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https://kennbivins.com creative thinker and do-er Tue, 11 Apr 2017 12:47:49 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 How Our Design Process Evolved In The Past 10 Years https://kennbivins.com/how-the-design-process-has-evolved/ https://kennbivins.com/how-the-design-process-has-evolved/#respond Tue, 11 Apr 2017 12:47:49 +0000 https://byra.vamtam.com/?p=11947 People rarely ask designers if they work in “print or web” anymore, a question that used to be the norm. These days a product manager design falls under two big umbrellas: screen design, and designing for off screen. Where inputs used to almost always be a keyboard and mouse, today’s designers have so many new...

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People rarely ask designers if they work in “print or web” anymore, a question that used to be the norm. These days a product manager design falls under two big umbrellas: screen design, and designing for off screen.

Where inputs used to almost always be a keyboard and mouse, today’s designers have so many new technologies and tools at their disposal that interaction design is no longer constrained by the dimensions of a screen or the click of a mouse. We’re wearing designs now, activating them by using our voices, and getting immersed in their augmented and artificial realities.

It’s no surprise then that the design process itself has also evolved, and so too have the opportunities for designers.

1. Designer Specialties Have Changed

The first big shift is in the nature of a designer’s role. As designing for digital became more popular, designers began to specialize in certain aspects of the design process to align with different design milestones including wire framing, prototyping, visual design, interaction design and so on. Now, many of these specialties have merged into one and the process has become less segmented.

This has allowed designers to go from quick high-fidelity designs to a final design product in less iterations and time. Things like research, mood boarding and wire framing have merged into one step, so too has the visual design process including interaction and prototyping. In turn, this has influenced the very nature of a designer’s role and the responsibilities each designer has.

2. Screen Design is the New Print Design

Designing for screens is the new normal, and designing for off the screen is the future. There are so many new domains where the products designers are designing don’t necessarily have a traditional interface, instead using human components like touch and voice to interact with designs. This has presented new challenges for designers and the design process.

Even the way designers prototype has had to shift. If you are designing a concept for an iPad, for example, it’s no longer sufficient to show a mockup of the concept on paper. Clients want to see the interaction in motion. They want to feel and touch it before it’s built.

3. New Tools to Streamline the Process

Just as the design process has influenced the designer’s role, this in turn has also influenced the tools in which designers use. It used to be very clear which products were for which parts of the design process, but now designers want a more holistic approach to a full design system.

4. Pros and Cons of New Design Processes

In addition to being a faster, more iterative design process, having a single designer own more parts of the design process can create a more unified output, one that tells a more cohesive story. This can bring increased integrity to a design because there aren’t as many hands in the pot, so to speak, so fewer designers are leaving their personal mark on the design.

Unfortunately though, this also means designers are working more in isolation in the sense that there is often less direct communication. This has created a bit of a silo effect in some organizations.

It’s also created a need for more tools for designers to communicate design decisions. Tools such as Slack and similar platforms have helped designers “get feedback in the browser” from team members and stakeholders. The need for these tools has become imperative to the design process, yet they are also born as a result of the fact that the design process has changed.

It’s a domino effect that is actually quite cyclical in the way these different components of the design process influence one another.

5. Adaption is the Key to a Designer’s Success

With all these new processes and technologies, it can be overwhelming for an aspiring designer to figure out not only where to start, but also where (s)he fits in. Don’t worry though. Most tools can be learned with enough work and experience.

One of the most important skills you need to have as a designer for today’s challenges is the ability to adapt and the ability to be able to learn to understand the domain if you are not familiar with it.

The best way to do this is to fully experience the design process from ideation to product shipment, either via an internship or an opportunity at a company that values the design process.

6. Discover Your Own Golden Formula

Experiencing the design process is just one half of each designer’s individual golden formula. The second is conducting a personal evaluation of what your interests and passions are. What type of design do you want to do? What are your goals?

It’s a refreshing take. With so many tools, technologies and different design jobs out there, it’s important for young and seasoned designers alike to remember that you have a say in the path you take and the tools you choose to embrace.

