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New Age Design Challenges of a Graphic Design Company

In a market as saturated as graphic design, it’s quite difficult for a company to even make a name for yourself and build a brand that’s recognizable, let alone anything else. Being in a business branch that’s related to the internet is like you’re constantly trying to escape quicksand – there are already titans in the business who keep working on their notorious reputations and, on the other hand, there’s a ton of different startups being created everywhere on the planet. Therefore, if you are planning on to create a business in this niche or you want to get your already existing one out of the rut it’s in, you should pay attention to the next challenges that may be an obstacle on your way towards achieving success.

 

Creativity within a Deadline

Creating quality graphic design material is an equivalent to creating artwork – each piece that comes out of your business needs to represent your creativity and your skills which can be quite a demanding task when you need to work within a deadline. Each of your clients will require from your business to create genuine art within the shortest period of time possible and this is something you need to face and accomplish accordingly – otherwise, your ratings will fall and so will the number of your future clients.

 

Keeping up with Changes

We live in an ever changing world of tech advancements and it’s impossible to be in an online business if you don’t keep yourself updated in any sense possible regarding this matter. This means that your choice of equipment, all the possible tools and software you’ll use, need to be cutting edge technology that will enable you to provide your clients with quality products. Making this selection will be quite a challenge, especially with so many different options in front of you. Every decision you make needs to be calculated and each item you decide to implement needs to increase your efficiency.

 

Fighting the Competition

I already mentioned this in the beginning, but it’s very important for you to realize that your competition is fierce. Considering the fact that new talents are being discovered on a regular basis and that new ideas are being born every day, the amount of graphic design material that is being published will only increase in time.

 

Discovering New Talents

Every business, regardless of the niche you’re in, needs to strive towards constant expansion. When it comes to hiring a graphic designer amid so many options available, an average client will check every piece of info before they actually present you with a business offer.

That being said, your website and your social platforms, as well as every piece of material you publish needs to be constantly refreshed and up to date with the popular graphic design trends. In order to achieve this level of activity, you need to be on the constant lookout for best designers (basically the new talents) so that you can recruit them and make them a part of your team.

This might seem like an impossible investment when dealing with limited funds, but this is exactly where you need to direct them – towards constantly introducing new minds to your already existing team that will refresh your atmosphere and bring in some new points of view.

 

Staying Motivated and Inspired

With this much work that needs to be done in order to attract new clients and maintain a reputation, it’s very difficult to focus on what really matters and that’s staying motivated. You need to have in mind that this is art you’re dealing with and one of the most important characteristics of art is to be able to inspire others.

Being in charge of a graphic design branch is a very stressful position – although it sounds like a prestigious title that most people would love to have, it comes with many challenges that are not at all easy to overcome.

As a leader, you need to be capable of nurturing a healthy atmosphere in your office that will be stress-free for everyone working there, so that they can focus on creating original graphic material. Being a name in the professional graphic design industry also implies taking proper care of your artists because, otherwise, they won’t be able to work at all.

Although all of this sounds like a job for several people and not just one, it’s not impossible to do it properly. It will require a lot of patience and dedication from you, but once you get a grip of it and establish a functioning routine, you’ll find it to be a very rewarding job.

14 Ways to Make Visitors Fall in Love with your Website

So you have made a fabulous website, and you’re getting pretty good traffic; but are they staying on? Are the visitors getting converted into buyers?

You must have heard the term ‘bounce rate’; if you don’t already know what it means, it’s a website analytic metric that measures the percentage of visitors who leave your website after visiting just one page. So here, a ‘low’ rate is good! It means that our visitors are spending more time on your site, exploring and engaging with it. A high bounce rate means people do not really like your website.

It’s not uncommon to have a high bounce rate. Some of it could be because they landed on it by mistake, or because you don’t have the product/service they are looking for, and there’s nothing you can do to stop those visitors from leaving. However, if they are leaving because they find your website boring, irrelevant or unattractive, there is quite a bit you can do to induce them to stay and explore. Let’s look at these tactics:

1. Your site design must be attractive to your target audience:

By this, I don’t mean that it has to be ‘in your face’; rather, the design must be neat and uncluttered. Sleek designs normally win the day – but you may need to customize it to reflect your brand, products and so on.

