A Few Advantages Of CSS Over Tables

A lot has already been written on the subject of CSS, however, since not much has been said on this blog, I thought to go ahead and write about CSS anyway. This article would serve as a refresher for all those who are well versed with CSS and its benefits and help those who are not so familiar with this topic.

Cascading Style Sheets or CSS is used to style the entire website. CSS cannot itself be used on its own to design a website; it is a tool or an external document with rules that control the layout, colors, styling etc of the web page or pages. CSS can be used with any type of server side scripting languages or simple html. It definitely has many advantages over using tables to control the layout of the web pages which we will discuss in the later sections.

However, if someone is new to CSS, it may be tempting to simply use tables instead of the CSS for a few obvious reasons. First of all, tables are easy to understand and grasp, therefore, it may be tempting to continue using tables. Also, the rendering of the pages using both CSS and tables are almost same across all browsers. Moreover, most clients will also not know the advantages or using CSS over tables, so since they don’t see any obvious difference therefore, they are not likely to complain or ask the designer to use CSS instead.

However, the advantages of using CSS far exceeds the time it takes to grasp the concept of CSS and once the designer fully understands the concept it would actually be easier to use than tables. I am going to highlight a few advantages that CSS has over tables.

1. Faster Loading Of Pages

CSS helps reduce a lot of unnecessary mark-up or code on a web page that you cannot avoid when using tables. To structure a page using tables you will need quite a few of them all nested within each other forming a complex structure. Moreover, you will need a lot of inline code like align, width, height, font sizes, faces, cell spacing etc to style, arrange, and hold the tables in position. This makes the whole page jumbled up and confusing and a lot larger in size with all the extra mark-up needed to arrange the page. With CSS, the mark-up needed is significantly less resulting in page size being smaller, reducing the actual time taken to download the page. Moreover, css files do not need to be downloaded every time a page is loaded; usually it is store in memory or cached the first time it loads. This makes the web pages significantly faster.

2. Better For SEO

Google has made it quite clear that speed of the page matters in SEO. It is one of the factors in determining the ranking of a page in search results. Since CSS makes for a lighter page and hence is preferred over tables and inline styling. Also, since CSS has much lesser mark-up, therefore, it is easier for the search engines to decipher between code and actual content of the website. Remember, it is the actual content of the website that matters; mark up is what we are forced to write to make the page presentable. Therefore, it makes good sense to use CSS which maximizes the ratio of content to code. Also CSS helps to improve the overall structure of the page giving you more control over the elements of the webpage like h1, h2 and other important tags on a page. This all makes the web site’s SEO prospects better.

3. Tighter Control Over Layout and Design

You write CSS code on a separate external css file which controls the layout and design of the entire website. Therefore, to make certain layout or design changes to hundreds of pages of you site, you will just need to edit one css file. The change is reflected immediately on all pages using those styles. In the long run this also helps maintain a visual consistency of the entire site too. When you have hundreds of pages, you will quickly realize that making changes to all the pages is quite a challenging task. There will be times when you update a certain page and forget to do the same for a few. Over time, this leads to inconsistency in the design of the web pages, which can be avoided with the use of an external css file.

4. More Complex Layouts

The layouts created with tables are rigid and not very flexible. Not every type of design a designer envisions may be possible with a table based layout as it uses grids or table based structure to format a web page or layout. However, CSS primarily uses divs which serves a similar purpose as tables. However, divs are layers on a web page which can be stacked on top of each other allowing for more complex designs. The positioning of the layer can further be controlled using the z index which determines the ordering of the layers on a web page.

5. No Spacer Gifs Required

Spacer gifs are transparent images used to fill up blank spaces of a table cell so that it can be filled with a background color. Spacer gifs were used a lot prior to CSS but are no longer needed. It added a lot of unnecessary junk mark up to the web page which is better avoided.

These are a few of the reasons why CSS is better. For those who still profess the use of tables, they are of course entitled to their opinion. However, I would still advise them to go ahead and learn CSS and then weigh the differences between the two and make an informed decision. Moreover, the learning of something new adds more skill sets to a web designer’s arsenal and helps increase their job security in the long run.

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Why Small Businesses Shouldn’t Take Social Media for Granted

It seems like social media is everywhere these days. But the 2010 Business Monitor United States report — commissioned by UPS — shows that when it comes to small- and medium-sized businesses, social media is still a missed opportunity. A mere 24% of respondents said they’ve received sales leads from social media, with just 1% citing it as a factor for business growth.