If this resonates with you it might be time to revisit step one of the design process by hitting the drawing board. How can today’s design processes help you to achieve your dreams?

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]]> https://kennbivins.com/how-the-design-process-has-evolved/feed/ 0 Designing For Smartwatches: Tips and Tricks https://kennbivins.com/designing-for-smartwatches/ https://kennbivins.com/designing-for-smartwatches/#respond Mon, 01 Sep 2014 16:39:51 +0000 https://byra.vamtam.com/?p=6748 Wearables present challenges unlike other design projects. Function is a primary concern, as is size with what will be one of the smallest screens designers have ever worked with. The key is creating a design that is visually pleasing but is user-friendly and provides a functional experience. Here are 10 things to consider as you...

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Wearables present challenges unlike other design projects. Function is a primary concern, as is size with what will be one of the smallest screens designers have ever worked with. The key is creating a design that is visually pleasing but is user-friendly and provides a functional experience. Here are 10 things to consider as you design for a wearable interface (with examples other designers are already imagining).

Think Minimal Design

One of the biggest trends in design in general is perfect for wearables – minimalism. The very same design practices you use for websites or even minimal-style print or packaging design are perfect for wearable and watch-type devices. (Here we are mostly talking about watches because of the visual design element they present.)

Everything from color to typography to imagery should be simple, straightforward and easy to read at small sizes. Use some of the concepts from flat design as well to add to the minimal style, such as bright color, high contrast and elimination of design embellishments.

Use Vibration

Wearables come with features that you may not have designed for in the past. Vibration is one of these. Simple buzz or movements can be an ideal way to design an interaction when it comes to something that a user will have against the skin.

But you need to think carefully about how these interactions work. Vibrations should be soft and happen in a way that is obvious but will not be uncomfortable or scare the user when they happen. Vibration-style interactions also need to happen infrequently. If a watch buzzes every minute, the user will quickly become frustrated and abandon the product.

Voice Controls are Essential

While we have talked about designing for tap and touch interaction for a while because of smartphones, now the conversation will shift to voice activated controls. Think about it this way, with a screen that small, who is going to want to tap it? Voice is easier.

When designing the interactions of your app or website that will appear on a watch-style device, such as the Apple Watch, voice should be a top consideration. Voice is an essential part of the Apple design, for example, with Siri as a native app that activates and waits for a command every time you raise your wrist. This feature provides a convenience factor that you must take into consideration.

Type Needs to be Simple

Repeat after me: Sans serif. When it comes to type on wearable devices, that is all you need to know. It may sound boring, but a simple sans serif with a uniform stroke width is one of the easiest and most readable options.

Avoid typefaces that are ultra light or condensed because the light coming through the watch face may not be enough to ensure readability. Conversely, be careful with super thick, black or bold styles. Stick to a typeface with a moderate stroke with and somewhat wide letterforms. (Helvetica is an ideal, albeit overused, option.)

Colors Need to Have High Contrast

Every color on a small screen needs meaning. Part of this meaning will come in the form of contrast and making elements easier to read.

Colors can be used to represent tappable elements that demand interaction or as a backdrop for a text command. The key is sharp contrast. Consider the environment in which these devices will be used – in sunlight, in dark rooms – and design so that every letter is easy to read in any condition.

Avoid pastels or colors with low saturation. Bright hues and highly saturated colors will work best. Pair these with white or black type for optimum readability.

Make It Easy

Every wearable device will be a little different. Consider the interface and physical components for each as you design. The Apple Watch comes with a “digital crown,” a wheel that can zoom or scroll through information on the screen.

The design should work with all the physical parts that a device includes. It should be easy to look at and more importantly easy to use. Function should be intuitive.

Visuals Should Mirror Design In Other Places

The visual plan for a watch screen should mirror the design interface of other devices. Yes, the screen will be limited and interactions will focus on a single action, but the overall aesthetic should have a similar look and feel.

It goes back to the popularity of minimalistic design. It’s a technique that works on both types of devices. The same is true with many principles of flat design. For this reason, these trends will continue to stick around and become key factors for designers creating for these tiny screens.

