home services portfolio realtors articles contact   7 deadly sins of website design & use Geltman Design Group – Jeremy Geltman © 2006 Many sites are guilty of the following 7 sins of website design and use, causing their potential as a marketing tool and customer interface never to fully be realized. If you are building your own site or are trying to increase your general knowledge about website form and fucntion, this article can be used as a guide to help understand some general rules about what works, what doesn't work, and why.   Sites That Are Not Properly Maintained Forms that don’t work, links that lead to nowhere, old information, and dated materials indicate that you don’t properly maintaining your site. It’s like walking into a store with burnt out light bulbs, broken glass on the floor, and expired inventory. It’s a clear red flag to visitors (i.e. potential customers) that your business practices may be the same. A bad impression is worse than no impression at all and with simple routine maintenance this deadly sin of sloth can be avoided all together.   Pages That Take Too Long To Load This problem is usually a result of overly complex flash animations, but can be due to any number of things. The bottom line is that if it takes more than a few seconds to load your site or any of your pages, a visitor will simply leave and find another website. Optimizing your site, the process of making sure everything loads as efficiently as possible, is essential to any website.   Poorly Written Content The content on your site is your voice, so like a good sales pitch keep it simple, honest, and to-the-point. Many larger companies have professional copywriters writing for all of their publications, but this isn’t necessary as long as you have someone who is a decent writer working on your site. The Geltman Design Group has copywriters who can take what you’ve written and spice it up while helping it flow. Poorly written copy at the most basic level includes typos, grammar errors or awkward sentences, but also includes generic slogans (“The best in the business”) and vague promises (“Makes hair look thicker!"). The most important thing is making sure you aren’t writing fluff and that every word and sentence has a reason for being in the copy. There are great books on copywriting, usually in the marketing section of your bookstore or library, and are seriously worth the investment. You don’t need anything fancy, but poorly written copy will stop your website dead in its tracks. Search Engine Optimization (see glossary) relies heavily on site content. In addition to being helpful and informative to your visitor, you want to make sure that your visitor even visists your site. There is an art to writing site content.   Bad Layout Or Design Design is the cross between function and aesthetics, so bad design isn’t just ugly, but frustratingly hard to use. Bad design screams that your company is amateurish, cheap, and small. These are three things you do not want your visitors to sense about your company and services. Again, a bad impression is far worse than no impression at all. Your website should be intuitive so visitors instinctively know how to navigate through your site. A confusing layout means that visitors are not finding the information they are looking for (see deadly sin #5), which means their experience with your company has been uninformative and frustrating even before actually using your services. Good design is simple, clean, and obvious, making it not only useful, but ideally enjoyable to use. Although website design takes years to master, there are a few simple rules you should follow to avoid bad design. 1) Create a color scheme. Use two or even one color consistently throughout your site. Even if it’s just 1 color, you can vary the lightness or darkness (value) and create a very sophisticated look. Use like colors (or values of that color) with like objects. For instance, all the headers should look the same and like information should look the same. You are in essence teaching your visitor how to use your site by repetition. 2) Make sure your pictures aren’t too large and slowing your site down (see deadly sin #3) or too small (creating pixilated images). 3) Use visual grids and create a visual hierarchy. Tables are your friends. They allow you to line up text and images, and will automatically resize with the window. Don’t try and use spaces to center objects as the software you are using to build your site may show the site differently than it will look in a browser. You can even put tables inside of other tables. 4) Have a clear header and footer. This will make your site feel more complete. 5) Don’t center everything…if anything at all. 6) See how other sites that you like create the look and feel that you are trying to create. 7) Check out books on graphic and web design.   