The data would appear to indicate that in spite of all the positive press that social media gets, and all the use cases we’ve seen emerge over the past few years, small business owners are taking social media for granted. When done right, social media can be a valuable source for customer acquisition, retention and satisfaction. Here a few reasons to help drive the value home.

Information is There for the Taking

Ignorance is not bliss when it comes to the web. Ignoring, avoiding or just not looking at what people are sharing online about your small business or your competitors is just plain lazy.

Now more than ever people turn to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Foursquare, Yelp and a slew of other sites to share information and make it publicly available. As such, there’s a wealth of information that existing customers, future fans and online detractors are putting into the public domain, and there’s a plethora of tools to make it easy for you to follow along.

The customer that tweets about a poor experience, the guy that leaves a tip about a venue on Foursquare, or the woman that tweets about being overwhelmed by an event she’s planning, are all real humans sharing real bits of information that if ignored could translate into missed opportunities.

In the case of the person with the poor experience, if it’s your business being discussed, offer to step in and fix the problem. If it’s a competitor, offer to let the person try a comparable product free of charge. When it comes to Foursquare, acknowledge great Foursquare tips, even if they’re not for your own business. If you can help the woman who’s overwhelmed, do it, even if it is just by responding, “is there any way I can help?”

As a small businesses owner, it’s your responsibility to use these bits of public information to build relationships, improve customer service and enhance your products.

Simple Works

Finding the right way to use social media can be daunting, especially when there are so many examples of big brands pushing the limits of creativity and possibility when it comes to their Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare initiatives. Often times the big guys forget that it’s the simplest of gestures that can have the greatest impact. But simple works.

On the simple side things, just take the time to acknowledge customers that mention you. Did someone tweet about dining at your restaurant? Did they checkin at your venue? Did they share a story about your small business on Facebook? These actions that take place in the public domain are all opportunities to connect with a current or potential customer and make them feel special.

Responding is easy — a simple “thanks for stopping by,” or “how can we make your next visit better?” tweet can go a long way and even make someone’s day. Yet, it’s something most companies take for granted. People like to be recognized, but often times they’re never presented with an opportunity to associate restaurants, stores and other venues with the people behind him. You can create that opportunity by recognizing their patronage, which in turn should help ensure that they return for a future visit.

Another simple thing you can do is post signage — on your website and in your store — to indicate that you’re social media-friendly. The Express retail chain has their chief marketing officer’s Twitter handle printed on all their bags, which works to reinforce that the company cares about person-to-person connections. Take that idea and apply it to your own business. For that extra touch, make stickers, punch cards or window decals that showcase your small business’s online personality and reinforce that you’re interested in conversations with your customers.

Your Size Works in Your Favor

Starbucks is the perfect example of an early adopter brand that gets social media right, and yet their size prohibits them from engaging with every customer that walks in the door.

As a small business, your size is your friend in social media channels. Use your small size as an advantage and respond to each and every person that mentions you. Since you’re working with a smaller customer base, you can also build customer Twitter Lists to separate different categories of customers into groups, which should help you offer more personalized customer service — something the big businesses don’t have the time or resources to support.

Here’s an easy example: Who are your most frequent customers? Make a Twitter List called “Regulars,” and add your regulars on Twitter to it.

In doing so, you’re associating patronage with prestige. Your efforts could even inspire semi-regular customers to frequent your business more often just so they too can get added to the list. This tactic might also serve as a catalyst for one regular to connect with another, though you could also facilitate customer-to-customer connections with introductory tweets. So if a customer tweets for a recommendation, you could respond with something simple as, “@customer1 good question, I like the cheesecake but @customer2 really loves the custard.”

These types of personal exchanges highlight the advantages afforded to small businesses using social media.

Original Source: http://mashable.com/2010/06/13/small-business-advice/

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Designing An Effective Homepage With Usability In Mind

Like the old saying goes, your first impression is your last impression. And that is certainly true for your website’s homepage.

A company’s homepage is like the entrance to a whole new world you want visitors to explore. If, however, they are not impressed by what they see they may decline your invitation in favor of websites that are more attractive and inviting.

This type of reaction is not unusual; the reason being that a lot of websites suffer from poor design. For example, some designers tend to pack too much content into a site, making the visitor feel overwhelmed.

Some sites even bypass the homepage altogether, zipping the visitor straight to the content pages without giving him any indication what lies ahead.

