Posts Tagged ‘web design company’

Why Hiring a Web Design Agency is Better than Freelancers

April 28th, 2020

The web design sector is the most competitive and saturated one in the world today. The reason for that is because several individuals have learned how to code and have developed the skills needed to create web sites on their own. These developers make their living off of developing websites as freelancers for their clients. While this benefits the clients by giving them competitive pricing and a choice in hiring developers, it can leave a little something to be desired in the final product. Hiring a web design agency, on the other hand, can give these clients more value for their money. In this blog post, we will explore why hiring a web design agency is better for your business compared to hiring a freelancer.

Why Hiring a Web Design Agency is Better

Web design agencies offer some obvious and some not so obvious advantages over freelancers for businesses of all sizes. Here are some of them –

  • Professionalism

One of the biggest advantages you have, when you hire a web design company is professionalism. Freelancers work according to their own time-table. Some of these freelancers work for several clients at the same time. This may be good for them as they make more money but for the client it means you get their divided attention.

Another factor is that some of these freelancers have full-time jobs as well and only work for you during their free time. This may not be suitable for you because you want to communicate with them during business hours and check up on their progress. A web design company works during business hours and sometimes even beyond that for you if needed. They have a team of developers and can assign a dedicated developer only on your project, regardless of how many clients they have.

  • Stability

Web design agencies offer more stability compared to freelancers. Freelancers can decide to shut down their operations or change their line of work at the drop of a hat. Another factor to consider is that a freelancer is a single person. If any personal emergency or health issue arises, then this can leave your project hanging in the middle.

Web design agencies have more stability because they have made an investment in their manpower and infrastructure. You can be sure that they will not shut their doors without any prior notice and will not leave your project incomplete. The manpower available ensures that your project remains undisturbed even if a developer is unavailable.

  • More Expertise

A freelancer can be well trained and have expertise in several aspects of web development. However, an agency with its abundance of resources and staff members can provide you a more comprehensive expert service. An agency can hire a separate team for the design aspects of the project and another team for the PHP coding or development aspect.

Another expertise in high demand these days is e-commerce development. E-commerce developers that excel in Magento, Shopify, BigCommerce, and WooCommerce can be offered by web design agencies as part of their services.

  • Support and Maintenance

A freelancer is a contract based person whose responsibilities end when the project is completed and the website goes live. More often than not, they do not take any responsibility for anything that happens after that. In other words, there is no such thing as after-sales service in web development from freelancers.

Web development companies, on the other hand, promise you support and maintenance of their website for minor to major issues depending on the agency. Some even offer website maintenance services as part of their plans or offer separate services for support altogether.

Closing Thoughts

 As competitive as the web design sector has become, there will always be certain players that will stand apart from the rest. It will all come down to companies that offer a unique experience to their clients, bring ease of doing business to their lives, and creates solutions that are both technologically advanced and user friendly. In the coming future, technologies like IoT, VR, and AR will become the differentiating factors between web developers as well as web development agencies.

6 Leading WordPress Design Trends to Look Out for in 2020

March 12th, 2020

With so many trends influencing the marketing and user experience, the industries are adapting sure-shot ways for bringing their best foot forward. Trends are simply the transformations taking place along with next-gen technologies. And there is no declining that if the industries would not keep up with these ever-changing digital processes, they certainly won’t be able to stand tall among their competitors. Furthermore, how you are enabling customer experience, whether it’s offline or online, speaks a lot about your brand. It’s great if you have an online presence and even better if there are a multitude of engaging features on your website. So, it is vital that we should follow revolutionary website design trends from time to time.

WordPress is serving as the most trusted content management system for website designing and development today. Though, WordPress keeps on updating its new features, functionalities, and plug-ins that can take your website to the next level.

Let’s take look at WordPress website design trends which will glorify your website’s user experience in 2020:

Blocks 

WordPress is good at introducing easy to optimize features for users. Presenting to you all, the Blocks!  A great new tool for building engaging content. Without any doubt, WordPress Gutenberg block-based design is the one you will need to pay attention to in 2020 design trends and beyond. Anyone choosing WordPress for website designing simply cannot afford to ignore how serious WordPress is about Gutenberg as a futuristic technique. With blocks, instead of using custom code, you can effortlessly insert, rearrange and style multimedia content and no technical knowledge is required. So, what modifications will be added in this Gutenberg’s version?

