Lolalu Design » Seattle Freelance Graphic Designer specializing in print, web & creative design.

Music and Your Website

lolalu — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 19:39:21 +0000

Users don’t want cool, they seek efficiency. 99 percent don’t care about the music on your website. And don’t make it worse by putting different background music on every web page!

Whitespace

lolalu — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 19:38:05 +0000

Too many people forget about whitespace and its importance. They try to cram as much as they can onto a single page. End result? A busy, cluttered and unreadable page that will drive viewers away.

Website Animation

lolalu — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 19:36:51 +0000

Animations on a website are awesome and a powerful medium. Especially when used appropriately. When it’s a cycle or just too much on a web page, it gets on the users’ nerves. Users don’t have the patience, time or resources so you must offer alternatives or better yet, the skip button, if it’s a full page animation.

Horizontal Scrolling

lolalu — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 19:35:01 +0000

Ever visit websites where you had to scroll horizontally. This is starting to become a trend in modern web design, but it usually irritates the viewer. A good designer will develop websites that fit on most screen sizes. The current optimized layout for websites currently is 1024 x 768 pixels.

Improving Readability

lolalu — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 19:33:17 +0000

There are simple ways that you can do to improve the users’ reading experience on your website. Use Sans-serif typeface for easy readability. Don’t use bizarre font styles and sizes that make reading a pain. Compare color schemes of most major sites and notice how the colors improve readability.

Website Templates

lolalu — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 19:31:58 +0000

A website template site (like those at Yahoo, MSN, VistaPrint,etc.) is one where you get a template with all the pages and you just plug in your content. You may think you’re saving time and money by purchasing a website template rather than hiring a graphic designer, but it may bite you in the butt later. On the surface, it sounds good, but many of these sites come with hidden code and have little customization.

It’s Not Always About You

lolalu — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 19:29:41 +0000

Keep your website less about you and more about your product or service. Visitors care about their interests and needs, so unless your site caters to them, you’re not going to get much business. Of course, if you are selling yourself (like a comedian), you’ll want to put the focus on you .

Your Website & Social Media

lolalu — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 19:28:46 +0000

Think of your site as a path in which visitors pass on their way to social networks. Include content that can be shared and spread. Include opportunities that can be linked back to your site.

Your Site vs. Competitors

lolalu — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:27:48 +0000

Keep your focus on the way your customers will use your site. Don’t base your site totally on a competitors. Without critical performance information, you don’t know what is worth retaining. This doesn’t mean you can’t look at other websites (competitor or otherwise) to find design elements that appeal to you…just realize they may not be as effective as you that other site.

Contact Forms

lolalu — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 23:26:17 +0000

Instead of a generic contact form that may attract more spam than leads, use a dedicated page that uses a form in conjunction with a lead generation offer (like a free consultation). But be sure you include your business contact information on your website since this is critical.