Depending on what they are looking for, users can wind up at your homepage for a variety for reasons. Therefore, your site should have an easy-to-find and user-friendly navigation bar so that the visitor will know where to go once he lands on your page.

Here are some prompts you may want to consider:

Explain what you do

A small initial description is an integral part of a website’s homepage that informs the visitor what your site is all about. Think of it as a mission statement that tells the visitor what your purpose for existing is and what you hope to accomplish.

Even companies that are well known must not skip this vital part of their homepage as there may be some visitors who are not familiar with everything they carry. They cannot count on their popularity alone to compel a visitor to snoop around until he finds what he’s looking for. Remember, internet visitors have a very short attention span.

The navigation bar should also include subcategories that point to featured products and specials. The site should also include a search box so that the visitor can search the site by keyword. In addition, a messaging service should be made available so that the visitors can query the site administrator for further information.

Should a visitor land on one of the deep links as the result of a search engine query, he should be able to easily navigate his way back to the homepage should he wish to do so. Such a feature is characteristic of a well-designed website.

Set your goals for the homepage

Keep in mind that the goal of the homepage may be slightly different from the goal of the site as a whole. While the site is designed to sell products, the homepage’s job is to entice visitors.

This means that a homepage should be attractive enough that it causes the visitor to want to investigate the rest of the site. This will be uppermost in your client’s mind, so you should make every effort to make it happen.

The homepage is viewed as prime real estate and, therefore, should be used to introduce new products and services that the site visitors may not be aware of.

Naturally, you’ll want to give priority on your homepage to products that bring in the big bucks. If those products also generate revenue from subscriptions, make signup easier by having the signup form prominently displayed on the homepage.

Decide what features are necessary to achieving the site’s goals and prioritize them according to their importance. Then, design the site with the prioritized features in mind.

Make it clean and trustworthy

Visitors also like to know if the site can be trusted before buying its products and services. So, if your business has been around for a while, let them know by proudly displaying the establishment date of the business.

In addition, highlight any awards the business has received. Posting testimonials from satisfied customers is also a good idea. All these things will go a long way toward instilling trust into your site’s visitors.

Keep in mind, however, that simplicity is very important in a user-friendly homepage design. Nothing turns a user off like a cluttered homepage. In addition, putting too much stuff on your homepage can significantly slow down the pages load time.

So, before adding a new element to your homepage, ask yourself whether it is absolutely necessary for it to be placed there.

Mistakes you shouldn’t make

Some designers make the mistake of adding too many widgets and redundant navigation on the homepage. They even add content on the homepage that would be better suited for one of the inner pages. This is a prime example of poor design.

For example, in some UX projects, a disproportionate amount of elements is given to the homepage. It is usually the first page to be wireframed and receives the bulk of the designer’s attention, while more of their focus should have been directed toward product pages.

By necessity, login users will require a different homepage once they’re logged in to give them access to features that are not readily available to regular visitors.

If you haven’t thoroughly researched user needs, you may end up focusing too much on the business aspect of the homepage. As a UX designer, you should also direct a lot of your attention to users and their needs as well.

Using a wireframe would be a better way of positioning page elements to give you some idea how they’ll look in the final rendering. If it appears too cramped, question the necessity of each element until you have pared it down as much as possible.

Conclusion

Designing a website is just as much a scientific endeavor as it is an act of artistic expression. Attention must be given to detail, while at the same time acknowledging the site’s purpose and goals, as well as functionality.

After all, it is a website’s usability and not its aesthetics that ultimately determines its success or failure.

Original Source - http://www.designyourway.net/blog/inspiration/designing-an-effective-homepage-with-usability-in-mind/

How Designing Can Turn Visitors Into Clients

Attracting visitors to your website can be an easy thing to do, but converting them into your clients is probably the toughest of tasks and requires a lot of planning. There are plenty of factors that can change the thinking of the visitors and one of them is good designing.

If you are able to achieve that, you will be able to sell your products and services quite easily. Although some people might argue that the quality of what you sell matters the most, yet you will be unable to prove your worth unless you make the design attractive.

Attractive design does not necessarily mean that you have to make your website any fancy, but you have to make it more user-friendly in order to make the visitors feel at home. In case the visitors don’t find it easy to navigate to their desired information easily, they will definitely look for an alternative. So, you have to keep the users in mind while choosing the design.

If you are able to make your design simple, yet attractive for the visitors, they will certainly be interested in buying your products or services. Therefore, focus on the following things more while finalizing the design and you will see some positive results.

