We are pleased to announce that the website we built for musician Mina Chang (minachang.com) has been nominated for Site of the Year at CSS Creme. The site was built entirely in WordPress and was a last-second project, so that makes us extra happy that it’s getting the great responses from the design community.

Oh, and, of course, be sure to support us and cast your vote!

1. Hire a professional web site designer who knows what they are doing and has proven themselves in the field.
2. Make sure the web developer you choose uses web standards compliant code.
3. Listen to suggestions made by your web designer and, when possible, implement them.
4. Trust your web designer.
5. If your site is not popular right away, invest more time and money in advertisement, not redesign.
6. Don’t give up on offline advertising.
7. Become informed.

For details about each one, visit the IQMZ blog!

I can look out my window and find inspiration in the rain, the trees, the grass. I can go to the mall and watch people; looking at their clothes, their movements, the way they present themselves. I can watch a movie, play a game, surf the web, go for a bike ride. Normal everyday activities should be able to bring inspiration – and they do.

What inspires you?

We’ve been listed on several design galleries (such as thebestdesigns.com and cssheaven.com) and even favorited on many, featured on some, and chosen as an “editor’s pick” on w3csites.com (a site that only accepts your design if all of your files validate completely). We were even featured in an article about lighting effects on Smashing Magazine, which was pretty exciting in and of itself.

But none have brought me the sheer joy that this review brought me. It is expertly written and just to see that people really do “get” the design and why it is the way it is, well, that just makes all of the hard work worth it.

The Camp Creative Group are a design agency who live by the moto “Fall in love with your design” and it is their very own website that I have fallen in love with.

To read the review in it’s entirety, visit wecritiquedesigns.com.

1. Disabling Right-Click

Many people are afraid to publish content online, and rightfully so. There are plenty of visitors who will come to your website and steal content. However, disabling the right-click on a mouse, while it may seem like a quick solution, creates usability issues and ultimately does not solve the problem at hand.

If someone wants your content, they will get it. If a website has disabled the right click of a mouse, the user still has many ways they can get that content. If they would like to take an image, they may simply take a screenshot of the page. If they are on a Mac, taking an image is as simple as drag-and-drop. If they really like your textual content that much, they will just retype it by hand.

There are many other things you are preventing when you disable right-clicking on a mouse, and most of them will irritate web site visitors. Many people will right-click a link to open it in a new window or tab, or right click to click on “back” to go back to the previous page. If the usability of your site frustrates your visitors, they won’t be likely to return.

2. Using Images from Google Images Without Finding Out Their Copyright

This goes for using images that come up in any search results. Even in Flickr. Make sure you check the Creative Commons license to ensure that the author allows the image to be used in the way you intend to use it.

If you’ve found an image on Google, always make sure you know what your rights are to the image. In most cases, someone else has licensed that image for their use alone, so taking an image off of their site is infringing upon a license of use and violating copyright. A website does not need to list copyright information for its content to be copyrighted!

Here’s a great article about finding and using photos from Flickr.

3. Copying Someone Else’s Design

This is a great way to cause your business to fail. Someone will find out about it, and you’ll either be asked to change it or may receive a Takedown notice. Of course, there are also some who may just take you straight to court. In many cases, though, designers and other companies will not be too happy that you used their design, and they will probably let others know about it. Expect your name to be dragged through the dirt, and forget about anything you may have established.

If you really like a design, ask your designer to take inspiration from it and use a similar aesthetic. But never, ever ask them to copy it. If you have found out that your designer has copied a design without your knowledge, you should immediately fire them and take action to change your design as soon as possible.

4. Navigation That Doesn’t Make Sense

If your navigation doesn’t make sense or is difficult to decipher, your visitor will leave. People come to your website to get information, and get it fast. If the way your site is designed is slowing them down or making them unable to do that, they will find a competitor’s site that doesn’t. Users are becoming more and more adept at finding their way around the internet, and they don’t have the patience to figure out why and how your site works differently than others.

