OnWired | Blaugh!

Why are you building a website?

2012-01-04 19:16:40+00:00

Deep thoughts... on why our web exists.

As with all advertising and marketing, your website exists for a very important reason: it's the genesis of your sales efforts. However, many business owners I speak with - in fact, even some of our clients - don't look at their web presence this way. Thus - I was inspired to write this article.

So...

Why do you want a website?

Let's get serious. The only purpose of using the web is to make sales - whether you are selling yourself as a personal brand, selling products, or selling a service - you're in this game to drive sales. I cannot emphasize this point enough. Your site is an investment in your sales potential. Therefore - you need to look at your site as one of your sales force.

Obviously, there are some important distinctions.

First, your sales people can only reach one person at a time. Second, people create personal relationships with real handshakes, real meetings, and real phone calls. These relationships are incredibly valuable and cannot be replaced by any website, no matter how perfect it is.

On the other hand, your website - similar to an advertisement - reaches 1000s of potential clients at the same time. But, it's reach is much greater - we're not talking about a meager local ad campaign, it's global. Your site is communicating the quality of you, your products, and your services every single time a user hits your landing page. This can be very good... or very bad.

Hopefully this isn't your sales guy...

A sales person's mistake may cost little to rectify. It can usually be managed. However, a mistake on the web may cost thousands of times that much. Those are missed sales, missed leads - unknown opportunities cost.

Your site greatly magnifies the impact of your sales efforts. Poor placement, poor copy, poor design choices, poor marketing efforts - these are immediately communicated to thousands of potential clients. If your site isn't found, you are dead in the water (the web marketing component of web presence). If your site doesn't resonate with your target demographic (if it's not "sticky"), potential clients bounce out and find a competitor who does (the web design component).

Research shows you have as little as 50 milliseconds to capture the interest of potential customers. Through the halo effect, first impressions can influence subsequent judgments of website credibility and buying decisions... That's 1/20th of a second folks! (Read More)

Value your money

You value your marketing and sales dollars. Even entry level sales positions can demand $30,000 salary every single year (not including training, expenses, management, office space, etc). Realistically though, you'll be spending at least $50,000 and up. For that reason, when an account manager doesn't perform, you let them go as fast as possible. Your marketing budget is a very significant spend - thousands to millions each month. If you aren't seeing an ROI, you change tactics. Therefore, it is important to look at your web presence the same way. Your site is an extension of your sales and marketing arm -- but it never sleeps. If it's not converting leads or making sales, you need to let it go - in all likelihood it's hurting you!

What's Driving and Converting Traffic Today

This all may seem pretty self-serving. We are a web marketing and design agency after all. But really - I'm not writing this to sell you our services. I am encouraging you to change how you look at the web. Any site is an investment of marketing dollars and you need to spend it wisely. If you're not looking at the web as a sales tool, why do you want a website?

Greg

WordPress Developer Wanted

2011-01-14 03:41:56+00:00

OnWired is on the hunt for a WordPress developer.

Are you a web standards evangelist? Do you despise table-based layouts as much as we do? Can you wrestle CSS into submission and coerce WordPress to do your bidding? Do you get that special tingly feeling when you roll out a shiny new widget or plugin? If so, please keep reading.

OnWired, a full-service web design/development firm and all-around cool place to work, is on a quest to find our next superstar WordPress developer. We’re looking for someone with a creative mind, a keen understanding of user experience, exceptional communication skills, attention to detail, self-motivation, and the ability to hit the deadline every time.

On the technical side, you should be able to wrangle CSS, XHTML, WordPress, PHP, and SQL along with the occasional Javascript and AJAX. We’re not sticklers for fancy degrees. We just want someone who can get the job done.

You’ll get to work with a small, highly talented team of people who are incredibly passionate about what they do. We’ve got a part-time gig waiting for the right person and we really need someone who can hit the ground running.