Make It Cool and Trendy

This may not sound like a big deal, but wearables are something that users connect to their identities. Not only does the actual device need to have a certain look and feel, but the interface needs to match that style.

The information on the screen has to be as nice as the device itself. With the Apple Watch, the interface is super-simple, has clean lines and very few bells and whistles. The interface for watch apps should use the same model, so that the information on the screen looks like it actually belongs there.

One Visual Thought Per Screen

Every pixel matters in a way that is hard to explain. There just is not enough room on a watch-sized screen to include every element from a desktop or mobile design. So think about what you don’t need.

These screens can range in size from 320 pixels square to 128 pixels square. This is too small to just shrink the design; you have to fully change it for a wearable device. Use this concept: One visual thought per screen.

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]]> https://kennbivins.com/designing-for-smartwatches/feed/ 0 Contemporary Art Installations – Circa 1920 https://kennbivins.com/contemporary-art-installations/ https://kennbivins.com/contemporary-art-installations/#respond Sat, 22 Mar 2014 20:56:53 +0000 https://byra.vamtam.com/?p=300 Robbie Williams will go head-to-head with Olympic athlete Usain Bolt at the 2018 Soccer Aid charity game. The Rock DJ singer will serve as the captain of the England team, while Olympic sprinter Bolt will head up the World squad in the latest edition of the charity tournament, which Robbie co-founded in 2006. "I am...

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Robbie Williams will go head-to-head with Olympic athlete Usain Bolt at the 2018 Soccer Aid charity game.

The Rock DJ singer will serve as the captain of the England team, while Olympic sprinter Bolt will head up the World squad in the latest edition of the charity tournament, which Robbie co-founded in 2006. "I am buzzing that Soccer Aid for Unicef is back," Robbie said in a statement. "Reclaiming the title for England this year is going to taste so much sweeter with Usain leading the Soccer Aid World XI. I can't wait to lead out the England team on Sunday 10th June at Old Trafford in what really is a game like no other. With your support, we will help children in danger around the world." Retired athletics star Bolt, who will be playing his first official soccer match, said his team will be unbeatable and that he already has a special celebration planned for when he scores.
"It is my dream to make it as a professional footballer, so to be able to step out onto the pitch at Old Trafford in June, and play against some of football's biggest legends is going to be remarkable," he said. "I enjoy the thrill of competition in front of a crowd, so Robbie and his England team better watch out as I won’t be going easy on them!"

Robbie and Usain, who have recorded an advert for the competition, will be joined by celebrities and soccer legends which have yet to be announced.

The match will take place at Old Trafford stadium in Manchester, England on 10 June (18) and will be broadcast live on ITV in the U.K. All profits from ticket sales and viewer donations will be given to United Nations Childrens' Fund (UNICEF) UK, for which Robbie serves as an ambassador.

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]]> https://kennbivins.com/contemporary-art-installations/feed/ 0 Things to Know for Your Website Redesign https://kennbivins.com/things-to-know-for-your-website-redesign/ https://kennbivins.com/things-to-know-for-your-website-redesign/#respond Fri, 21 Mar 2014 21:52:48 +0000 https://byra.vamtam.com/?p=308 A well-designed website can lead to more conversions. Visitors and potential customers are attracted to websites with a good design that is welcoming. You may look at your website and feel like it is outdated. Your sales may be decreasing and your website design could have something to do with it. Maybe your website just...

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A well-designed website can lead to more conversions. Visitors and potential customers are attracted to websites with a good design that is welcoming.

You may look at your website and feel like it is outdated. Your sales may be decreasing and your website design could have something to do with it. Maybe your website just doesn’t function well and the user experience is presenting issues and leading to complaints.

If these things are happening to you, it may be time for a new website redesign.

However, you’re probably thinking that you don’t know where to go. What do you do if your website could use a new, fresh look in a redesign? If you have made the decision to start a redesign process, here are some things to consider:

Before starting the redesign process, consider your competitors. What is their website design like? How can you incorporate elements of their design or strategies they may be using into your own. Competitive analysis is a good opportunity to see ways that you can make your own website better than your competition. You want to redesign your website to be more effective, load faster and have easier navigation.

