Archive for the ‘Website/Blog design’ Category

On February 22nd, the Wall Street Journal wrote an article about websites – more to the point – how expensive websites can and can’t be and what the benefit is for the business. The article discussed two female business owners, what they spent for their websites and how the sites were doing for them. Both were running successful businesses, and both had active websites. That’s about all they had in common.

Business owner 1: According to the article, “Katrina Garnett, 48, is an Australian-born Silicon Valley entrepreneur whose Crossworlds Software sold to IBM in 2001. Garnett has invested $2 million of her money to create My Little Swans, an adventure-travel business catering to wealthy families”. The portion of that she used on her website? An astounding $250,000. Her site, My Little Swans, sells luxury travel. (not really sure what swans and luxury travel have in common, but hey, she really wanted those swans!) Take a look through the site.What did you think?

If you’re anything like me, my first response was “you have GOT to be kidding me?!?!” Okay, so I will give the woman some credit, at first glance, I thought the site was pretty, and well put together. It was easy to use and captured what she does. There are a lot of cool features, and it is easy to connect with her on social channels. Overall, I would have given the site two thumbs up. But then…I remember that she spent $250,000 on it. More than I spent to buy my condo! And my thumbs drop. A lot. The site is good – but she easily spent $230,000 more than she should have. The site is nothing that special, in fact I have seen hundreds of sites that are much better than hers, and I can guarantee cost less than a tenth of what she spent. Seriously, that design team saw her coming a mile away. I hope they have trouble sleeping at night for the highway robbery they made out of her site.

Business owner 2: The WSJ says “Joan Bradford is a former schoolteacher and a theatrical costume–shop owner who bought and renovated an 1840s house 15 years ago in New Windsor, Md., and turned it into a bed-and-breakfast. She named it the Yellow Turtle Inn after she had a dream about such creatures and learned that they’re the only turtles that guard their nests.” And her site? She spent almost zero on her site, Yellow Turtle Inn. She used a program that came with her hosting and set it up in a few weeks. She says she has made tons of tweaks, but that she has never paid someone to work on her site. So take a look at this one. What you you think?

My first response, “Okay, it’s time to cough up a little money, because this needs a face lift”. The site is boring, simple, and obviously home-made, right? It has all the content that is needed, but it just doesn’t make you feel all warm and cozy like an inn should. I don’t really have any desire to call them because with a site that rudimentary, I worry that the service won’t be great and that they won’t deliver a good experience. A little goes a long way, and even a $5,000 investment would really help her to turn her website, and her image around. But, she does get a little more respect from me than Miss Swan because while the site is poor, at least she didn’t get hog-tied and taken for all she was worth!

A website is one of the first things that a customer is going to see – it needs to represent who you are and how they can expect you to deal with them. Clean, simple and concise websites make people feel like the person will be easy to understand. Glamor, elegance and extravagance will make them feel special and important. There are hundreds of other emotions websites can bring out  and what matters is that yours brings out the right ones from your visitors. But, you shouldn’t have to break the bank to get this to happen.

What do you think about the sites?

image from Striatic on Flickr

So I am definitely not a psychologist…in fact, I am sure a psychologist would tell me that I probably need a little help. But, what I do know is blogging – and their is some serious psychology to the way people blog. What I have learned from my experience is that they way you keep your office organized says a lot about the way that you blog. There are three different types of organizers (and bloggers). The hyper-organized ones, the outwardly-messy ones, and the hidden-messy ones. Each type has a different way they manage their office…and a distinctly different way they manage their blog:

Think about some of the people that you know that are hyper organized (everything has it’s place, there is always a stapler when you need it, never a stray paper on the desk, and never a hunt for what you need). If you are not one of those people, you probably think that they waste a lot of time trying to keep it all so put together. But the reality is, it would take them more time to do things if they didn’t keep everything in its place. They love the feeling of clean spaces and open areas. In blogging, this means that they plan…a lot! They work out which posts go where, based on content, making sure that all the holes are filled. But they rarely have drafts…they always make them perfect before placing them in wordpress so that it is clean and organized with only top content. They also like their blogs to look pretty (lots of white space, and everything very easy to find). Their ideas tend to be a bit calmer, not really stirring the pot too much with crazy ideas or controversial posts. You may even feel like they leave some stuff out in order not to offend anyone. They will be the first to update plugins but will wait to update wordpress until the new version is out for awhile.