Keep updating the design

The most important thing is to keep your design updated in order to show the visitors that you are a professional. In case you don’t focus on this factor, the people who come to your site will get a negative impression of you and will think of you as amateurs. In that case, you will be unable to convert the visitors into clients no matter how good your products and services are.

Make the navigation easy

Let’s say you are interested in buying something online and search some relevant websites. Even if you have found the product you wish to order, you would want to read some information about it. If that information is not easily accessible, you will start looking at other options. So, remember making the navigation as easy as possible for the visitors. Only then will you be able to maximize your sales. This can be done through keeping the design simple and the font readable.

Keep the key information on the left side

According to numerous web usability surveys, people who come to the online pages, spend most of their time viewing stuff on the left side of their monitors rather than right. Therefore, it is important to keep most of the important information on the left hand side of the page.

This way, the visitors will find your website to be quite user-friendly and will definitely consider visiting it time and again, whenever they wish to order something that your offer. However, you have to keep in mind that the right side of the page should not be ignored entirely. You should keep some lesser important information on that side of the page.

Focus more on the top-left corner

Although it is important to focus mostly on the left side of the page, the ideal point where the key information should be kept is the top-left corner. According to the studies conducted related to the page designing, the visitors start by looking at the top-left corner of the page, then come down, move towards the middle of the page and then finally see what is mentioned on the right hand side of the page.

Know where to post images

While finalizing the design of the page, you should be aware of the fact that the images should be positioned in a way that the visitors don’t get bothered because of them. If there is no image required, you should go without any. On the other hand, post as many images as possible, if your website demands so.

Responsive web designing

This is quite an interesting concept, through which the users don’t have to bother about resizing the webpage in order to gather all the necessary information. It can be used in a wide range of gadgets from computers to mobile phones. Other related concepts to this sort of designing are mobile first, unobtrusive JavaScript, and progressive enhancement.

Calls to action (CTA)

This is quite an engaging tool, used in almost all of the modern webpage designs. While designing the page, you have to ensure that the CTAs should be right in front of the users, so they can easily fill the form and answer all of your questions you wish to know. However, this does not end here, as you will have to then ensure the visitors that they will be contacted back and will be provided all of their queries too.

Technology tools

No matter you are involved in selling some products or services, the visitors would want to get some answers quickly regarding your business. In order to convince them to become clients, you will need to add some good technology tools to the webpage.

One of the most used tools these days is the live chat, which allows the visitors to talk to one of your sales representative online and get the answers quickly. Even if some of the users are confused over some issue, your representative can make the clarification and guide the visitor to complete a sale.

Social media links

The social media connections will also help you keep the visitors coming over and over again to your website and the might eventually become your regular buyers. If you have provides links to your social media pages on the webpage, the visitors might like them and will get regular updates about the latest products and services being offered to them. Even if they are not interested in ordering something straightaway, they might end up changing their mind, when they get continuous relevant information about your business.

Tutorials

If you are selling some products online like custom stickers or business cards, especially related to technology, you should add tutorials in your webpage design too. This way, you will make things easier for the users and they might even find your products to be more attractive after watching its video link. However, it will not be an ideal thing to add the tutorial link on the main page, as it should be available with each product separately.

Reviews

Whenever a user visits a website, he\she looks for the reviews of the clients in order to find out the quality of the products or services being offered. Therefore, add this feature to the design of your webpage too, as it will really help in building the confidence of the new members, thus they won’t hesitate in ordering from you.

Customization

Another interesting tool that can help you catch the attention of the visitors is customization. If your business is flexible enough to let the clients choose their products and personalize them, you will definitely end up increasing the conversion rate on your website. Moreover, you can gather some different ideas from all of the visitors through an online survey in order to make them feel valued right from the first time they visit your page.

Customer feedback

While designing, you have to ensure that there are some contact details mentioned on the webpage, so that the customer can contact you and give feedback related to your products or services. If there are some positive things mentioned in the feedback, make sure to implement them straightaway.

Avoid irrelevant stuff

One thing that helps in converting the visitors into clients is avoiding all the irrelevant stuff on your page. This way, the users will get all the necessary information and will not have to search the stuff they wish to find.

By focusing on the above mentioned points, one can design a very good webpage, which will not only attract plenty of visitors, but also convince them to become buyers of the products or services being offered.

Original Source - http://www.designyourway.net/blog/misc/how-designing-can-turn-visitors-into-clients/