Make sure your navigation is obvious, and take the time to organize it so that it makes sense and everything is easy to find in an appropriate hierarchy. Your web designer will be able to help you with this (and in many cases, should help you with this) if you have troubles. If you provide the pages that you need to have on your website and describe each page, your web designer should be able to help create a flow chart demonstrating a navigation that makes sense.

Related Articles

• Six Mistakes to Avoid on Your Website
• Signs of A Good Designer
• 10 Reasons to Be Skeptical of Your Web Designer

While there are many more things than this that can be an indication of a bad designer, I’ve tried to stick with things that are easy to recognize by clients, and not so much things that could be considered subjective. Dealing with design and what is good and bad can be very personal, and also relative to specific projects. So we’ll just be discussing objective skills and practices.

1. No Questionnaire or Q&A Process

I’ve spoken about how important this is briefly in other articles, but it really is one of the most important parts of the design process. There are vital questions that a designer must ask before they can begin to create anything that would be remotely successful. Even questions as simple as finding out your target audience and actions you want your visitors to take upon reaching your site. They should also be concerned with your brand and retaining the image you’ve already established. Check out our questionnaire walkthrough for an example of the questions that we ask.

If the designer you are considering does not have a questions and answers period, they are apparently not concerned with giving you relevant and successful results.

2. Awards Before Solutions

A good web designer’s sole purpose is to deliver solutions to their clients: Solving a problem like more sales, better business, or more phone calls. However, many designer’s sites advertise the awards they have won for their designs instead of talking about the solutions they provide to their clients.

While awards and being published are great prestige and a great way to tell if someone is good at making pretty things, pretty doesn’t always mean effective, and unfortunately, in a lot of cases it’s quite the opposite. A lot of designers whose main concern is to design something to win an award do not take the client’s or project’s needs into consideration.

At Camp Creative Group, we do each project completely for our clients and their specific needs. If, after the project is finished, we think it will be award-worthy or should be published, then we submit it. In fact, many of the projects we have submitted have been chosen to be published solely because they were excellent examples of designing for a target audience.

3. Everything in Their Portfolio Looks the Same

I don’t really feel like I’ve ever seen an exception to this rule (however, I am open to suggestions). As a client, you should look for a designer who is diverse in their design. This will mean that they will be better able to design something specific and relevant to your project.

Even if you are looking for a designer for something specific… Say you’re a construction company and you want to work with someone who works only with other construction companies. While the benefits to working with someone who understands your company inside and out are great, be wary if all the designs in their portfolio look the same. You don’t want your site to look like other companies in your genre – you want your site to stand out and be effective. Chances are, if they haven’t swayed yet, they won’t with your project.

4. Uses Templates

Sometimes it’s difficult to tell if someone uses templates, so this one is a little bit difficult to notice for the untrained eye (although it could be a good reason for #3 above). However, if the design just doesn’t look quite right for the content, or if colors look a little awkward, there is probably a good chance they have used a template design. I’ve even seen “designers” who use a template for their own website.

Some companies will be open about the fact that they use a template, they may even let you pick one out. Some, underhandedly, may not tell you at all and just use one instead of designing a site.

To have a truly successful site for your business, you will want to hire someone to design something to meet your company’s needs. Templates will never be able to solve problems because they were designed to solve someone else’s problems. Besides that, do you really want a website that hundreds and thousands of other unsuccessful companies have?

5. Bad Markup

Right click on the site you are on and select “View Source.” If there are lots of table “<td></td><tr></tr>” and font “<font>” tags, their coding is most likely outdated.

There are several reasons to use better markup. One being accessibility, another is that it greatly benefits SEO (however, it does not necessarily mean you will need that alone).

One of the best reasons is that when you separate your content from your design, it makes it so much easier to make changes to the design in the future. Which means that when you want to redesign later (the average website design lasts about 3 years) it will be most cost effective.

