Web Development

Visitor Elimination

2010-01-12T08:49:00.000-08:00

Yes visitor elimination is probably not anyone's goal. Yet that is what some sites actually achieve with their animation. Having just had to take my battery out of my computer to turn it off, site animation is very much on my mind.

Usually I don't have to go to such extremes. But more often than I would like I have had to do an alt, ctrl, delete or a command, option, esc. to get the thing to stop. You can't click on these sites or move onto the next page because of banners that are moving so fast the computer processor doesn't have the chance to respond to anything other than the next frame that is being played.

If you want people to come back do not use such tactics. You can be sure that if your visitor has to resort to shutting down his computer to stop a site from playing that he is going to be very careful to avoid that site in the future.

I strongly advise against using that kind of animation. Use something gentle if you must. A good example of great design with a little gentle flash is http://www.wisewomanproductions.ca/

Even that much could be an issue for slower computers. They are still around you see. Also I am not overly fond of the 'enter' animation screens. I am a busy woman. The fewer clicks the better.

How Do Graphics Impact Site Quality?

2009-07-20T11:39:00.001-07:00

Graphics are visuals generated by computer programs and the images themselves are also called graphics.

Images, video and audio graphics generally enhance a site, add visual interest, direct the viewer through the written information, and convey information while creating an enjoyable experience.

A site can build credibility through the use of graphics by creating a presence, displaying a sense of time, effort and expense that makes customers more comfortable about doing business with you. With your viewers all over the world they may not have the option of visiting your business in person and determining their risk in that way.

A word about Flash - it's great. I like looking at these little moving presentations - once or twice. More and they start to feel like an inconvenience. I either have to click to make the 'enter here' page with the Flash presentation disappear or I have to click to say that I don't want to see it or I have to put up with the moving images while I am trying to read content.

We humans are built to pay immediate attention to anything that moves. A good thing that saves us from nasty encounters with cougars, bears or cars etc. A bad thing though when it is your customer and they are trying to read the sales information with Flash flashing in their peripheral vision. I don't use it for those reasons.

Good design uses images in ways that helps the viewer's eye move through content quickly and easily so that they see things in the order you intended, get the message you intend and enjoy the experience.

By the way Video doesn't have the same problem as Flash. It is not moving until you push play. Audio similarly is not distracting unless it plays without permission. Used properly, both can direct attention or reveal information in a more interesting form.

Graphics help to build an attractive site and convey a tone or emotion. Good design implies stability, quality and is pleasing to look at. It causes people to take an interest in your written content and help them get the message you intend.

Headlines! 1st Impressions Count

2009-03-23T15:02:00.000-07:00

This is the key! If the headline doesn't create interest, your potential new customer may simply fade away into electronic ‘Never Never Land’. It takes only a few seconds or less to engage your new customer and that is precisely what a good headline does.

3 Properties of a Good Headline

1. News, or useful information, or something to pique reader self-interest.
2. A message.
3. Narrow audience selection.

We will create a headline using the above properties in a moment. First can a headline get too many hits?

Yes. A good headline encourages only the people you want to sign up for your newsletter or those who will buy your product. Attracting the right people can generate a higher percentage of sales while keeping the cost of advertising down -- the ideal mix.

Let's create a headline using the above three properties. For example let's generate interest for racing car drivers using information as enticement.

"Designing Your Next Ride". Hmmm makes me curious. Unfortunately it captures the interest of too general a group. There are a surprising number of people interested in their next ride. Car owners, horse owners, racing car drivers, bikers . . . . to name a few. So let's add some more definition to the headline and say instead:

"Designing Your Next Ride -- the Blown Alcohol Engine".

That sure narrows it down. That eliminates horse people, bikes, regular car owners and targets the blown alcohol racing guys. We may get fewer hits but many more from the people we are trying to reach and a much higher conversion (click through) rate.

Well so far we have a headline that offers information to a specific audience of racing car drivers and now -- what about a message? Do we have one? Let's add a little more definition so that there is no doubt about message.

"Design Your Next Ride. 5 Tips for Blown Alcohol Max Performance"

I like that headline. If I am a racing car driver I get the message that I could design my own car and I am curious about what the 5 tips are.

Great information even if I don't build my own car. I am going to read everything after the headline and give my email address in case there is more good stuff to read.

Is there a product to buy? I am curious enough to read about the product too. I might even make a purchase. And that is a conversion – a new customer has been created.

A good headline is the first thing your visitor sees as your web site is rendered on their computer screen. Give them a headline that piques their interest and helps them become another happy customer.

Slicing Images for Mobile Devices

2009-02-05T10:05:00.001-08:00

I was working on a web site recently and had some great images I wanted to include. Sometimes great images are a little heavy on bits and bytes - the storage medium used by computers. Too many of them (bits) cause sites to load slow and viewers often choose to leave rather than wait.

Slicing images in photoshop into smaller pieces and putting them back together again on the web page causes the image to come up on your screen faster and looks good.

New technology however is making this a less attractive solution to speeding up load times as the images sometimes fall apart on the new small screen devices. I have a black line through one of my test photos on small screen and will have to redo it.

Sometimes the only way around these issues is to build custom pages for a specific browser or display device. This time I lucked out as the size of the image is suitable for cutting in a way that won't interfere with how the mobile unit handles the image.

I will cut the image in a place where it will look great even on the small screen.

Google Searches

2009-01-07T09:09:00.000-08:00

Looking for something specific on the net? You may have been surprised at some of the results that you have received.

A couple of examples that provide more entertainment than relevant results:

Jan was looking for a good fantasy novel to read. Something along the lines of Harry Potter. So she typed in 'fantasy' and whoa, what did she see? First there were sports fantasies, wikpedia, what looked like some pretty racy movies and we could go on forever because there were 20 million results. Jan can easily narrow down the number of results as well as get much closer to what she is looking for and you can try out some tips yourself in a moment.

First one more example for the drag racing guys who probably are pretty good at this already. However, I know of one racing word that got some humerous results. That word was "altered".

It isn't just drag racing cars that are altered. There are altered states as in hypnosis or how about altered people bodies. Pretty strange stuff for some of us. Anyway following are a few tips and then a couple answers to our two examples that worked when I tried them.

Tips:

Use 3 or 4 words enclosed in quotes to narrow your search

Use a + sign in front of any word that you definitely want included

Use a - sign to eliminate a particular word from your search

There are more sophisticated methods than these but these tips will get you pretty good results.

This combination "good fantasy book to read like Harry Potter" gave me good results on the Fantasy novel.

This combo "drag racing" + altered gave me a good response but with about 70,000 pages to look through. It could be narrowed down a little with a few more keywords. See what you can do. It's fun and sometimes funny.

If you want more information on how to do searches Google has a great page that will help you out Google features