Okay, now think about the people whose desks are always a mess (papers everywhere, files stacked on files, no rhyme or reason to their system). If you’re not one of those people, you probably think they are slobs, that they waste time by searching for things that should be easy to find. These people are outwardly messy – they have no problem with their piles, in fact, they love their piles and would be more than happy to never have to move them. These people have a million drafts going at the same time, and are constantly making changes in wordpress. They have tons of great content, but it is sometimes all over the board. They will talk about controversial issues, but will do so by sharing all sides and really leaving it open for discussion, keeping their thoughts out as much as possible. These people are also more likely to have busy sidebars and a a lot going on in the blog. These people will always make solid points, but it will take some time to get around to it. Expect really content filled posts, but also a lot of fluff on top of the serious content.

Finally, we have the group that is a mix between the two. This group always has an organized desk, but what you don’t see is that their desk is normally super messy…they just cleaned it up by shoving everything into drawers before you arrived. They like to pretend they have everything under control with their organization, but the reality is, they can barely find anything in their mess because they are not one with it like the second group. They want to be clean and organized like the first, so they are stressed when they can’t be, and yet can’t figure out how to make messy work for them either. These are the fun bloggers. The ones whose posts make you laugh hysterically, or get you really angry. They talk controversy and drama…no matter the topic. They are very popular with their readers but also have a lot of trolls. These bloggers tend to write their posts on whatever they have at the moment and then attempt to put it all together in their blog. The topics will vary every day, and will be whatever came to them that moment. But, they will write often and will write longer posts…unless they are having one of those days, then it will just be a picture and a line of text. Their blog will have a ton of content on it…just a lot of it will be hard to find.

Of course, these opinions are only based on what I have experienced…

So, what do you think about organization and blogging?

Can you guess which one I am?

Amanda (@funomenalrealtr) and I were chatting today about blog topics, and I asked her if there was a topic she would like to see covered by me. Her request was for a simple step by step for setting up and starting a blog.

There are two different types of bloggers: bloggers who are adding a blog to their already existing website and bloggers who use their blog as their website. Bloggers who are just looking to add a blog usually already have a domain name, design and goal to their site, the blog is just a secondary piece of the puzzle. Bloggers who want a blog as their website do not have a website yet, usually are just starting with an idea and have no design.  This article refers to the second kind – the ones who don’t have a website and want just a blog. The following are the steps I give my clients who are starting a blog from scratch:

1. Decide what your site is about. The first step to any website is to determine what it is for. What are you going to blog about? Who is your ideal audience? Knowing why and for whom you will write will make designing the site easier.
2. Choose a domain name and get it hosted. Your domain name should either be your business name, your name or something that refers to your site. Make it something relatively easy to spell or say so that people can remember it. Also, try to keep it short. Super long url’s are never easy. For hosting, I recommend (and use) Lunarpages, as they have great customer service and are affordable.
3. Wait 24 hours for your site to finish propagating (basically means that the hosting company is setting up the site). Sometimes it will take less time, but I recommend waiting until then.
4. Install Wordpress. If you choose to use lunarpages, you log in to your lunarpages control panel. Once you’ve logged in, find the ‘WebApp Pool’ on the left hand side and select to install wordpress. You will want to install it directly onto your site, so leave the subdomain blank. Provide a user name and password you will remember.
5. Go to the Wordpress.org theme’s section and choose a design. There are over 1000 free themes offered on this site, all of which are specifically designed for wordpress. Once you choose one that you like, just remember the name of it.
6. Login to your website using the information that your wordpress install provides you. This is your wordpress dashboard. On the left hand side, you will see ‘appearances’. Click on that and then select ‘add new themes’. Enter the name of the them that you found that you liked and click search. Once it comes up, you can then click install. After the theme installs, click activate.
7. Upload plugins to make using the site easier. There are tons of great plugins that I use, but the 5 I recommend to everyone are: All in One SEO, Disqus, WordTwit, Akismet and Contact form. Each have great explanations of how they work when you install them.
8. Add widgets with your social media buttons and links. SmashingMagazine.com has a great collection of freebies that you can use for social media icons. Once you find ones that you like, download the files. Then, click on ‘media’ and upload the images that you want to use for your social media buttons. Copy the url that wordpress gives you once it has been uploaded. Click on ‘appearances’ and ‘widgets’. Add a ‘text’ widget and paste the url for the image into the box. This way you have it for the next step. Next, you want to turn it into a usable link for your site. To do this, you will use the code: <a href=”http://url of the website you want people to go to”><img src=”http://url of the image”>Text if you want any after the image</a>. This code can be used any time you want to insert an image into the sidebar. If you want to just insert hyperlinked text, remove the section in blue.
9. Start writing your blog. For this, I refer you to my posts on writing blogs: Managing your time, the blog management puzzle, blog post topics, and creating a blog calendar.
10. Start promoting your blog. Link it up with twitter through the wordtwit plugin, add it to the networked blogs through facebook, and ask your friends for support. Soon you will start seeing comments and people sharing your content.

