Understanding UX & UI Design vs. Web Design
You are in charge of Marketing. Your competitor just launched a new site. And it’s good. They have case studies, testimonials, video and interactive diagrams. What’s even more disconcerting is that they are telling a compelling story with a point of view. Their copy is solid, design is modern; They got their branding right.
Your CEO is not happy, wants to see something done about it and wants results fast… but within a budget. How do you get it done?
The other day, I saw a website for an agency that uses the tagline, “We Work on Your Business, Not Just Your Website.” I related to the line’s strategic positioning and have to admit to being disappointed that I hadn’t come up with it myself.
For the most part, I’d answer yes, but at the same time, it may be inevitable.
By the time a web design trend is recognized as such, it is a fait accompli, and practically all new sites begin to look the same. Take a look at the most recent web trends such as Parallax scrolling, long scrolling pages, use of icons, full bleed images, infographics and the list goes on.
Mobility has rendered the long scrolling web page the design standard for modern websites. But does it work? By work I mean does it provide a good user experience for your visitors and do people actually scroll down to that 3rd, 4th, 5th panel and beyond? Even as someone that is creating scrolling sites, I’ve had a gut feeling that few visitors venture “beneath the fold,” just as few Google visitors venture past page one of Search results. So I did a little research to either support my instincts or cause me to reflect on my dinosaur delusions. Read more
Cruise around most neighborhoods this time of year and you’ll see people outside pruning, fertilizing, watering and planting. Like a garden, your website is a living, growing thing. Many people believe that maintaining a website is a lot of work, so we’ve brainstormed six quick ways to revitalize your website design that will improve your marketing and visitor engagement.
To avoid getting waylaid by the personal dynamics involved when two organizations join forces, it’s best to start thinking about the brand design implications, from a high level, sooner than later. Here is a checklist of considerations to help you prioritize. Read more
Sometimes when people come to us for “branding,” I quickly ascertain that what they really mean is an updated “visual identity.”
“So, you’re looking for help integrating your vision, competitive positioning, audience messaging, market perception and corporate culture,” I might ask. Just as often they respond, “I just need an update to our logo, collateral templates, PowerPoint, web design, etc.” For many, the visual manifestations of a brand are “The Brand.”
In our data and analytics driven marketing world, why would something so touchy feely, so ethereal and hard to quantify as brand personality be something you care about?
Everyone wants to be Apple. Everyone wants to, “Think Different.”
Maybe it is the function of the multi-product, multi-tasking, multi messaged nature of businesses these days but it seems that practically all of our clients share a common problem, which is how to create B2B websites that effectively speak to two or more disparate audiences — without diluting the user experience for each of those audiences. In this two-part blog post, I will address this “multi-audience” web problem, which spans brand, design, information architecture, content creation, and SEO.
B2B Branding for Multiple Web Audiences