Our Blog

Something that looks great is not always good design

Sun, 08 Jul 2012 21:00:00 GMT

Many people, including design agencies we've worked with, seem to have an idea that good design is something that is aesthetically appealing. Something that looks great is not good design. I'm not saying that it's bad design, in fact, aesthetic appeal is very important, but, creating visually appealing designs is only one element that contributes to a good design.

Design is a method of solving a problem, visual or physical. So, what is good design?

Good design accommodates a number of factors

Aesthetics
Usability
Information architecture
Simplicity
Experience
Efficiency
and more...

Dieter Rams is a German industrial designer closely associated with the consumer products company Braun and functionalist industrial design. Back in the early 1980s, Dieter Rams was becoming increasingly concerned by the state of the world around him – “an impenetrable confusion of forms, colours and noises.” Aware that he was a significant contributor to that world, he asked himself an important question: is my design good design?

As good design cannot be measured in a finite way he set about expressing the ten most important principles for what he considered was good design. Here they are... (http://www.vitsoe.com/en/gb/about/dieterrams/gooddesign)

Good Design is

Innovative
Makes a product useful
Aesthetic
Makes a product understandable
Unobtrusive
Honest
Long lasting
Thorough, down to the last detail
Environmentally friendly
As little design as possible

Good design cannot be achieved by aesthetics alone. It’s a merger of all these principles into something that is meaningful and deliberate.

Dieter Rams talks to TV&A
50 years ago, record players didn’t look like machines. They looked like old-fashioned, brown wood furniture. But in 1956, Dieter Rams’s SK4 record player, nicknamed Snow White’s Coffin, changed all that.

So, what is good web design?

There are many different types of design, good web design often requires the designer to master many of these different design skills.

Graphic Design: the arrangement of type and images typically in 2D space

Interaction Design: "Interaction design is heavily focused on satisfying the needs and desires of the people who will use the product." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interaction_design)

User Interface Design: focuses on user interaction and experience

User Experience Design: incorporates aspects of psychology, anthropology, sociology, computer science, graphic design, industrial design and cognitive science.

Information Architecture: structuring and organizing the information in products and services, supporting usability and find-ability (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_experience_design)

Want to know more about how design works?

Check out this excellent guide by Wells Riley

How are you reminding visitors to come back to visit your website?

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 22:00:00 GMT

How are you encouraging people to take action? How are you reminding them to come back to visit your website?

These are some of the questions web expert Paul Boag asks in one of his latest audio post. We are reminded that we all need little nudges along our path so we can take action... like when the little light comes on in our car to remind us to take it in for a service, or like the letter in the post reminding you to renew your TV license. We all need these little reminders. So how are you reminding people to keep interacting with you and your website?

Paul reminds us that there are many ways to do this, for example email notifications, tweets and RSS feeds. But you also need a consistent and coherent plan to make sure your brand is getting in front of people to remind them that you are there. Paul does this with his audio booms (which this post is also based on) that he sends out for his company 'Headscape' in the UK. He also refers to the two types of ways to do this: The type of notifications that go out all of the time on a regular basis and then also trigger based ones; for example, when someone makes a purchase on your website but hasn't purchased in a while, this might trigger an email to be sent out to them encouraging them to come back.

With all this in mind though, he also reminds us that there is a fine line, because it can become annoying if you do it too much, this just becomes spam. People will unsubscribe and you will lose them forever! So, you need to plan your strategy... when will triggers be initiated and how often will you remind your visitors to come back to your website? What are the different methods you're going to use to communicate with your clients and customers?

All this fundamental stuff that supports your website, and needs to be in place if your website is going to be truly effective, is something we like to encourage our clients to do when their website goes live.

Check out Paul Boag's Daily audio tips on his website boagworld.com or at http://audioboo.fm/Boagworld

What's all this talk about PROTECT IP and SOPA breaking the internet?

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 22:00:00 GMT

PROTECT IP/SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) Breaks The Internet. PROTECT-IP is a bill that was introduced in the United States House of Representatives on October 26, 2011. It gives the government and corporations the ability to censor the net, in the name of protecting "creativity". The law would let the government or corporations censor entire sites - they just have to convince a judge that the site is "dedicated to copyright infringement." The bill would authorize the U.S. Department of Justice to seek court orders against websites outside U.S. jurisdiction accused of infringing on copyrights, or of enabling or facilitating copyright infringement.