  • Smooth block movements as you drag elements on the page with motion settings for improved and enhanced accessibility.
  • The ‘typewriter’ mode that keeps your vertical place as you type for a more pleasant experience in writing.
  • Block previews that will let the users see how blocks will look like before selecting them.
  • Faster block navigation mode for improved usability that will enable users to navigate through block menus using their keyboard.
  • The ability to customize navigation menus with elements such as background and text colours using an inline navigation menu block.
  • Gutenberg also features new blocks that let you group blocks together by (Group block), add white space between blocks i.e. Spacer block.
  • Social icon block will let users add social icons and buttons anywhere on their posts and pages.

 Video Background

 Want to add motion to your website? Like to engage users with effective visualization? Then approach the video background for completing your Wishlist. The video background seems to be the reason for slow processing or loading of the website. Nevertheless, such a background is good at grabbing visitors’ attention by giving motion experience. Unlike any static image, video backgrounds can add life to any website. And surely, WordPress can help in achieving such a type of aesthetically pleasing website. Plus, you can easily add a video background to the website through the WordPress Gutenberg Cover Block. Seamless! Isn’t it?

Minimalism 

The simplistic but effective styles do not seem to go anywhere! In my last post as well, out of various website design trends of 2020, I talked about how minimalism would rule in web designing.

Minimalism has been an ultra-favourite for those website owners who love to play with a sense of clarity using plenty of white space. This trend may be a mainstay but always look good and load faster across devices. The great quality pictures, gradient effects and bold typography with white space provide a creative sense to the page. This less-is-more theme works well in terms of user experience by giving emphasis on the content. In addition, minimalism encompasses less text enabling a more breathing room for other aspects on the website.

Artificial Intelligence 

Large scale industries and even the small ones are looking for opportunities to extend their services through Artificial Intelligence. Moreover, they are also trying to implement strategies in website development with AI. The reason behind this is that in the background, AI helps to automate tasks such as live interactions through chatbots. Simply, the website experiences will become more tailored towards users as artificial intelligence starts to understand more of the human context. 

Asymmetry 

If you are looking for an artistic and captivating way to make your website stand out of the crowd then you should consider this trend. The asymmetrical designs when combined with a bit of minimalism lets you highlight the content, showcase the artistic imagery enhancing aesthetic value to your website. Designers are pushing their boundaries by creating broken grids and asymmetrical designs that will force users and website visitors to pay attention to the details. This type of design weaves a fine line between attention-grabbing elements and keeping your websites uncluttered. 

Augmented Reality or Virtual Reality 

These two technologies have already witnessed massive growth in recent times. Most of the developer communities are opting for these techniques in their website designing. From uploading fully 360-degree images to interactive 3D videos, websites have a new world of media-based opportunities at their disposal for interacting thoroughly with customers. Especially if they’re the websites that depend largely upon visual media to represent their products and services. 

Wrapping up 

The world of WordPress is constantly changing. And most of the industries prefer to rely on this CMS for high-quality services. To keep up with the pace of advanced developments, web designers need to be much aware.

For your in-depth understanding related to advanced web designs, we have covered most of the trends and will predict more in the future as per their arrivals. Undoubtedly, 2020 will be favourable for WordPress users and the ones who want to shift towards this great opportunity. The web designing services with the latest additions and expertise can also provide benefits to the industries in the long run. Especially, the WordPress support services to regard the services of existing users.

 

Best Practices for Exercising Mobile Web Design in 2018

May 21st, 2018

After the launch of the iPhone, the demand for building separate websites for separate devices increased tenfold. Though there was nothing complicated (in fact, it was comparatively easier) if you see this from the development perspective, it doesn’t come with its own set of drawbacks.

For e.g. having to promote and maintain separate sites for SEO rankings was a lot of work, not to mention the maintenance costs that come with it. Also, since mobile phones and tablets come in all screen sizes, creating websites for each and every one of them was next to impossible. So, there has to be a better way to deal with the situation, right?

Thankfully, web designer Ethan Marcotte came up with a brilliant concept of ‘responsive design’ back in 2010, a concept which calls for building fluid and flexible layouts that can adapt to almost any screen size. Since then, the mobile device ownerships have exploded as compared to the traditional PCs and a major part of the credit goes to the responsive web design which ensures users have a great viewing experience regardless of the screen size.