Disorganization An unorganized site is like a library with all the books in heaps on the floor with volumes in no discernible order. A good layout organizes information for the visitor, and helps to answer all of your visitors' questions about your product or services. Your website needs to be more than just a business card or even a brochure with contact information, text, and images (see sin #7). At the most basic level it can be, but your website can be a virtual storefront, a sales team, a resource guide for the layman about your industry (like this article), and provide any number of functions that serve your visitors (i.e a mortgage calculator or currency exchange). Even if they don’t visit your site to use your paid services, you want them coming back and telling their friends about how helpful your site was. Make the site a wealth of resources for a visitor and organize all these functions and information in a logical and easy-to-navigate way.   Lacking Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Ever wonder how the search engines (Google, Yahoo, AOL) rank their findings from the keywords you search with? Without getting too technical, search engines basically perform a text search through all the websites that have been cataloged with the Open Directory Project. This in turn feeds all the search engines with data. If someone types relevant keywords to your site and your site hasn’t been properly search engine optimized no one will find it. SEO is the equivalent of taking your store’s location and moving from the end of a small dirt road to the corner of a major intersection. If you site ranks 2,457 on the search engine results your site is as good as non-existent. Unless someone specifically searches for your company (and even then it may not work) or already knows your URL (www.yoursite.com), they are simply not going to find your site. Ultimately you are not getting the hits that will make all the other hard work you put into your site worth your while. The Geltman Design Group offers this service to all of its clients, but there are plenty of companies who specialize in just this. This is expensive but absolutely a must especially if you plan to have to do business through your site.   Autononimity These are websites without any ambition for a greater goal. A website is potentially so much more than just being a business card or brochure that you can access online. It should tie all of your company’s marketing efforts into one cohesive strategy. You could be sending out monthly emails based on the users that signed up as users on your site. You can create interactive games that teach a visitor about your services. You can collect email addresses from people inquiring about your services and (with their consent) include them on monthly e-newsletters about the latest trends in your industry, current events, promotions, or product updates. It can provide access to listings that otherwise they would not have access to (like MLS for real estate). Your website can be a forum for a discussion or allow anonymous users to ask general questions about your services, and provide you with an opportunity to gain new clients. It can be an online resource for visitors with interactive visuals. Your printed materials should not only include your web address (URL) but give reasons why people should go there. A website, unlike a printed piece, is a work in progress at all times. You can create printed materials that give general information, but for time sensitive information or information that changes all the time (like mortgage rates) you can instruct people to visit your website. The possibilities are endless. Websites have revolutionized the way all industries do business and will continue to do so for the next several decades. Do not overlook or underestimate their potential. The final of the deadly sins is ignorance…now you are not. do's & don'ts of good logo design Geltman Design Group – Jeremy Geltman © 2006 Your company's logo communicates a lot to potential customers and you want to make sure that it is saying the right things. It can tell potential customers what you do, your philosophy about doing what you do, and help brand your company by creating a visual identity that people will recognize. Many people enjoy designing their own logos or do not want to pay a graphic designer to create one for them. Often someone already has an idea for their logo but aren't sure about how to create the art. The Dos and Don'ts below will help your idea achieve its potential and avoid some of the novice mistakes that cause problems for your company's identity.   Do Keep Your Logo Simple Our eyes use shape and outlines to process recognition. If your logo is too intricate it will not accomplish the recognize-at-a-glance value of a logo. Additionally if you shrink it down, say to use on a business card, you will loose all that detail. Shape is more important than detail.   Don't Use More Than A Few Colors You can even use two values of the same color in your logo to help create a sense of sophistication. Use colors, if you haven’t already picked them, that have relevance in your industry. For example, if you are a construction company florescent orange and black might be a good color combination because those two colors in and of themselves represent an industry.   