6. Your Browser’s Back Button Doesn’t Work While On Their Site

This means they’ve either disabled your back button, opened a new window, or built their website entirely in Flash (without taking necessary actions to make it work correctly). All of these things are done without consideration for usability. The back button exists for a purpose. Users need to be able to use it. If they have no consideration for users of their own website, they most likely won’t have any consideration for your website’s users.

7. You Can’t Figure Out Their Navigation

Or, it takes you a while to figure out their navigation. Navigation should be obvious. Period. There is no point to having it at all if it’s not. Users will leave your site if they can’t figure out how to get to the information that they need. There is no excuse for a designer’s website to be any different. They are trying to sell their service to you, which means you’re their target audience. If they can’t design something for their own target audience, how can you expect them to design something for yours?

8. No Biography, No Picture

The web can be a very impersonal place, but it is becoming very personal. With social media dominating, people want interactions. They want to know more about the company they will be working with and the key team members in that company. They want to see a smiling, friendly face. Most people want to decide who to work with based on the biography and picture they provide. When doing business on the web this is extremely important because normally there is not going to be any other way to invoke trust.

If someone doesn’t provide a biography or picture, I often wonder “what are they hiding.” I also wonder this when someone provides outdated “elementary school pictures” without providing at the very least a rollover change to a current picture. Instantly, I feel like I am unsure if I can trust them.

9. Banner Ads For Other Companies

While this isn’t always the case, most of the times I have stumbled upon a “web design” company’s website that has banner ads throughout it for other companies (or, worse yet, google ads), they have been hacks. Whether it is for something relevant, such as hosting, or something irrelevant. The main purpose of their site should be to sell their services. Ads on their site just show they are trying to get every little penny they can get – which shows a great deal of concern about making money and not delivering solutions.

Of course, if they have a specific hosting company that they recommend, it doesn’t mean they can’t have their affiliate banner where appropriate. However, most of the time this isn’t the case and the banners will be for several companies, and scattered throughout. The worst culprits are the ones that put put a huge horizontal banner ad right beside their own logo.

10. Splash Page

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The only place where a splash page is appropriate is on a website where you need to confirm your user’s age before they enter, or when they need to select a language. Even having an introductory video or animation is okay, but put it on the home page of your site with supporting content. If your designer doesn’t follow this rule, they are using completely outdated practices and it should be a big flag that they might not be able to give you the best advice and deliver results that will work for you.

Related Articles

• Signs of A Good Designer
• Six Mistakes to Avoid on Your Website
• Four More Mistakes to Avoid on Your Website

Branding and design is just like fashion. Potential customers will judge your company and credibility based upon how the design looks, just like people judge you based on how you dress. Design is a very important part of any business plan, and if you don’t take it seriously and use an expert, your business and/or personal brand will suffer.

Unfortunately, with design being such an over-saturated profession these days, there are many people who call themselves “professionals” who do not adhere to best-practices and many who don’t know the first thing about design principles and trends. As a result, there are so many people who end up throwing money away with these “professionals” and end up needing a design intervention, just like those on What Not to Wear need a fashion intervention.

While the process Stacy and Clinton puts the fashion criminals through is stressful, it is always worth it. It’s very similar to the process of going through a redesign for a website or brand.

Recognizing There is a Problem and Addressing It

This is normally the most difficult phase. Most people do not even realize that there is a problem with their design. Even the people around them – friends and family – may not let them know because they are being nice. But they also might not know, themselves. It is difficult to remain objective with your own or someone else’s brand that may be more personal to you.

There are also many different attitudes about appearance which parallel with Brand. Some may think, “Why do I need to spend more on the design, the idea should sell itself.” Just like they may think that their own personality should be enough to allow people to form an opinion of them. While a good product idea is a great starting point, it is imperative that you have a good design to sell it, or no one will pay any attention to it.