The design should be aesthetically pleasing to your target audience; if you’re dealing with women’s products, soft designs with pastels and pinks, butterflies and hearts and similar stuff will work; children’s products means your site should have cartoony fonts and images, bright colors, and so on; a financial services company should sport a clean, minimalist look but with detailed information on the products and latest financial news – you get the idea. Some things common to any website are – leaving no scope for confusion, not cluttering up space, and not making it very dull. Rather than going with free themes, invest a little and spend money on purchasing a good theme that will really suit your brand. Use actual images and not stock images. First impressions do count, and if you’re not able to attract the visitor with your site’s appearance, chances are you’ve lost them for good.

2. Highlight your brand personality:

Make sure that the personality of your brand shines through in every element on your site – not just the font and color theme or the home page; the content on every single page must reflect your brand personality. An uncluttered or simple design doesn’t mean that your site must be boring! Your website must convey the message of your business through images, fonts, colors and the text you use on the site, whether you’re happening, laidback, fun or serious.

 

3. Empathize:

Talk more about your customers and their problems – and then tell them how your products or services can help solve their pain points and improve their lives, rather than keep talking about your business. Everyone loves to feel they are important and that they matter – and your visitors will love you for thinking about solving their problems. Headlines, images, copy, subtitles – everything should focus on this particular aspect.

 

4. Your content should be relevant and interesting:

The content on each page must match the user’s objective; that is, it should describe and match the purpose the visitor has arrived on a particular page. The content on each page must be unique and offer focused unique content. Offering valuable information for free, in the form of blogs, ebooks, white papers, resource pages etc. is also a great way to delight your visitors. Keep in mind, however, that the content needs to be fresh and interesting; don’t EVER copy-paste. It’s akin to committing digital suicide. If required, outsource your blog writing to creative professionals who understand your business and can do a great job.

 

5. Structure your Text:

Reading a huge block of text can be intimidating and boring – unless you are in Finance or Academics! Break up your text into small blocks, and use bullet points, headings, images, and if possible, audio and video snippets, to make it more attractive to the normal user. It also makes the page more visually appealing and allows visitors to quickly scan and take in information in bite-sized bits.

 

6. Ensure easy Navigation:

This may sound like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised to learn that many companies fail to incorporate this element in their website! Navigation needs to be simple and intuitive, allowing for users to find just what they want in a couple of seconds. They should not have to go through several pages; rather, they should be able to get where they want with just a click or two – like the checkout page, blog, news, contact information – these should be accessible to the visitor regardless of what page they are on. If yours is an e-commerce site, ensure that the checkout is smooth, and only necessitates a click or two to take them to the payment page.

 

7. Increase website Load Speed:

Nobody is going to wait for half a minute for your website to load. Avoid Flash and other stuff that slows down your site. Make sure that your site loads real quick, or be prepared to lose your visitor to a fast loading website. If your website loads in 3 seconds, you can expect to reduce your bounce rate by about 35% – that is quite substantial.

 

8. Ensure Responsiveness:

With more and more people browsing and shopping on the go, you MUST ensure that your site is responsive; provide the same browsing experience on mobile devices as on a desktop or laptop. Include finger friendly navigation, buttons, easily readable fonts and so on.

 

9. Confirm your Credibility:

Ensure that customer reviews, your contact information, social media buttons, and affiliations with trusted sites (like Tripadvisor or Google Reviews) is displayed prominently – preferably at the top right-hand corner as well as in the footer. This helps build trust and make you look credible in their eyes. Visitors will be reassured and are more likely to interact further and purchase from a company they can trust.

