Posts Tagged ‘web development company’

How to Choose the Right CMS Platform for Your Brand’s Success

February 25th, 2021

With the majority of the current web design market moving to host CMS platforms for both small and large businesses, it is imperative that you know what you are getting into before entering the arena. Many companies make the mistake of believing that a pre-made template will provide them with everything they need to create an effective website. While it is true that most CMS platforms offer templates that can be altered to fit your company’s particular business needs, there are still many details that should not be left out of your final product. A web design services provider that is capable of handling both templates and custom web design should be your number one choice.

Web Design Los Angeles

 

Choose An Experienced Company

One of the first things you should look for in a web design and development company is experienced in the various components of web design and CMS. When you are in the early stages of establishing your online presence, you may not have the budget to invest in hiring top of the line developers to work on your website. However, by developing your site with a CMS that you have chosen, it can allow for a level of flexibility that would otherwise be impossible. Even if you decide to hire a professional web development company, you should be working with someone whose primary focus is on web design

SEO Friendly CMS

When it comes to web design, another thing to consider is whether or not the service provider will be handling both SEO and eCommerce development. A good web development company will work closely with an eCommerce development company to help you create an e-commerce shopping cart. The development company should also work closely with you to ensure your web site is user friendly and easily navigable. The cart should have all the features you need to create an efficient e-commerce shopping experience so your buyers can quickly purchase products from your website. If your e-commerce development company is handling the development of your website, then you do not have to worry about this either.

The last aspect to consider is whether or not your chosen web development company will handle your web site’s content management system. Content management systems are becoming more popular as companies realize they are a great way to help manage web content more effectively. Depending on how big your company is and the types of products or services you sell, it is likely that you will want to work with a CMS platform. A good developer should be able to offer you a variety of different CMS packages, but the one that you choose should include a lot of features such as SEO, database integration, CRM, and analytics. You want your web pages to load quickly and have lots of great content that is organized in an easy to navigate manner.

Another important thing to consider when choosing leading CMS platforms for 2021 is the security of the websites. You want to work with a company that has an established reputation for security and reliability. A web development company that deals with this aspect of running websites know how dangerous it can be for customers to have their information stolen. They will take the time to perform security checks on all websites before incorporating them into the code. They should also update security techniques on a regular basis to stay on top of new threats.

Conclusion

Web development companies have come a long way over the past few years. They can offer you the tools you need to run a successful E-commerce operation on the Internet. There are many different aspects to a successful E-commerce operation, including marketing strategies, web development, and web hosting. With a quality web development company behind you, these tasks will come together and be easier to manage and operate. By working with a web development company you can take advantage of their years of experience and develop a business that will pay off in a big way down the road.

You will want to think about your online image and how you want to build it. You can use a CMS platform to create a more professional image for your business that will attract more customers and increase profits. It’s important to think about how everything will work with web development and find a way to integrate everything so that everything works smoothly. CMS platforms for the future are exciting times for businesses and it will be critical to make the right decisions in order to succeed in the online world.

An Easy Guide to Buying a Domain & Pointing at a Website

February 3rd, 2021

Every website needs to be catchy enough that they settle and imprint its address in the mind of the people. Now to do that one needs to have a domain name. Now, how to buy the domain name? Well, that’s simple! The whole process of making the domain name is quite simple. All you need to do is just do the complete research work first and then buy the whole domain.

Before going any further, let’s understand deeply and stepwise how to buy a domain? But before that, there are certain steps that you can follow to get that catchy name for your website:

Complete Research needed

Before you buy any domain name, make sure that you are well aware of the products or the niche you are working in. Because this way you would know what are you are putting out there. Alongside, you would be well aware that the website is something that is trending.

Use a simple name

Using a catchy brand name that is easy to remember is something that you should opt for. A catchy brand name increases the chances of the website being seen and noticed by the audience.