During this phase on the show, Stacy and Clinton sit down with the culprit and show them a video tape of what they are wearing to make them see what they look like. While this may not always be realistic, it may help to sit down with an expert and discuss problems that you are having, customer reactions, etc. Gathering data is a very good step toward finding out what needs to be addressed. There are many great tools you can implement on troublesome websites to find out who is using your site and how, even the things they are most interested in and what they look at first.

Discussing the “Rules”

Stacy and Clinton are always sure to arm the culprit with rules for when they go out shopping. Just as there are rules that should be followed in fashion, there are rules that should be followed in design and web development.

• Find someone who is an established professional. While you may find an amateur who can design well, they may not have the experience to understand specifics for your brand’s target audience. While your brand may look good, it might not be appropriate for those it is meant to appeal to. An amateur also may not practice good standards.
• Relinquish control to the professional. They know what they are doing, and remember that they are not creating a design that appeals to you, but to your target audience. If there is something that you don’t think will work, instead of offering a solution, tell them the problem and let the professional come up with the solution.
• Keep an open mind. The reason one redesigns is because something is not effective. Remain objective and helpful, and listen to suggestions from the expert.

The Physical Change

On the show, individuals are given $5000 to go out and spend on a new wardrobe for themselves, as long as they agree to turn over their current wardrobe. They then go shopping, and on the second day are joined by Stacy and Clinton for help. This process allows them to tailor their new wardrobe to the individual’s personality and create a new individual “style.”

While you won’t be designing your brand, personally, the designer you choose should be able to tailor the design to the individual product and create an individual “brand”. There are very important questions that need to be asked and answered during the design process on every project, such as product goals, target audience and company background. Without the answers to these questions, a designer cannot possibly create an appropriate design, but with them the designer will be able to create a brand that is consistent and successful.

The Realization of a New, Better Style and the Benefits

Last, at the end of the process, the individuals who participate in What Not to Wear come to a realization. They realize that they are still themselves, only better. They have a new look that represents them and they are more approachable, more credible, more beautiful.

After redesigning a brand or design for the better and fixing the problems that are holding that particular product or service back, one comes to the realization of how important a good design is, and the benefits become obvious. Beauty and style play very important parts in appeal, and therefore also play very important parts in success. With a great design, you’ll have great success.

1. Legibility

According to studies done by Jakob Nielson, the number 1 problem people have with websites is legibility. This is caused primarily by two culprits: small fonts and low contrast.

Small fonts might look good when you see that design… but their advantages end there. Don’t get me wrong, there are times when a small font is okay; for “blurbs” of a longer article (after which follows a “read more…”), for example. The problem is when small fonts are used for content in general. When your font is small and there is a lot of text, your web visitors will not read it. They will go to your website, glance over the content, and move on to the next page. Or, they’ll leave the site altogether – GASP!

As for contrast, you must make sure that the contrast between your text and the background is not making it difficult to read. Try checking out graybit.com to see how your website looks in all gray. This will give you a good idea of how difficult it may be to read in different situations (monitors, lighting, etc.) and for people who are color blind.

Rule of Thumb:

Use larger fonts to draw people in and get them interested in what you are talking about. Use small fonts for things that may not be as important. Keep it larger than 11px for body content. For contrast, utilize online tools to make sure the contrast is high enough between your text and background.

2. Splash Pages

Raise your hands – who here clicks that “Skip Intro” button as soon as they see it? Web users don’t care about a fancy show (unless that is specifically what your website is) – they want the information they came for and they want it NOW. People are so accustomed to attaining what they need quickly, patience does not exist anymore, particularly online. A Splash Page isn’t foreplay anymore – it’s a moment killer.

In fact, when you have a Splash Page, you are actually aiding in decreasing the amount of visitors who will make it to the content on your website, as some people will only get frustrated and leave. This is especially so in cases where a “Skip” button is not offered, difficult to find, or part of a Flash movie (some of your users may not have Flash and will therefore never make it to your actual site).