The government has already wrongfully shut down sites without any recourse to the site owner. Under this bill, sharing a video with anything copyrighted on it, as sites like Youtube and Twitter do, would be considered illegal behavior according to this bill.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, this bill would cost around $47 million U.S. tax dollars a year. Many people argue that this is a fix that won't work, disrupts the internet, stifles innovation, shuts out diverse voices, and censors the internet.

On January 14, 2012, the Obama administration responded to a petition against the bill, stating that it would not support legislation with provisions that could lead to Internet censorship, squelching of innovation, or reduced Internet security, but encouraged "all sides to work together to pass sound legislation this year that provides prosecutors and rights holders new legal tools to combat online piracy originating beyond U.S. borders while staying true to the principles outlined above in this response."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act

-- UPDATE January 23, 2012--

Internet wins: Lamar Smith pulls the bill of SOPA

After the websites blackout protest, the chief sponsor of SOPA, Lamar Smith, pulls the bill officially. He said he need to find the wider agreement in the future.

It looks like he won’t give up since he said, “It is clear that we need to revisit the approach on how best to address the problem of foreign thieves that steal and sell American inventions and products.”

Hence, we must keep an eye on it. Don’t let the government said protecting piracy while the fact is censoring the internet.

[via Mashable]

2011 Wrap Up

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 08:13:00 GMT

Can't believe how this year's flown. As we approach the end of the year, it's fun to look back at the things we have accomplished over the past 12 months. Here are a few highlights...

C17

This website was a real feather in our cap! Arguably one of South Africa's biggest events this year, COP17, held in Durban between 28 November and 9 December 2011. C17 is the civil society committee established to coordinate civil society activities during the event. We were honored to be asked to tender for the website.

C17 needed a clean and simple website that they could update and maintain themselves, add news stories as well as calendar events amongst other things. Needless to say, we won the pitch and created the following site for them.

The site has generated over 2,000 unique hits in the last week and 1,237 page views on the first day of COP17 alone!

Some other stuff we did this year…

Business Cards Anyone?

Promoting a singing school, we incorporated a retro microphone and vintage coloring to give these business cards an old-school, jazzy feel.

Turn over a new leaf(let)

We helped the Wits Reproductive Health & HIV Institute (WRHI) create this leaflet to help raise awareness about who they are and the work they are doing in Johannesburg.

Building a Brand

This logo helped launch Sereni-te's international skin care range. A woman's profile takes flight in the form of a butterfly. Hyphenating the text, helped new customers pronounce the brand name correctly.

To bee... or not to bee

Beekeeping for sustainable development in southern Africa - African Honey Bee.

Until next time, take care of yourself and your family and have a wonderful holiday season! See you in the new year!

Thanks for reading,

Linda Williams
Owner, Visionar

P.S. Just a reminder that we will be flying the nest (closing our offices) from 14 December 2011 to 4 January 2012.

Create a Google+ Business Page!

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 22:00:00 GMT

With the launch of Google+ Pages, businesses have a new way to leverage the social network to connect with their audience.

With over 40 million members, Google+ is the ideal marketing tool. It's quick and easy to create a Google+ Page for your business, let us show you how:

1. Select a Gmail Account

Avoid creating a business account using you own personal email address. Instead, create an account that can be accessible to your team members (e.g. your companymarketing@gmail.com) and use that account to create your page.
It looks like Google is working on multi-admin support, but for now, just create an extra email.

2. Create a Page

Visit http://plus.google.com/pages/create. You will see the option to create a Google+ Page. Follow the instructions (similar to Facebook), and classify your business as either Local Business or Place, Product or Brand, Company, Institution or Organization, Arts, Entertainment or Sports or Other.

Fill in your basic information, including page name, your website address, your category/industry, and any content restrictions your page may have (e.g. over 18's).

3. Customise your Profile

Include a short tagline for your business as well as an image (like your company logo).

4. Promote your Page

You now have a very basic page, and can start promoting it. Perhaps customize your page and share a few updates before you spread the news, so your page looks active.

5. Get your message out there!

Your page is now set up. It's up to your to keep it engaging and attractive to your audience.

Google+ Business Pages Have Arrived!

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 14:55:00 GMT

The long awaited feature has finally been introduced to the popular social media site. Business's can now promote their organization on this new media.

Like Facebook Pages, Google+ Pages allow businesses to connect with their audience, promote content and generate leads. Watch the video below for a quick overview.

Features

Fans can recommend your business with a +1 (similar to a Facebook LIke)
Fans can add your page to a circle, subscribing them to your page's updates.
Fans can spend time with your team face-to-face via Google+ Hangouts or video chat/livestreaming capabilities.