Nowadays, creating a website is nothing more than a child’s play, however, assuming that optimization for mobile browsing happens automatically after you finish creating your website is actually childish (pssst, avoid it at all costs). So, if you have made up your mind to go mobile, at least do it correctly. For starters, understand these facts well enough,

  • The site visitors will always access your site in all situations (even if in a hurry).
  • Small screen size greatly alters the way users interact with your web content, no matter how mobile-friendly site you make, it won’t be convenient enough when compared to full-screen

The key here is to keep the mobile content clear and succinct but not at the cost of its quality. Moving on, I have presented 6 of the best mobile web design practices in this article for you to follow if providing an appealing and enjoyable content is your top priority as a site owner.

  1. Homepage and navigation

There are a few points to keep in mind while considering homepage and navigation for your ‘mobile-friendly’ site such as-

  • Keeping calls to action above the fold.
  • Making it easier for users to get back at the main page.
  • Keep your menus short and easily accessible.
  • Avoid unnecessary promotions as much as possible.
  1. Create ‘responsive’ content

Space is always at a premium when it comes to viewing content on smaller screen sizes. However, some common mistake rookies make at this point is trying to squish all the content to the mobile screen that was originally meant for the desktop.

But you can avoid this by keeping in mind the different screen sizes from the very start and re-evaluating the existing content (based on their usefulness) accordingly. Next step involves narrowing down the essential content to the point where it becomes easily digestible and crafting concise and to-the-point content out of it.

  1. Visible site search

Never ever try to hide the search box in a menu as this is one of the first things users’ lookout for when they want information. While searching too, users generally lack the patience to scan through multiple pages for their desired info, so make browsing easy for your users by including misspelling corrections, suggesting related queries, auto-completing queries etc. You can further ease their browsing journey by placing filters above search results.

  1. Fluid images and video

One of the biggest benefits of using fluid images and videos for your mobile-friendly website is that they are non-negotiable for responsive design, not only in terms of design but cropping as well. Some such ways are –

  • Rendering images based on room availability in HTML container.
  • Crop images on smaller screens to retain their impact.
  • Use Scalar Vector Graphics to change resolution based on image paths rather than pixels.
  1. Declutter your site

If clutter is bad for your desktop then it is worse for your mobile where you don’t even have much screen space, to begin with. Every button, image, icon that you add makes the screen that much complicated and in turn, clutter your interface while overloading your users with too much information.

When designing your website for mobile, try to get rid of anything that isn’t absolutely necessary. In this way, by reducing clutter you will significantly improve comprehension.

  1. ‘Touch-friendly’ design

Though featuring concise content and scaling down your website for different screen sizes is important, it isn’t enough for implementing a ‘touch-friendly’ design which requires the design to be navigated with person’s (clumsy) fingers.

  • Provide large and descriptive buttons for easy click and bump up the font sizes accordingly (at least 16 px).
  • Completely avoid pop-up boxes and certain effects that cannot be translated easily to mobile devices.

 Closing Thoughts:

Responsive web design isn’t just a matter of choice anymore since Google has recently prioritized the mobile-viewing experience of any site into its SEO algorithm but has become an essential element to include if you wish to see your site in search results.

What Qualities to Lookout for While Hiring a Web Design Company in 2018

May 8th, 2018

The first step is always the hardest one be it starting your own company from scratch or planning an abroad vacation or even writing an article for your college magazine. So, when you consider launching a new website for your business, the first and the hardest step usually is hiring a suitable web design company that can help you reach your goals.

But, as is often the case, hiring is one thing and finding completely another. Just the mere presence of so many web design companies in the market is enough to give you sleepless nights during your search.

Also, it won’t take long to turn your sleepless nights into nightmares if you happen to land with a company that doesn’t really understand your needs or if even if they do, doesn’t really have what it takes to meet those needs (spoiler alert: most companies will fall into these two categories).

So, it is left entirely up to you to figure out how to separate those companies with the potential to bring your vision to life from the pretenders, or even better, some quality traits you need to look out for while hiring a web design company in 2018. Below are mentioned some such considerations you need to make.

  • Experience-

The fasted point available in this list that can help you quickly eliminate those web design companies that lack experience. Going after the experienced ones will help ensure their familiarity with what you consider as important. Though their experiences may vary, even a single project similar to yours completed by them in the past will make them a suitable candidate.

It doesn’t mean that you cannot go for inexperienced ones, it’s just a lot easier to explain your needs to the companies that have worked on similar projects (as of yours) in the past.

