Archive for category Website design
Good design vs good SEO
Posted by Design Drops in Search engine optimisation, Website design on March 31st, 2011
Once upon a time, website designers only had to think about design – was the website functional? Did it meet design principles? Was it user-friendly?
Then, a few years back, someone cottoned on to the fact that it was no good having a pretty website if search engines couldn’t find it. And, lo, Search Engine Optimisation became the flavour of the moment.
And thus began the debate between designers and content providers.
I think we will all admit that both good design and good SEO is pretty important. We have all seen those content-driven websites that hurt our design-sensibilities; and at the same time, we are all probably well aware of gorgeous websites that may as well not exist because they are invisible to search engines.
Most clients want their website to get traffic – so SEO is vital. But, at the same time, they want their customers to hang around their site, so design is also a key element.
But how easy is is to acheive both? Or at least be content that you did the best – SEO or design – for a particular client.
Good news – content providers and designers don’t need to lock horns. Just follow these five steps.
1. Develop the design and the SEO simultaneously.
All keyword phrases need to researched, chosen and integrated into the design in its earliest drafts. From the text, to the tags, to the codes. Otherwise, the designer runs the risk of keywords being developed and added later, and stuffing up the visual appeal. Also, it could mean a change to the directory structure, which bring in a greater chance of errors such as broken links.
2. Remember the adage KISS (keep it simple, stupid)
Now that web design is well and truly established, there is no need to do too much fancy stuff on a web page (unless, of course, you are designing a site for yourself and you want to showcase your talent). People are no longer impressed by Flash and other once-fancy add-ons. In fact, almost the opposite - Flash can take a while to load and be frustrating when you are just looking for some quick information. And the bonus is, simple designs work much better with SEO – and are easy to alter if needed.
3. Sometimes design is king, sometimes SEO.
That’s right, you win some, you lose some. The key is to know which is which. Let SEO drive the website for removalist company, which relies on Google for business; and feed your artistic passion working on the website for the local interior designer, who relies on referrals, rather than the internet, to keep food on their table.
4. SEO is not the devil
If website designers are honest with themselves, they have always done SEO, in some form or another. It just didn’t have a name. Sure, there are some fly-by-night companies out there that are almost the modern-day equivalent of the snake oil salesman – promising clients top search enginge ranking and acting as if it’s some big secret. It’s not. It’s just a matter of basic knowledge of search engine algorithms and how wesbsites work.
5. Accept that sometimes your ‘perfect’ design will not work with the required SEO content.
And, vice versa. Sometimes design will win out, sometimes SEO. As long as it all balances out in the end – and the client is aware of and approves the necessary sacrifices – it really isn’t the end of the world.
Good luck.
Some great design blog and e-zine articles
Posted by Design Drops in Fonts, Graphic design, Logo design, Website design on March 17th, 2011
It seems Design Drops wasn’t the only blog thinking about fonts and typography in the past week. A quick read around the blogiverse come up with some fantastic font and typography-related posts at some of the most popular design-related blogs and e-zines.
Hongkiat looked into Fonts Used in Logos of Popular Brands, and admitted that with thousands of free fonts available these days, it can be hard to decide on the perfect typeface. (The instantly recognisable Facebook logo above, uses Klavika OT, released in 2004).
Remember to “like” us on Facebook, post your best cure for creative block and go in the draw to win an iPod.
Over at Smashing magazine, there’s an informative post about technical web typography techniques. It reminds the reader that 95 per cent of the web is typography and goes into some detail about the rules to apply when deciding on such things as font type and size.
Meanwhile, noupe has a fantastic tutorial on creating test effects and eye-catching typography using Adobe Illustrator.
While we’re on the subject of Illustrator, which might be considered too expensive or complicated for sole-operators, onesxtrapixel, provides readers with some alternative drawing programs, such as Corel Draw and GIMP.
To finish on a more serious note, French brand Kulte has posted on Design You Trust that it has designed and is selling a t-shirt with all profits going to the Japanese earthquake appeal.
Working at a creative agency. Is it for you?
Posted by Design Drops in Graphic design, Website design on February 14th, 2011
A few posts ago, I gave some hints to help you decide if you were best suited to freelance or inhouse work. It’s now time to take a peak into the working lives of designers whose office is a creative agency.
There are a few different kinds of agencies – advertising, marketing, website design and graphic design, to name a few. For the purposes of this article, we will lump them altogether, although each can be slightly different.
Let’s look at some pros and cons of agency life.
1/ The workload.
Agency designers work reasonably hard. The hours are long and somewhat inflexible (no skiving off to go to the beach!) and clients can be demanding. The upside is, however, that designers who work at an agency can concentrate on designing. Someone else is marketing the business/balancing the books/stocking the tea room. And compared with inhouse desgners in such workplaces as Government agencies or large corporations, the work can be far more varied. After all, once a corporation has a “style” there’s not much room for creativity.
2/ The way you work.
In an agency, designers and others tend to work in small teams, led by a project manager. When the team “gels” it can be fantastic. Like-minded people bouncing creative ideas off each other can be pretty inspiring. Sounds good compared with the solo life of freelancing, which can get lonely at times. But what if the team does not gel? This does happen and if you work in an agency, you need to be prepared to take the good with the bad.
3/ The rewards
A good freelancer will most likely earn more money and have more freedom than someone at an agency. But he or she would have worked damn hard to get there. On the other hand, such things like job security and paid leave is not to be sneezed at.
Some freelancers, however, can find their “thing” and get stuck in a rut, rarely moving forward. In house designers have a neat career trajectory – maybe even to freelance work AFTER they have the established networks to make it work.
One big perk that agency (and inhouse) designers have over freelancing is that someone else is paying for the resources. And we all know some of those (especially the high-end software) can get pretty expensive).
4/ The challenges
Any job is challenging. Be it the difficult client, or boss; or the unreasonable deadlines. Agencies tend to have one of two “personalities” – corporate or creative. If the one you are working at suits your personality, that great. If not, let’s call it a “challenge” (or maybe a stepping stone – agency work is excellent for building a portfolio!).
As a freelancer, you have the freedom to make your own decisions. At an agency, it is the Managing Director (or sometimes even a Board of Directors) that makes the ultimate decisions. This can be frustrating.
5/ The fun stuff
As mentioned above, freelancing can get lonely at times, but it does have more flexibility. What this basically means is that the at work stuff might be a bit boring, but you get more opportunity to do the fun social stuff
Agency work can be fun too – how can they not be with all that hot-housed creativity? Some even have staff Wiis or pinball machines. And the coffee in the work cafe is always top notch.
So, for different reasons, either can be fun (and both are probably more fun than working inhouse)
We’d love to know more about experiences working at a design agency. Especially if you have also worked inhouse or freelance. How do they compare?