Just useful
http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/video-editing-30-free-tools-and-web-services-to-get-things-done/
.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Innovative Ways of Attracting Traffic with Your Website Design
Ok here we are going to list some of the innovative ways that designers have used to attract traffic to their website:
http://www.iamnotfat.net/ - This kid is brilliant. Seriously, clicking on his glasses to enter the site. Yes one good way to be famous. lol.
http://www.iamnotfat.net/ - This kid is brilliant. Seriously, clicking on his glasses to enter the site. Yes one good way to be famous. lol.
I like the way he do the relink banner to redirect his users.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Local Singapore website Nuffnang.com's way of Attracting Traffic. Bring in the F1 Hunk
Local Singapore website Nuffnang.com is offering its readers a chance to meet Formula 1 's Lewis Hamilton from the McLaren team. This is a cool campaign.
Nuffnang traffic rank is: 92,704. Not bad for a local website
In their EDM the site states:
"In collaboration with Nescafé, Nuffnang Singapore is pleased to bring all Nuffnangers a ONCE IN A LIFETIME opportunity to catch Lewis Hamilton in the flesh!Yes, the McLaren Mercedes team's Lewis Hamilton! Yes, the current leader in this year's F1 league! And yes, the suave, hotshot rookie who nearly blew away the competition last year!We have places for two bloggers at an exclusive meet-and-greet session with Lewis come September 25th. If you have not already noticed, the folks at Nescafé are already offering this brilliant opportunity to members of the public via their website http://www.catchlewis.com/, but they have kindly allocated the Nuffnang community two spaces at this EXCLUSIVE event."
The site catchlewis.com is cool in design too. So i'l tag it in our cool design section.
Since I did this posting to help promote their campaign, may be they (nuffnang) can give me a free ticket to meet him too;)
T-Mobile sold more than 120,000 3G iPhones
Recently, T-Mobile sold more than 120,000 3G iPhones. How did they do this? How did their website help them to do this? How did the design of their website help them to attract this amount of traffic & sales?
Well here's their website. http://www.t-mobile.com
Go & study it & write in your comments on our comments list.
There are some websites used to attract traffic to T-mobile's selling of iphone campaign. One of them is http://www.iphoneontmobile.com/
It was 1st ranked on google when you type tmobile iphone. Alexa rank for this site is: 414 426. Not bad rank.
The site is done in a blog format. A reason that it has been highly ranked by google.
Well here's their website. http://www.t-mobile.com
Go & study it & write in your comments on our comments list.
There are some websites used to attract traffic to T-mobile's selling of iphone campaign. One of them is http://www.iphoneontmobile.com/
It was 1st ranked on google when you type tmobile iphone. Alexa rank for this site is: 414 426. Not bad rank.
The site is done in a blog format. A reason that it has been highly ranked by google.
Protoshare: A software for developing Best practice of website development process flow
Current best practices for web development almost always follow some variation of the waterfall model. It’s known as a “waterfall” because once you cascade down to the next level, you're not supposed to need to go back to the previous level. If you have to, you usually need to start the process over. Anyone who's tried this knows it doesn't work very well. In reality, the waterfall method is more of a mad flow that feeds itself.
1) Generate Website Spec Doc - A complete, thorough and authoritative description of what you plan to build.
2) Creative/Design - Put a nicely branded look and feel on the spec. To the extent you don't understand the spec, the spec is incomplete or doesn't make sense, just add/alter the design to show the changed/completed/altered functionality.
3) Build - Based on the two authoritative sources above, work to create a third. Fill in the holes, pave over rough spots, and generally do whatever it takes to make the end result function and still appear to be based on the spec and design.
4) Deploy - Test to make sure you've satisfied the spec. Which spec? Take your pick from the various steps. The specs just kept changing. Go back to the step of your choice now that everyone's had a chance to really look at what's being built and repeat until you just have to deploy or until everyone is reasonably satisfied.
It's not that the four steps are wrong. They are a good guideline, and it makes sense to plan before attempting implementation. But the waterfall method does not map to how human creativity works. It's hard to know if your web project does what you want without having a chance to interact with it. Trial and error is a more natural mode of decision-making and creativity, and it's hard to engage with a written specification compared to a functioning website. The waterfall development method is like trying to teach a child to walk by having her read a book about walking as opposed to letting her fall, get up, and adjust until she gets it right.