Outside of comparing your website to competitors, be sure to review your old website. Be critical of your current design and identify what is working for you and what isn’t. If you’re considering a redesign, there are likely things about your current website that are not working or that you don’t like. If you have detailed analytics, you can look at the traffic patterns of visitors and see if certain pages have high bounce rates, or look at heat maps to see visitor behavior.

As you enter into the redesign process, figure out exactly what you want to prioritize, who your target audience is, what is working for your current website, changes that you want to make to the design and new goals you want to achieve. Once you have these things figured out, you can start building a redesign plan for your website.

In trying to create a quality redesign and a quality user experience, you want to make sure the website redesign has strong visual features. This is important because people tend to focus on visuals. Using custom photos is a good way to do this. By using your own photos instead of stock images, you can create more of a response.

You want to use elements that are personal to your brand that represent the tone and voice of your website and the content you produce. Use fonts, colors and images that reflect the identity of your brand. Use colors that contrast and go together well to create more pop on the design.

In addition to the actual design elements, make sure you have a blog to continue to create content and write about topics that can attract traffic to your website and add landing pages that are designed to welcome and convert new visitors into customers.

Once you have completed the design elements of the website, you want to make sure that the website is being optimized properly, and you may consider optimizing the website for voice search as well so that your website is listed among results for people using phones or voice-recognition devices. Also make sure that your website design is optimized for mobile devices so that it is responsive to all mobile users.

A website redesign may sound like a lot, but remember the reasons you are considering a one in the first place. You feel something about your website looks outdated or is not working anymore and you want to change that.

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]]> https://kennbivins.com/things-to-know-for-your-website-redesign/feed/ 0 Tips And Tricks To Solve Common SEO Problems https://kennbivins.com/tips-and-tricks-to-solve-common-seo-problems/ https://kennbivins.com/tips-and-tricks-to-solve-common-seo-problems/#respond Mon, 10 Mar 2014 19:55:11 +0000 https://byra.vamtam.com/?p=294 If you want your businesses to see a boost in sales or to give your brand a better position in its market, maximizing your digital marketing campaign is one great way to go. After all, businesses can pull a higher ROI from their cheap blogging and social media activities than they can pull from a...

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If you want your businesses to see a boost in sales or to give your brand a better position in its market, maximizing your digital marketing campaign is one great way to go.

After all, businesses can pull a higher ROI from their cheap blogging and social media activities than they can pull from a big ad-buy campaign.

No doubt, SEO plays a significant role in this.

To become more competitive (in terms of getting a higher share of the target audience), more focus must be put on improving the online visibility of your properties through search engines such as Google.

According to a 2018 report by HubSpot, at least 61% of marketers say that “improving SEO and growing organic presence” is a top priority in their inbound marketing campaigns.

For this, it’s vital that businesses be able to drive better results using the right strategies. Noting the impact it provides, it’s safe to say that SEO can be a powerful channel for driving revenue and business expansion.

But just like other digital marketing channels, SEO has its own range of problems to deal with. If you want to get ahead of the competition, it is crucial to identify and resolve these seo problems early on.

Using the right approaches, you can prevent common SEO problems from damaging your online efforts.

Let’s look at some of these problems and the practical ways you can do to resolve them.

404 Errors

Nothing turns off a site visitor more than clicking a link only to be redirected to a page with the number 404 plastered over it. Indeed, 404 errors are a bane to brands that want to build a strong online presence. These errors can increase bounce rates significantly and, as a result, diminish your search rank.

Fortunately, just like the common cold, a 404 error can easily be treated. First thing you need to do is to list down all the broken links you have in your website by testing the pages in your navigation menu.

Once you have identified the affected destinations, you can now update these broken links. For best results, you can perform a thorough site audit yourself, or you can save time by hiring an SEO consultant to do it for you. Not only will you be able to locate broken links, but you can also identify other SEO-related issues as well.

The simplest trick in this case is to change the URLs of the affected links so they can direct users to a relevant landing page. On the other hand, if you’re using WordPress with Yoast as a plug-in, you can update your links automatically through 301 redirects.

