Good Web Design – For Beauty Or For Business?

Ultimateworkathomedads.com commented on an article, so I checked out his site. Looks like he has a bunch of good advice. This article is near and dear to my heart. Go read it.

I recently had someone ask me to make some changes to a site that were completely irrelevant to their business. They had no time to write the sale copy for it, and wouldn’t let me write it, but they did want me to spend my time making some ambiguous graphic changes to it. They wanted it to “pop” more and make it greener.

Don't get distracted by shiny objects, even if they are embedded objects.

I had another recent client tell me that they didn’t want any SEO at all. This site was not aimed at surfers as much as it was a back up to sales people in the field who could give out the URL and support their claims. Different business model than I’m used to, but absolutely correct for their business.

It’s best to focus on why you have a site, then only work towards those goals. Don’t get distracted by shiny objects, even if they are embedded objects. You need to gather email addresses, make a sales pitch, get people to call, or whatever you want to accomplish. Focus, focus, focus.

Let’s make it work, people. – Tim Gunn

Website Design – Beauty or Business?

What is the purpose of YOUR website?

* Are you attracting art lovers to see how great your site looks OR are you creating a business?
* Do you use lots of images and flash or do you focus on guiding the visitor to leave his or her name and email address so that you can build your business?
* Are you so creative in the look of the site that people forget why they found you and what they are doing on your site?

Is your site lost in Google’s shuffle or does the coding of your site enhance the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) automatically?

Are you asking the viewer to do several things while visiting your site and then they get confused (A confused mind always says NO) or do you have ONE purpose for your site?

Read the entire article at:
http://ultimateworkathomedads.com/gold/archives/1126

Posted in design |

New Web Design

I’ve been working on making my site a little more appealing to the small or local business owner, the people that I really want to work for. I looked at some other sites out there and this is what I came up with.

There's always a point where the improvements start to make it worse.

It seems that in every creative process, there is always something else that can be done to improve it, but there’s always a point where the improvements start to make it worse. When you’re up to your elbows in pixels and div tags, it’s hard to see when it’s really “done”.

An outside pair of eyes looking at a design is always, always helpful, no matter how good you are (or I or my designer is.)

So, with that introduction, I’d love to hear what you think of the new design. If you are reading this in the blog, then you are still looking at the old design, which is now officially the “blog design”, which is meant to be more personal and funky.

Go look at the professional site and then tell me what you think, especially tell me how it can be improved. That would really help me out. http://www.walton.com

Thanks for your feedback. (and check out the new “modal contact box” now!)

Posted in design |

Art and Money, Part Two

I’ve been thinking about what I wrote about the Greenes. I think that it is possible and even probable, to make money clinging to your one, true, pure artistic vision.

But I’ve known a lot of starving artists. Some artists are just bad. Their vision is not worth making money. They need desk jobs instead.

I've known a lot of starving artists

It’s the balance between the practical and the aesthetic. That should be the balance that you use to design your web site with also. You should make it interesting and artistic. You should have a point of view and make your statement.

On the other side, it should load quickly. It should not distract from your goal. It should communicate effectively. It should make the sale.

Art and Money are two sides to the same coin. You need both. I was wrong to say that you only need the art. You need to accomplish your goals as well, no matter what it takes.

Otherwise, you will have the most beautiful site in the world and no one will ever know.

Posted in design |

Art and Money

The New and Native Beauty: The Art and Craft of Greene

I visited “The New and Native Beauty: The Art and Craft of Greene and Greene” at the Huntington Library today. It was a rainy day, but the exhibit closes in 2 days, so this was our last chance. The rain kept the riff raff out, so it was not crowded and it was a pleasant experience.

Greene and Greene

The thing that struck me about what I saw today was how their ideas and ideals were forced upon their clients. They had the audacity to believe that they were artists and that their clients should appreciate that. Is the customer always right? Uummm…yeah, kind of.

When they were building the Pratt house in Ojai, the owner complained about missed schedules and cost overruns. Anyone who’s built a web site knows how that works. Their response was that even though they appreciated the frustration of the owner, what he was getting was not just house, but a work of art, which takes time and effort to complete properly and would be well worth it in the end. I’ve seen the house and it’s magnificent. I’m not sure Mr Pratt was satisfied.

During the depression, they still made magnificent houses, but not as many. They still charged the same high prices. They were creating art and it could not be achieved with shortcuts.

The balance between the business and the creative process was a delicate one. In their case, the business suffered in service to the art, finally being dissolved in 1922. What they achieved has stood the test of critics and time and is as amazing today as it was then. They created a whole new way of building houses, with a new attitude behind how life should be lived in these houses.

Is it worth it to sacrifice business for art? I don’t know. I need to pay the mortgage and eat, but beyond that, maybe art is the greater calling. Were they self indulgent, self centered, and egomaniacal? Maybe. So is Steve Jobs and I love my iPhone. He’s a billionaire.

As much as our users need to be considered in our web design, we, as the developers, the creators of the web site, need to instill our passion, our vision, our knowledge of how things SHOULD be into every web site. As much as I love SEO and WordPress and AdSense and marketing, our one true goal, our pure artistic vision, needs to be embodied in our web sites. Maybe there’s art in SEO. Maybe marketing is an art too.

Gamble House, Pasadena, CA

I think that as we lose the need for money, as we let that go and accept being poor, in the pursuit of artistic vision, in the pursuit of our passion, of what we love and know is the best, I think that then, and only then, does the money seem to come back in response. As we push it away and turn towards the artistic ideal, somehow, the money seems to be attracted back to that ideal. Maybe that’s a little too idealistic, too simplistic, I mean there’s always the lottery, but it does seem to be a tendency in life.

Don’t let the pursuit of money ruin your passion. Don’t let worry cloud your vision. Be who you are and the money will follow.

In 1943, in retirement, Charles Sumner Greene said “I did not always give them what they wanted, but always what they liked.

Posted in design |

When Should I Use A Splash Page?

If you ever have a link that says “Skip Intro”, then you need to remove the page that contains that link. There’s no question or debate about this. The ONLY time I would ever do that is if you are promoting a video game or a movie. The only time ever.

Have you ever heard anyone tell you about a really cool splash page?

What good does it do if your website has the most beautiful web pages ever designed, but it doesn’t convince people to engage with your organization?

They don’t happen as much as they used to, but there are still websites out there that are more of an art project than effective promotion tool.

I’ve seen some splash pages that were a just monument to the web designers Flash and CSS skills. Designers love this stuff, but it’s the users that you need to worry about. Have you ever heard anyone tell you about a really cool splash page that they saw?

Regardless of your designer’s technical prowess or if the pressure is coming from some management above you, resist the temptation to use a splash page.

Just say no.

Posted in design |

Jeffrey Zeldman Presents : Is your (website’s) underwear showing?

Years ago, I set my browser’s default background color to gray, the shade of gray that the original Mosaic used. Since then, I’ve been shocked at how many sites don’t specify a background color.

Write this down. Specify a background color for your site.

Jeffrey Zeldman Presents : Is your (website’s) underwear showing?

It's astounding how many web designers forget to specify a background color on their site.

It’s astounding how many web designers forget to specify a background color on their site. They’ll spend months iterating wireframes and design comps; write CSS hacks for browsers predating this century; test their work on everything from Blackberries to old Macs running System 7; and of course they’ll validate their markup and style sheets. But after all that, they’ll forget to apply a background color to their site, and they won’t think to check for it.

Read the entire article at Jeffrey Zeldman Presents : Is your (website’s) underwear showing?

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