What are the alternatives? There's the rapid application development paradigm. Its philosophy is: if you can develop really quickly, just start building and adjust as you go. Do as much iteration as you need to get it right. I actually like the trial and error aspects of this process, and I think it gets all stakeholders more engaged, brings out more ideas, and makes it more likely that the best choices see the light of day. However, it's just not practical or cost-effective, even with the best rapid development environments. Building functioning web applications takes too long.
What is the answer? Follow the general steps of the waterfall, but with many, many iterations along the way. Use collaborative tools to visualize and simulate the final deliverable before designers and programmers start building the website. This gives you the benefits of the rapid development paradigm, but without the costs, because iterations are fast and painless.
In 1999, we started as a web development shop; we struggled with many of these issues and know the pain points. We've now transitioned to a software company, and our latest product is a collaborative tool called ProtoShare. In my biased opinion, it can help you revolutionize your development process the same way that it helped us. And it gives marketers and other stakeholders visibility and input into the process at a much earlier stage.
What is ProtoShare? It's a web-based tool that enables real-time collaboration with clickable wire framing. After you set up a ProtoShare account, you take a first pass at architecture, create some wireframes of pages, and then invite the other teams to review and comment on it. Now you have the development team, the marketing team, the designers, executives, clients, and project managers all engaged and involved — whichever stakeholders make sense.
1) It's rapid: Instead of spending three weeks pulling together information and maybe creating a wireframe or prototype, get started in a few hours. Review and iterate on the prototype. ProtoShare has a lot of functionality that makes the process easier.
2) It's collaborative: Stakeholders and team members can view and comment on the prototype. Multiple developers can work on the same prototype. This is really empowering for all involved, and vastly improves the process and the end result.
3) Design is added to the process: Once you're satisfied with your prototype, upload design comps for side-by-side comparison. Stakeholders can comment on the design comps as well. This prevents the 'multiple authoritative document' problem that plagues the waterfall model.
4) It's iterative: Is something not working? Change it. All of the information stays in one place. Want to try a different approach? Duplicate a section of your site and rearrange it. Try new layouts, navigation, and colors. Change is good.
it's the best of both worlds. It's an easy way to minimize the work of designers and developers, while allowing both creativity and experimentation to emerge earlier in the process.
1) Generate Website Spec Doc - A complete, thorough and authoritative description of what you plan to build.
2) Creative/Design - Put a nicely branded look and feel on the spec. To the extent you don't understand the spec, the spec is incomplete or doesn't make sense, just add/alter the design to show the changed/completed/altered functionality.
3) Build - Based on the two authoritative sources above, work to create a third. Fill in the holes, pave over rough spots, and generally do whatever it takes to make the end result function and still appear to be based on the spec and design.
4) Deploy - Test to make sure you've satisfied the spec. Which spec? Take your pick from the various steps. The specs just kept changing. Go back to the step of your choice now that everyone's had a chance to really look at what's being built and repeat until you just have to deploy or until everyone is reasonably satisfied.
It's not that the four steps are wrong. They are a good guideline, and it makes sense to plan before attempting implementation. But the waterfall method does not map to how human creativity works. It's hard to know if your web project does what you want without having a chance to interact with it. Trial and error is a more natural mode of decision-making and creativity, and it's hard to engage with a written specification compared to a functioning website. The waterfall development method is like trying to teach a child to walk by having her read a book about walking as opposed to letting her fall, get up, and adjust until she gets it right.
What are the alternatives? There's the rapid application development paradigm. Its philosophy is: if you can develop really quickly, just start building and adjust as you go. Do as much iteration as you need to get it right. I actually like the trial and error aspects of this process, and I think it gets all stakeholders more engaged, brings out more ideas, and makes it more likely that the best choices see the light of day. However, it's just not practical or cost-effective, even with the best rapid development environments. Building functioning web applications takes too long.
What is the answer? Follow the general steps of the waterfall, but with many, many iterations along the way. Use collaborative tools to visualize and simulate the final deliverable before designers and programmers start building the website. This gives you the benefits of the rapid development paradigm, but without the costs, because iterations are fast and painless.
In 1999, we started as a web development shop; we struggled with many of these issues and know the pain points. We've now transitioned to a software company, and our latest product is a collaborative tool called ProtoShare. In my biased opinion, it can help you revolutionize your development process the same way that it helped us. And it gives marketers and other stakeholders visibility and input into the process at a much earlier stage.