Don't Just Use Your Company's Initials Everyone does that. It says nothing about your company other than that you wanted to make logo yourself. The imagery should be a symbol that represents either what you do or a metaphor for what you are trying to say. For example, if you make safety products for children you can use a child holding the hand of their parent.   Don't Be Afraid Of Using Negative Space A block of color with your actual logo in reverse does interesting things sometimes. Try is out and see if it adds some spice to your logo.   Do Use A Readable Typeface If you decide to include the name of your company choose a typeface that is consistent in tone with the kind of company you are. For example use a more conservative font with Serifs like Garamond or Times if your company is a financial institution or law office. Whatever image you are trying to project.   Do Create Vector Artwork Don’t just use a scan of something hand-drawn but recreate it in Adobe Illustrator or Macromedia Freehand (Photoshop or Paint are not vector based application and are less preferrable to purely ones that are). This allows your artwork to be scaleable and used for anything from business cards to billboards without pixilation being an issue. Additionally you will need vector artwork if you plan to take your artwork to a printer for 1 or 2 color (spot color) printing.   Don't Sacrifice Meaning For Aesthetics Pretty logos are nice, but why do you have THAT shape. What are you saying? When creating a logo make it's imagry thematic with another idea assoicated with your company or product. For example, Albertsons's supermarket in California utilizes a leaf implying freshness. Come up with a visual analogy to imply something positive about that company while creating a visual identity. glossary Geltman Design Group – Jeremy Geltman © 2006 Bitmap An image comprised of pixels. Branding Creating a public persona through symbols, words, or marks that distinguish a product or company from its competitors. For many products and companies, branding is an essential part of marketing. Browser Software through which you can type URLs and view websites. (i.e. Internet Explorer, Mozilla) Copywriting Writing content (text) for printed or electronic publications and materials with the intention of public distribution. Examples include slogans, headlines, and text in advertisements. CMYK (Cyan Magenta Yellow and Black) The standard set of ink colors used in printing to create most colors and color images. Oppositely to RGB the higher the values the darker / richer the color. Desktop Publishing Graphic Design for the layout of printed materials using a personal computer. Domain The website name. www.domain.com. Where a URL is a specific web page in a domain like www.domain.com/specific_page.html. FTP (File Transfer Protocol) Ability to transfer rapidly entire files from one computer to another, intact for viewing or other purposes. GIF (Graphic Image File Format) A widely supported image storage format promoted by Compuserve for use on the web. Graphic Design The art of creating visual communication, for web, print, and any visual medium. Host To physically store and make available for access the files that are your website. The computer that hosts is a server. (see Server) HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) An encoding format for linking and identifying electronic documents and used to deliver information on the World Wide Web. May be superseded by XML in the future. Hue A term used to describe the entire range of colors of the spectrum; hue is the component that determines just what color you are using. In gradients, when you use a color model in which hue is a component, you can create rainbow effects. Hyperlinks Allow you to 'link' any document stored in a database with any other document. You can link a spreadsheet to an image, a database to a graphic, or a word processing file to a site on the World Wide Web. You can then navigate from one related document to another, simply by clicking on the hyperlinks. Intranet (Not to be confused with Internet) An array of computers setup in a LAN (see LAN). Often this network resides behind a firewall requiring a username and password to access in order to protect this smaller network from threats on the internet like viruses and worms. ISP (Internet Service Provider) Any service like Yahoo DSL or American Online that gives you access to the internet. JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) is a standard image compression mechanism. JPEG compression is "lossy," meaning that the compression scheme sacrifices some image quality in exchange for a reduction in the file's size. LAN (Local Area Network) referring to a small intranet of computers on their own private network. Line Screen Referring to the organization of elements of a halftone printing screen used to define the density of the screen; i.e. a 133 line screen refers to a pattern with 133 halftone dots/inch. A higher or "finer" line screen will create a sharper, more detailed image. Offset Printing Printing that uses plates (metal or paper) wrapped around a drum that transfer ink from the