term relationship with your user, your website must offer value. What lies underneath the glitz and glamour is good old content whose quality will retain visitors.

Yes, if you are an established name in the market, you can make the website as ugly as you want and still walk away with the lion’s share of visitors. Many web designers opine that the success of a website’s design lies with how effective it is and not how attractive it can be. Basically, if websites work, they work, and beauty is only secondary. But it’s also true; the “wow” factor will be responsible for initial appeal.

The solution: a website’s design should be professional and beautiful without overruling the hierarchy of needs of website users. If this is accomplished, your website will attract even those visitors who judge quality by appearance. The integrity of content will emerge once visual appeal is established.

3.    Serial Positioning Effect

Your website’s information structure will determine how well it is remembered. Tables, lists and charts help break large paragraphs of information into manageable chunks. Blocks of heavy text is tiring to read whereas organized information is easily readable.

Hermann Ebbinghaus’ serial positioning effect proposes that positions of items in a list will have direct bearing on people’s ability to remember something accurately. In website design, this most closely relates to visual hierarchy.

Your website may have pages and pages of information, but most people who visit your website will typically be scanning through your content, committing less than 10% to memory. By breaking up your content into small paragraphs, highlighting important text, adding bullet lists, and sub headings, you can present your content in a manner that is useful to people.

4.    Depth of Processing

This refers to the level to which information has to be processed to commit it to memory.  Engaging your users is not enough. You have to ensure they read important details you want them to read. With simple mechanisms such as “I Accept” button under a license agreement, there is a high possibility users will read through before ‘accepting’ and proceeding to the next step. Of course, by applying the serial positioning effect, you can make sure users read all the important portions of your content.

The trick is to find a balance between helping your users remember information and annoying them with questions or calls to action. It’s your website. Use your best judgment to decide which interactive elements would be useful.

Did you know that call-to-action buttons could play a crucial role in the success of your website?

Experts say that for the buttons to work successfully, detailed planning and research are required before placing them within the site. Mozilla Firefox has an effective call-to-action button that informs its visitors that they can download Firefox free. It further specifies the exact version of Firefox, the language and the approximate size of the file.

So what are the imperatives to designing a call-to-action button?

Size- Size of the call-to-action button is important. If the button is small, there are high chances that the visitors will not notice it. To make the button stand out midst other features of the site, you need to choose a proper size (avoid the extremes) for it.

Color- To make the visitors notice your call-to-action button, opt for vibrant colors. Choose a color that will stand out against the website background. This will make the buttons more prominent and encourage the visitors to click them. For example, surveys have revealed that red button works well in this regard.

White Space- Another popular technique is to place it around white space. Experts explain that a button placed around white space would grab attention, as compared to one that has been placed midst loads of images, content, and graphics.

Placement- Strategic placing of the call-to-action button and highlighting it can increase the number of visitors who would click it. It is important that the button appears above the fold, since a visitor may react negatively if he/she has to scroll the page to find it. To increase the number of clicks on a call-to-action buttons, place it on the upper and lower areas of the page.

Many people will be surprised to know that other elements of website design play an important role in determining whether a visitor clicks the button or not. For example, if you have a site that highlights various products, placing an “add to cart” button next to a product will yield better results. Another popular web design technique is to place a call-to-action button in close proximity to other features of the site such as feature lists, testimonials, and value propositions.

Highlighting its presence- None of the above-mentioned techniques would be effective if the button does not appear like a button! As a web designer, you should convince the visitor that the button is not a static element and that clicking it will result in specific actions. Include valuable information within the button so that the visitor knows what to expect.

Implementing SEO techniques- In most cases, action buttons are directly linked to a web page indexed by search engine crawlers. According to the opinion of experts, using an <img> alt attribute will provide the crawlers with the content they would relate with the targeted page.

Web designers should understand that simply placing a call-to-action button is not enough. Paying attention to factors such as color of the button, its proximity to other elements and implementing effective SEO strategies can help one to achieve the desired results.

Web design is a dynamic field and it adapts new technologies very quickly. For the past few years, we saw a boom in the smartphone market and lots of new tablets have been introduced in the consumer market as well. These devices are internet enabled and they have changed the way we used to view websites. These portable devices have various screen size and orientation. Some even offer both portrait and landscape view of a webpage.

To accommodate these devices, a new website design trend called ‘Responsive Design’ has evolved. The responsive design allows users to view websites on mobile devices. It also made the web design more user-friendly to suit small screen space and multiple OS.