 

10. Have a social media presence:

The majority of internet users today have a presence on at least one social media platform, and they love interacting on it. It is, therefore, crucial that you too maintain a social media presence, and allow visitors to your website to post to Facebook or Twitter with just one click with ‘Click to Tweet’ or ‘Share on Facebook’ buttons. Also, provide space on your website for your visitors to leave reviews or express their opinions. The net savvy visitor of today will lover your website if you incorporate these elements in it.

11. Redesign when required:

You may feel that you have the perfect website, but you need to review it every few years – depending on the type of industry you are in. You may need to revamp your website to reflect current trends and customer preferences; your ideal customer profile is likely to undergo a change every few years. If you don’t refresh your website, you could end up losing customers. But don’t do it too often – people do feel comfortable with what is familiar to them, and are likely to resist frequent changes.

12. Professional Logo:

Your logo is your professional salesperson. It reflects your business vision; often, people identify brands from the logos; the most famous logos being Mercedes-Benz, Apple, McDonald’s, Nike, Citibank, Pizza Hut, Chanel – to name just a handful. Having a professional logo also helps inspire trust and makes your brand easily identifiable. It gives the impression to customers that you mean business, and are not a fly-by-night operator.

 

13. Personalize their Experience:

Everyone loves to think they are special; so go with it! Offer deals, discounts, vouchers, and so on – of course, in exchange for say, their contact info – give access to premium newsletters … you can come up with many different ways to do this. Give them an option to sign up, if possible, and display content based on their past browsing history and preferences, and they will love you for it! Incorporate personalized search options: one website that has mastered this art is Amazon; it offers suggestions based on your purchase and browsing history, as well as products that complement your current purchases, and so on.

 

14. Keep them coming back:

By running contests on your website, announcing freebies (who doesn’t love those, right?) for the first few responders, and by providing fresh information or having a different theme every month (or quarter depending on your type of business) you can give them a reason to love your website enough to keep coming back to it!

So you can see that you need to revamp your website so that it is visually appealing to your target audience, provide valuable and relevant content in easily digestible bits, provide quick and intuitive navigation, showcase your credibility, think from the perspective of your customer, and personalize their engagement experience – and voila! You will certainly be able to reduce your bounce rate considerably and even attract higher numbers of visitors to your site each day.

Leverage the power of LinkedIn and watch the world of opportunities unfold before your eyes

In the professional social media world many believe that regular posts on relevant topics helps to create lasting impressions on employers and connections alike. True, but not entirely so! For ‘merely’ posting tirelessly in order to be found amidst LinkedIn’s 780 million member worldwide network is tantamount to looking for the proverbial needle in the proverbial haystack.

Why?

Because

• a. everyone else has already tried their hand at this at one point or another
• b. somebody is (as we speak) in the process of trying it out for the first time
• c. somebody has already gained much success with it and is now a thought leader, commanding a good number of followers as well as irrefutably and incessantly building his/ her brand image, post by post.

Now, for a second if you were to concentrate only on point c, you’ll come to realise that they possibly form a reasonably good number of people if not a thumping majority of the 150 million–member network. And yes, no prizes for guessing which option from a b c you’d want to choose for yourself.

But wait! There’s more to LinkedIn than meets the eye. Among the key social media sites existing today, LinkedIn has been shown to generate FOUR times as great the number of direct homepage hits than you’d normally see with other social sites.

Thus bringing us to only one logical conclusion – that of publishing a good number of posts and building brand equity one post at a time!

The law of updation

It’s not as jazzy as it sounds, in fact, it’s just really plain vanilla simple. The law of updation merely refers to the frequency of updating your status on LinkedIn– which should be as often as possible.

A simple Trick to attract more Visitors through Your Website

Web design is an art of maintaining a website with respect to different skills and disciplines. In order to grow your business you need to have your own website. Web design in general describes design process relating to the front-end design of a website. A good web design ultimately should be user-friendly, must attract a great traffic, should have a very low bounce rate, the landing pages should grab the users’ attention, and these are the few prominent factors a website should possess to attract more visitors.