Here's a quick peek of the Google+ Angry Birds Page:

Adding Pages to your Google+ Circles

There are two quick and easy for a user to add pages to their Circles.

1. You can include Google+ Pages in Search Results: Google+ now displays 'People and pages' at the top of search results in Google+. These results include an easy option to add the Page to one of your Circles.

2. Direct Connect: Users can now easily locate and add a Google+ Page to their circles with a Google.com search by simply searching for '+' followed by the page they're interested in (e.g. +Angry Birds).

What is a permalink and why do I need one?

Sun, 30 Oct 2011 22:00:00 GMT

Firstly, I want to share with you two links to help explain things better that you can refer to:

http://www.visionar.co.za/BlogRetrieve.aspx?BlogID=419
(this is a list of recent blog posts for this website)

http://www.visionar.co.za/_blog/Our_Blog/post/What_is_a_permalink
(this is a permalink for this article)

A permalink is a link to an individual blog post. So, why is this important? Well, if you ever wanted to link to a specific article, the permalink is the link you'd use. In fact, it is considered bad etiquette not to use the permalink. Linking to a blog is not going to work, as in the example above, the blog page will continue to be updated, and soon, the reference to this article will soon fall off that page.

Another simple, yet important reason to include a permalink is for SEO purposes, including a permalink will help your website rank higher in search engine results.

A Permalink according to Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permalink
A permalink (portmanteau of permanent link) is a URL that points to a specific blog or forum entry after it has passed from the front page to the archives. Because a permalink remains unchanged indefinitely, it is less susceptible to link rot. Most modern weblogging and content-syndication software systems support such links. Other types of websites use the term permanent links, but the term permalink is most common within the blogosphere. Permalinks are often simply stated so as to be human-readable.

If you're still a little confused, check out the video by Red Rocket

Social media - who needs it?

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 09:55:00 GMT

There is no doubt that social media has changed the world, the way people communicate, and the way companies do business. With over 800 million users on Facebook, and twitter having over 190 million users, it is becoming evident that social media can no longer be ignored by business.

But, social media requires time to maintain effectively, and it has to be done properly. You can't just start posting company marketing messages to your Facebook page and think your gonna start driving traffic - this is a social medium after all, you need to talk to your customers and engage with them.

Perhaps this is just to much for your business for now, and we understand that... So what can you do?

At the very least, include Facebook like and tweet buttons on your website. This will give you some exposure in the social realm (as long as if someone clicks the buttons). So make make you website content interesting and engaging enough to inspire a like or tweet.

Secondly, install Facebook commenting on your website. If you have a blog, this is a must. By doing this, not only does a comment appear on your website, but on the users Facebook page - exposing your website to all their friends and followers.

If you are having trouble implementing any of this, give us a shout by contacting us and we'll see where we can help.

Lastly, we'd like to leave you with some food for thought. Take a look at this video, then ask yourself if you can continue to ignore social media.

How Google make improvements to its search algorithm

Sun, 25 Sep 2011 21:00:00 GMT

You can't think of using the internet with thinking of Google. In fact, most of us take it for granted. Every year, Google makes over 500 improvements to its search algorithms.

Here’s a deeper look inside search with a short video that showcases the work that goes into these improvements.

Online Success #5: Future-proof your business

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 13:30:00 GMT

Welcome to your fifth and final tip on how to be successful online.

Technology is always changing, and it's well known that when it comes to tech, something you've bought one day can be obsolete the next week. This is usually just one of those things you need to accept as part of business - but what if you could avoid that issue all together?

Future-proofing your business is about being ready to take advantage of new technology. It's about forging ahead in the direction you want to go, not in the direction that your out-of-date software pushes you. It's protecting your investment so that you don't become consumed with the costs and effort of upgrading all the time.

Imagine that you could buy a new computer that doesn't get obsolete. A computer that, every night when you go to sleep, the latest parts and software are installed and updated for you. A computer that is the best out there - automatically, every day.

That's what our online business system is. It's a system, built from the ground up for business owners like you, that has incorporated all the major tools a small business needs - not just the ones you need now, but the ones you will need in 3 months, and the ones you'll need next year. We constantly upgrade and add new features while you're asleep, so that you've always got the latest and greatest.

And all for a reasonable price, comparable to what others would charge for simple web hosting alone. So get in touch with us today to learn more about how you can future proof your business, with us.

I hope you've found our free tips useful - and best of luck in your business endeavours.