  • Deadlines-

“When will my website be finished?” is the question that most web design companies try to avoid and the best responses you can hope for in these cases are only rough estimates. Tread here carefully and ask for a firm deadline (it’s always better if deadlines are cleared out in the beginning), otherwise, your project might take a painstakingly long time to process, leaving everybody involved frustrated.

  • Pricing-

Pricing is another important factor that goes straight to the heart of the matter. So, it’s very important to set up your budget way before you start looking for any web development company. And since you only get what you pay for, it’s better to find agreeable pricing in advance with the company you intend to hire.

A Tip: Be wary of design companies who are dirt cheap because they will take shortcuts to bring down costs, shortcuts that will cost you more in the long run.

  • Services-

Lookout for companies that offer various other services related to web design rather than just creating websites, services such as boosting SEO, creating content, running social media marketing campaigns etc. because sooner or later, your business is going to need them. So, it’s better to handle this issue early on. Most web design firms also offer packages with the list of services to choose from.

  • Portfolio-

While hiring a web design firm, do not forget to ask for their detailed portfolio in order to have a fair idea about their experiences with past clients. Portfolios generally serve as a testimony that offers details regarding the kind of virtual workmanship you can expect from the web design company you are about to hire. With portfolio in hand, you don’t even need to call their past clients to have their degree of service delivery confirmed.

  • Communication-

Last but not the least, don’t make the mistake of hiring a web design company that is simply unwilling to listen to your ideas as this often leads to unexpected product deliveries in the end. Sort out companies that not only want to listen keenly to your ideas along with contributing their own thoughts but also are able to communicate well with their team members in order to articulate their thoughts and ideas effectively into your project to bring the desired results.

Closing Thoughts:

At the end of the day, it all comes down to your business that matters the most. It means that your confidence will be the ultimate decision-maker while hiring any web design company. But if a company offers you a custom design at a reasonable price within the pre-set deadline, then I see no reason why you shouldn’t hire it. Keep these above-mentioned qualities in mind and they will help you find a great web design company of your choice.

At Clap Creative, we understand the users’ needs and tasks and apply the practices that are best suited for maximizing the appeal and efficiency of the design. Also, the websites designed by us are done taking into full account the adaptability, possible limitations, and the technical feasibility. It helps us to get the best out of web design and development.

Clap Creative Recognised by Clutch for a 3rd Straight Year

April 17th, 2018

Presented with the rare opportunity of getting enlisted as one of the top listed Web Design Company in Los Angeles for the 3rd year in a row, Clap Creative has once again proved its dominance in the arena of web development services by placing itself in the following highly contested categories in Los Angeles, 2018 –

  1. Top E-Commerce Developers
  2. Top Magento Developers
  3. Top Shopify Developers
  4. Top Ruby on Rails Developers
  5. Top WordPress Developers

Getting recognition by Clutch, a major research, and evaluation firm, as the leading web design company is an honor which is only imparted to companies that excel in offering unparalleled services in the field of web design, internet marketing, web development etc.

This year too, thousands of companies were considered by Clutch analysts for inclusion in the top list of web design companies out of which a total of 142 were enlisted based on their information, research data, and unbiased reviews. For a full list of top-selected companies in Los Angeles, click here.

We feel great honor to be listed as one of the top Web Design Company Los Angeles for a 3rd straight year and wish to share this achievement with our team members and our amazing clients without whom this feat would not have been possible. Our customer-centered philosophy along with our strong dedication toward client care have always distinguished ourselves from our competitors, and now this accomplishment has further motivated us to achieve even higher customer service standards.

Here’s what one of our recent clients says about Clap Creative,

“DK and his team were terrific. He moved very fast and was available at all hours for our project which was a global sports league which had millions of people coming to the website. He was very reasonable, fair and easy to work with. He also created an e-commerce section which was above and beyond the initial scope. I would definitely recommend them and appreciate all of the great work DK and his team has done. two thumbs up and five stars.”

Here’s another review associated with our high client satisfaction standards,

“Had the pleasure of working with DK at Clap Creative. We were very pleased with his responsiveness and ability to meet our requirements. We were very satisfied with his work and wish we discovered Clap Creative a long time ago to help us out. A highly skilled team, great service, and affordable prices! We highly recommend Clap Creative and hope we can continue to work together.”

We are very proud of our clients’ success along with our team members’ for delivering excellence to our brand name that is helping us achieve recognition on a global scale.