Splash Pages reduce credibility, hinder search engine optimization, and increase user frustration.

Rule of Thumb:

The only time a splash page is acceptable anymore is when you need to have a language/country selection page or an age confirmation page (normally seen on pornographic sites and alcohol or cigarette related sites). Otherwise, don’t bother.

“I try to tell clients that Web design should reflect the real world, and you don’t see real-world equivalents of a splash page. Think about Wal-Mart. Are you forced to wait at the front door and watch a thirty-second movie before you’re allowed to enter? No. Then why would you make your visitors wait to get inside your Web site?” (Flanders 2002)

3. Not Enough White Space

Unfortunately, not enough web developers pay attention to the importance of white space. White space is not just white, it merely is the amount of space between objects. White space is an extremely valuable tool that can be used to draw the eye, keep the user’s vision focused, and even helps to make things more visually appealing. Line height is underestimated most often, as most developers will leave the line height at a default setting.

Rule of Thumb:

Leave enough spacing between lines and elements, and utilize white space to draw the user’s eye to important elements. Don’t be afraid of white space. If your site is designed properly, there can never be enough! And as a bonus – white space improves legibility.

If white space seems to be a continuous problem, using a grid template as a guideline can help. The 960 Grid System is a great starting point.

The 12 column grid is divided into portions that are 60 pixels wide. The 16 column grid consists of 40 pixel increments. Each column has 10 pixels of margin on the left and right, which create 20 pixel wide gutters between columns.

4. Content

Too many people write their own content for their websites. While you may know your business better than anyone else, and while that should be the case, it doesn’t mean that you can write about your business so that people outside of it can understand or write most advantageously for the web.

Rule of Thumb:

Write content for your website and send it to a professional copywriter with extensive experience writing for the web to rewrite it. Don’t be afraid if they make it a lot shorter. Some key things to keep in mind with web copy is that it should be short and sweet (again, it’s that short web patience that comes into play). Say what you need to say as quickly as you can say it. Writing for the web is an art unlike any other; keeping things short while still sounding professional and being informing. A talented professional will be able to present your words in a way that will make you look better and sound more credible.

5. Movement

Some still have that crazy idea in their head that movement is the only thing that will catch people’s attention and keep them on a site. Think about it, though. You don’t want to distract them from the content they are coming there to get. Most people online today are not impressed by movement. In fact, studies have shown that most web users have grown so accustomed to seeing movement that they now ignore it completely. Why? Because there are so many ads that move. So when they see movement, they subconsciously register it as an ad.

Rule of Thumb:

Use movement cautiously in designs. Make it very subtle and gentle. Instead of keeping people’s attention with movement, choose better pictures and design your (professionally written) content more interestingly.

6. Flash

For a while, using Flash on websites was all the rage. The problem is that Flash was never intended to be used to build websites. It was meant as a supplement to content. It now is being used mostly as intended, and any creditable professional will recommend against Flash in most instances.

Rule of Thumb:

Use Flash for media intensive sites: Audio, Video, Interactive Maps and Games, but only for individual elements. Unless you own a Media or Design Firm, don’t use Flash for the barebones of your website (and even then there are usually better alternatives). One of the most important things in creating a web site is accessibility. What is the point of having a site if there is the chance that your audience will not be able to get to your content? Flash also takes away from SEO, and having a site that is created with XHTML and CSS (with separation of content and design) is much more advantageous.

Occasionally use Flash for elements on your site, but don’t forget that you can use Javascript and other programming languages to accomplish many of the same things, and Javascript can degrade very nicely (which allows your site to be viewed on browsers that may have Javascript disabled).