Opt for .com only

The .com extension is one of the famous and widely used extensions in domain names. Using this will help the users to recognize and know the website.

Avoid numbers and Hyphens

The numbers and hyphens make the domain difficult to find and remember. The numerics can be misunderstood in the name of the alphabetic. Like 2 for two.

Discuss and talk to the people around you

The more ideas you get, the more horizons you would open. The people around you might have some ideas which you never thought and talking to people and discussing things with everyone will lead you to innovative names.

Let’s understand, how to buy a domain name?

Once you know how to choose the correct name for your website, now you need to know how to buy the domain name. Here are some of the steps which you need to follow to get the complete information.

Find a domain checker

The first step after you select a suitable name for your business is to check the name in the domain checker. There are various web design companies that offer the option to check the domain name. If it is available then you can buy the same.

Run a name search

  You need to run a name search and search for a name for your website. If the domain is available then you can opt for the same, if not then you can switch to some other name and repeat the whale process.

Pick your domain

Once you finalize your name, now is the time to choose and pick a suitable domain.

Complete the payment and domain registration

The next step is to complete the payment and pay to choose your selective gateway. You’ll be redirected to the control panel to set up your domain. Make sure to fill in all the details correctly as these details will be saved in the official domain ownership database.

Ownership verification

After this, you need to verify the domain ownership through the email address once you register. Usually, a verification email arrives within 15 minutes, and in case you didn’t receive the same, you can just verify the whole thing again.

These are some of the easy steps to buying a domain. Isn’t this easy? Now, you can easily get your domain by following these easy steps.

Now once we are done with the domain let’s understand in-depth how we can point the domain at a  website. To point a domain at your website you need 2 things:

1. Registered Domain name

2. A web hosting account

One thing is certain you cannot point a domain at a website if you have not registered a domain name. From the above points, you now know how to register the domain name.

A web hosting account is an account where you need a host to provide you with the DNS Settings. The DNS settings mean Domain Name System. Now when we talk about a host or hosting account it means a web host is a place where all your website’s files will be kept.

Here is the detailed stepwise guide to help you get a domain point at a website.

Find your domain name with the server settings

Whenever you join a domain name, you get a confirmation email. In that welcome email, you might also get the domain name server addresses. These addresses often look like “whatever.example.com” or some might have a series of numbers in the same. In case you have not received this email then you have other options as well. These options include logging in to the admin account with the username and password available or you can simply contact the people from support and get your queries resolved within 1 day or sometimes less than 24 hours.

Save your name with the registrar

Once you have your servers ready, then you have to log in to the registrar admin panel. Discover the space you need to set up and then copy-paste the worker addresses into the DNS Settings or Domain Name System Server Setup region. This further progression happens for each host, yet the vast majority of them will be marked as either DNS, Name Servers, or Domain Name System Servers. If you truly can’t discover where to spare your DNS settings then you simply need to raise a help ticket with your register requesting their assistance.

Wait for the settings to update

This process takes 48-72 hours for the DNS to update. This whole process is called DNS propagation. When this happens people will then be able to visit your domain name. In some cases, the changes can happen in 30 minutes to one hour because of the advancements in the technology which has been happening around.  Once it’s done the whole process of pointing the domain at a website is completed.

Once this is done, you need to replace the default website which is currently shown with the new website. You can just develop a website in simple steps. Website development was not easy but now there is much software that has made the whole process easier and you can get things done in just a few steps.

Now, you won’t need a professional web development company to write a code for your website when you can just follow some simple steps and get going with your website.

Conclusion

Well, here are different processes explained in a simplified manner. Everything is explained from how to buy a domain, what things are mandatory before you buy a domain, and then how can you point a domain at a website. Don’t indulge in the clutter of what should I do or How should I do things, just follow these steps and get going easily.

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.

 

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.

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.

Infographic: E-Commerce Platforms Usage Comparison

November 27th, 2017

Clap Creative Infographic