Now we come to the pay-off. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to send your resume along with the world’s greatest cover letter to HireMe@OnWired.com. Explain your love affair with web standards. Dazzle and amaze us with your past work. Promise us that if we hire you, all of our wildest dreams will come true. If you are convincing enough, we’ll be in touch.

If you run one of those outsourcing firms in India, please don’t email us offering to span the globe with your low-cost coding skills. And if you happen to be the widow of a deposed Nigerian military officer, we kindly decline your offer to share your immense wealth with us.

Please include your salary requirements when applying.

Desired Technologies

Modern Web technologies
WordPress
SQL
PHP
AJAX (all languages included)
Work within XHTML/CSS environments - no tables

Bonus Technologies

ExpressionEngine
Drupal
jQuery
Have your own Wii-mote

OnWired Client Go Realty Featured on American Express OPEN Forum

2010-12-12 17:24:33+00:00

Yet another example of what OnWired can do for you.

A few days ago I received a nice email from Jim Garman, the brilliant owner of Go Realty, advising me to check out an article about their website GoRealty.biz. The article was titled "What Does Web Design Say About Your Small Business?" and was sitting on American Expresses OPEN Forum site. Needless to say, I was pretty excited for him--and for OnWired.

Go's approach to the busy landscape of real estate is much welcomed. They wanted to humanize the process and show we're not another number to them.

Don't take my word for it, here's what Jacob Gube, a well known peer in our industry, had to say about it:

I think for a real estate company, they have a truly unique angle and they have a web design that manages to convey their core message.

Check out the article. If you're a business looking for a great website, give us a shout and see if we were made for each other.

WANTED: B. A. Baracus. OR – a System Administrator…

2010-12-10 23:45:47+00:00

Quit yo jibba jabba and tell me what you need, sucka!

What we need is a Sys Admin with core strengths in Linux, Networking and Web technostructure.

Let’s get serious: System Administration is no laughing matter. The needs are real. The risk is great. The probability of death is certain. But… Hannibal's on the jazz and there is no stopping him now.

Primary Directives:

Recommend and implement an office-wide, secure file sharing solution. Our team is both local/internal AND distributed from USA to Australia.
Recommend and implement an office-wide secure archiving solution.
Consolidate our web hosting. We currently have 4 providers hosting many many sites. We need to consolidate to one provider and migrate all the sites to the single host.
Account for all domains and move to one domain registrar.
Clean up DNS entries.
Setup tools for easy and secure remote administration of user access. Users must be managed and organized in groups (Sales, Accounting, Systems, etc).
Implement tools for sharing/storing sensitive passwords
Implement development and staging environments for Rails (we run LMR (lemur) Linux/MySQL/Rails), WordPress, Expression Engine, and potentially .NET.
Ensure consistent Source Code management and archival, and website archival.
Recommend and implement new shared phone system – routing + voicemail + conference. Skype is ok, need something more robust.

Secondary Objectives:

Integrate various project tools to ensure they use plugins for intra tool communications. (Pivotal Tracker to Project Management (undecided), to Basecamp, etc).
Network traffic review of our connection to the internets (is our network setup optimized for what we can afford?)

That’s your piece of the plan. Let us know if you’re in.

Wireframe Madness: The FREE Wireframe App Tourney — Round 4

2010-08-09 18:00:00+00:00

I had a quote from Samuel L. Jackson here, but then I remembered he was in Snakes on a Plane and decided against it.

It's starting to get ugly in the wireframe arena. Rounds One, Two, and Three reminded me of the knee to face combos between Penn vs. Sanchez back in December. Ok, maybe it wasn't that rough, but it's been intense...

In the last round, Lovely Charts and Creately were neck and neck, but Creately won out overall. This week Justproto and Gliffy go head-to-head.