This is a very quick paced set up, and does not include a lot of the small details that will make your site successful, as many of those take a lot of time, and a lot of explanation. What this will do is get you started and get you going while you take time to learn the deeper details and start to integrate them.

What tips can you share for someone getting started with a blog? Or what other questions can I answer?

I am not a creative snob, I don’t think it is reserved to one area of life. I love it in almost every form, the only thing I ask in creativity is that it is easily accessible to the masses. I want the world to be able to see it (even if they can’t afford to own it). I also tend to find certain pieces, designers or styles of work that I love and stick with them…so when I am looking for a creative jolt, I will look at their work, in whichever form I can, and enjoy the new focus it brings. Here are just a few of my favorites, divided by their genre.

When I want to be astonished by great websites, I always turn to Smashing Magazine. Their inspiration section is filled with designs from all over the world, and I find it so interesting to see the trends. While I would never copy someone’s work, I do often find new ideas that I can tweak to work into my clients designs. My most recent find? A new trend in fabric backgrounds…leather, silk, etc. I am looking forward to trying those out on a new clients site!

If print advertising is what I need, I love Communication Arts. It is a submission based magazine (thick enough to be a book!) of interesting pieces of work. I love their advertising series, as the photoshop work and taglines are just so incredible. I know how much effort it takes to get a design from start to finish, so to see all these completed pieces is not only inspiring creatively, but helps me to put my goals into perspective. If I get to the point where I feel that I am ‘rushing’ my designs, I can look at the work here, and realize that good design takes time…and it helps me to slow down my process to make sure it is the best. While I don’t do any print work, the freedom of expression found in many of the pieces is still motivating.

On a different side of the coin, I have many designers that I love, but only two have ever taken my breath away. In shoes, it is Christian Louboutin (his site is actually very cool as well). His designs are so clean, most are very simple, but each is so beautifully hand crafted and perfected that he has me head over heels (hahaha!) for his work. While I don’t any any of his creations (yet!), I have two pairs of his shoes that I desperately desire…a pair of simple nude pumps that make you look anything but simple (top picture) and a pair of over the top, beyond glamorous, completely impractical and oh so perfect for me, pink, sparkly pumps. Both are very simple in their structure, but their details, material and design make then anything but. Unfortunately with a combined price tag of almost $2k…I’m just dreaming right now.

In clothing, no designer for women can hold a candle to Diane von Furstenberg. I own one of her suits (in pink, of course!) and every time I put it on, I feel different. It’s powerful. Just like the rest of her designs. They are all colorful, creative, and unique (my favorite one is on that link) without being too over the top. I love to watch crazy runway fashion but it doesn’t inspire me like a piece you could actually imagine wearing. She makes women feel gorgeous without having to be scantily clad, and she never ceases to amaze me with the way she uses fabrics…

Photography amazes me. Especially because I have zero skill whatsoever when it comes to cameras. There are many great sites dedicated to photographers, but I don’t really like looking at it on the web. So when I need my photography fix, I wander into my bedroom, where this piece by Thomas Mangelson, hangs on the wall. Standing in front of the photo, you can almost feel the fur on his nose, and his eyes have about 11 different shades of colors, beautiful and intricate. The picture is so simple, but you feel something the minute you look at it. It has raw power and a cool strength that gives me motivation on a tough day.

Do you have certain places you turn for creative inspiration?

Sitemaps are not just the page you create for search engines so that they can see all the pages you have on your site, a site map is also simply a map of the way your site is laid out.

A sitemap is the backbone to your site, and should always be created prior to starting any design. These are the details that tell you what pages you need, how the navigation will work and how people get from page A to page B. If you were to avoid building a sitemap, and jump right into design, there is a high posibility that you would not only forget about pages, but that the design would feel disjointed and unorganized.

To create your sitemap, you don’t need expensive programs or tools, you just need a little time and a little patience. When I am working on one, I use either a whiteboard (for small sites or blogs). I like it because it is easy to erase and re-order and I can physically touch it (I’m a big proponent of ‘real’ tools). If I am working on a larger site (15+ pages), I use Word and map it out, this is helpful as you can make it as big as you want, but unless you print it out, it can be difficult to follow.