Online Success #4: Be Search Engine Friendly

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 18:39:00 GMT

Every day, millions upon millions of people are using search engines like Google to find news, information, products or services. No matter what your product or service is, the chances are that at this very moment there is someone looking for you.

So, what are you doing to make sure you get found? Being search engine friendly is about helping the search engines find and read your site, which in turn helps your prospective customers find and read about your business.

Being search engine friendly is a matter of many things and many factors, and there are experts out there who can spend days discussing them with you. That said, there are some general "rules" to follow that can help tremendously.

Use Google's Webmaster tools, and their equivalents. In particular, Google allows you to submit a "sitemap" to them, which essentially lists your site's web pages and tells the search engine where to find them. This sitemap is a file in your website, and is usually named Sitemaps.xml - you should definitely have it.
Put yourself in your customers' shoes - what would you type in to Google if you were looking for a business like yours? Write down the top 5 or 10 "keywords" that you would think people are using to look for you. Now when you're writing content for your site, use those keywords as often as possible in your writing. This increases the chance that you will appear near the top of the results when people type in those keywords.
Focus on quality and usefulness. If your website has high quality, focused and useful content on it, people will link to your site. Links are like "votes" - search engines treat them as an acknowledgement to the usefulness of your site. But not all links are treated equal. Links from high quality sources are given more weight than unknown or "spammy" sites. This is one of the big reasons that buying links isn't always a good idea.
Engage other sites in your industry. Find blogs, forums and other sites that are related to your business, and comment or participate. Get to know the owners of the other site if possible. If your site truly is high quality, they will happily link to your site - often for free.

Want to start putting these tips to action today? Click here get started

Try it out!

Our online business system is built with search engines in mind. In the Admin menu you'll find our "Google/Yahoo!/MSN Optimization" option, which allows you to switch on automatic generation of Sitemaps.xml.

And while our system can't help you write your content, we can use technology, such as search engine friendly URLs, to make your life easier. Search engine friendly URLs allow search engines to more easily read your product pages and associate them with the right keywords.

Online Success #3: Keep in Contact with Your Customers

Sun, 26 Jun 2011 21:00:00 GMT

This is the third tip of our 5 part series - 5 ways to be successful online. Before we get into it, if you have any questions, please let us know - I'm sure we can be of assistance. Without further ado, let's get into the next of 5 things you should be doing to be successful online: staying in touch with your customers.

Keep in Contact with Your Customers

In our previous tip we discussed how and why you should be building your customer database - because your current customers are a fertile source for recurring revenues and for spreading the word about your products.

One of the most effective ways to drive customers back to your website and keep them in the loop with your latest news is email marketing. Email marketing involves sending an email to your customer database, or a group of customers in your database. Remember this isn't like spam in the slightest - you only send to customers who have given you permission, and you're sending them useful information they actually want to receive!

But... What Do I Write?

Figuring out what to write in your emails to everyone is the hardest part. It needs to follow the golden rules of content: Be relevant, Be useful. Here's 4 tips to help you work out what to write.

A Newsletter? Every business can write a newsletter. It doesn't have to be a monthly newsletter, it can be bi-monthly or quarterly, but every business has news and information, promotions and announcements that can fill up a newsletter. And keep your customers in the loop.
Tips and Advice are very well received and happily read by your customers. If you are a service based business, such as an accountancy or lawyer this is probably the most suitable newsletter to run. That said, nearly every business has advice they can impart!
Promotions and Special Offers are another type of email well received by your customers. These don't need to be scheduled or regular, so you can send them whenever you have a special offer or promotion running. They suit online stores incredibly well.
Special announcements are another cause for an email campaign. Do you have some news that your customers would be interested in? If your announcements or interesting news aren't regular enough for a newsletter, there's no reason you can't send once off campaigns when they come up.

Want to start putting these tips to action today? Click here get started

Try it out!

Our online business system has email marketing capabilities built in! Just as there is a built-in customer database to capture your customer's details there is also the ability to send your database an email newsletter. In the email marketing industry, each email sent to your customer is called a "campaign". Why not try it out by sending your friends and family an email campaign?

Go to Marketing > Campaigns and go through the simple seven step wizard to set up your campaign, choosing your recipients on the way. It takes just minutes to send out a professional and effective email marketing campaign.

The importance of having a professionally designed business card

Sun, 05 Jun 2011 21:00:00 GMT

The business card is often taken for granted. Most people have them. They are a tool of the trade. But how important are they?

What does your business card say about your business? Is it simply a card with your logo and a little contact information? Is it's only purpose to pass on your details when someone doesn't have a pen? Or is it a silent but powerful marketing tool that stays with your contact after you've left.

