Archive for September, 2011

Ecommerce Web Design

Today, business online is playing a big role in companies’ successes.  Tomorrow, it may be impossible to be successful in the corporate world without having a virtual presence.  In fact, more and more, there is a shift proving that to be true and as the economy took a slam in the past few years, this has become increasingly evident.

While the movement is toward selling and marketing online, the underlying premise of business remains the same – you cannot make money, nor be successful unless you convince the customer to buy.  There are a few rules that can help to ensure that the website design assists in accomplishing this goal.

Let the design speak to the product Whether selling a twenty dollar massage or a five hundred thousand dollar car, the layout, color pallet and even font selections should match your product.  The first should be elegant, soft, warm, and inviting, while the latter would be better suited by a hard, crisp, cool color pallet and flashy, hi-tech design elements.

Keep the Product in the Forefront While informative pieces, company biographies, and eye-catching images might be standard on a website, it should always be the product that is highlighted above all else.  If massage is what you are selling, the images, the text, and every other element of the site should showcase massage.

Let the Product Be Seen If you are selling something –even in a catalog of other items – and there is no image, then it isn’t going to sell.  An image alone, even, isn’t enough.  High quality photos that can be zoomed for easy viewing are essential for success.

Keep the Road Map Simple Just because the piece of information a person seeks is on your website somewhere, doesn’t mean that the person is going to hunt to find it.  In most cases if the answer to his or her question is not clearly displayed, the buyer will move on to another site.  This can include a clear path to the shopping cart, a clearly displayed price, or even an easy to use search bar for finding a product quickly.

Make the Path Back Apparent Buyers, once they find a site that they like will commonly search through the various products that are available on it before finally buying whatever it was that they came for in the first place.  This is a good thing for the retailer and should be encouraged.  However, if the initial product cannot be easily found again, then the sale might be lost.  The use of clear categories and menus will help keep that path clear.

 

Posted by admin on September 23rd, 2011 | Email | Print |

Building a Social Networking Site 101

It’s the new craze for the general public and now for big business as well.  Social networking was the way of the future.  Now it is the way of today and if you are not on board, then you are likely missing huge opportunities for growth.  Many people are taking it one step further than simply mingling with peers on sites like Facebook, or reaching out to potential customer bases on Twitter.  Instead, for a few hundred dollars, they invest in the ability to build their own ‘look-alike’ networking site and that certainly isn’t a bad investment.

Of course, no one believes that these small start-ups will compete with the giants of online networking, but they can serve particular purposes for a specific portion of the population and, in that way, can become quite successful.  The key to making this happen is finding a niche and sticking with it.  Facebook is a very poor example of this.  This giant hit the market when it was very fresh and saw triumph by opening the door to all ages, sexes, races, and ethnicities.

Where to Look If you have a hosting account or server, along with about five hundred dollars, you too can be the proud parent of a social networking start-up.  Even open source has entered the arena, with Joomla CMS releasing the first version of Joomunity, which is entirely free code to be interpreted and reconfigured as users lease.  Freelance programmers are always willing to help with the code and design.  However, with a bubble building and so many massive players already on the field, success isn’t going to come easily.  It takes the ability to think outside the box, develop revolutionary ideas, and, most importantly, to find that niche that has a problem that only your new social networking sight can solve.

Legal Ramifications Perhaps the most exciting news for those armed with an idea, a handful of cash, and a little designated web space, is that experts believe that there is very little Facebook (and other social networking giants) could do legally to copycats.  Without identical coding, the sites would vary enough that the courts would be very inclined to dismiss.

To Begin If you think you have what it takes, there are a few questions that you should ask yourself.  Who are you aiming to serve? What problem do they have that can’t be answered by the existing sites – Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.? How do you plan to spread the word about your ingenious solution?  If it does take off, how big can it get?  And, do you have the wherewithal to support it, if it does?

 

Posted by admin on September 9th, 2011 | Email | Print |

Affecting Your Audience

Undoubtedly, there has come a time when you stop, for just a second, to admire a website that you happened upon while web surfing or online shopping.  Have you ever stopped to wonder what made the creator of that site choose to use the particular color combination, why he or she chose to feature the particular musical backdrop, or why the text is laid out in such an interesting way?  In general, the companies behind the best websites made those types of decisions based entirely on assumptions about their target audience.  If you are stopping to take a second look, then chances are good that you might fall in the realm of their niche as well.

The Palette Color plays a very important part in setting the right tone.   The colors of a website can play a huge role in the first impressions of a potential customer.  A site selling children’s shoes, for instance, might make appropriate use of primary colors.  However, those same flashy reds, yellows, and blues would likely look out of place on a banking site.

Images This is one of the most obvious connections to the intended audience.  Depending on the product or service for sale, many companies will choose images that feature people that resemble their target audiences.  It is also important to remember that the size of images and videos can determine how fast a page loads.  For audiences of an older generation, or others who are less likely to have high speed internet connection, it might be better to use fewer of these fillers.

Keywords and Content This, too, is pretty obviously tied to the intended audience.  A website that sells high end physics lab equipment should be worded in a different way than a site offering high school tutoring services.  Similarly, the targeted population should also help a person create keywords to be used throughout that text.  If selling in a localized area, then use of nearby city names in conjunction with the product or service would be wise, and specialized products for a unique audience should be tied to specific terms that would relate.

These are just a few of the considerations that should be made when designing a website to entice your potential customers or clients.  The use of social media integration, particular font styles, payment methods, and even the level of interaction should be based primarily on how that subsection of the overall market would respond to such things.  Failure to keep the general, beliefs, habits, and tendencies of your audience in mind during the design process is like admitting defeat before the website it ever launched.

 

Posted by admin on September 2nd, 2011 | Email | Print |