Missing Alt Image Tags

Nowadays, it is recommended that businesses include images in their blog content. Some, however, just place an image while overlooking the alt attributes.

Visuals provide greater value for businesses that want to educate and influence their audiences. The lack of alt attributes such as meta-tags and titles can diminish the value of your content.

After all, alt attributes provide context to your content. Other than that, alt attributes can also give your products and services even greater visibility on Google image search results.

Solving image tags is easy. If you’re using WordPress, you simply browse through your image gallery and manually enter the data you required on each image. Make sure to use the title of the corresponding blog article as the title of the image.

It can be a time consuming process, but it’s worth it!

Unoptimized Content

Over the years, Google has updated its algorithms to provide search visitors with the best experience. Value is important, and Google is making sure that vendors with a considerable presence online can help audiences find what they are looking for.

For this reason, Google has become a lot stricter, requiring businesses to focus more on creating value for their audiences and penalizing anyone still trying black hat operations.

If your SEO efforts are not doing well in terms of generating higher organic traffic, then there’s something in your content that Google doesn’t like. Performing a full content audit can help you identify website issues that are pulling your site ranking down the drain.

Once you have done a content audit, it’s only a matter of making sure that the content you churn out:

is between 500 to 1,000 words;
has images with their proper alt attributes;
makes proper use of H1 and H2 tags;
contains both outbound and inbound links to relevant landing pages; and
is readable and has the right keywords that people are looking for.

A good rule of thumb here is to consider providing value to your audience and making sure that what they read on your website can help them decide whether to buy something from you.

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]]> https://kennbivins.com/tips-and-tricks-to-solve-common-seo-problems/feed/ 0 5 Must-have Steps When Designing a Website for Conversions https://kennbivins.com/5-must-have-steps-when-designing-a-website/ https://kennbivins.com/5-must-have-steps-when-designing-a-website/#respond Mon, 10 Mar 2014 18:01:52 +0000 https://byra.vamtam.com/?p=306 We help marketers understand the process of website design better, so they can steer their website redesign projects through the right stages. This way they can ensure their website is better able to engage visitors and achieve the desired business goals. One of those key stages are Design and Development. Here is where your idea...

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We help marketers understand the process of website design better, so they can steer their website redesign projects through the right stages. This way they can ensure their website is better able to engage visitors and achieve the desired business goals.

One of those key stages are Design and Development. Here is where your idea materializes. In this article we’ll dive deeper and explain what are some of the best practices for creating effective and engaging online experience for your prospects.

Step 1: Set the Scene with Information Architecture

The activities related to Information Architecture (IA) help you create the structure of the website, so you can understand what information you need to make available depending on where the user is on your website.

Here are some of the most common Information Architecture deliverables:

Content Inventory and Organization: A detailed and organized list of all the current content on the website, and future content to be introduced with the redesign. Planning and creating your content early in the process enables the design and development teams to create the best possible product.
Site Map: A visual that documents all pages and page types on the website, together with the paths that users must take to reach a certain page. This provides a bird’s eye view of all the pages in the website, and the hierarchy between pages.
User Flows and Scenarios: A visual that shows the steps and actions a user must take in order to achieve a certain goal on the website. These types of deliverables are really useful when dealing with more complex functionalities on your website.

The easier it is for your users to find what they are looking for on your website, the better your IA is. The IA should be perfectly aligned with the mission and purpose of the website, but you also need to consider the goals of the end users. The organization of the content should enable your users to accomplish their goals, and meet their expectations as defined in your user personas earlier.

Step 2: Tell a Story with Wireframes

After you have all the content ready and structured in the right way, it’s time to think about how to arrange all of the information on the pages of the website. The wireframes are the blueprint for the upcoming visual design. The purpose of the wireframes is to bring together the main elements of the website: the content, the navigation, and all the interaction elements such as buttons and forms on each page. The wireframes should not incorporate any visual designs, graphic or branding elements.

Using only text and simple shapes (without any color or style), you can collaborate on the initial layout of each page of the website.