What is ProtoShare? It's a web-based tool that enables real-time collaboration with clickable wire framing. After you set up a ProtoShare account, you take a first pass at architecture, create some wireframes of pages, and then invite the other teams to review and comment on it. Now you have the development team, the marketing team, the designers, executives, clients, and project managers all engaged and involved — whichever stakeholders make sense.
1) It's rapid: Instead of spending three weeks pulling together information and maybe creating a wireframe or prototype, get started in a few hours. Review and iterate on the prototype. ProtoShare has a lot of functionality that makes the process easier.
2) It's collaborative: Stakeholders and team members can view and comment on the prototype. Multiple developers can work on the same prototype. This is really empowering for all involved, and vastly improves the process and the end result.
3) Design is added to the process: Once you're satisfied with your prototype, upload design comps for side-by-side comparison. Stakeholders can comment on the design comps as well. This prevents the 'multiple authoritative document' problem that plagues the waterfall model.
4) It's iterative: Is something not working? Change it. All of the information stays in one place. Want to try a different approach? Duplicate a section of your site and rearrange it. Try new layouts, navigation, and colors. Change is good.
it's the best of both worlds. It's an easy way to minimize the work of designers and developers, while allowing both creativity and experimentation to emerge earlier in the process.
Latest: Fwix.com launches. The local social network aggregator
Fwix uses the ubiquitous-in-Silicon-Valley concept of information feeds, exemplified by sites like Facebook and FriendFeed. But somewhat differently than those sites, it takes feeds from other sites around the web, like Craigslist and Yelp, and aggregates them based on what city you’re in. Menlo Park, Calif.-based Fwix only launched on Thursday, for a few major cities. But it claims to be getting decent traffic and is rolling out to 25 more cities today. 
Building Modern Web Apps? Better Have A Deep Competency in Web 2.0, Open APIs, Widgets, Social Apps & Web Strategies
To drive the right decisions in what they do product designers, marketing teams, software architects, developers, strategy officers, and other key roles in today's generation of online businesses need to have a solid handle on an extensive array of Web topics. This ranges from appreciating why plain old HTTP is so good at underpinning the Web to more sophisticated topics like modern application architecture, the latest in online user experiences, next generation computing models (grid/cloud/utility/SaaS/PaaS), cost-effective scalability, user identity, network effects, Jakob's Law, analytics, operations, user community, as well as the many compelling new distribution models that are nearly mandatory in the first release of most products.
An excellent summary of the truly massive, but largely underappreciated scale of these new Web application models was last week's TechCrunch piece on the progress of Google's OpenSocial, an increasingly successful model for creating portable social networking applications that will run on any OpenSocial-compliant site. Erick Schonfeld reported that OpenSocial now has a total reach of an astonishing 350 million users and it will soon be 500 million. There are over 4,500 OpenSocial apps today, a healthy number for the application format but a small drop in the bucket compared to the number of Web sites in the world. But the key is that these applications are integrated much deeper into the social fabric of an engaged audience, interjecting themselves into the daily personal and work habits of the "captive" users of social sites and even have access to the personal habits and data of users of these sites. Facebook's story is impressive as well with over 37,000 applications that have been installed over 700 million times.
Unfortunately, the number of capable practitioners of these new distribution models remains relatively small compared to the large body of experts in traditional Web product development. Demand is also low for these new skills as most organizations have been painfully slow to appreciate how much online product development has changed. A quick search of the job aggregator SimplyHired tells the tale: Nearly a thousand Web designer positions are available while only 36 OpenSocial and 40 open API positions are open, for example. This despite the the latter skills being able to project a product across the Web into hundreds of social sites or create an API that allows the product to be incorporated into countless other products for far less cost per customer than traditional methods.
Organisations need a Manager who can be on top of this web technology knowledge. He will need to hire the right people (programmers & designers). Who do we call such a Manager? The term Web Strategist would be approapriate.