Wireframe Madness Bracket

Justproto

justproto

The Justproto Rundown:

Free Templates: 1

Design: Interface 6/10

Tools/Components: 8/10

Sharing:Public URL preview link

Pros:

Customize interface with company logo
Auto save
Nice set of social icons, iab standard ads, and iphone/ipad/android tools
Collaboration and co-edit ability
Allows Master page templates
Simple prototyping ability
Rulers and grid with pixel increments
Easy edit of size, shape, color, border, etc of any item through properties tab

Cons:

No Export to pdf, png, or jpg.
1992 Windows-esk file icons used in interface... ok, maybe I'm biased here
Limited to One free page.
Bland Interface

Gliffy

The Gliffy Rundown:

Free Templates: Can't even save one, 30 day trial unlimited

Design: Slightly cluttered interface 7/10

Tools/Components: 5/10

Sharing: Public URL, Embed, Export as: JPG, PNG, PDF

Pros:

Share as image url or as site URL or embed in page
Collaboration ability
A few templates to choose from
Revision history toolbar
Spot color feature
Simple grouping and ungrouping

Cons:

Little focus on Wireframes
Not many tools
No measurement toolbars, or rulers.
Cluttered Interface
Can't even save one template for Free — forced to sign up for 30 day trial.

Justproto vs. Gliffy — Final Score.

Justproto does have a slightly dated, bland interface, but it's positive point is it's focus on wireframes. Gliffy falls short in the wireframe department and it's other uses seem to come from totally different realms — floor plans, really? I'm going to give this one to the design underdog here; Justproto comes in first. The wireframe tool set with iphone, ipad, android and correctly sized iab ads kick this application up a notch. Maybe the interface is 3 shades of white, but so what. At least it provides a simple layout and the ability to create a full page wireframe. Gliffy doesn't even let you save your work until you sign up for the 30 day trial, what a hassle!

Wow, what a match! We have a double header lined up for next time with Mockingbird vs. Mockflow in round 1 and Creately vs. Justproto in round 2. The final battle will then ensue...

The Design / Development Dilemma

2010-07-27 17:33:00+00:00

"You got your peanut butter in my chocolate!"

Back when Al Gore invented the internet, things were simple. It started with 2 people destined to become inseparable: TCP and IP. IP’s the guy who talks to anyone he meets - he’s a shoe-in and somehow knows everyone. Seriously - his DNS rolodex is fierce. TCP’s the cool chic who keeps the conversation alive. She talks and listens, always offering support: “I understand…I really do.” Together, TCP/ IP are the Internet. And they’re good people.

But there was something missing. They’re great communicators but, like vampiric xclones, they only work in total darkness. Something needed to be done...

Enter our heroine: "HTTP." She got with TCP/IP and made the internet a whole lot more interesting. Their hot hook caused the world wide web and that’s when the party started. Web servers stepped up, handling “requests” and “responses” and web browsers brought game turning formless ASCII characters into pictures and words.

It wasn’t long until the world wide web witnessed its first miracle: the birth of truly horrific web pages. Ugly monsters without style or any semblance of usability. Indeed - the kinds of children only a system administrator could love…

See what I mean? Horrific.

Fast forward to today in 2010 where some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth. And after two and a half decades, the foundational science of the internet was lost and Designers took control of the web.

It makes sense really. Web users see only the web interface: the user experience (UX) is almost 100% governed by designers. The only case where hard core backend developers have a “direct” impact on users is when a site is abhorrently slow or the site is practically useless in function (“Error 500: Internal server error”). However, as users demand more complicated web applications, the Developer becomes more and more important because the code gets more and more complicated. This, in turn, requires more and more sophisticated management efforts. More and more... and more... The days of a simple “Brochure Site” are dead. The days of drag and drop, slide-out multi-layered dynamic interface, and commerce by default “Web Applications” are here.

The Interwebs Today: it’s not your great, great, grandfather’s internet…

Now, to the Point: the Great Divide

The minds of Designers and Developers are totally different. They are both creative but in completely different ways. Designers focus on what the user sees, developers focus on making it all work. More than ever, it is critical that Designers and Developers understand each other’s limits and capabilities.