Wireframes are the best way to convey how the information on each page is structured and organized. Also, wireframes are an easy and quick method for you to align all decision makers around the structure of your website and the connections between each page.

Step 3: Explore the visual design with Mockups

Using your wireframes as a foundation, web designers create the full graphic composition (also referred to as “mockups”) for all the pages in the website. The idea of the mockup is to include all visual styles and elements, so that you can agree on how the final website will look and feel.

The mockups show the layout of each page, the typography (fonts), the images and graphics for all elements on each page exactly as they should look on the final working website. Note that similar to wireframes, mockups are static and are not meant to demonstrate any functionality.

Using mockups, the final look and feel is laid out for each page. They include the final fonts, images, colors and visual styles of all elements as they should appear on the actual website.

Step 4: Test the User Experience with Prototypes

Sometimes it’s hard to imagine the final website by looking only at documentation, or even mockups of the final designs. Prototypes are the closest thing you can get to a working website, before actually doing any coding and development.

Unlike the static wireframes and mockups, a prototype is a functional deliverable. This means that a user can interact with a prototype by clicking on the links, buttons and other elements that trigger behaviour on your website.

With interactive (clickable) prototypes, you can easily test the website internally with your team, or even with some of your potential users or customers.

A big benefit of creating prototypes is that you can conduct user tests early in the redesign process. This helps identify flaws and make quick and easy improvements, before any actual development commences.

Step 5: Get Development on Board

An important aspect of development to understand is that there are always multiple solutions for a single problem. Depending on your individual project and the developers you are working with, the approach and solutions will vary. But you can make sure the outcome is what you are looking for, by setting aside sufficient time to explain the business goals and requirements of the project to everyone in the development team, not just the project manager.

If possible, schedule regular meetings with the development team (in person or online) to discuss project details and overall progress.

The more context everyone involved has about the solution they are building, the better the result. For the time of the project, try to include the developers as part of your team. Schedule regular updates (once or twice a week), where you discuss the progress, issues and next steps.

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]]> https://kennbivins.com/5-must-have-steps-when-designing-a-website/feed/ 0 3 Easy Website Tweaks to Convert More Visitors https://kennbivins.com/3-easy-website-tweaks-to-convert-more-visitors/ https://kennbivins.com/3-easy-website-tweaks-to-convert-more-visitors/#respond Sat, 07 Sep 2013 14:03:47 +0000 https://byra.vamtam.com/?p=303 Not all marketers have the time and resources to go through a full website redesign process. Here are a few simple but proven techniques that you can implement today and optimize your website’s conversion rate. Call to Action Button Color This is one of the most important elements of your website. The “Call to Action”...

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Not all marketers have the time and resources to go through a full website redesign process. Here are a few simple but proven techniques that you can implement today and optimize your website’s conversion rate.

Call to Action Button Color

This is one of the most important elements of your website. The “Call to Action” button is the button that guides your visitors to the desired business goal, like signing up for a trial, downloading a whitepaper or contacting sales.

There is no real best practice about using a specific color across all sites and businesses. If someone tells you there is, don’t trust them. CTA buttons are like road signs that tell people which is the right way to go. As such the most important thing to have in mind is that they need to be in contrast with their surrounding. A good way to determine contrasting colors is to use a color wheel. For example, if you have a background that is in the “Blues” spectrum the corresponding color for the button should be from the “Reds” spectrum.

Another thing to remember is that no matter how logical a color change might look, always A/B test any changes to validate your assumption.

Pop-ups

For many years there was a certain stigma to using pop-ups on your website because it was thought that they ruined user experience. But with the proliferation of A/B testing and the ability to validate efficiency, more and more companies are starting to revive pop-ups as means to increase conversion rates.

The key to success with pop-ups is context. Forget about homepage pop-ups. Wait until your visitors have browsed a bit, so you can determine their intention.

Communicate Value on Sign Up Forms

The sign up form is the hardest and most important hurdle you need to take your visitors over, so you need to get it right.

You can always experiment with removing form fields, but this way you are capturing less important business information which will limit the segmentation options for post-registration initiatives like email marketing or sales follow up.