7 Reasons Why Pageless Design is the Future of Web Designing

April 4th, 2018

Earlier, when websites were invented, basic HTML pages were enough to bring in quality traffic. Those were the days when websites were composed of several pages containing tons of information. These pages were further subdivided into several more pages, breaking the information into smaller bits that could be accessed from the navigation menu.

However, with the evolution of technology came mobile phones which replaced desktops and became our prime source of web browsing. But this shifting lead to another sort of problem, smaller screens, and completely different navigation system. Not only this, there were still many who still preferred good old desktops way more than smartphones.

Now, this called for a complete overhaul of traditional website’s modus operandi. The result? Pageless web design- a product of minimalism.

What is a Pageless Web Design?

Pageless web design is basically a step towards freeing traditional websites from the outdated conventions of print design distributed through several pages and presenting all the required information on a single page layout thus making your browsing experience a contemporary and enjoyable one.

Why is Pageless Design the future of Web Design?

I will give you not one or two but seven reasons as to why pageless web design is far more superior to conventional web design and why you should consider having it.

  1. The Responsive Design that Looks Great on all Devices

Pageless websites are immensely popular for their responsiveness and can go native on all devices be it featured phones, smartphones, tablets, laptops, desktops etc. By creating a uniformity across platforms for features like interaction, scrolling and navigation, pageless web designs are far ahead than their conventional counterparts when it comes to creating user-friendly experiences.

  1. A Well-Organised Content instead of a Scattered One

Most conventional sites present today with its huge quantity of texts, a distracting slider image, links and icons spread through several pages and God knows what else give the look of a scattered and messy website. Whereas with a pageless site, the structured narrative is presented on a single page which gives you the ability to control the content and present it in whichever way you want the information to be available to your audience.

  1. Much More Affordable than Conventional Websites

Creating a beautiful, custom website has always been an expensive endeavor for individuals and businesses alike. But not anymore, the best thing about pageless designs is that they are not expensive at all since they don’t involve any complexity and the production of individual pages. At an average, pageless sites cost just 30% of what you pay for a custom designed website.

  1. Helps in Decreasing Bounce Rates

It’s a commonly known that pageless websites have much lower bounce rates as compared to the conventional ones. The reason lies in the fact that single page sites make it relatively easier for users to find the desired information in a short period of time. This results in the generation of new leads, easy promotion of products and services, and the overall increase in the sales. Isn’t this what we all want?

  1. Iterative Process that Greatly Improves the User Experience

Iteration is a cyclic process that lets you make easy, fast and effective changes based on analytics and user feedback on your website’s layout. Since a pageless site contains only a single page to be put up, updating it is a piece of cake.

  1. Let’s You tell Captivating Stories to Your Audience

The primary objective of building websites has always been to tell their compelling stories to the existing and prospective audiences. It’s your choice how you want this story to be presented, either by creating a website on one page following a storyline, without any distractions or by scattering the bits over sub-categories divided over multiple pages.

  1. Allow Visitors to Easily Share these Stories

Have you ever tried sharing an entire standard website with someone? Of course not, because it’s simply not possible. The best you can do is zero in on the small bits and share that portion with the other person. But sharing a pageless site is not only possible (thanks to the single page web design) but is a butter-smooth process as well. Now you can easily present all that compelling information to your audience within no time.

Conclusion:

Apart from all the above-mentioned reasons, Search Engine Optimization is another important factor that cannot be ignored. And this is where you will receive the biggest benefit your pageless website has to offer. With the help of your one full proof and self-explanatory branded website, your SEO rankings will improve significantly as apart from increased social sharing and conversion rates, Google PageRank score will also be applied to your overall site as well.

Things to Consider Before You Launch Your Website

March 22nd, 2018

Launching a brand new website, redesigning an existing one via Web Design Company or moving a site onto a new CMS (Content Management System) for a client is all about a staggering number of small ways to not screw up. It also includes managing many moving parts as well such as content, design, marketing, and the technical side. To make sure you miss out on nothing, here are a few things to consider if you wish to make your website launch a success. First of all, you should,

Figure Out the Launch Schedule

It includes everything from setting a launch date (which should at least be a month prior to give you enough time for research, design and development) to preparing for worst-case scenarios (prepare a list of ‘what could go wrong’ and device a backup plan) to setting up a staging site (to edit and work with updates in an identical environment).

Now that you have a month before your big day, let’s check out some other issues you might face and how to avoid them.