Resources

• 5 Easy Ways to Improve Your Web Site’s Legibility
• Sink the Splash Page
• Flash: 99% Bad
• 960 Grid System

Related Articles

• Signs of A Good Designer
• 10 Reasons to be Skeptical of Your Web Designer
• Four More Mistakes to Avoid on Your Website

Perfection: It’s in the Details

A good designer will always be aware of the small, minute details and they will not rest until everything is perfect. They will see things that may go unnoticed by someone else. For example, the height of lines of text and how that affects legibility, spacing between objects, how one color may fight with another, or a stretched image. They notice when there are too many fonts, or when the font just isn’t the right one.

This is not to say they will always be perfect. Everyone makes mistakes, and there is something to be said of being immersed in a project and having difficulty removing yourself from it. However, a good designer will care enough to constantly be, at the very least, striving for perfection.

Always Learning

There is one major thing that sets a good designer apart from the rest and that is that they realize that there is always more to learn. Unlike some professions, the world of design is always changing. The tools and technology is always improving and there are new, better ways to do things. Not only that, but the need to stay on top of trends is immensely important as well.

Although time consuming and still requiring effort on the part of the designer, Twitter and RSS feeds bring the majority of this information right to one’s doorstep, making it relatively easy to continuously learn.

Not Afraid to Leave Their Comfort Zone

A good designer will push themselves. They’ll notice when their designs are starting to look the same, and they will break the mold and try to shape their designs into something new. A good designer will always be striving to do something better and different. This will ensure that the website, logo, or other design that your designer creates for you is not a carbon copy of the one they do for another client!

Plays Well With Other Designers

Designers should be able to work and function well with other designers. They should be able to learn from others and improve themselves, seeing others’ strengths and using that to improve their own. Being a part of a design community can help designers in more ways than one, by providing inspiration, ways to learn, and support. A design community will also be able to provide objective and professional feedback to help a designer improve their designs.

Can Take Criticism

A good designer will be able to take criticism, so don’t be afraid to criticize.

Just be careful on exactly how you say it. In an episode of “Cake Boss,” a girl, unsatisfied with her wedding cake, decided she would just color it herself with icing to “prove a point.” This, of course, hurt the cake maker, because although he was willing to take her initial criticism of the cake and was, at the time, going to his employees to find out what he could do for her, he came back to someone ruining a work of art that he had put a lot into. So, criticize but be respectful of the work that the designer has already done. Just because it may not be perfect for you does not mean that it is bad or ugly.

While sometimes, as designers, we feel that some may not be fully qualified to completely criticize our work, designers still appreciate opinions and helpful comments on how we can improve things.

Improves With Criticism

This goes hand-in-hand with always learning. If a designer can take criticism and feedback and improve upon things, they’ll always be working towards being a better designer.

Listens to Clients

If your designer does not do an initial set of questions before starting on your project, something is wrong. No one can just start a logo design with a couple of words and have it be successful. There is a lot of information that must be gathered prior to the design process so that it can be taken into consideration in the design. Information about the company, demographics of the target audience, personal preferences etc.

Not Afraid to Stand Their Ground

Paralleling the above, a good designer also is not afraid to stand their ground. There is a fine art to knowing when to listen to clients and when to put one’s foot down. The client must keep in mind that they hired the designer for a reason: because they are a professional who is versed in design and knows what they are doing. If they didn’t hire the designer for that reason, then they probably hired them for the wrong one and will not have a successful design. Trust is a key part in the design relationship, and the client must trust that the designer will always do what is best for them.

Remains Transparent

A good designer owes it to their client to always remain honest and open about the project. This builds upon the required trust in the design relationship. It doesn’t stop there, however. The designer must also be honest with the other professionals that s/he works with, setting a good example, and making communications smoother and more efficient.

Knows Their Strengths and Weaknesses

Finally, any good designer should know their own strengths and weaknesses, and should accept them. They should be constantly improving on their weaknesses. And, if they are weak in an area that is not always required, then they should be willing and able to hire designers who have strengths in those areas when projects call for it.

Related Articles

• Six Mistakes to Avoid on Your Website
• 10 Reasons to be Skeptical of Your Web Designer
• Four More Mistakes to Avoid on Your Website