I’ve Listed A Few Things to get you started

Content

Your website content must be precise, interesting and should be to the point, that can actually attract visitors. So that the users might get to know what your website is all about and what they should expect from it.

If the user does not understand what your website offers in the first few minutes of browsing then you are losing your valuable customers and there are chances that they might never visit your website again and thus affecting your bounce rate.

 

Easy Readability

The content of your website should be easily readable and use a perfect sized font, font shouldn’t be too small or too big, makes sure that the font color goes in well with the background. Use Headlines, Sub titles and bullets so that it can be easy for the visitors to comprehend.

 

Speed

The loading speed of a website should be really good so that you can retain your visitors. Majority of users go back without visiting the website when the loading page is too slow that affects your Bounce rate.

Develop a website such that it should load at an optimal speed.

 

Search and Navigation

Make sure that your website is SEO friendly and the navigation is straight forward, it should be easy to browse around without too much clicking of links or number of pages and making it difficult for visitors to find out what they really want.

Search Button is definitely must to quickly find out what users are looking out for.

Responsive Web Design

Your website must be capable such that its fits all other devices such as Smart phones, laptops, desktops, net books, and tablets along with the assorted range of screen resolutions. Responsive design improves user experience and lowers the bounce rate.

 

Visual Content

Your website should be appealing to your visitors, a visual content can grab visitors attention greatly. A gif image or a video can attract the user than your long boring text paragraphs. Be sure that these visual contents do not affect your websites loading speed.

 

Repairing errors

Your website should be completely error free for smooth and user-friendly experience. Eliminate all the errors before rolling out your website.

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internet of things and security: Are Smart Devices Secure Enough?

The Internet of Things is a seemingly futuristic concept that connects of everyday objects and making it possible for them to send and receive data just like your smartphone or laptop does. As billions of items used in everyday life are set to be connected to this network, security has become a rising concern. This is worth being addressed before the Internet of Things is launched as a full-fledged practicality instead of just a concept in building.
That being said, the Internet of Things is more than a mere concept today. Chips that make this interconnection possible have been getting cheaper and smaller. It won’t be long before the production cost between a dumb device and smart device is 10 cents, says the chief research officer at F-Secure, Mikko Hypponen.
When this happens, it is easy to guess which option will be chosen a majority of the manufactures. The chips will be so small that it will be easy to fit them in virtually any object. In fact, manufacturers will connect a standard household item to the internet, not because they need to but simply because they can.

Who Will Benefit from IoT?

Coming to the anticipated security issues that this will give rise to, the major benefits from interconnecting devices will be, not to the consumers but to the manufacturer. Imagine living in a place where everything around you, starting from your microwave to your toaster collects information about you and your daily life. Scary as it may sound, experts are of the opinion that this is going to happen soon and there is nothing that can be done to stop it. A time will come when all goods sold in the market are connected to the Internet of Things.
Additionally, it is not who use them but those who make them, along with government surveillance services who will benefit the most from it. For instance, the manufacturer of kitchen appliances will be able to collect data about the place of residence of the customers, the frequency with which the device is used and the time. All this data can then be analyzed to advertise better.

IoT is Already Here

The most disturbing part is that while most people think of the Internet of Things as an upcoming revolution, it is much stealthier and has already begun. Unlikely objects such as children’s toys are fitted with an internet connection giving rise to security issues that were only a part of theoretical discourse until now.

Color Accessibility – UX Best Practices for Using Color in Design

Color Combinations Can Make Your Designs Easier (or Harder) to View

Have you ever visited a website and marveled at how well the colors complement each other, providing just the right amount of contrast? That effect was likely intentional. Color value plays a significant role in readability and user experience. Every color has a value based on its location in the color wheel that determines how well it works with other colors. Overlaying colors on opposite ends of the color wheel can make reading easier – especially for users reading on a smartphone screen in bright light outside. On the other hand, placing text over backgrounds with similar color values can make reading more difficult.