  1. Check Content

Let’s start with content, after all, content is king. Here’s what you have to look out for-

  • Grammar and Spelling which includes capitalization, tense/style of writing, variations in words, recurring phrases etc.
  • Typography and Layout which includes checking for punctuation marks, headings and orphan terms in important paragraphs.
  • Test Content should not be present anywhere on site, check it out and trash it wherever you find it.
  • Proof Read which includes reading everything, again and again, to pick out anything you missed (A tip: get others to read as well).
  1. Check SEO

SEO or Search Engine Optimization means to analyze and optimize your website to ensure a high ranking. Here’s what you can do-

  • Use Proper Meta SEO Tags to help web crawlers (which read your website to understand content in order to help search engines display your website on appropriate places) understand your site by tilting and describing your pages. Here you have to focus on –

       a) Meta Title which translates to the linked text that appears on search results (use relevant keywords)

       b) Meta Description is a short sentence which describes what your website offers (keep character limit under 160).

  • Use Proper Semantic Structure to help web crawlers such as Google bots to crawl over your site. The key here is to use traditional (such as h1-h6 for heading, p for paragraphs and ul/ol for unordered and ordered tags) as well as new HTML5 semantic tags (such as <header>, <footer> etc) in your language to help them better understand.
  • Open Graph Setting includes three pieces of content namely title, description and an image where the title and description follow the same rules as their SEO counterparts but with one major difference, they appear on social media platforms when shared. Same goes for images too.
  1. Check Design

Web design plays a crucial role in the production and maintenance of websites. The things you should checkout are-

  • 404 Page is the most commonly overlooked defensive design element. Make sure to set up a custom 404 page on your website to direct your users to the home page or any other page they may be interested in.
  • Mobile Device Testing is essential as it ensures your site’s proper working on multiple screen sizes. You can check this by going to Page Audit module in Website Auditor and look through the page usability information (A tip: implement AMP to load faster on mobile devices).
  • Scan Site Speed regularly to serve content quickly to your users as your page load speed will directly affect the overall website’s Google ranking. A few ways to fix page load speed include –

a) Opt for a faster hosting solution.

b) Enable compression to reduce bandwidth by zipping large files.

c) Minify HTML/JavaScript/CSS

d) Store media files on a CDN (Content Delivery Network)

Checking live URLs and Links manually to make sure they work alright is manageable provided you have a small business website with a few pages but if you own a large commercial website, then the URL check should be automated (A tip: use WebSite Auditor tool to scan and resolve URL related issues).

Launch

Now, before your big day arrives, repeat all the above-mentioned checks yourself or with the help of any Web Development Company to see if you haven’t missed out on anything. Certain things will go wrong but the important thing to keep in mind is that these are minor issues which can be fixed in real time. The last step would be to spread the word about your website launch via different platforms and you are all set.

5 Web Design Myths to Avoid in 2018

March 5th, 2018

Ever since childhood, myths have become such an inseparable part of our lives that it doesn’t matter what you do, there are always some myths associated with it. Our online world is no exception, and since the design of your website acts nothing less than the face of your online business, it is highly imperative to have a clear perception regarding these myths and frame your websites accordingly keeping in mind that they should not only be visually appealing but also easy-going on the customers.

During my long working experience in a website design company, I have come across many myths associated with web design over the past few years. In this article, together, we will explore five such myths which I still see influencing many decisions and how to avoid these in order to improve the quality of our web designs.

Myth 1. White Space is Wasted Space

White space or negative space which is extremely important but often overlooked and neglected is the space between graphics, columns, images, margins etc.

In general, it is the portion of a page that is left blank in order to make it appear more elegant or just to smooth things out. Its other benefits include-

  • White space simply attracts
  • It improves readability and comprehension
  • Gives emphasis and direction
  • It helps create balance
  • Gives an upscale aura to your brand

Myth 2. Minimalism is the Key to Simplicity

Minimalism (reduction in elements) is often confused with Simplicity (reduction in complexity) which is a key to great and innovative design. Though we cannot deny that minimalist design looks appealing, it is, however, not the best choice for every occasion.

For e.g. minimalism may not be the right choice while designing a website if what you’re looking for is driving attention to multiple elements.

So, if you are thinking about opting minimalism for your web design, do consider these following questions beforehand-

  • Are you leaving any key elements out in your pursuit of minimalist web design? If yes, then I strongly recommend not to.
  • Does your web page include all the relevant information? If so, you might consider minimalist approach without impacting its usability.

