Art Ajar- A Call to Creative Minds: Fill Your Jar with Art

Our own DavidB showed in this art exhibit at The John Almquist Gallery in Winnetka. Opening night was Friday, March 16. And the show goes through mid-May.
Art Ajar exhibition sales will be donated to the Northfield Food Pantry.

Art for a good cause! Over 50 jars were on exhibit from every age group and skill level. And so many different types of jars!

View photos from opening night.
View video of DavidB creating his "Door Ajar in a Jar".

Meet our Intern, Alex Roberts!

We would like you to meet our intern, Alex Roberts. You may have heard a new voice answering the phone or seen a new face in our office - he has been working with us since November.

To get to know him a little better, we would like to show off his very first website!
ByAlexRoberts!

Alex has been working with us to build his portfolio website: learning WordPress editing and website best practices. And we couldn't be prouder of his site :)

So go, zip around his site and see what makes Alex tick!
And why we think he is an awesome intern!

Importance of browser and platform testing

For many designers, cross browser and platform testing takes a back seat to design. This is not good. And it is NOT how Your Plan B Company creates sites.

We believe this is an extremely important issue of launching a new website - it is part of good design. Each browser displays websites differently, so its vital that your business site looks perfect on every one. This can often be a challenge especially with browsers such as Internet Explorer, but must be done if you want as much traffic as possible.

Visual errors on your site can be very damaging and could cause viewers to leave right away. A well designed and coded website that is being displayed properly in browsers is the foundation of any website. Once you have a quality designed and developed site, you can fill it with well-written content and other elements such as accent graphics.

Each browser reads code a little different and an experienced designer can help you understand why there are compromises to made on design to allow for useability and functionality across the board!

We keep an eye on the stats offered by w3schools. They keep track of popular browsers and usage.

Since there is no definitive way to determine the mix of browser/operating system combinations that your users may have, the only way to maximize broad market access to your website is to plan ahead and ensure that your website has been cross-browser and platform tested by your website designer. This approach may cost a bit more but the benefits can include:

• Consistent, stable cross-browser/platform rendering and functionality on all website pages - higher quality website
  
• Simplified website maintenance and updates
  
• Ease of use/viewing for end-users (your customers!)
  
• Increased customer conversion ratio
  
• Your prospects will know that you value quality

A good rule of thumb is to remember that the website is for your users, so we need to surf like your users surf (and test!)

Contact us if you need work done to make sure your sites look good on all the browser options out there!

Analytics and data mining

Continuing the 2012 trend conversation, last week was about overall design and development trends. This week a more practical thought concerning how you manage your website with analytics and data mining.

We believe understanding your site stats will become ever more crucial this year. As the web continues to fan out over so many different devices, and content is consumed via so many different services, it becomes more important than ever to know which devices and services are bringing benefit to your business, and how you can eek even more out of them.

Sometimes referred to as Web Analytics
"Web analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of internet data for purposes of understanding and optimizing web usage."
-Wikipedia

There are tools out there to help collect this data: its performance, and other cool information such as traffic sources, medium, and campaign information. Remember to stay as consistent as you can collecting it. The more information you have over time, will show you patterns of behavior that will help you when you need to reach out, remodel or revisit your online goals.

So overall, keep a keen eye on your site statistics in google analytics or webtrends (or whichever tool you use). The more you understand your audience, the more your audience will return to you. Remember that these aren’t the end all in terms of your data, but by combining this information with other business metrics you will have a better idea of what and where your online marketing is heading (or needs to head).

Other resources:
http://bx.businessweek.com/data-mining/blogs/
http://analytics.blogspot.com/
http://www.freakonomics.com/blog/

Web Design Trends of 2012 (part three)

Online trends continue...

11. Ribbon and Banner Graphics
Beta testers often use these ribbons to classify the current release version of software and mobile apps. Additionally you’ll find banners wrapped around free downloads or featured articles in blogs.

example: http://365psd.com/day/2-23/
http://designmodo.com/design-ribbons-badges/

12. Hand Drawn Designs
To contrast the slick look of computer generated graphics, sometimes the imperfections of something hand drawn can tell your audience what it needs to know about your company or product.