That’s why a more suitable tactic is to increase the desire of people to sign up.

For a newsletter form this can be done by adding a summary of all the useful resources you will receive if you leave your email.

For forms that ask the visitors for more information, like trial forms, you need to put a bit more work in. Things to consider adding, in addition to the benefit of signing up, are social proof like testimonials and things that address anxiety concerns.

Following those three simple techniques can get you closer to meeting your marketing goals. But remember, always test new things against current versions to make sure there is an improvement.

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]]> https://kennbivins.com/3-easy-website-tweaks-to-convert-more-visitors/feed/ 0 5 Important Mobile-friendly Features Every Website Should Have https://kennbivins.com/5-important-mobile-friendly-features/ Fri, 06 Sep 2013 23:35:16 +0000 https://byra.vamtam.com/?p=5357 Nowadays consumers spend over 3 hours a day using their smartphones, and 87% of smartphone owners say that they use a search engine on their smartphone at least once a day. In addition, Google recently announced that they would deprioritize non-mobile websites in organic mobile search results, since visiting a non-mobile site from a smartphone...

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Nowadays consumers spend over 3 hours a day using their smartphones, and 87% of smartphone owners say that they use a search engine on their smartphone at least once a day. In addition, Google recently announced that they would deprioritize non-mobile websites in organic mobile search results, since visiting a non-mobile site from a smartphone can deliver poor user experience. Having this in mind, we compiled a list of five important mobile-friendly features your website should have if you want to win mobile users.

1. Responsive Website Design

Your website is not only being visited by a variety of different devices and screen sizes, but also the same visitors are returning to your site using multiple devices. This means that your website needs to provide the same level of user experience no matter the device it is being looked through. Responsive design is a web design approach which guarantees that website pages, are able to automatically reformat themselves depending on the device they are being opened on. So, desktop, tablet or phone, it really does not matter, the content will be displayed in a way which is easy to browse.

2. Clear Call-to-Action (CTA)

Call-to-action button helps your site visitors understand what action you want them to take during their visiting and makes it easy for them to do so. Most mobile devices, like smartphones have limited screen space which means the CTA buttons should be adjusted to account for this limitation. One of the best practices is to use sticky navigation and place the button in it.

3. Simple mobile-Navigation

The navigation is the tool with which visitors will browse your website. And having in mind the limited space of mobile devices, it must be simplified and always visible. The navigation for mobile screens should be vertical and the space between the navigational elements should be large enough to avoid misscliks.

Example of simple and clean mobile navigation. There is enough white space between each menu item.

4. Usable Forms

Forms are the key conversion element of every business website. They should be very short and require only the most needed information in order to decrease the time spent by the visitors for filling it out. If your website requires more information, make sure that the forms are combined in small logical groups and clearly indicate how many steps your visitors have to take to complete the form. They also have to be big enough, so the users can easily click on them.

Don’t expect visitors to browse your whole website in search for your company phone or email. Just because you know it is at the bottom of the About Us page, doesn’t mean they will know. Make sure it is visible at all times. A quick tweak like putting your contact info in the main navigation or in the footer can significantly improve the number of inbound inquiries you receive.

5. Click-to-call Functionality

For B2B or Ecommerce websites it’s essential to have a method for visitors to easily contact you. Click-to-call allows your mobile visitors to phone your business in just one tap, and it is a great alternative over filling forms which sometimes may be difficult to fill out on a mobile screen.

By covering all those mobile-friendly features, your website will be one step closer to achieving its business goals. When developing your website, make sure you have a strict process for testing your website for mobile use.

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]]> 4 Common Homepage Design Mistakes Hurting Your Business Goals https://kennbivins.com/4-common-homepage-design-mistakes/ https://kennbivins.com/4-common-homepage-design-mistakes/#respond Fri, 06 Sep 2013 18:03:03 +0000 https://byra.vamtam.com/?p=301 You website’s homepage is the storefront of your business. If it doesn’t communicate what’s inside in an engaging and clear way, customers will most likely pass it by. We compiled a list of the most common things that are overlooked by businesses when creating their website’s homepage. 1. Not communicating your product value proposition effectively...

