Responsive Web Design Archives

Agency Engagement

Many people when I introduce myself ask how to engage with creative agency and what are the benefits of working with a agency vs. individual freelancer. The project widely defer and there is no single answer. In some scenarios company needs nothing more then single freelance artist, where in majority of the cases projects are complex and require whole team of people with a different focuses and expertise to achieve an optimal results. In my practice what starts as simple website redesign, it ends up being complete brand refresh, product optimization, brand positioning and digital strategies and often refreshing print collateral. Additionally there are many different agencies other and everyone should find its own fit and comfort level. Some agencies focus exclusively on the creative work, others are specialized in ads placement and strategies, some specialize exclusively on digital and web work. Focus in our agency for example is UI/UX…

Designing for Web with UX in Mind

I’ll go little in a basics here so please bear with me. I received UI/UX questions from some folks another day on designing experiences so wanted to cover it in form of the post as well. What we are able to do today is: “Design User Experiences” on the web, just up ’til recently much of this was not possible because we had a lot of technological and browser related limitations. But today design of a website become complete experience design, controlling the pathways, user personas and funneling the users thru carefully crafted experiences. Improving a user’s satisfaction when interacting with a websites is part of the User Experience design, or UX design. There are a few standards that we follow to make a site visually appealing, easy to navigate, accessible and usable. Plenty of CSS frameworks have been created in the recant years to help make a website look clean but also accessible. We’ve…

What Are the Latest Trends In Web Design Today?

If you’re considering a web design project, you should start by getting a full perspective of all that you can do with your website and all the creative options that are available to you. There are many web designs trends that have been hitting the industry over the past few years. And while most people think that trends typically fade away after some time, many of these trends are here to stay for the long haul so they are worth paying attention to. So here are a few you should be aware of. Unique Fonts The big thing in the design industry is fonts and it’s clear why. Bigger and standout fonts result in increased engagement. Some companies use custom designed fonts which almost adds a branding element. The bottom line is that standard fonts are no longer cutting it. Users are too used to standard fonts and underestimate the…

Responsive vs. Adaptive Web Design

In my agency, we daily go through assessments of analyzing and auditing web user behaviors and online experiences for variety of different brands. Nowadays it all sums up on making decision of what technology is best to use on the back end to create that great front end UI/UX. Deciding on using responsive design or adaptive design on as platform depends on variety of factors and discoveries we due-diligently exercise in discovery phase of the project. I wrote a post over on our company blog about differences that articulates little bit more about pros and cons of each. However this is complex matter and decision involves a lot of different factors. Instead of segmenting different parts of a website to format it differently, adaptive design delivers a set version of a website that’s optimized for the user’s OS, browser and device. It also delivers the website from the server side…

The UX Brainstorm

My colleague, Esther, recently wrote about UX (User Experience), the process of enhancing the user’s experience through customer satisfaction; it is identified through increasing loyalty and improving usability in the interaction between the customer and the product or service. Focusing on the interaction of humans and their machines, the very nature of the environment has the ability to shape how the viewer interacts with the website and the impression that they absorb of the organization. Directly connected to UX is UI, the user interface – the actual space where the user experience takes place. When designers and creative thinkers begin to consider new projects and initiatives, their brainstorming must also take care to infuse an ideal UX and UI. The ultimate goal for an optimal user interface is to provide a space where the intended process is easily experienced, efficient and enjoyable (producing the best results with minimal effort, while…

The Connection Between Branding and Web Design

There are many aspects of web design to focus on, but one of the most overlooked topics is company branding. If you spend the next couple of hours using the search engines to research company websites across a variety of industries and markets, you’ll notice that many of them lack a strong brand identity. The prominence of the brand is important in web design because it creates brand awareness to the user and leaves a strong impression. If you compare two different eCommerce sites that sell the same types of products, you’ll probably notice that the products, site structure and product organization are all very similar. What’s going to distinguish these two websites is the brand. A memorable and relevant logo is a big part of the overall brand, but too many companies fail to go beyond that.

Web Design For Startup Companies

Great ideas and interesting content have been given an opportunity to thrive because of the internet. Startups have an opportunity to compete with larger and more established competitors precisely because of the reach that is only possible online. With that said, a startup will only get so far if their website is lacking. Poor design repels visitors before they ever get a chance to read a post, click a button to buy, or submit an email to get on a waiting list. Webdesign for startups is fairly straightforward with just a few points that should be addressed. These are those points.

Usability Matters

There is a general trend online towards responsive designs, faster load speeds, less and more efficient code for both design and function, as well as simpler user interfaces. All of this is centered on creating a better user experience and all of this amounts to creating websites that are more usable. At one time, usability had given way to fancy designs and complex page layouts in an effort to differentiate one site from the rest of their competitors. As the internet has grown, users have grown impatient with slow load times, overwhelming designs on pages, and difficult sign-up or checkout processes.

Did somebody say: Above the fold

Technology has evolved throughout the years and now there are a wide variety of screen resolutions to consider when designing for the web. Not only are you designing for one specific resolution, or even just the resolutions for desktop, but you need to consider responsive design for the different mobile devices. Trying to incorporate the “above the fold” concept with all of the different screen resolutions in mind is nowhere near practical and will not help with UX. Read full story…

Magento eCommerce Stores And Responsive Design

If you are running an eCommrce store by now shire you experianced a significant increase in the amount of traffic you are receiving from mobile devices. It seems everyone has a tablet or a smartphone. More and more, people are choosing to make purchasing decisions from their mobile devices, making the need for a mobile friendly eCommerce store that much more important. Of all the open source eCommerce solutions, Magento seams to be the most popular. With structure in place of giving way to responsive web design, it is important to understand the benefits, capabilities and other considerations to be aware of.

All posts tagged: Responsive Web Design