Understanding Your Design
During the mockup phase you’ll receive a full size rendition of your web site design. When we discuss your layout it’ll help if you understand the parts of your design that we are focusing on and I’m hoping this blog article will help.
When creating a web site its ideal to have the same look and navigation throughout the site. Changing the look or navigation on each page can confuse your customer and make them more likely to leave your site to shop somewhere else. The only exceptions are catalog pages that may utilize categories to help make browsing easier, as long as the customer can still access the rest of your site too! Preferably you want to be able to get to anywhere on your site in 2 clicks or less and direct access is even better. The more accessible your products are, the more likely the customer will spend time browsing your site and finding an item they want to purchase. If your customer has to click “catalog” and select the “category” they want each time they want to look for another item, they will quickly become frustrated and shop elsewhere.
Web designs, especially those on cart systems, are built and coded in a template system. This means one or two files run the entire site. The content is the area within the template that changes depending on the page that the visitor is looking at. Generally I wont design for content because that will change on every page, instead I design for the over all look of the site. If you do have pages that need alternative navigation or design that requires another template to be made and not included in my design packages. Please ensure to specify that you require more than one look, or template before your project begins so that you are not surprised with the additional design fees associated with them.
Below are a couple web site examples that may help you understand the parts of the web layout and template.
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Our Clients Make a Difference
Really. Check out Jamie Roth’s new web site (designed by Web Savvy Mama, of course) to get more information about her new book. I’ve worked with Jamie on a few projects now and have had a blast creating web sites for her because we often have the same vision of what it should look like. I kid that she is my easiest client ever. Design aside, her web sites are also fun because of the content. Jamie is definitely not afraid to speak her mind and tell it how it is! This is why I highly recommend taking a look at her new book currently available in eBook format. I did get the pleasure of not only doing her website but designing the cover for her book as well.
From Jamie:
The General Manager of Your Universe is not another how-to-be-happy book. There are plenty of those on the market. It’s about facing your responsibility to create the life you desire. This includes recognizing how you have contributed thus far and how you can do so much better from this point on. It’s time trade in the victim card and replace it with the empowered, confident you that you are meant to be. This book has straightforward language and sometimes shocking examples. It is not going to stroke your ego, it’s going to lead you to the inside of you and that might not always be easy to look at. But it’s time to stop searching for external influences to make you happy and feel good. Make yourself feel good. Live authentically, joyfully and empowered. That is the journey this book will lead you on. Only read, if you are certain you are ready to be you.
Buy the book online at Smashwords.
Something for the Little Ones
I know, I know, I’ve been slacking lately! Busy busy with all the holiday rush, finishing up finals in school and then of course all the kids’ music programs! With three school aged children we keep extremely busy this time of year. Its nice when we can sit back and enjoy the festive music.
Our oldest traded in her violin for the clarinet this year and we were treated to an awesome band performance yesterday. This evening two of our children had the school carol-a-long program which proved to be a night of loud, enthusiastic singing from the kids in grades 4-6. Of course we can’t forget our 2nd grader’s performance in “The Littlest Christmas Tree”. Who cares if it was our third time seeing this music program, its always cute and lots of laughs! As you can guess, our house if always filled with music! (PS, did I mention that our Christmas tree is synced to flash along with an iPod?) So when I visited the site for Lunch Money Music I just had to share!
First of all I should explain how I came across this site. J.P. over at Lumos Photography (amazing work guys!) recommended that I take a listen, and I did. Love it! Its indie kids’ music that even parents could dig. Having been a preschool teacher for 10 years I’ve heard and owned a LOT of kids’ music. I can tell you from first hand experience that listening to Elmo a 100 times gets old pretty fast. I always wanted something I could sing along to and made me want to get up and dance silly with the kids. Lunch Money definitely fits the bill here. It hits me like an indie version of Laurie Berkner. (As someone who has 4 Laurie Berkner albums loaded to her iPod… even though I no longer have preschoolers… that’s my way of complimenting them.)
So if you are looking for some fun music to liven up your day with the kids, check this music out! I adore it and I’m sure your kids would love it too! Even if you don’t have kids, just check out the site because of its totally cute graphics, I love the whimsy!
Photo Alterations, Aperture Tutorial
(Mouse over photo to the left to see original unedited photo)
My last blog post highlighted photo enhancement, now we’ll look more at alterations. When a photo has unwanted clutter or defects it is necessary to alter it with photo editing software in order to direct the viewer’s attention to the subject of the photo. To the left you’ll see a photo that I have altered from its original version. Along with altering to remove clutter I have also enhanced the photo. This is not as hard to do as you might think. For this I used Aperture for Mac which has a variety of built in features to let you manipulate your images. The original picture here is actually a low quality image that was loaded on Facebook, imagine what you could do with a higher quality image!