Clients often ask the designers to make the same website for Windows, BlackBerry, iOS, Android and various other OS compatible. They even want a mobile version of their website – one for the Blackberry, another for the iPhone, the iPad etc. The problem for the designer is how he can accommodate so many different platforms and the solution is responsive design.

Responsive web design, what is the big deal? – Responsive web design suggests that design and development should act in response to the user’s actions and environment based on screen size, platform and orientation of the mobile device.

Responsive web design has a combination of flexible grids and layouts, images and a clever use of CSS media queries. This trend has three main designing goals – the website should be flexible with resolution, image size and scripting abilities.

Here is a list of the things you should pay attention to while implementing responsive design.

• Accommodate the user’s device- A responsive website should accommodate iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry, and other portable devices. To make the site flexible, you should use a flexible grid foundation. While designing the site and images that are incorporated into the design should be flexible as well. Use media queries to enable the website for landscape and portrait view.

• Flexible grids- To suit a variety of mobile browsers, you should define your own parameters for columns, spacing and containers in the web design. Give special attention to size and spacing to create flexible grid system. For web page measurement purpose, use ems and percentages instead of pixels.

• Customize images- A major feature of flexible web design is that images move and scale with the flexible grid. For a fast loading time, use small size images. Don’t use the width and height attributes to scale them; it may hamper the usability factor.

Instead of scaling, you can crop the images using the CSS overflow property. It crops images automatically as the containers around them shift to accommodate new display orientation. You can have multiple size of the same image and offer them according to the user’s screen space and orientation. If it’s needed, then you can completely hide the images as well, using the media queries.

• Importance of media queries- Media queries permit designers to create multiple layouts using the same HTML document. It allows the web designer to accommodate different window size of the browser. Media queries also handle the screen orientation, screen resolution and color related issues. It’s extremely important in responsive web design as you can build websites that fit different devices.

In conclusion, responsive web design is a great trend for mobile websites. But while using this style, understand that it’s helpful for those sites that have a number of mobile based users.

Many people visit Facebook and Twitter from their smartphones and tablets but the visitors of a corporate website mainly access the site from their desktop or laptop. However, designing a site for both normal PC and mobile devices is a good idea as you can capture an untapped market of these portable device users.

Color is visually appealing. There’s liveliness about color that is hard to deny. Color in website designs help effectively convey an idea or message; good content takes it a notch higher by explaining the specifics. Because man is a visual being, our first impressions and perceptions are always derived from how things look. Hence color is undeniably one of the most important elements of web design.

Specific colors are used to interpret specific web businesses. Majority website designers stick to color-stereotypes while designing their websites. For this article, we will take the example of a beach holiday website to analyze web user reaction to website color.

Are Web Users Affected by Website Color?

Most beach holiday websites make use of yellows, blues and greens reminiscing the sand, sea and vegetation.  One hardly finds these websites in color combinations using anything different from shades and hues of yellows, blues and greens. In case they do, they are likely to ward off 60% of web users, discouraging them from acting positively on the site.

Yes, it’s true. Website color affects web user decision. Colors convey:

• Your website’s purpose and central idea.
• Feel and quality of products, services, offers, etc.
• Authority and authenticity of websites.

Web users expect stereotypes. A web designer’s job is to pick out colors that best convey a website’s message. The trick is to draw a balance between what users expect and a website design that stands out. Using different color shades help develop distinct websites. Of course, additional elements like images, text and overall layout help deliver uniqueness.

Is it Safe to Break Away from Stereotypes?

Yes…depends to what extent. A beach holiday website can’t hope to succeed with pink, purple and black for its color scheme. A web designer could bank on the ‘shock’ value and exclusive content, but compared to similar websites with stereotypical colors, has less chance of attracting users.

Colors don’t just convey a website’s central idea. It tells people what they should think and feel. It’s all about vivid imagination through colors. If your potential customer isn’t thinking about the sun, sea and sand on your beach holiday website, there’s grim chance he’ll act favorably.

Break from stereotypes to the extent that you are different from your competitors but well within the purview of your niche. For example: if most beach holiday websites have images sticking against a white or blue background, try a graphical image background, complete with palm trees and hammocks with sales copies on white tablets for better readability. Try oranges, browns, grays, citrus and indigo shades instead of typical yellows, greens and blues for your website.

The idea is to help website users identify your niche and relate to your website immediately upon arrival. Colors can significantly influence this.

In conclusion, website colors should be able to draw a balance between what users see in the real world and what users expect see in a virtual representation of the real world. If web users cannot relate, they will not act. Simple!