An excellent summary of the truly massive, but largely underappreciated scale of these new Web application models was last week's TechCrunch piece on the progress of Google's OpenSocial, an increasingly successful model for creating portable social networking applications that will run on any OpenSocial-compliant site. Erick Schonfeld reported that OpenSocial now has a total reach of an astonishing 350 million users and it will soon be 500 million. There are over 4,500 OpenSocial apps today, a healthy number for the application format but a small drop in the bucket compared to the number of Web sites in the world. But the key is that these applications are integrated much deeper into the social fabric of an engaged audience, interjecting themselves into the daily personal and work habits of the "captive" users of social sites and even have access to the personal habits and data of users of these sites. Facebook's story is impressive as well with over 37,000 applications that have been installed over 700 million times.
Unfortunately, the number of capable practitioners of these new distribution models remains relatively small compared to the large body of experts in traditional Web product development. Demand is also low for these new skills as most organizations have been painfully slow to appreciate how much online product development has changed. A quick search of the job aggregator SimplyHired tells the tale: Nearly a thousand Web designer positions are available while only 36 OpenSocial and 40 open API positions are open, for example. This despite the the latter skills being able to project a product across the Web into hundreds of social sites or create an API that allows the product to be incorporated into countless other products for far less cost per customer than traditional methods.
Organisations need a Manager who can be on top of this web technology knowledge. He will need to hire the right people (programmers & designers). Who do we call such a Manager? The term Web Strategist would be approapriate.
Designer's Health
In this section we are going to discuss how to maintain the designer's health & well being to ensure that designer can perform & design at an optimum level?
TV Aggregators on the web. No more offline TV.
Television entertainment has busted out of the TV and onto computer screens. Think of it as the rebirth of television, delivered via a new, interactive medium that gives viewers more choice over what they watch--and when, where, and how they watch it.
Online TV Aggregators
Aggregator sites showcase streaming television, drawing their content from multiple sources. Typically, aggregator sites focus on building a comprehensive entertainment experience.
Online TV Aggregators
Aggregator sites showcase streaming television, drawing their content from multiple sources. Typically, aggregator sites focus on building a comprehensive entertainment experience.
Adobe Fireworks CS4 Beta Release
Its good to see that Adobe has released Adobe Fireworks CS4. Lots of designers will be happy everywhere.
If you all got any screenshots or tips on using the new software, feel free to post them up on the comments.
You can read more on the release at these links:
http://fireworks-adobe.blogspot.com/2008/06/fireworks-cs4-beta-features.html
http://socialplasm.com/socialplasm/adobe-fireworks-cs4-new-features/
You can try a preview download here at:
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/downloads/2217544/adobe-fireworks-cs4
or adobe's site http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/fireworkscs4/
Before you start your design?
Have you ever felt that clients always like to impose their ideas onto your well crafted design?
Well my suggestion is to avoid arguments, its best to ask this question?
Does the client or boss want me to come up with the design or does he already have an idea in mind?
Most of the time its probably the later. And you try to ignore what the client wants and end up arguing trying to put your design to be accepted. Your design may look cool in the eyes of designers like us, but if the client or worse still your boss does not like? Better ask him, nicely, what we wants? If this happens, just go with the flow. Listen to the client/boss carefully. Ask him confirmation questions, like is this what you think is best for the site? What kind of design do you suggest you may like? Any reference website?
Then most of the thinking work has been done. And you just go with the flow, get to work and improve on thing a bit here & there. And get the cheque.
Well my suggestion is to avoid arguments, its best to ask this question?
Does the client or boss want me to come up with the design or does he already have an idea in mind?
Most of the time its probably the later. And you try to ignore what the client wants and end up arguing trying to put your design to be accepted. Your design may look cool in the eyes of designers like us, but if the client or worse still your boss does not like? Better ask him, nicely, what we wants? If this happens, just go with the flow. Listen to the client/boss carefully. Ask him confirmation questions, like is this what you think is best for the site? What kind of design do you suggest you may like? Any reference website?
Then most of the thinking work has been done. And you just go with the flow, get to work and improve on thing a bit here & there. And get the cheque.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Good Design Reference Websites
Here are some good websites you can check out:
http://www.wilshireone.com/article/46/fireworks-vs-photoshop - Talks about the fact that Adobe Fireworks is easier & more productive to use than Photoshop.
http://www.wilshireone.com/article/46/fireworks-vs-photoshop - Talks about the fact that Adobe Fireworks is easier & more productive to use than Photoshop.
Why Fireworks is simply better than Photoshop?
This is for all those Fireworks users, who had to work with a boss or dept who prefer you to work in Photoshop, do not worry, we are here to support you.