13. Mobile
This is going to be hard on all the designers out there. Keeping in mind how a site looks on a nice big flat screen AND on a cell phone screen. While you may never have every single screen look beautiful (with most project budgets) you can make sure users can surf your site anywhere.

14. QR codes
They are completely free to create, and many more people understand how they work. Considering how many people have cell phones these graphic codes are quite handy vs. writing down a site address. We have seen them everywhere from real estate signs to burger joints to rock bands!

15. Freebies!
From icons to desktop patterns, who doesn’t like a freebie now and then?
Two current favorites are Download PSD and Designmoo, both of which get updated frequently. Additionally the Hongkiat Freebies archive has plenty of treats to check out. This is an easy way to download free web interfaces, layouts, logos, banners, and practically any other type of PSD/AI file - a great resource for limited budgets.

Check these out:
http://downloadpsd.com/
http://designmoo.com/
http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/category/freebies-online/

What trends will stick? What trends do you like?

Web Design Trends of 2012 (part two)

Online trends continue...

6. Minimal Animation
Gone are the days where everything beeps, moves and wiggles (unless of course you are an entertainment type website). Now we want subtle movement, user animated feedback and definitely no blinking!

7. Infographics
Most infographics provide data, charts, and supporting imagery so that anyone can follow along. One of our favorite examples is this one, explaining what Drupal is: http://visual.ly/what-drupal

8. Fixed Position Navigation
The idea is to keep the navbar and internal links/logo locked in place as your visitors scroll through the content. Usually floating over the content as you move down a page.

An example: http://www.elegantthemes.com/preview/Glider/

9. Multi-Column Menus
You can easily display numerous links to your visitors and keep this section fitted squarely around your logo. Consider it an option to too many fly-outs.

10. jQuery/CSS3/HTML5 Animation
Say good-bye to Flash animations and hello to HTML5!
Sometimes it is ok to say good-bye when a better web solution arrives.
HTML5 can be seen on most browsers...including the iPAD (which we all know doesn’t see Flash files).

Read more: http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/building-html5-css-webpages/

Trends #11-15 coming next week!

Web Design Trends of 2012 (part one)

One of my favorite things about a new year is all the predictions and top 10 lists. As a designer I can’t help but read them all and wonder what will our clients need in 2012. I compiled a list from the many lists out there of our top 15 trends for 2012 that we hope to see!

Now what might work in one industry online may not in another. So please do not try and put each and every trend on your site - instead think about what your audience wants!

Of course we won’t know until next year if these trends will last, but it sure is fun thinking about what may be ahead as we work on your site this year!

TRENDS:

1. Responsive Web Design
Responsive web design is design that uses standards-based technologies to make them more flexible, and adaptable to the media that renders them.

For more information: http://www.alistapart.com/articles/responsive-web-design/
Design examples: http://designmodo.com/responsive-design-examples/

2. Vector Art
Mostly in the form of site mascots (see Mozilla, Firefox and MailChimp for examples.)
Vector art is easier to rescale than a photograph which can help when you need this mascot on everything from the home page to a small button.

3. Circles
Not just rounded edges, but circles big and small!
Circular shapes are smooth and encourage eye contact from your visitors.
Of course I am all for this bubbly design element.

4. Custom Fonts
Breaking away from the standard fonts and being able to see them on different browsers. Check out Typekit or Google Web Fonts.
With this tool you embed a bit of JavaScript which allows you to write any custom font into CSS styles.

5. Minimalist Design
Ultimately the goal of any website is to get your visitors from point A to B as quickly as possible. Simple, intuitive interfaces are the way of our future. We always suggest you spend some time writing and drafting out ideas for your navigation, page hierarchy, headings, content area etc. Pre-planning can go a long way towards simplifying everything!

Trends #6-10 coming next week!