The design is really important. For being such a small printed piece, business cards represent a large portion of who you are or the people and company you represent. This exceptionally small advertising media, when skillfully implemented, can easily and effectively convey a simple and professional statement to your contacts. The design can impress people, and it can encourage communication.

What you should include:

Your Name
If your name is on your business card, your customer will know you by name, they will know exactly who they need to contact.

Your Job Title
Your job title is important to tell people what you do and how you can help them.

Your Business Logo/Name
Your logo is your business identity and your business card helps showcase that brand.

Contact Info
Provide the contact details through which you would like to be reached, i.e. phone number, email address, cell phone number etc.

Website Address
Direct customers to your website. This will show that not only do you have a professional business card, but your business is backed by a powerful website. Your site can provide any information that is too lengthly to include on your business card.

Physical Address
Mentioning a physical address will increase your credibility whether you are doing business online or at a physical location.

A business card is a simple and inexpensive way of showcasing your brand. It is your first impression to your target market and a gateway to future relationships.

Online Success #2: Building a customer database

Tue, 10 May 2011 08:55:00 GMT

This is the second tip of our 5 part series - 5 ways to be successful online. Let's get into how building a customer database can help you become successful online.

Build a Customer Database

Garnering awareness and acquiring customers is one of the great challenges of building a business. It is so essential that there is an entire business discipline dedicated to this - which we know as marketing. It's fair to say that any customer that finds your business or website is highly valuable to you, and you want to hold on to them as long as possible.

That's where the idea of a database comes in. A customer database is simply your list of contact information of the customers that you have dealt with in the past. So why keep a list of them? Because they are your best source for future revenue and word of mouth. Who better to announce your newest product line to than the people who loved your last product line? Who better to spread the word about your new service than those who've used it previously?

That's all well and good, but how can you get your customers' contact information? Here's 4 simple strategies.

Give something away. Give every customer who fills in an online form something valuable in exchange for their email address. It could be a discount voucher, or an ebook that you have written, or exclusive VIP content.
A simple "Contact Us" web form. This is a form you can put on your site so that your customers can ask questions and submit their comments. You'll be surprised by how many of your visitors will take the time to ask a question, and in the form, you can ask for their email address.
Run an online discussion forum. People love to chat with other customers and share their knowledge and opinions. You can empower your customers to do the same, and as part of the process, ask them to give their email address to use as a username.
Sell something! When people buy from your online shop, ask them for an email address to send the receipt/confirmation to.

Want to start putting these tips to action today? Click here get started

Try it out!

With our online business system, you can do many of the above with ease. Most importantly, the contact details are all captured in one, central customer database. Why is this important? Because you don't want your customer's details strewn across multiple disconnected tools - you want them centralized and close to hand.

You can implement the above strategies with your online business right now:

Web Forms are automatically set up to capture customer details directly into your customer database. You can build your own under Modules-> Web Forms, either for a 'Contact Us' form or for a competition/give away form.

Forums are found under Website->Forums. You can add one to your website - all the technical bits, like capturing a username and password, are handled automatically as part of your forum.

An Online Shop is built into your online business from the beginning, and all orders processed through your online shop are automatically linked to a customer record with your customer's contact details in it!

Do You Need A New Logo?

Sun, 17 Apr 2011 21:00:00 GMT

Do you need a new logo? ...are you sure? This fun infographic is a humorous decision chart. Click image below for a larger view.

Anatomy of a Perfect Landing Page

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 18:16:00 GMT

Although there is no exact formula to making a perfect landing page, there are some common rules of thumb to increase your chances of making a winning one. If you’re looking for ideas on where to improve your website's landing page, the infographic below is a great place to begin. And remember, after you build your first landing page you must continually test variations to improve your conversion metrics.

via Formstack

View an enlarged version of this Infographic

Online Success #1: Update your site regularly

Mon, 14 Mar 2011 20:02:00 GMT

Did you know that the vast majority of websites fail? There's many reasons for it, but there's also some simple things you can do to protect yours from the same fate.

If you have any questions, please let us know - I'm sure we can be of assistance.

Update your site regularly

Can you update your site yourself? We're not talking about big design changes or anything, just news and announcements, maybe some articles you've written, or a monthly blog post or two.

If you can't, or you don't - you need to and you should! The fact is that search engines like Google absolutely adore fresh, valuable content on websites - so the more content you add and the fresher your site is, the higher the chance that you'll rank highly in search results - meaning more customers and more profits.