Myth 3. The homepage is the Most Important Element

For a long time, I myself have believed that homepage was the most important of all elements, way back when homepage used to serve as the main director, but not anymore. Things have changed dramatically since. Nowadays visitors often miss the homepage altogether by landing directly on the product page from the link provided.

Now, don’t get me wrong. There are still people who head straight to the homepage or visitors who after navigating through your site for the desired content, go directly back to the homepage.

So, I am not suggesting here that homepage doesn’t matter at all, it sure does but having a consistent design throughout your website is rather more important than putting all the design focus on the homepage alone.

Myth 4. Mobile Users are Always Distracted

When it comes to mobile users, there are almost always certain misconceptions floating around regarding their short span of attention or even them suffering from MUADD or Mobile User Attention Deficit Disorder. The central logic behind this myth being, you should streamline mobile designs to keep things simple since you are targeting distracted crowd.

While that may be true up to some extent but so are the distractions caused while sitting in front of the TV, operating computers or driving cars. Distractions are everywhere these days no matter what you do, and you should simply accept it as a way of life. Here’s what you can do as a web designer-

  • Stripping down your website for mobile users is a big no-no since the myth regarding distracted mobile users isn’t wholly true.
  • Optimize your web design keeping mobile users in mind.

Holding back on your web designs isn’t necessary anymore as more and more devices these days provide browsing experience equal to that of smartphones or computers.

Myth 5. Apply 3-Clicks Rule for Maximum Conversions

Another myth circulating about the web design is the unofficial three clicks rule which states that the visitors will leave your site unless they find the desired information using no more than three mouse clicks.

Though contrary to the popular belief, it is found that people do not leave the site after three or more clicks. In fact, getting to relevant information within few clicks is not only impossible to apply to all sites but also misleading as a general web rule.

Though web designers are often directed to follow the three clicks rule, following the criteria listed below will help make sure the usability of the site is not compromised.

  • Provide accurate and relevant results by optimizing site-search tools.
  • Use well-labeled links to inform users exactly where they are.
  • Create a task path to let users know they are getting close to the information.

Wrapping Up:

Above are mentioned five of the most common myths (trust me, there are several others out there) that I have seen many web designers or companies such as web design Los Angeles or elsewhere cling to esp. the beginners.

But what’s important is to understand here is that myths are just baseless assumptions, that’s why they are called myths.

Transforming UX Through Implementing Human Faces in Web Design

February 12th, 2018

How would you describe a face given an opportunity?

Is your answer something resembling, “let us recognize and identify people”?

Well, it’s true. But a face does much more than that, let’s find out-

  • Faces help in identifying the person’s ethnicity.
  • Faces show the person’s genetic inheritance.
  • Apart from identity, faces reveal gender and age as well.
  • Faces portray a variety of emotions such as anger, distress etc.

And that’s why human faces are considered very powerful. Whenever we see a face, we are automatically drawn towards that person or feel empathy. And what happens when we don’t see one? Like a headless mannequin outside a clothing store? We subconsciously substitute ourselves for the mannequin due to the lack of human in it. That’s the power of human face.

That’s ok, but what incorporating human faces in web designing has anything to do with transforming UX or user experience? Let’s find that out too-

  1. The First Impression is the Last Impression

First impression always plays an important role in deciding whether or not we like that person. Something similar works for digital products. The worse a product’s image can do is to create a negative impression.

So, how to ensure positive first impression? By using a human face. Humans have a tendency to notice other human faces whenever they open a webpage way before than any other content irrespective of how beautiful it is.

  1. Carefully Navigating the Line of Vision

Apart from grabbing the user’s attention, human faces do an excellent job of navigating their vision of sight in a particular direction. Studies also support this fact by claiming that the orientation of attention mediated by gaze is highly automatic.

Navigating your user’s line of vision through human faces prompts them to perform the desired action by focusing on the content of your site without even being aware of it.

  1. Striking the Emotional Cord

Communication on an emotional level starts with the phrase ‘a picture is worth a thousand words.’ One great thing about emotional expressions such as smiling, scowling, crying etc. is that they defy cultural barriers and are universally understood.

Conveying emotions by using an emotional expression on the human face through web design is not only possible but highly effective as well. That is simply because users tend to feel similar emotions as expressed by images they are viewing.

  1. Engaging the User Experience

Corporate branding with a bunch of logos and an unchanging color scheme does very little to engage the user. Most of the time they seem impersonal.