I’ve also done a video tutorial so you can see the process in which I used to create the final image to the left. Check it out and see what you can do with your own photos. Don’t have a Mac? Try GIMP, Photoshop or Paintshop Pro on your Windows computer.
Want to see in high definition? Click the video to go directly to YouTube and view it there.
Photo Manipulation and Enhancement – Why?
(mouseover photos in this blog article for before and after examples)
Enhancing photos to maximize your web site visitor’s experience. Sell your products with the use of great photos!
You’ve visited web sites and seen amazing product photos or just great photos in general, you might have asked yourself “How can I get photos like that?” or “How come the photos I take never look like that?” Well, they can! Chances are, the photos that you see and love don’t start out that way. In fact, they probably look like the photos you have been taking all along.
Of course you have to start to with a good photo, but it might look different than what you think! The photographer (you) will matter the most when taking your pictures, not the camera. Get the shot you want, make sure it is in focus, good light balance and a large enough resolution that you can work with it. Most point and shoot digital cameras are plenty good enough for your web site needs! (If you have a fancier DSLR, chances are you already know how to digitally correct your photos anyways so this blog post wont teach you much! Sorry!)
Find a graphic editing program that will work with your computer. I prefer Aperture on my iMac, many use Adobe Lightroom or even Photoshop. Many cameras have software that you can install to edit your photos as well. I wont go into the actual editing process here though. I have a Aperture video tutorial on the blog if you want more of that specific information. Play around with your photo, adjust colors, contrast, smoothing and sharpening features. Pretty soon your so-so picture may look amazing.
Why is this important? When shopping for products or browsing a web site you look for images that pop and catch your eye. Pictures truly do say more than words and many wont stop to read a description if the picture doesn’t interest them. If your pictures are washed out or flat, that is what your customers are going to feel about your site and your products. Editing your photos can give your products a more representative finished look. The color you thought was beautiful in person may look flat in the picture. You want your customers to get excited about your products so make sure the pictures show what they really look like! Your product probably isn’t flat, so your picture shouldn’t feel flat either. You don’t sell a product? That’s ok too, this still applies! Pictures often are used to show emotion, a little photo editing can really enhance this so your visitors can grasp that emotion immediately at first glance.
I’m not a fan of photo editing to the point of altering body perception, I prefer to only enhance the natural beauty of the subject as it is. Sticking to this, I feel the photos look more natural as well. An over photo-shopped image will leave the viewer scratching their heads and wondering what they really going to get if they dare to order. So keep it simple, keep it natural, enhance to promote an emotion you wish to emphasize.
Not sure if you can do it? Give it a try and don’t be afraid to experiment! Try funky effects to create your own style.
Still not sure? Web Savvy Mama (me!) does offer image manipulation and editing services. Just contact me and I can give you a quote for your project.
The images on this page are ones that I took of my children and did some very basic photo enhancing to. Mouseover to see the original images and the difference that can be made.
10 Reasons to Avoid Free Websites
I see this a lot, really, a LOT. Someone decides they have an awesome idea for a new business and starts researching how to start a web site to sell their product. Obviously, its human nature to try to get the best deal we can and free sounds amazing! Or does it? Here are my top 10 reason to avoid free web sites.
1. Is it really free? Sure, the basic personal version is free. Did you consider you may want more space, add on a domain, a different look, and oh did you want email as well, we can do that but start adding on the fees. Sorry guys, but the free is part is usually just to get you in the door and signed up thinking you found a great deal.
2. Who are you really promoting? So you think you are promoting your products or services, but really you are also promoting their services and interests as well. I’d say %99 of free sites have either advertising or pop-ups that they throw onto your site. So when your visitors visit and get side tracked by the add they stuck in your margin and click-off, did the free site really help you get a sale or did they just get a sale for one of their advertisers? Not to mention, its just annoying to see when trying to shop!
3. Unprofessional. When I go shopping for a product I may have hundreds of choices for where to buy it. I’m going to ultimately buy from a site that looks secure and trust-worthy. If they have ads or are using a free template seen on 20 other sites I’ll probably pass them up. I’m going to buy the product from the site that put more effort into their storefront. Would you rather buy a new computer from a reputable store or from someone selling from the trunk of their car? Which one are you going to be more willing to turn your credit card information over to?
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