Now, the next question is - what to write? This is the hardest bit, so we've prepared three strategies to help you figure out what to write about.

Think about what's been happening in the last month in your business. Did you make any milestones in terms of customers, profit numbers, product releases or new staff hires? Write about them! Customers love to read positive things about your business - it shows you're authentic and successful, which are good signs for any business.
Did something special or interesting happen to you that taught you a positive lesson you could share? Maybe you went to the coffee shop and were really "wowed" by their customer service. Perhaps they even inspired you to improve your own service. Share these stories with your customers on a blog post! They're fun, interesting and they say a lot about the things your business values.
Think about what's going to happen in the next month - is there anything interesting? Are you going to receive your 1000th order? Are you about to receive a huge shipment or discount frisbees? Tell your customers and build up some excitement!

There's always something to write, just remember the golden rules of content and you'll be fine:

Is the content relevant to your customers or your business?
Does the content add value to your customers?

Want to start putting these tips to action today? Try it out!

Does all this sound hard? Well, once upon it time it was hard to update and manage your own website. But with our online business platform it's simple and intuitive. You can use a range of simple tools to add content. Here's just a few:

Blogs

You can build a blog - which is like an online diary - quickly and easily under Website -> Blogs. With a blog, you can post thoughts, ideas and observations and share them with your visitors.

Announcements

Sharing news is easy with Announcements. You can use the announcements modules for news and interesting upcoming events.

Web Pages

Updating your websites pages is simple with our easy to use content editor that looks just like your familiar word processor. This means you can quickly and easily make small additions to your site, yourself.

Illustrating a children's book

Sun, 27 Feb 2011 22:00:00 GMT

This is a design we were hired to do for a client who writes children's books. The book's main character is based on the author's daughter, and her fictional adventures to exotic lands.

The process of creating this book was made up of many steps.

Style

First we researched different illustration and layout styles for children's books. We then presented the client with a few different styles for the artwork.

An art style was chosen, with bright colours, solid shapes of colour, softened here and there by slight gradients.

Creating the Character

Once a style was selected, we used photographs of the author's daughter as reference, and created our character the old fashioned way, sketching with a pencil and paper. Throughout the character development stage, we used feedback from the client to bring out certain features and characteristics to bring the character to life.

We scanned in the sketch and created the character in the chosen style on the computer. We kept the body parts as separate complete shapes so that later on these separate pieces gave us the option to re-position our figure into different poses for each scene.

We went with a fairly straight-forward coloring scheme. The girl’s skin is a warm flesh color, her hair is brown and her clothing is blue and pink. For each of these object there is about 2-3 color values; a middle value, one dark color for shadows and one light color for highlights.

We then set about creating the other characters for the story in the same way.

Scene Sketches

Once the character was completed, we began preparing a sketch “dummy” of the book. It’s a rough mini-version of the book page layout. This helps to see how the book flows from page to page and helps in laying out color and text position. We used this mock up, (complete with numbered pages) throughout the entire time we worked on the final illustrations in order to keep everything organized.

The book was roughly paginated at this stage, to fit over 28 pages. The story text was divided up into sequences and scenes which would flow with the backgrounds. The backgrounds are an important aspect of the illustrations, because they give our characters a home and environment to “live” in.

Most pages started with general ideas and shapes, mostly geometrical, and the details were added gradually.

Once the pages were completed, this was sent throughout to the client as a first proof. A few tweaks were made to the flow of text and to some of the illustrations. The book was signed off and sent to print.

A children's book was born.

Is it time to redesign your website? - Part 3

Sun, 13 Feb 2011 22:00:00 GMT

So you have done some serious reflection, you’ve asked yourself all the right questions and have decided its time to redesign your website. What’s next? Here are a few things to consider…

As with new sites, when redesigning there are many things to consider. The difference being, that with a redesign, you can use all the analytic that has been collected to better hone your website to a target audience. Screen resolutions and connection speeds should be taken into consideration on a redesign. You don’t want your website to be too sophisticated for your users computer.

If your website is not structured around a CMS, a complete redesign is called for. Using a good CMS system will simply make managing your website much easier.

Let everyone know a change is on its way

Some of your regular users may not take to a redesign that easily, they are used to doing things a certain way for some time now. Relearning to do the same things differently can be annoying to say the least. By giving warning, you give your users time to prepare for a change. Point out some new features showing how the site will change; perhaps showcase a few screenshots of the new site to entice them, build some excitement and anticipation for the relaunch.

After a while, all the improvements will shine through and your website will be better received. Though some people simply don’t like change.

