Modern Day Web Designing: What Works Today?

With the fast-paced information dissemination that is going on around the online world, web designing has begun an evolution of taste and preferences which suggests a distinct approach to designing a website.

Blog sites from the traditional theme designs and oftentimes-cluttered look to classy minimalistic approach turn their attention to details such as typography, alignment, etc., to name a few.

Minimalism, an artistic approach can be applied in so many ways because of its timeless concept that has been very popular in different media through the years and this can also, and definitely can, go well with one of the most powerful tools online: your website.

Defining Your Site’s Purpose

Before starting with anything, brainstorm about what you want to be seen on your website. By this, meaning you should have in mind the purpose of your site, what it is all about, what it presents, what your readers or viewers can benefit from visiting your site and so on.

By clearly defining the purpose early on will save you from the stress of changing or customizing your site once you have already put it up. And by this, it will help you keep your designs on track.

Make it to the point to take note also of the elements that you initially put into your website. If it does not reinforce your site’s true purpose and may just cause a distraction, then you have to double-check it. The additional item must compliment your focus.

Flat Design

Gone are the days with the use of the skeuomorphism method of which has had notable elements such as 3D effects, gradients and drop shadows. This has been recently superseded by most web designers’ approach and embraced minimalist designs to emphasize on the more important aspects of a website.

Bold and vibrant colors are more trending in use for most minimalistic design websites to draw the eye of the user and to make it more easy for the readers to scan around the website.

An example of a minimalist website.

White Space

Some might be too reluctant about why there is a lot of negative space that is present in your website. They might even say that you are not maximizing the area that is of your website. But for web designers who are practicing the minimalist approach, this is an exceptionally smart design element that guides the eye to go where you want it to go on a webpage, and makes it a standard-bearer for minimalism.

One of the best examples for this is Google Search. It is there and you cannot escape it. Needless to say, it is the purpose of having it in the first place: to search using Google. Which makes having white space a very effective approach to a website. It makes your site not hard to notice but also cluttered-free!

Bold Typography

Bold and simple fonts are now beginning to be used by most minimalist websites. This would pose a fact that with the kind of approach that is minimal, there should be a sophistication that only comes from better typography.

Focusing on bold typography can pinpoint what your website wants to say. It can present the important details your readers wanted to see and what you want them to see. Choosing fonts that would match the personality and style of your website is also important as this will distinguish from any other website you can see online.

Color

It is also good to add a splash of minimal colors in your website. May it be from the typefaces you use or from the photos you have on your website. These things will say something about your website or blog so it is nice to have these into consideration.

With small flicks of color, your visitors’ eyes will immediately know that the area is of importance. An example of which is a link that would direct them to another page from the website. You can use this advantage by making it as a paint-path for their eyes to follow.

Navigation

This should always be on top of every web designer’s mind. Despite how awesome and well-coded and designed your website it, what runs true is the fact that your website is easy to navigate.

Navigation is one of issues any reader or viewer can have a difficulty with. And it stems from the placement of your elements in the page. Tabs are usually placed above your page and usually reads the About, Contact, Blog or Shop pages, to name a few. These should be easily seen (as how typography is also concerned) and to direct them to and from the website should not be a hassling experience for them, not mentioning the exhaustion their eyes could acquire and their hands and fingers from clicking the wrong tabs.

To sum it up, minimalism is very easy and can mean being well organized. But put into mind that not everyone works with minimalism. It still depends on your approach on how you wanted to present your products to the users, how you want them to see them and the amount of what you wanted to let them see.

Minimalism might often be tagged as an “empty” work of an art, as style is concerned, because of it’s simplistic approach. What works is the fact that your audience can read, scroll, click and be amazed through their experience in your website.

Take note that making websites is not about you being creatively awesome in designing your site, it is about the ease of your clients to work around it and definitely will give them the impression that your products are as good as how you presented them to be.

Photography: A Digital Marketing Strategy

More often than not, photography has been a long time favorite hobby for most of us. And it has been one of the most trending interests globally. With photography, you can do whatever you want within that scope of clicking your camera and taking photos out of it. And in digital marketing, this is one of the most widely known marketing strategies because it is powerful and it creates impact.

Let us run through the ways in which photography can help boost marketing and make everything just so easy.

Make sure you have well thought of themes.  This will create interest to your readers and online visitors and perhaps will also create buzz around your website. Themes should have similar context based on your product, your organization and what your advocacies to have consistency in your posts.

Use social media platforms such as Pinterest, Instagram or Tumblr. With the help of social media, your photos can go to greater heights because of the fast and viral features these platforms can do. Your photos can go viral, it also creates a share-to-many rule and all the credit goes out directly to you! Isn’t that amazing?

The Pinterest site with the tags 'house'

Let’s take for example Pinterest. This social media will allow your viewers to see photos they like, search them and pin them on their dashboards for everyone to see! The sharing feat will not only limit you to these sites, but also to networks including Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and many more. All you have to do is link your accounts and voila! You can even have an access to these social media platforms via your smartphones as mobile apps.

Display your products with in real life situations. Go beyond the usual basic product shoots that you do for your catalogs. Think of ways on how you can contextualize and apply your products in real life. Make viewers want them when they see them. Show off your products in a not so traditional way to make it more interesting and visually appealing.

Share your organization’s story. Photographs are powerful and when you use these to give prospects, customers and the public will have a sense of your firm’s history and physical location. You can also showcase photographs with your founder, how you started and what are the milestones the company have been into. Set a timeline for this to create a memory lane that your customers can see.

A view of Starbucks' Instagram account

Branding enhancement. For many companies, this means going beyond your traditional branding guidelines. This means rethinking of how you are going to appear in photographs and think about the backgrounds you will have. Also, you may include your employees, as they are one of the important factors, which made your company to a success. By this, it goes to show that you are thinking about your employees’ welfare and have a sense of care towards them.
Behind the scenes are also good. Photographs show who’s behind your brand and your organization. Showing a human face that will stand up as a representative is important. Either it be a senior executive, or a customer-facing employee, it is significant that your customers and the public will know and see this through your photographs.

Educating your viewers how to use your products. And by this, it means you can teach your customers on how to use your products in lieu of videos or as a supplement to other instructions. You can take photos of someone in the company demonstrating on how your products should go about. Sometimes, customers are also seen in the scene. Think beauty products or cooking, where customers can see the interim process.

Use your photos to show that you are participating. Of course, aside from your products, your customers and the public would also want to know if you are participating in some social awareness agenda. Or if you are an organization who care about such environmental and civic advocacies. Or if you are inclined to such issues as current events and news are concerned. The public wants to know how you would represent yourself to the public and photos are one of the fastest ways to show that image they want to see.

Invite customers to share product and brand related photos. This would not be effective if there is no interaction within your customers. You can ask your customers to post photos about your products being used and if they have been satisfied about them. In this way, these photos will indirectly promote you and your company through your customer’s satisfactions.

Here is a promotional video from IKEA PS 2014  about their Instagram Website

We, as humans, are visual beings, which means we get attracted to images and how they give an impact to us through photographs. As marketers, you have to ensure that your images (and your photography) are an integral part of your content offering. Photos help a lot to achieve your marketing objectives and extend readers’ engagement with your content.