This is the Designer / Developer Divide: a rift of opposing forces, neither good nor bad. The Ying and Yang. The Chocolate and Peanut Butter.

On Our Right: Designers

Generally speaking, Designers face the primary problem of finding creative inspiration – which is not always easy. It’s not like we’re all inherently born with every instantaneous creative impulse this Universe has to offer. Inspiration comes randomly and sporadically and when you’re expected to produce for a full time job, that pressure can hamper your creative freedom. Sometimes you just need a break to dislodge the creative block.

Once a Designer achieves the Nirvana of inspirational bliss, they build that slick beautiful interface everyone wants to see. That’s exactly how OnWired rolls. Yes. It is cool. It is beautiful. But, is it possible? A design element might be awesome, but then comes the reality check smack-down. Adding a seemingly simple “Add to Cart” button to a slide out interface wireframe takes a Designer 12.34 seconds once they know where it should go. However, that one small element might take hours to implement – especially if it’s an interface change and the code wasn’t already designed for it. (Yes, even here at the “ODub” hub, we deal with this issue regularly.)

And The Left: Developers

Developers are the often misunderstood, sociopath recluses forced to burn midnight oil to meet impossible deadlines. They are faced with the maddening task of logically forcing a web server and 5 different browsers to do as they are expected. The Designer’s vision may be beautiful, but it’ll take 6 MONTHS to get it working. This is a real problem for all software development. The experience required by a Developer to understand how complex a feature is, how long it will take to get it working AND push back when it will extend the deadline is hugely valuable.

Not to put too fine a point on things, but design is only the tip of the iceberg – the backend code represents 90% of the effort. Think about that. If a project takes a year to complete, only a month of Work Days is needed for design. The remaining 11 MONTHS is pure Development. That means a majority of the work we do as web professionals is never even seen by the client. This is an unappreciated fact. Therefore, updates must be frequently given to the customer to ensure they know what’s going on.

The Solution: Build a Strong Corpus Callosum

Now that we understand the rift, it’s obvious that something needs to be done. TCP/IP and HTTP utterly depend on each other for survival. Likewise, Developers and Designers utterly rely on each other to transcend interweb boundaries.

The solution to all of this is actually simple: Ensure your designers and developers are communicating. Only the dumbest of organizations would keep these two critical groups away from each other. And guess what? This means it’s up to the corpus callosum, the people managing the project and customer, to bridge that left and right divide.

Designers need to take into account the cost of interface elements. Developers need to know when to push the envelope of possibility and when to say, “Dude, breaking that sound barrier is going to take 6 months of serious pain.” Project Managers need to keep the interests of all sides in balance: Customers, Designers, and Developers.

Be sure both a Developer and Designer are together in project brainstorming meetings. And don’t let people shut down ideas - it’s important everyone is able to share thoughts openly. Being negative is a sure way to stop creativity in its tracks: keep it positive and constructive. I mean, imagine how lame Star Wars would have been if they’d listened to Commander Nageeto: “That’s impossible – we can’t build a space station with the power to destroy an entire planet!” If Vader had not Force crushed his larynx, the Death Star would still be a fleeting dream dancing in the mind of the Emperor.

Death Star PWNage: "We'll blow your planet up!"

Well there you have it: from the distant past to today. Understanding our roots and differences helps everyone move forward. And the sooner, the better. I want to see a 3-D holographic fully interactive web interface in my lifetime.

Please Trust Your Designer

2010-07-19 14:49:01+00:00

There is never an excuse to use Comic Sans. Ever.

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the last week or so, you’ve probably heard a little something about LeBron James’ decision to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers and join the Miami Heat. Heck, I do my best to completely ignore professional sports and even I know far too much about the brouhaha. LeBron did his best to create a media circus, but I’m not here to talk about him today.