Once you have decided the best tool for mapping it out, you are ready to get started on the sitemap itself. My website is small, so I am going to use its sitemap for the demonstration. Here is the sitemap that I used when mapping out my most recent design:

There are a few things to notice about this map:

1. It is color coded to help me separate the levels. One is blue, two is pink, three is green. All of the level three pages exist on the site, but the only way to get to them (unless someone has the exact url for that page) is through the level two pages. The level two links work a little differently because those are my “navigation”. Every page on the site has those links, but I only place them under the homepage. Why? Because the place I want people to start, and the place where the level two links originate is from the homepage.
2. I don’t include the “links to sites” as subpages. In this case, when someone clicks on a link to a page (or a picture of the page on my portfolio) it takes the user to that site. Since they are leaving my site, I can leave it out of the navigation.
3. It is not perfect. Your sitemap is never going to be exact, sites change and grow over time, but if you have a solid idea of where you want to start and end, you will have an easier time with the design itself. For example, I know I need 4 buttons on my blog, because there are 4 places I want people to be able to go from there. This aides in the layout, and knowing how much space I need for the content.

Finally, if you already have a site designed, it doesn’t mean that you can’t still create a sitemap. In fact, I recommend that you create one without looking at your site, and then compare what you want to see happening to what you actually see. If there is a big difference, you may want to contemplate making some design tweaks.

Did you build a sitemap for your website? Why/Why not? If you didn’t have one, and you created one after the fact, what did you learn?

Blogs. Most businesses and individuals have them, and yet very few of them spend the money or time to get the design customized just for them. They stick with generic themes, maybe add in some sidebar buttons and start writing. Whenever I work with a client, I tend to get the same question in the initial meeting: What should be in a blog design? My answer? Here are the 5 things every blog design needs, and why:

1. An easy way to subscribe to the blog: Just using the rss button in the navbar is not okay. You need a large button that people notice immediately. If you want readers to come back, you need to give them an easy way to have your content delivered to them. It is also important to have a call to action – tell them to subscribe! Examples of good subscription buttons:
   
2. A custom header: The first thing that anyone will see when they hit your site is the header, it should stand out, fit your business and be specifically designed for you. Generic headers with the blog title and tagline in a simple font are not only boring, but make your blog look less professional. Getting a custom header made is like having your hair and makeup done (or hair done and shaving for the men). You need to put your best face forward at all times. Examples of good headers:
   
3. Navigation bar: While this is a simple one, it is also very important. Your site navigation needs to be easy to find, easy to read and most importantly, exist. There are many sites I have visited that have no navigation, no about the site, no contact page, nothing other than the content. This makes it hard to move around and can confuse your reader. Of course, it should also be formatted beautifully and fit in the site.
4. Design of the background and content area: This is all based on personal preference, but the site needs to have pop, it needs to make people want to come back and read it again on the site, not just in rss. If you want both sections white, make sure there are dividing lines, something that gives it depth. If you use a dark background, with a light content area, give it flow by creating a border in a mid-line color. If you want dark for both areas, make sure that you use a font that is very easy to read in a light color. The point is to make something that fits your site, and your personality or business. You want people to feel welcome and understand your brand from your design.
5. Custom sidebar buttons: You have a facebook, a twitter account, a mailing list, a gallery for your photos, etc. Show them off with buttons that make people want to click on them. If it is just text, people will scan over it and pass it by. It is important to make sure that visitors know where to go, and that you direct them to the pages and posts that you want them to see first. Examples of good sidebar buttons:
   

Do you agree or disagree? What other pieces do you think a blog design must have?

Today, I saw @paulttran tweeting about elevator pitches and it got me thinking about mine.

On April 6th last year, one day before my life changed and Wright Creativity became more than just a blog, I was participating in the 31 days to a better blog challenge from problogger. He asked us to create an elevator pitch for our blog – tell our readers what they could expect from reading this. On that day, when I was still just using this site for a creative outlet, the Wright Creativity elevator pitch was: “I write about creativity in business and in life, hoping to inspire one person a day to be more creative. Sometimes, the ‘wright’ creativity is all you need.”

Unfortunately, that elevator pitch just doesn’t fit what I do any longer (and it was a little too short) – so I decided to re-write it and craft an elevator pitch that fit my business, not just my blog. The new-and-improved Wright Creativity elevator pitch is now: “Wright Creativity allows small to mid-size businesses the time to focus on their products and customers by managing their online marketing strategies. We offer blog management to start conversations, web design to create an online brand and copywriting that will entice new customers. The combination of our three services gives you better visibility, a more complete brand, and powerful tools to gain more customers. We make having an online presence simple and profitable“.

When is the last time you worked on your elevator pitch? If you have one, are working on one or want to practice one, share with us, you never know who will be reading it and need your services!

