Design Makes a Difference

Apple, Amazon, Facebook and other big name websites are copied every day. They’re extremely successful, so it’s no surprise, but that doesn’t mean their design, interaction or content will yield the same success for your project. In fact, you’ll have almost no chance in matching their success since they’ve already done it.

“Good artists copy. Great artists steal.”

Pablo Picasso was essentially saying that by copying, the best-case scenario is getting the same.  The objective is to do it better. That does NOT mean just going to 5 different websites and mashing their features together. By analyzing a website’s design, user interface or code, and figuring out why it’s effective, you’ll be able to use that technique and make it your own.

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WordPress Updates

RSS from Any Source with Smart SlideDecks We built the Smart SlideDeck above in 5 seconds. The content will dynamically change as the feed updates. You can specify the theme, navigation style, # of posts displayed and more. You can also set logic on the posts displayed based on recent, popular or featured content.

TechCrunch RSS Smart SlideDeck Example

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Sign up forms are extremely important on user driven web sites. They are the first point of contact between website and user – like a first date. Some sign up forms are intimidating, ask for too much information or confuse users. Take it slow on the first date and don’t make it too involved; the best sign up forms get your users in and using the product/service quickly and easily.

Foursquare’s registration form asks for too much information; some of it quite personal! Why do you need my gender, location and birthday? We don’t even know each other yet! The additional gray bars to the left remind you that there are even more things to do when you’re done with this already lengthy form! Would you really give your date a 5 page questionnaire before you even order drinks? Give it a break already! It’s best to ask for this information later on, maybe on the second or third date champ.

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I’ve been checking out thebolditalic.com a lot lately for design and typography inspiration. Browsing through their articles, I appreciate that they often alternate their text layouts into 1, 2 or 3 columns. Column layouts have been in the web for a very long time (tables anyone?), but using columns for text alone hasn’t been popular in the mainstream until recently.

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The single most important aspect of a website is a clearly defined Call To Action (CTA). Every website Calls their users to Act on at least one thing. A CTA usually employs a button and has many forms;  Read, Follow, Call, Sign Up, Contact, Buy, Add, Share…etc.

Now this is nothing new. It’s web design 101. However, more often than not, websites are littered with way too many CTA buttons, each with the same priority and level on the page. CTA buttons have become highly distracting and feel more like a sales pitch than a shopping experience. It’s like a bad acid trip on the Vegas strip. Continue Reading