Shortly after LeBron’s announcement, Cavaliers majority owner Dan Gilbert released one of the most epic rants of all time (written rant that is; I think Mel Gibson and Christian Bale are tied for most epic recorded audio rant). He has already received his fair share of heat (no pun intended) for his statement, including a nastygram from Jesse Jackson and a $100k fine from the NBA. But I’m not here to talk about that either.

Instead, I want to quickly address Mr. Gilbert’s font choice. Comic Sans? Seriously? Don’t you know that there’s never an excuse to use Comic Sans? For your poor taste in typography, you’ve been openly mocked all over the Interwebs. Just to help you remember not to commit this font faux pas again, I am ordering a copy of this poster for you.

And now, to the real meat of this post. I’m pretty sure Mr. Gilbert didn’t publish that letter to the Cavs’ site by himself. He probably typed it out in a Word doc or in an email — or he might have even picked up a pen and paper to scribble it out — and then he passed it along to his web person for publishing. I can imagine Mr. Gilbert standing over his web person’s shoulder having the following conversation:

Dan Gilbert: Verdana is much too boring of a font for an epic rant such as this. Use something more exciting. Something with sizzle. Use Comic Sans!

Web Person: But sir, there’s never an excuse for using Comic Sans. It is a typographic abomination, singlehandedly responsible for swine flu, global warming, and Paris Hilton.

Dan Gilbert: I’m serious. Use Comic Sans. It’s the best font ever!

Web Person: But sir, font geeks from all over the world will ridicule you for this most egregious of errors.

Dan Gilbert: I don’t care. Use Comic Sans. Now. Or you’re fired!

Web person: Fine. No sense losing my job over it. As soon as your rant goes live, I’ll need to go lie in the shower in the fetal position for a while because using that font makes me feel so dirty...

In my head, that’s pretty much how it played out. How do I know? Because it’s happened to me far too many times.

I always find it interesting when a client hires a designer because of their expertise but then decides to nitpick every decision they make. I can assure you that professional designers have got your best interest in mind. They know what they’re doing and they all want to create something truly incredible for you.

Don’t ask your designer to create a Flash intro for your site. Don’t try to force your designer to use Joomla when they say it’s totally wrong for your project. Don’t demand that your designer use Papyrus for your logo. That’s a really bad move — even if you happen to be James Cameron and you just produced the highest grossing film of all time. (Maybe I should order him one of the aforementioned posters too.)

The point is this: Trust your designer. Please. If your designer tells you that something is a bad idea, listen. Chances are that the designer is probably right.

To Web Marketeers: 3 Reasons Your SEO is Rusting

2010-07-06 20:38:00+00:00

Are you and Google speaking the same language?

There are few things as complicated as online marketing. You must combine the science of search engine indexing with high impact messaging that converts customer visits to sales. Knowing where to focus your marketing efforts and dollars is important. Aside from getting lucky with a good viral marketing campaign, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the best places to start. You have no hope of listing organically on the first page of Google unless you put some significant thought into your SEO strategy.

Few things are as misunderstood as SEO in the marketing world. Sure, the idea of SEO is easy to understand – get your site listed front and center on Google, Yahoo, or Bing and a veritable torrent of customers will flood your site filling your shopping cart with orders or subscriptions. Yes well, Costner’s “Field of Dreams” was fiction – there’s no “build it and they will come” here. With billions of pages out there, it’s complicated. You’re competing with millions of sites for a small slice of billions of users. It’s truly a daunting task and unfortunately, dreaming won’t help (just do a search on one of your key words to see how many pages Google returns).

The Interwebs - Without Indexing...

Given all that I’ve said there, let’s look at some basic reasons your SEO strategy isn’t panning the gold you hoped for.