I have searched across the net, putting the keywords Fireworks vs Photoshop. What i discovered is that a lot of people are saying that Fireworks is easier & more productive to use for doing graphic work. You can do things in Fireworks in much less clicks than in Photoshop.
So why do I ask, my dept prefer to work in Photoshop. Aren't they making themselves work harder?
Even many photoshop users who have tried fireworks say that its easier & making their graphic design life easier.
Some say that Fireworks is only for Web Design. And photoshop is for print. Well, i don't think so. I use fireworks to do print jobs. I would do in fireworks first then use illustrator to produce the print output(convert to CMYK etc).
So try it for yourself, do a search Fireworks vs Photoshop in google, you too will discover that fireworks is better.
Hopefully, Adobe does not phase out fireworks. We just love fireworks. Its frustrating to work with photoshop.
If Adobe is smart, they will continue to work hard to greatly improve fireworks & add value to the product. I did not see fireworks listed on the Adobe website? Its like hidden in a drop down box. Hmmm? why is that. If they had bought macromedia, just to throw fireworks aside, and satisfy their corporate ego, i don't know what to say?
Look at the image below of Adobe's website. They are just not doing Fireworks any good. Common we love adobe fireworks. Fireworks is your own(Adobe) product, why not give it some love Adobe bro?
Funny, its like you know step brothers, where the real kid is loved by the parent & the adopted one is thrown aside. Man, if adobe ever wanted me to design & make their website even more user friendly, do consult me. A simple obvious solution & yet they are ignoring it.
If for what ever reason Adobe wishes to terminate Fireworks. Please don't, the product would be better off, being sold to another company, willing to greatly improve the product. Even if its to be sold to Microsoft, so be it. At least it will live on.
Written by,
Alex Li
designmeetTraffic.blogspot.com
Alex Li is a Web Strategist specialising
in design & PHP open source based web technologies.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Events List
24 Aug 2008 - Singapore Bay Run 2008
Event Dates : 24th Aug 2008
Time of Event : 5pm - 11am
Venue: Esplanade Bridge to the Padang
Category : Sports
The Singapore Bay Run formerly known as the SAFRA Sheares Bridge Run & Army Half Marathon, is a landmark mass run event in the local sports calender for both competitive and non-competitive runners. Since its inauguration in 1992, participation has grown significantly to over 60,000, making it the biggest mass running event in Singapore. Jointly organised by SAFRA National Service Association and The Army, its main aim is to promote cohesiveness amongst NSmen. This annual event also presents an opportunity for NSmen and the general public to adopt a healthy lifestyle, answering the Government’s call for a healthier nation.
Contact Person/Event Organiser
Ms Ashanti DeviSAFRA National Service Association
Tel: 6377 9833
Fax: 6377 9898
Email: ashanti@safra.sg
2008 FORMULA 1 SingTel Singapore Grand Prix
Event Dates : 26th Sep 2008 to
28th Sep 2008
Time of Event : TBA
Venue: : Marina Bay
Category : Sports
Description
The Formula 1TM 2008 World Championship race series rolls into town on 28 September 2008! The 2008 FORMULA 1TM SingTel Singapore Grand Prix is not just F1's first street race in Asia, but is also the first-ever night event in F1 history. Held on public roads around the Marina Bay precinct, the 2008 FORMULA 1TM SingTel Singapore Grand Prix is expected to draw over 80,000 spectators.
Ticketing
Ticketing details can be found via singaporegp.sg website
Getting There
City Hall MRT Station (EW13/NS25)
Website
http://www.singaporegp.sg
2008 FORMULA 1 SingTel Singapore Grand Prix
Contact Person/Event Organiser
Singapore GP Pte Ltd
Contact : info@singaporegp.sg
Event Dates : 24th Aug 2008
Time of Event : 5pm - 11am
Venue: Esplanade Bridge to the Padang
Category : Sports
The Singapore Bay Run formerly known as the SAFRA Sheares Bridge Run & Army Half Marathon, is a landmark mass run event in the local sports calender for both competitive and non-competitive runners. Since its inauguration in 1992, participation has grown significantly to over 60,000, making it the biggest mass running event in Singapore. Jointly organised by SAFRA National Service Association and The Army, its main aim is to promote cohesiveness amongst NSmen. This annual event also presents an opportunity for NSmen and the general public to adopt a healthy lifestyle, answering the Government’s call for a healthier nation.