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You website’s homepage is the storefront of your business. If it doesn’t communicate what’s inside in an engaging and clear way, customers will most likely pass it by. We compiled a list of the most common things that are overlooked by businesses when creating their website’s homepage.

1. Not communicating your product value proposition effectively

To gain several minutes of user attention, you must clearly communicate your value proposition within 10 seconds.

This is a pretty short window, so you need to quickly help people understand what’s your product and why they should keep browsing your site. Make sure you have that short pitch visible in the top section of your homepage, so people can see it without having to scroll.

2. Not calling visitors to action

Your website exists to entice an action in visitors that pushes them to the next step in their evaluation. This is also known as Call to Action. Some of the most popular calls to action are related to trial download, contact form submission, demo signup, and purchase.

However, many fail to have a visible call to action on their homepages, which is the place on which the majority of their potential customers will land.

A simple thing like putting a contrasting button with your most important call to action on your homepage can significantly increase your chances of converting visitors into customers.

3. Not providing shortcuts to important information

Visitors come to your website to complete certain set of tasks, like learn about the product benefits, see what customers you have, or check the pricing. The easier you make it for them to gather this information the higher your chances of convincing them to keep browsing your website. Putting links to such resources on your homepage can significantly shorten the amount of time a user needs to get to the information she is looking for.

4. Not providing contact information

Whether you are designing a website from scratch or want to improve the effectiveness of your current one, follow those simple tips and you will be one step closer to achieving your business goals.

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]]> https://kennbivins.com/4-common-homepage-design-mistakes/feed/ 0 Tips for Promoting Your Business and Creating Your Brand https://kennbivins.com/promoting-your-business-and-creating-your-brand/ https://kennbivins.com/promoting-your-business-and-creating-your-brand/#respond Wed, 04 Sep 2013 12:43:56 +0000 https://byra.vamtam.com/?p=1499 Adams also came to understand how important it was that his carefully crafted photos were reproduced to best effect. At Bender’s invitation, he joined the prestigious Roxburghe Club, an association devoted to fine printing and high standards in book arts.

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You may have worked hard to find the right design and platform for developing an eCommerce website and are ready to get out there and start selling your products. But without promotion and building up a brand, you could be missing out on a lot of revenue for your business.

Branding

Branding is an important part of building up your business. It creates recognition for your business, gives your advertising more of a foundation and can be a trustworthy quality for customers. That level of trust can lead to more referrals, generating new customers, and build a confidence within the business for employees.

A big part of SEO is promotion and building brand awareness. You may be wondering what you can do to make undertaking such an important task easier and more effective.

Here are some tips for establishing brand awareness and promoting your eCommerce website:

Paid Search

An effective way to start promoting your business quickly is to use paid search. By using paid search, you can move higher on results pages in a shorter amount of time. It can also build brand awareness that can help your organic results and lead to purchases through organic searches.

Reviews

Reviews are very important for building a brand. There are many ways you can use reviews. First, you want to make sure that your website allows visitors to leave reviews. Contact popular bloggers or paying customers and ask them for reviews on your products. Get your business listed on Yelp and other similar review sites. You can even write blog posts reviewing your products, as long as you do so in an unbiased way.

Content and Links

In online marketing, content is king. You have to produce content regularly to keep improving your SEO and reach on search engines. Once you have produced content, make sure to share it often to build links. Links and content are the most important factors to building your organic ranking on Google and other search engines. With our eCommerce SEO services, we make sure your link structure is built for strong SEO results and focus content on the keywords you want to see better in search results and more shares to create backlinking.

Stay Consistent in Branding

As you start to establish a brand — a logo, a design, a voice for your content — make sure to stay consistent in your branding. The most popular brands in the world are recognizable instantly and it may be because of a logo, a slogan, a jingle, anything that makes it unique and separates it from the competition. In building your brand, identify your vision for your brand, define a target audience and start promoting your brand and growing through outreach.

At VamTam, we have worked with a number of clients on branding at different levels. Messages in Metal rebuilt their brand with a new logo and we created a custom design to match it to better fit his brand.

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