1. You want it all, and you want it now!

Patience is a virtue. Of course, this is one thing I lack myself (big time). And no wonder – we live in a world where feedback is near instantaneous in everything we do. But, in the world of SEO, you need to wait for web crawlers to pick up your page and index it. As I said – with billions of pages to index, catalog and rate, this could take a while (as in 6 months “a while”). Even then, you will be lucky to see your site show up in the first couple pages of results. Furthermore, depending on how many other sites or businesses you’re competing with for specific key words, it could be a year or more before your site lists near the top.

2. You’re not using the right words.

“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” – Inigo Montoya

So, you didn't rigorously study industry trends to find the most relevant words? Big mistake. Big. HUGE. In SEO, words matter. One of the great ironies of SEO is that the money isn’t always where we think it is. In other "words", even though we think a certain word or phrase is going to be profitable, your potential customers might be searching for word variations you didn't key on – or something completely different.

Ultimately, when it comes to words, all we Web Marketeers can do is study the trends and make an educated guess. However, don't drop the ball. You need to keep adjusting your campaigns as you go along. Eventually, you’ll find the most profitable words that drive the most traffic.

3. Users are knocking, but you’re not answering…

Hits are pretty much useless if you have a 100% bounce rate. If your users aren’t staying, buying, or clicking your ads, your site is just hemorrhaging krugerrands. You need to maximize your UX, design, and content impact.

Of course, your SEO content is important – it’s what gets people to your door in the first place. But don’t forget the importance of your customer’s experience on the site. You need an easy interface where clients understand how to search or buy your products. You need a compelling message that appeals to your client’s desires, dreams, or emotions to get them to want your products. You need good “Calls to Action” to make it easy for them to see where to click. And, the site needs to be useful enough and look good enough to keep them coming back again and again.

The Exciting Conclusion

So keep all of this in mind – your search engine plan might actually be working. Take the lesson of patience to heart and focus on great content for your customers so when the hits start coming, they have a reason to stay. Keep refining your keywords – this is a never ending process in a world of constant change. And experiment where appropriate - test and tweak different ideas to ensure buying ratios improve over time. Remember, the goal here is not just driving traffic, it’s converting hits to sales.

Web Templates vs Web Designers

2010-06-28 18:02:00+00:00

Gasp... you're not considering a template are you?!?

A website is definitely a huge asset to those who want to promote themselves, their company, or their wares. People from all over the world use the Internet (1.8 billion to be exact) to find all kinds of things -- every day; providing a highly manicured website is a great way to capture their attention.

As with all things of importance, there are a few difficult choices that must be made during the process of getting a website up and running. The first decision that should be made about your website is whether you should have it custom designed and developed or if you should use a website template.

Full disclosure: I am the owner of a pretty darn good web firm so take my comments in stride. I only speak the truth though.

Templates Aren't All Bad

What is a template? Templates are pre-designed and pre-built websites that you can find on many a site. They range from "I wouldn't use that if you paid me" to "Wow -- that is one awesome site".

They would make a perfect choice for those who want a website based more around functionality without all the bells and whistles of a custom design. They are usually much less expensive than sites built by a web designer. However, the low price does not mean that style is out of the question. There are literally endless numbers of templates to choose from and you're sure to find one that suits your needs and taste after a bit of looking. With template designs, what you see is what you get; there is not much room for flexibility.

Using templates can also save a chunk of time. There's no day dreaming and brainstorming with a hired designer, just a site that's ready to be slightly edited. All that you have to do is find a design that you like and fill in the desired content, then put it up on the web for everyone to see.

Be unique | CC BY 2.0

Though there are many useful benefits to using templates, it's not the right choice for everyone. One notable downfall of using pre-made layouts is that it is entirely possible that another person is using the same design. Any number of people are allowed to buy and use the same template, that is unless the “unique” price is paid, which is then getting into the realm of what a web designer would charge in the first place. Another thing to be wary of when deciding to use a template is the amount of website knowledge you may have. If you're limited on the subject, you may have a tough time setting up and maintaining the site, let alone trying to get search engines to pick it up so others will find it.