When designing a color scheme for your website, there are some color combinations that you should avoid. Have you ever looked at an image, and certain colors appear to pop out of the screen? This effect is called chromostereopsis. This phenomenon creates the illusion of depth in an image or text, and this effect can create fatigue. The brain experiences chromostereopsis with certain color combinations, particularly blue and red, and it can create a cringe-worthy effect in web design – just take a look at the example below.

Here are some simple design tips to help you use color effectively in web design:

• DO overlay colors with varying values for readability.

• DO use backgrounds with consistent color schema.

• DON’T overlay light-on-light or dark-on-dark.

• DON’T use neon or rainbow designs.

 

Account for Color Blindness in UX Design

One particular challenge that UX designers face is accommodating visitors with color blindness, or color vision deficiency (CVD). This common condition affects more than eight percent of men and about 0.5 percent of women of Northern European ancestry.

With such a high prevalence of CVD, it’s up to UX designers to employ color blind-friendly palettes tailored towards the multiple varieties of colorblindness. In some cases, individuals cannot decipher between red and green, while in others, blue and yellow appear the same. In very rare cases, individuals may perceive no color at all. Here are some useful tips for creating color blind-accessible designs:

• Avoid overlaying text on backgrounds with similar color values.
  While this causes difficulty for most readers, individuals with CVD may literally be unable to read text on backgrounds with similar color values. In other words, your web page may just look like a plain block of color with no text. This doesn’t mean that you can’t necessarily use the color combination you want, just make sure to adjust the color values so they are  adequately distinct.
• Be consistent with color and line thickness coding.
  One way to improve accessibility is to provide users with multiple ways to understand your content. For example, if text or figures on your website are a consistent color, choose a consistent line thickness as well. That way, even if someone cannot distinguish that particular color from another, they will still be able to understand your schema.
• Be thoughtful with the most commonly indistinguishable colors.
  The more you know about your users’ ability to absorb your content, the more informed choices you can make about your designs. Avoiding website designs that would be difficult for someone with blue-yellow CVD, for example, helps you reach more users and improve your overall accessibility. A good general tip is to avoid designs that rely heavily on the colors red, green, and blue.
• Check your work. For those who do not have CVD, it can be difficult to try to guess what a design might look like. Fortunately, there are websites, like Vischeck, Colorblind Web Page Filter, and Coblis, that can show you how they display for individuals with different types of color blindness. Colbis even offers designers the opportunity for someone with colorblindness to check the readability of your designs to ensure your designs are accessible.

 

Build Color Designs with Culture in Mind

Understanding the way human brains physiologically interpret color is just one piece of the puzzle for UX designers. Aside from the biological aspect, culture and context also play a huge role in the way your users experience and react to color. This concept can be more complex to apply, because unlike red-green color combinations which are jarring to virtually every viewer, colors can carry significantly different meanings in different cultures.

Knowing your users’ cultural heritage is crucial to creating an effective web design. Yellow may create a warm, friendly feeling in the US, but implies betrayal in France, pornography in China, bravery in Japan, and luck in Thailand. The color violet can indicate royalty among Westerners, nobility for Chinese viewers, and mourning for Brazilian culture. It’s a good idea to know these cultural cues research before you start designing. Consult this overview of common color meanings for different cultures to ensure you don’t make any regrettable mistakes.

Using color effectively can make or break your user experience. Understanding color in different contexts can help you avoid jarring designs, make your website more accessible, and resonate more deeply with culturally diverse audiences.

3 low-effort/high-reward seo fixes you can make on your site right now

The old saying goes that you get out what you put in. This old adage is that old-school mentality you hear in so many feel-good movies about “wanting something and going to get it!”. There is nothing wrong with that, but as a working professional sometimes you just don’t have the time to be putting in hours of work for something that won’t make a major difference. That’s why we’ve identified 3 of the most common SEO mistakes we see on websites daily, and will tell you exactly how to fix them. The best part is that they’re the low-hanging fruit of the SEO world. They can be found, fixed, and forgotten in an afternoon. These low-effort/high-reward fixes can boost your SEO and you’ll barely break a sweat.

