Small business owners are not always savvy as how best to present their products or services online. The result, is too many business websites that look like most other websites, or websites which contain the right information, but it is not presented in a way that will attract and engage a visitor.
Professional web designers like you should do more than graphics and layout design, or create websites that function as expected.
You should create websites that foster excellent user experiences, and websites that are designed to optimize, and where possible, maximize, conversion rates.
In order to do this, you and your clients, have to know a website’s audience, and they have to know how to market products and services instead of merely showing or describing them.
Web Designers Should Be There to Help
You need to be aware of the fact that not all of your clients understand, or are prepared to handle, online marketing decisions. While these same clients want their businesses to be user centric, they do not always know how to make that happen in an online environment.
- Web design needs to revolve around the user, rather than the website owner, and everyone on the design team needs to understand and buy into this concept.
- Every business niche has its own set of rules. There is no such thing as a “one size fits all†business website. The basic UX rules are designed to draw in and engage visitors.
- Certain commonplace rules, e.g., menu location, or shopping cart location, should be respected. Flashy design is rarely appropriate, as it tends to drive away more visitors than it attracts.
- Content is still king, but only if used wisely. Content should never confuse the viewer. Instead, it should clearly demonstrate a business’s uniqueness.
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For anyone who administers a blog or manages a website, understanding the importance of interacting with readers has not escaped your attention. And if you have your company’s profile or blogs on WordPress, that interaction at times requires informing readers or customers of upcoming events.
Even if you manage a couple of blogs that have acquired a large group of loyal readers, there are times when you want to announce a special event or topic. Aside from using the “Comment†section, there is a great way to contact, interact and allow visitors to register for more interactive communication or to register for special events.
It’s surprisingly simple to create a registration form in WordPress, in fact it is as easy as simply installing and activating a plug-in. This is a much easier option than having to code forms or hire someone else to take care of it for you. CaptainForm has a great WordPress event registration plug-in that I have found out that not only saves time, but it also provides features that automate the invitation and registration process.
You won’t need any programming or technical expertise to get a customized form up and running on your website. Let’s face it, not everyone is technologically talented. That’s one of the best things about using event registration forms from CaptainForm: they work smoothly and seamlessly without any add-ons. It’s a wonderful way to collect and analyze the data on your target audiences, which is key to having a successful readership and or business. Read the rest of this entry »
SuperPlaceholder.js is a library to bring your input placeholders to life by cycling multiple instructions in a single input placeholder. It is less than 1KB minified & gzipped. Superplaceholder.js supports AMD and commonJS module pattern out of the box. It works best on latest versions of Google Chrome, Firefox and Safari and Chrome mobile. For all non-supported browsers, the library will graceful degradate without any explicit handling in your code.
Requirements: –
Demo: http://kushagragour.in/lab/superplaceholderjs/
License: Creative Commons License
Open Foundry — The ‘open’ stands for open-source, free and easily available. The word ‘foundry’ is taken from the ‘type foundry’ and suggests professional quality and industrial heritage. Their solution is to offer a carefully curated number of fonts in the most clear and dynamic way possible. Instead of overwhelming the user, Open Foundry provides enough interest and excitement to encourage further exploration. All fonts are distributed under an open-source license and are free to use. Every font provides you with a source button to its open-source hosted project, a direct download and the site where it was initially found or published.
Requirements: –
Demo: http://open-foundry.com/
License: License Free
Minimalistic design never goes out of style. These icons will look great with clean and minimal web designs. All of them are monochromatic, you can put different colors, create your own letterpress and different effects. Mini Icons are now free for download. Over 1,000 of them are vector icons, they are completely scalable, and can be used widely in your user interface, package labels, sticker, mobile apps, and more.
Requirements: –
Demo: http://thesquid.ink/mini-icons/
License: License Free
You know feeling when you just need a simple animation for your awesome concept and you realize that it’s a huge process to move all assets into some other application? That’s a lot of hassle! That’s why AnimateMate is made in order to produce and export simple animations straight out of Sketch. It’s not exactly rocket science, but it can lighten your workflow in some cases. It is released under MIT License.
Requirements: –
Demo: http://animatemate.com/
License: MIT License
Attendize is a free, open-source & self-hosted ticket selling and event management platform. You can add custom event posters, text and social sharing options to your event pages to make them stand out. Refund, search, e-mail, edit, delete, print or export. Attendize has powerful attendee management tools. Attendize has a straightforward and well designed checkout process. Users will have their tickets in just a few clicks. Attendize was designed to work on any sized device, so you can easily manage your events on the go.
Requirements: –
Demo: https://www.attendize.com/
License: License Free
List.js is tiny, invisible and simple, yet powerful and incredibly fast vanilla JavaScript that adds search, sort, filters and flexibility to plain HTML lists, tables, or anything. It works both lists, tables and almost anything else. E.g. <div>, <ul>, <table>, etc. Â It is released under MIT License.
Requirements: JavaScript Framework
Demo: http://www.listjs.com/
License: MIT License
Smartmockups is a new online tool for all designers, marketers and developers out there. With our curated collection of the best free product mockups you can present your design like a boss! It’s really useful when you need to present your design to a client or just showcase your work in a portfolio. All mockups are ready for both your personal and commercial projects. All you have to do is upload your image and download the final image. Yes, it’s that simple! Enjoy the power of product mockups without opening Photoshop.
Requirements: –
Demo: http://smartmockups.com/
License: License Free
Pressure is a JavaScript library that makes dealing with Apple’s Force Touch and 3D Touch simple. Force Touch for new Macs and 3D Touch for the new iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, all bundled under one roof with a simple API that makes working with them painless. Pressure gives you a handle on browsers that do and don’t support Force or 3D touch so you can have sensible fallbacks for users that don’t support it.
Requirements: JavaScript Framework
Demo: http://pressurejs.com/
License: MIT License