Those who want a very specific design for their website are bound to be disappointed, since they probably won't find exactly what they are looking for.

Just Hire a Designer

Another choice to keep in mind when trying to get a website running is to hire a web designer or a firm such as us. We specialize in designing, coding, and writing content for our clients' websites. A good designer can really give your website a cutting edge that you don't usually see with templates. This is a great option for those who want an elaborate, impressive design that won't be seen anywhere else. A lot of designers have a good grasp on how the Web works and making good impressions on those who visit their sites.

They are also skilled at taking your specific requests and making them into a functional, user-friendly system that is designed to attract attention from search engines. Web designers are beneficial to those who expect their website budget to grow, since they are usually happy to add new sections, pages, graphics, and more later on. Hiring a professional also comes in handy for those who don't exactly understand websites. Web designers will deal with getting the website up and offer maintenance services if something were to go wrong.

Hiring a designer can be a great option for some people, but a few things should be taken into consideration before making the decision. The most obvious con to having a designer build a customized website for you is the price. Initially, a designer puts a larger dent in the bank than a template, but whipping that cheap template into shape is going to require lots of patience and a bit more cash than anticipated.

If you have a specific image in mind, be sure the designers you speak with have a portfolio showcasing the design style you're looking for. That will definitely get you started on the right foot.

If you are looking for a designer, you must have knowledge on how to find a skilled professional who can be trusted with such an important project. Failing to do so would likely result in a major loss and a major headache. Don't like the samples in our portfolio? Check out Sortfolio.com for a rather large listing of designers across the country. Those with a very specific design in mind should understand that a good designer will argue any requests that could leave a bad impression on the site's visitors, which will benefit their clients in the long run.

The moral of the story: if you have a very limited budget and are not very concerned about your brand, go for the template. If you have some money to spend and you want to supply your visitors with an experience unique to your brand, hire us or find another firm that will make you happy.

Wireframe Madness: The FREE Wireframe App Tourney — Round 3

2010-06-17 21:33:00+00:00

And the battle continues this week with Lovely Charts and Creately

Are you ready for the third round of the Wireframe Madness? If you missed the first or second round check them out here: First Round & Second Round.

The last round was a blow out between Cacoo and Mockflow. Mockflow easily took the cake. This week things may get ugly between Creately and Lovely Charts. Check out the score below.

Wireframe Madness Bracket

Let's do this.

Lovely Charts

The Lovely Charts Rundown:

Free Templates: 1

Design: Interface 7/10

Tools/Components: 6/10

Sharing: Export as PNG or JPG

Pros:

Sitemap and Flowchart abilities along with Wireframes
Has built in grid feature
Arrange and Align feature
Color dropper tool
Built in Connection tool for user flow diagrams

Cons:

No page borders.
Some tools appear cartoony, some tools are irrelevant
Cannot share with a URL. Only exports to PNG or JPG.
Very limited on Wireframe tools
Limited to One free page.

Creately

The Creately Rundown:

Free Templates: Unlimited

Design: Slightly cluttered interface 7/10

Tools/Components: 7/10

Sharing: Share through email, Export — JPG, PNG, PDF

Pros:

Has a contact toolbar that connects items easily
Very nice social media icon set
Multiple template sets to choose from
Collaborate with Two people in Free version
Unlimited free templates
Has page borders

Cons:

Have to load web tools, not automatically in the library
Cluttered interface
When testing I got an error and lost my recent work

Lovely Charts vs. Creately — Final Score.

This was a close race, but all-in-all Creately takes the gold. Lovely charts would have had more leverage if it offered more free templates — one template just doesn’t cut it, not even for sampling. Creately stepped up the game with it’s toolsets and templates, although that error message and losing work definitely gives me some cause for concern.

There we have it folks: another tight race ends, and another one bites the dust. We still have three more battles to go until the final face-off, so stay tuned!