*image from BLMurch on Flickr*

Blogging takes time and discipline…but every once in awhile we all run out of ideas. When you do, here are 10 topics that will fit any genre and any person. Pick one and get writing:

1. Answer a frequently asked question with details and photos.
2. Create a list of links on a specific topic for research.
3. Ask a question of your readers – get them to get involved.
4. Simplify something many find difficult.
5. Give your personal opinion about something in your industry that exists.
6. Share an idea about fixing something in your industry.
7. Create a new product that your industry needs (broad spectrum thoughts).
8. Add your thoughts on another writers blog post
9. Interview someone about what they do/how they do it.
10. Ask a question on twitter and share the responses in a post.

What other ideas do you have for blog topics that span all industries?

First, just because I offer site designs that can run into the 4 and 5 digits does not mean that I don’t want to help clients who can’t afford a large makeover – I love design, and if I can make someone’s site better with small fixes, I will.

Second, these tips are not for those who need a fully branded marketing strategy. These are for people who blog for fun, or as a secondary job. If you need a site that is branded, and used for business, you need something custom and completely yours.

With that said, here is the easiest way to make your blog look like a million bucks without spending a ton:

1. Download a theme from Wordpress.org. Pick one that is clean, simple and that you like as is.
2. Hire someone to create 5 pieces for you: A header, a rss button, a social media connect button (twitter/facebook/etc), a button people can grab from your site to promote theirs and one other button (depends on your site needs).
3. Have the designer add the custom buttons that have been created for you, change out the header and add some widgets on the sidebar.

Most designers (including myself) will do work like this for under $500, and the difference that it makes will astound you…

What other ways can you think to make some simple changes to your site?

Yesterday, my new site design went live. *cue excited dancing music and me jumping up and down like a crazy woman!!*

If you follow me on twitter, you probably saw my tweets about trying to redesign my site. I was frustrated because I was having trouble pulling myself out of my own head to work on my site. When I design a clients site, I don’t have preconceived thoughts, I can be free to develop something that fits what they need. For myself, I kept coming back to a design too close to my own, or too safe. Finally, I asked my twitter followers for help and help they did! They treated me like a client, asking what I wanted my site to do, etc.. it allowed me to separate myself from, well, myself (hint #1: Asking for help doesn’t mean you are incompetent, it means you are realistic). Finally, after tons of help from followers, lots of hours in photoshop, hunting for a great coder to help me, and a few late nights, my new site is here!

First, I want to send a HUGE thank you to Brett Terpstra, the amazing coder who turned my design into a working wordpress template. While I could have spent hours and hours coding it myself, driving myself crazy when little things weren’t working, I decided it wasn’t worth the headache, so I hired Brett (hint #2: Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should). He not only turned it around very quickly, but he kept me in the loop the entire time he was working on it, and let me see it as it developed. He was so easy to work with and I am so glad that I chose to work with him. He also did such a great job that he is my new go-to coder for big projects (and should be for you too!) .

Second, I want to talk about the usability of your site. When I first started this design, I thought I wanted one thing, but everyone I showed it to said it was hard to follow. So I scrapped the idea, and started with efficiency – an easy to navigate layout and then worried about design. Your website needs to be, above all else, easy to use for the visitor. Yes, it should look good and represent your brand, but if people can’t use it, they won’t care what it looks like (hint #3: Functionality is the key to any successful site, design is just the icing on the cake). If you are considering doing a redesign of your own site, I recommend starting with an outline of what you want people to do first, before you get into colors and layout.

Third, let’s talk about who you are. For example, I don’t do flash designs, I don’t think they are beneficial for most people. So, my site doesn’t have flash on it. I also don’t write dry, technical copy. So my site is written and designed colorfully (hint #4: Your site should represent who you really are, not what people think you should be). I love my clients because they know who I am the minute they visit my site, and aren’t surprised by me as a person because my brand is all connected.

Finally, a lot of you are reading this via rss, so if you haven’t: Visit my site NOW to see the new design…you’ll want to click through a few pages to see all the differences. The portfolio page is one of my favorites! (hint #5: A lot of people will only ever read your rss feeds, so give them lots of reason to visit the actual site, like leaving a comment, so they can see your design!) Also, if you have added my button to your sidebar, I have updated it to match the new site: So please replace the current code with this code:
<a href="http://www.wrightcreativity.com/blog" target="_blank"><img src="http://wrightcreativity.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/wrightcreativitysitebutton.jpg" border="0" alt="Wright Creativity" /></a>

What hints of your own can you add for web design?