Contact Person/Event Organiser
Ms Ashanti DeviSAFRA National Service Association
Tel: 6377 9833
Fax: 6377 9898
Email: ashanti@safra.sg
2008 FORMULA 1 SingTel Singapore Grand Prix
Event Dates : 26th Sep 2008 to
28th Sep 2008
Time of Event : TBA
Venue: : Marina Bay
Category : Sports
Description
The Formula 1TM 2008 World Championship race series rolls into town on 28 September 2008! The 2008 FORMULA 1TM SingTel Singapore Grand Prix is not just F1's first street race in Asia, but is also the first-ever night event in F1 history. Held on public roads around the Marina Bay precinct, the 2008 FORMULA 1TM SingTel Singapore Grand Prix is expected to draw over 80,000 spectators.
Ticketing
Ticketing details can be found via singaporegp.sg website
Getting There
City Hall MRT Station (EW13/NS25)
Website
http://www.singaporegp.sg
2008 FORMULA 1 SingTel Singapore Grand Prix
Contact Person/Event Organiser
Singapore GP Pte Ltd
Contact : info@singaporegp.sg
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Design School - Code of Design
Ok in order to explain How Design Works, we are going to come out with a code of design, like our guidelines.
From time to time, those not trained in design school, like say most clients etc, they may not understand what is good design & what is not. They may think their design ideas are good, but when we agree to them & put their design ideas into our design, it looks urrrrrrrrrrrgh ugly.
How can we designers solve this problem? When we try to explain our rational why we design it this way & used this colour, that colour, it always seems like we are arguing with them. And mind you we don't want to make our clients or worse, bosses, feel like we are arguing with them?
Can we come up with all the possible objectives(critism) that we can think of that will be asked when we present our design? Help each other out here fellow designers. Ad hopefully we can better communicate our design ideas in the future & finish our work quicker.
Code of Design
1. Make sure your design has good enough spacing to ensure that your design does not look cluttered. Space can be used to make an element stand out and attracts the audience to that element.
2. Normal Text that is not too strong on the eye. Text can be blended into the background as long as its readable. Some may comment that its too vague. But as long as its readible, its better than having text that is too bright & gone out of the design.
Reference: Apple.com,
3. Allignment. Make sure that you look at all elements to see where they are alligned. Sometimes elements may not need to be alligned, because the design requires that the elements be placed randomly for that out of the box look. As in most street/fashion/music advertisements. Its for that sophisticated complex look.
Refe
4. Simple or sophisticatd design. 2 schools of thought here. Most corporate people will tend to think only about the Simple design. That is a clean design with not much artistic elements. And usually the simple design comes in a bright or white background.
The sophisticated design is like art, where elements can be thrown in at random. To the thinking of corporate people, this way of design is ugly. But to designers, artist & public consumers its cool. This is where sometimes corporations fail to see why their marketing materials are not working, simple because their marketing material lacks sophistication & is too boring.
Simple design reference: apple.com
Sophisticated design reference:
5.
For Sponsor Logos that need to be displayed on a website or poster etc, make sure that its not bigger than the main poster logo or bigger than any other main things on the marketing material.
From time to time, those not trained in design school, like say most clients etc, they may not understand what is good design & what is not. They may think their design ideas are good, but when we agree to them & put their design ideas into our design, it looks urrrrrrrrrrrgh ugly.
How can we designers solve this problem? When we try to explain our rational why we design it this way & used this colour, that colour, it always seems like we are arguing with them. And mind you we don't want to make our clients or worse, bosses, feel like we are arguing with them?
Can we come up with all the possible objectives(critism) that we can think of that will be asked when we present our design? Help each other out here fellow designers. Ad hopefully we can better communicate our design ideas in the future & finish our work quicker.
Code of Design
1. Make sure your design has good enough spacing to ensure that your design does not look cluttered. Space can be used to make an element stand out and attracts the audience to that element.
2. Normal Text that is not too strong on the eye. Text can be blended into the background as long as its readable. Some may comment that its too vague. But as long as its readible, its better than having text that is too bright & gone out of the design.
Reference: Apple.com,
3. Allignment. Make sure that you look at all elements to see where they are alligned. Sometimes elements may not need to be alligned, because the design requires that the elements be placed randomly for that out of the box look. As in most street/fashion/music advertisements. Its for that sophisticated complex look.