Choosing a designer

The importance of design cannot be overstated. Choose someone who not only has experience, but who also understands the purpose of your website. It is not always easy to find with these qualities, they should not only understand your business, but understand your perspective to implement the features from a organizational or business point of view.

From a technical standpoint, they should be able to pull off the functionality you require, manage logins for various users and admin functions. Couple this with entirely new pages and building a website around a CMS structure, you can see these wonder person has their work cut out for them.

Never be afraid to speak your mind to ensure that you remain happy. Remember though, an experienced designer can be a wealth of knowledge when it comes to what works, and what doesn’t, so at lease consider their points of view aswell.

Redesigning can be almost as big a step as creating a new website from the beginning. In some ways it can be harder as some emotional ties to the old website will need to be broken. The benefits however are considerable, investing a in a CMS structured site will allow you to change or add content whenever you want, you’ll have the ability to change the look again without loosing content. This will save you time and money in the long run as well as give you a better understanding of your client base.

Is it time to redesign your website? - Part 2

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 18:09:00 GMT

Last time we looked at some of the reasons you should redesign your website. In addition to that, you should be asking yourself a few questions. Is your site really working for your business? Not sure? Well then try answering some of these questions:

CMS?

If your website is not running on a CMS or Content Management System, you should start right away. Modern web design is all about simplicity, and a CMS can make it easy for you to make updates to your website. Adding Images, announcements, articles or blog posts with a CMS this can be done with a few mouse clicks. Once your website is built on a solid CMS, you’ll never go back.

Nowhere on search engines?

SEO companies find it hard work to get older websites ranked higher in search engines, than with new CMS structured websites. If you’ve added all the meta data and alt tags to your site and still show up nowhere in a Google search, its time for a change.

Part of your website is under performing?

If you are not achieving the conversions you are hoping for, or you feel your customers are going else where, it could be time for you to rethink your website design. Use website analytics to track if you are missing out on potential customers, this will show you at what point customers are exiting from your site. If it’s a step along the path of a sale, you need to stop that. Time for a redesign.

Competitor redesigning?

If you competitor has just invested in a redesign, then it may well be time for you to do the same. If your customers can use your competitors website easier than yours, their content is more relevant and up to date, their services or products are well featured, their website just looks and feels better, where do you think your customers will go?

A great advantage here is, you can now look at your competitors website and see if you can improve on it. Your competitor is unlikely to make further changes as they have just invested in a redesign, leaving you site the pick of the bunch.

Unfortunately, its still going to take some work though, there are many things to consider to ensure the redesign goes well.

What parts of your current design is working?

Review your website comments and take a look at its analytics to see what aspects of your website is doing well. Ask someone you know who is unfamiliar with your website to give you an outside perspective. All this will give you a good basis for improvements

What parts of your current design is not working?

Now take the same approach as in the last point, but look for the parts of your website that fail. Once you know the damaging elements of your site, you can change them. Simple as that.

Change, add and delete

Make a list of all the pages on your website, or print out the site map. This will give you a good idea of your website’s structure. Are there any pages you can delete, combine or add?

With faster internet connections, photo galleries have gained popularity. What about a video featuring your product or service? It is common that these pages get added in redesigns with today’s high-speed web connections.

This cleansing process can often lead to a new, fresh redesign idea. Also consider:

What part of your website attracts visitors?

This is an important discovery for you to make. With the help of web-analytics, take a look at what search terms visitors are using, where they enter the site and where they leave. Is there an important part of your site they are not reaching? You should focus on why this is and target the redesign accordingly.

New photo’s and Images?

The pictures on your current website might well be several years old. Outdated images and their respective feel is one of the reasons for a redesign in the first place. It may be worth investing in new imagery to reflect the new you. If you want to reflect your company in a new light, changing the photos is a good way to accomplish that.

New site, new image?

This may be a good time to reflect on how the company has changed, perhaps your core services and message have stayed the same? It’s an important decision to be made, but it makes sense to change the company image inline with a redesign.

Is it time to redesign your website? - Part 1

Sun, 16 Jan 2011 22:00:00 GMT

There are many reasons to redesign your website. You may want to add functionality, it could be using outmoded techniques, you want to add a content management system (CMS), or your website simply has an outdated and unfashionable appearance.

Is it the time for change?

Some companies redesign their website every year, but is this really necessary? While code and programming techniques are obvious reasons to redesign your website, there are others. Take a look at this list, if any of these items relate to your website, it’s time to redesign.