Including some human faces to your corporate branding can help break the ice. As we have learned earlier, faces whether your own or a stranger’s has the potential to be very captivating. These faces, most importantly, can add the much-needed life and energy that your boring site might be lacking.

  1. Setting a Positive Environment

‘Two is always considered better than one’, this saying has never been truer than implementing human faces in web designing. Just imagine, if a single face can accomplish this much, what a group of human faces will do to your web design?

Just by portraying happiness through more than one humans on your webpage will create a very powerful impact on your users by setting an environment of positivity which every user would like to be part of.

  1. Building Faith

There are only a handful of strategies that work faster than incorporating a human face in your web designs when it comes to building trust with your users and as we are already well aware, trust is the key to maintaining a loyal customer base.

This is one of the major reasons why the faces of celebrities and other famous personalities are so often used in advertising and web development Los Angeles and elsewhere. Public figures promoting a brand will only help to make the product much more desirable to the target audience.

  1. Visually Appealing

Visual appeal is simply what meets the eye and here a significant amount of product’s success can be directly attributed to the visual appeal. One can always use human face to improve aesthetic aspects of his web design. The theory behind it is that whenever people have a choice, they prefer an attractive choice over an ugly one.

Conclusion

The main idea that works behind using human faces in web design is that people just love to see other people, they all want to be part of something. That is why companies like website development Los Angeles and elsewhere show people interacting with your company’s product or service to create an authentic, emotional connection with users.

Launched a Start-up? Great! Now Get Your Website Developed

December 12th, 2017

So, you have finally decided to make it on your own. You have left your 9 to 5 job and have decided to become an entrepreneur. You have an office space (even if it is your basement), you have a small team ready to go, and you have a business plan all set up. Is there something missing? What about your website? We live in a truly digital world where no matter what industry your start-up belongs to if it does not have a website, it is not going to be taken seriously.

This is not in any way an exaggeration of facts. A website is a basic aspect of your company that potential clients or customers look towards to know more about your brand and company mission. Your website has to resonate with who you and your team are. It is a matter of brand image or brand persona.

Do you need convincing?

Honestly, I don’t think anyone needs to be convinced these days of the benefits of having a website. There are over 2 billion people that are present on the internet. That is a huge pool of potential customers. Nearly half of these users use the internet for making various purchase decisions. In fact, nearly 50% of internet users have at one point or another made an online purchase. This gives you a small idea of how the internet has become a global marketplace for businesses.

Need more reasons to have a website developed?

If you want to learn some more benefits of availing website development services and set up your business’s online identity, here they are –

  • It is a competitive world

No matter which industry your business belongs to, you will have competitors. For a start-up, chances are that your competition would already be an established organization with a large customer base. These competitors are all going to have websites as well. These websites would be loaded with information about their offerings and portfolios to attract visitors into becoming customers. In order for your start-up to stay alive in the market, it needs a website to help in this competition.

  • Gives major boost to branding

For a company that is starting out, you need to quickly make a name for it. Branding plays a big part in that. You cannot carry out any branding activities these days without having a website. Your website is where you talk about what makes you different, what makes you stand out. Everything else branches out from there. Whether it is digital promotions and marketing or social media, your website is the backbone of these efforts.

  • It opens a world of opportunities

The cost of having a website developed is not that high these days. You can have a professional and interactive website designed and developed at a competitive rate even by an experienced website development company. But once you have it taken care of, the potential of what you can gain with your new website is limitless. The initial investment in the development and the cost of web hosting will seem like a small investment that gives you huge returns once your website starts generating business.

  • E-Commerce benefits await you

Through a website, you will have the option of implementing an e-commerce like the business model that will let you handle transactions through the website itself. These days the types of companies that use this business model range from software services companies to companies selling physical products overseas. Your website will not only be like a giant billboard attracting customers but will also become a tool for generating revenue.

I am sure you are convinced now!

Now that you know all the benefits that your start-up can gain from having its very own website, time to make a decision and hire a website development company. You need to partner with a company that can guide you as per which platform will be the best for your new website. Whether it is WordPress, Magento, Shopify or any other, whichever is best suited for your start-up, will be used to create your site.

A good web development company would also be able to create a responsive website for you that perform perfectly on all devices since a majority of internet users are now choosing to browse the web using their smartphones.

If you finally ready to get your website created, contact Clap Creative to get a free quote today.