What is a technical SEO problem?

Just to quickly define what we mean by a technical SEO problem:

A technical SEO problem is any issue that is related to the structure of a site and takes a bit of experience to be aware of, uncover, and fix.

That’s a pretty broad definition, but encompasses a lot of the issues that we’re going to face. Let’s get to it.

1. Indexing Issues

Google is like a vast library whose catalog is governed by a mighty search engine algorithm. When you type something into the search box, you aren’t actually searching “the web” per se, you are actually searching Google’s vast index of the web. If you aren’t indexed, you don’t turn up in the results. Think that’s a basic issue that almost nobody encounters? Think again. We see it routinely here. A website owner might think to himself “why am I not ranking for my brand name or keywords?” and go searching far and wide across the web for answers. Sometimes the hardest questions have the simplest answers.

The fix: go to Google and type in site:{yoursitename.com} and you’ll immediately see how many pages on your site are ranking. Ask yourself if that’s the rough number of pages for your site and check to see if any pages you don’t want to rank are ranking or vice versa. While you’re there, you might as well check if:

• There are any spam pages from a hack
• Certain page buckets like product pages are correct
• Any old versions of the site are being mistakenly indexed

With just a quick Google search and some time spent browsing, you can easily fix this difficult problem.

2. One Version Per URL (URL Canonicalization): where are all of my links going?

The term link equity applies to the value that your site derives from being linked to by another valuable node of knowledge on the web. When someone links to you, it is seen in Google’s eyes as a “vote” for your site in a sense. If you have web pages that can be loaded from multiple URL’s (for example, www.Examplesite.com and examplesite.com/home.html), then you could be diluting your link equity big time.

Luckily, a quick fix exists where you can carefully explain to Google that you have multiple URL’s for business or aesthetic reasons (maybe your average customer still types in WWW. to get to a web page), and that you want all of the equity passed along to a single one. Here’s a good explanation of 301 redirects and canonical redirects. Use them.

3. Can Someone Hand Me The Map? XML Sitemaps for easy indexing

Navigating a dense and complex urban street grid is difficult without a map. Now imagine being a robot trying to navigate a site with thousands of pages. See why having a map could make a big difference? An XML sitemap will help Google’s crawlers understand your site better and index your pages. They are vital to very large e-commerce websites and other big operations. It’s a great idea to have a sitemap, especially if:

• Your site is huge
• You have vast archives of content that aren’t interlinked
• You don’t have a very good internal linking scheme
• Your site is fairly new

Create a sitemap, include its location in the robot.txt, and keep your Search Console updated regularly. From there, monitor the URL’s submitted frequently through your console and remember that Google limits sitemaps to 10MB and 50,000 URL’s. Sometimes you’ve got to get creative!

Creating an RFP That Will Make the Website Design Process Go Smoothly

Is it time for your company to get a website or update the one you have? Well, we have some tips for you to make the process go as smoothly as possible. Here at Innovins, we get lots of RFPs (Request for Proposals) from potential clients for their new website design and development project. So, we know what should be included to make the process an easy one.

• Plan out with your team what you need this web site to accomplish so it will be as clear as possible when you go to write your RFP
• Your RFP should include information about your company and what you hope to achieve with this website.
• The budget you have to work with to accomplish the goals you have for this website. Including your budget can help us recommend the right solution for you and save time by letting us get a realistic idea of the amount of money you have to spend for the functionality you want.
• What are the issues you want to address with the information on your new site.
• List the functionality in an order of most haves to would like to have.
• What kind of functionality you need the site to have. This could be anything from marketing to a careers section to e-commerce and associated forms.
• Design requirements, are we just moving existing content and design to a new site or are we reworking every aspect of the site and adding new functionality.
• Designs from competitors or other web sites you like.
• Branding, include guides to branding, like colors, fonts and logos.
• What if any CMS (Content Management System) you would like to use.
• A time line of when you expect milestones to be reached and the site to be launched.