roller (drum) to the stock. Pixel Often referred to as dot, as in "dots per inch". "Pixel" is short for picture elements, which make up an image, similar to grains in a photograph or dots in a half-tone. Each pixel can represent a number of different shades or colors, depending on how much storage space is allocated for it. Pixels per inch (ppi) is sometimes the preferred term, as it more accurately describes the digital image. Process Color Standard color printing using CMYK. (see also CMYK) Raster Image A bitmapped image (see Bitmap) Resolution The pixel density (on computer or TV monitors) or on a printed piece (see also line screen) referred to as Dots Per Inch (DPI). Screen resolution (and optimal for websites) is 72 dpi. When printing color images it is preferable to have at least 300 dpi images. RGB (Red, Green, Blue), The color makeup of any color created by light, (i.e. your computer monitor). Each color is given a value (brightness) from 0 to 255 and color as seen on a monitor is made of a combination of RGB values. (e.g. black = 0 0 0, Red=255 0 0, white = 255 255 255). This is generally used for web but also relevant for television. Script Software code, usually written to perform a function. Some examples are Java, C++, and Pearl. Search Engine A website that allows an internet search by keywords and returns results in ranked order of matching relevance. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) The process of increasing the amount of visitors to a Web site by ranking high in the search results of a search engine. Server The physical computer that stores your computer files on its hard drive. Servers host websites by storing the files on their hard drive and being connected (through a T1 or T3) to the internet. Servers have Static IP addresses, which are the routing address to find that specific server on the internet. Spot Color Referring to a single color of ink for printing, not created as a combination of CMYK. The Pantone Matching System is the printing industry standard for defining the spot colors. Spot colors cannot always be reproduced by CMYK and also include metallic and florescent inks. Spyware Software that installed itself on your computer without your knowledge used for anything from tracking your web behaviors to monitoring your keystrokes. Often it simply exists to cause havoc on your system. TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) is an industry standard file format developed for the purpose of storing high-resolution bit-mapped, gray-scale, and color images. URL (Uniform Resource Locator) The unique address of any Web document. (e.g. www.yoursite.com/specific_web_page_on_your_site.html) Value That property of a color by which it is distinguished as bright or dark, syn. Saturation. Vector An image comprised of a series of defined objects using outlines and fills. The image can be resized without loosing any definition, unlike bitmapped images. Web Crawler (see Search Engine) WAN (Wide Area Network) A vast array of single computers and LANs (see LAN) communicating. The World Wide Web is an example (see World Wide Web). World Wide Web (WWW) An interconnected network of electronic hypermedia documents available on the Internet. WWW documents are marked up in HTML. Cross references or hyperlinks between documents are recorded in the form of URLs. resources Geltman Design Group – Jeremy Geltman © 2006 We have gathered some links to helpful online resources that we have found useful for web, print, design, marketing, and copywriting.   Hosting & Domain Name Registration   Search Engine Optimization Bruce Clay: www.bruceclay.com   Digital Art Resources Brands of the World: www.brandsoftheworld.com Amature Stock Photography: http://www.sxc.hu Professional Stock Photography: www.istockphoto.com   Utility Resources File Extension Source: http://filext.com Ad-aware Spyware Protection : www.lavasoft.com   Copywriting www.adgooroo.com/Articles-Google_Copywriting_101.aspx publicaffairs.uiuc.edu/print/copywriting101.html www.english.uiuc.edu/cws/wworkshop/writer_resources/grammar_handbook/grammar_handbook.htm www.vermontshortblog.com/2005/06/copywriting_101.html web.tampabay.rr.com/tom/tutorials/copywritingbasics.htm   Marketing http://sbinfocanada.about.com/od/marketing/ http://sbinfocanada.about.com/cs/marketing/a/bizpromotion.htm http://sbinfocanada.about.com/od/advertising/a/17adideas.htm http://sbinfocanada.about.com/cs/marketing/a/targetmarket.htm http://sbinfocanada.about.com/od/marketing/qt/givecommunity.htm www.toolkit.cch.com/text/P03_8060.asp www.morebusiness.com/running_your_business/marketing/Estory-19684.brc   Graphic Design Photoshop Tutorials: www.pslover.com American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA): www.aiga.org Spot vs. Process Color: http://graphicdesign.about.com/library/weekly/aa060399.htm   Real Estate Resources Real Estate Marketing: http://www.realtormarketing101.com/      Login   |   Client Service   |   Pricing   |   Quote Request   |   The Process   |   Site Map   |   Link Exchange All rights reserved. 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