Frames

Frames have not been used in web design since around 2000. While the odd iFrame is ok, frames are limited to scope and are complex to update. If your website is predominantly designed around frames, it’s time for a redesign.

Splash pages or intro pages.

These went out ages ago! Some flash based websites still use them, but they are considered to be a bit cheesy and are a waste of time for many websites. Content is king in today’s world, and splash pages and intros just get in the way of the content. Added to that, theses can be of annoyance to your visitor. If your website has one of these, get rid of the cheese.

Content

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, Content is King! And in the current age of web design, content needs to stay current and therefore updated regularly. The easiest way to do this is to build your website on a CMS (Content Management System). If you’re not an experienced coder, this is the best way to separate the content from the code for easy updating.

Flash websites

Websites constructed entirely in flash in now a thing of the past. Even websites that appear to be solely flash, are probably driven by xml. While flash is great for animation, it is not so SEO friendly and with the advent of CSS3, HTML5 and JavaScript, many of these effects can be created without the need for flash. If you want your site to rank higher in search engines, redesign without flash.

Tables

Tables were intended for tablature data, not layout. Although tables where good in their time when used for layout, they have had their day with the advent of CSS. If your website is constructed using tables, then updating is not only difficult but time consuming. You’ll be better off redesigning your website altogether using CSS.

Trendy Elements

When the web 2.0 design bug spread across the internet, websites had glossy buttons here, there and everywhere. Sooner or later this are going to look a bit dated as the trend is starting to fade and more subtle gradients are taking over.

Every 2 years or so, a little tweaking to your website with do it the power of good in keeping up with design trends. Consider this as a routine oil change.

Ten branding mistakes - how not to kill your company branding

Sun, 02 Jan 2011 22:00:00 GMT

Sometimes a company will spend lots of time and money to get a brand established. They create a name. They come up with a catchy tag line. They even argue over the colors to make sure they are right and reinforce the name. They launch a big branding announcement with a flurry of advertising activities and soon it begins to work. The bottom line is going up. Now its time to relax, right? Far from it. The best branding is a consistent, ongoing effort.

Even the most popular brands can be killed. It can be done deliberately or by mistake. Below are the most common mistakes to avoid.

1. Inconsistent corporate identity

A company must use the same name, logo and tag line in all contact inside and outside the company. The company name on the sign out front must match what is on your business card and website. Your customer must hear and see your name, logo, tag line and colors consistently over and over before you are imprinted in your customer's memory. Do not distort your logo, this breaks consistency.

2. Poor visuals (or no visuals)

If you want your company name to pop into someone's mind be aware that pictures are more memorable than words. We think in pictures. Have a consistent, strong visual picture and logo that comes to represent your company.

3. Not training employees

Think of your employees as potentially walking, talking billboards. Pump them up about the name, logo and tag line - train them to be ambassadors in your marketing campaign. Reward them when you find them doing it right.

4. Failure to track branding efforts

Every time someone calls your company, the person on the phone should ask how they came to call your company (saw your ad on TV or heard it on the radio, attended an event, a friend, etc.). Record the answers and keep a list. This data should direct future marketing.

5. Not using existing clients for branding

The best marketing tool in your arsenal is word of mouth advertising. Ask your clients if they will join you in getting the word out — ask for their opinion about your ads; ask them what they think your greatest strength is — and ask if you can quote them.

6. Letting marketing materials get stale

Many companies make this mistake but it’s particularly true for small businesses. They decide to have a company brochure and pay for design and then order thousands of copies. They refuse to get a new brochure until all those copies have been used up. Order smaller amounts and re-do them more frequently. Don't use the same television or radio ad for three years — when your material is stale, people ignore them.

7. Failing to focus branding on the core services

If you want your branding to be successful, decide what your one core service is and target your marketing to that primarily.

8. Not having a tag line that is believable

If the tag line doesn't match the reality for your consumer, they will not believe it and they will kill your marketing efforts with negative word-of-mouth comments.

9. Failing to "grab" the public with your tag line

Good tag lines are usually three to six believable words that match your core services AND have great appeal.

10. Not knowing where successful branding starts

Successful branding starts inside your company. Only you know your core service. Only you and your staff deliver the message. Talk to your consumers often.

Welcome to our blog!

Sun, 28 Nov 2010 22:00:00 GMT

This is our first blog post on this website. Feel free to grab a cup of tea and a cookie, put your feet up and take a look around. You'll find heaps of great content and information here, and there's plenty of goodies to come.

I hope you enjoy and feel free to let me know what you think!