Refe
4. Simple or sophisticatd design. 2 schools of thought here. Most corporate people will tend to think only about the Simple design. That is a clean design with not much artistic elements. And usually the simple design comes in a bright or white background.
The sophisticated design is like art, where elements can be thrown in at random. To the thinking of corporate people, this way of design is ugly. But to designers, artist & public consumers its cool. This is where sometimes corporations fail to see why their marketing materials are not working, simple because their marketing material lacks sophistication & is too boring.
Simple design reference: apple.com
Sophisticated design reference:
5.
For Sponsor Logos that need to be displayed on a website or poster etc, make sure that its not bigger than the main poster logo or bigger than any other main things on the marketing material.
Design School - Code of Design - Vague comments
Have you ever face a situation where you present your design to your client and they say that hey look this is vague, it not clear, i can't see it. They think they can't see it but its clear enough to be seen.
Eg.
Well, it just makes you feel like you know... Has the guy ever heard of the word blended in (as in not too strong on the eye)
Eg.
Well, it just makes you feel like you know... Has the guy ever heard of the word blended in (as in not too strong on the eye)
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
How to do Event Posters that Attract the Crowd?
Ok today I want to design an event poster to launch a website. Are there any case studies or examples that u guys/girls did that got a lot of: 1. traffic to the website? 2. event attendees & participants? May be you can analyse your poster in the following format- How long was the marketing campaign: Lets list out some good examples of event posters that had a successful impact on attracting event attendees:
|
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
New Facebook. Totally not required. Not so user friendly arrrgh?
| I just have to say that the NEW FACEBOOK is not very user friendly. They changed everything. Rule: If its not broken why fix it. FB should just improve on what the users recommend. Changing the whole design & flow of thins just serves to disrupt whatever people already know. People have already gotten so used to the OLD FB interface. They know where everything is. And them boom, they changed it all. I can't even find the basic EDIT PROFILE link when i logged in??? Hmmm, why do all the social sites like to revamp their interface. Revamp design is ok, revamp interface?? its like changing your already successful strategy. Its better to value add & keep value add, not change & be something new??? I am a Web Strategist, looking frm a strategy point of view, FB users are increasing rapidly, there is no need to change. Unless ur users r declining, like what friendster did. Friendster changed in the direction of FB to add newsfeed functionality etc & now they are slowoly getting back more users. But FB now, this change? for what purpose? Alex |
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Identifiables: They help your visitors conveniently become attached to that section on your website
Have you noticed when you visit certain sites you tend to look for that particular button or logo or sub section tab? The thing (button etc) just attracts you because of the way its designed. Brings forth to you a feeling of warmth & stickyness. Makes you love clicking it. Of course may be its the content of it. But yeah the design has a point. May be the thing is just on the home page of the website or it may be its laid out across the whole site or just across some sub sections. You have identified it because its there conveniently & eye catching. This thing I conveniently name the identifiable. Why identifiable? Because your visitors can easily identify it & they are loyal in clicking it. Once they are loyal in clicking it you get higher return traffic. Also 1st time visitors will also click because its attractive to do so. Samples of identifiables: The Yahoo ajax enabled mail, messenger tabs. So many people have identified with this identifiable:) even some of our clients have asked for it.   |
Vertical & Horizontal Spaces
Have you ever wanted to fill in those spaces with good graphics but stuck on that brainstorm process. Here's some tips.
First you need to identify whether its a Horizontal or Vertical space you're trying to fill in.
THen once you have identified the type of space you can refer to the list below to search suitable graphics.
For Horizontal Space you may want to search for the keywords:
City landscape, sky scraper, architecture
For Vertical Space you may want to search for the keywords:
Sky scraper, architecture
Can anyone else give some examples to fill in:
a) Horizontal spaces
b) Vertical spaces
First you need to identify whether its a Horizontal or Vertical space you're trying to fill in.
THen once you have identified the type of space you can refer to the list below to search suitable graphics.
For Horizontal Space you may want to search for the keywords:
City landscape, sky scraper, architecture
For Vertical Space you may want to search for the keywords:
Sky scraper, architecture
Can anyone else give some examples to fill in:
a) Horizontal spaces
b) Vertical spaces
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