One of the areas of my new job is to analyse websites for improvement. This involves looking at Google Analytics to view its performance, assessing what the visitor sees when they visit the site, and whether the design and copy works or not. Assessing Analytics Going into the Analytics of a website is a fascinating…
Guest post by Tamra Booth, Editor of Vive Magazine Combining design with marketing? Well, this is absolutely essential if you want your marketing to be effective and to deliver value for money. Magazines and newspapers are notoriously terrible at making sure their clients’ adverts are effective. How many times do you hear people say, ‘I…
This is a good example of how design should not take over from being practical. Visibility is the key to success, and it certainly wasn’t applied here: Has anyone looked at the train signs on the London to Brighton line recently? Last Saturday I was travelling late in the evening, and as the train stopped…
Travelling home from London to Brighton on Saturday in the dark, my natural desire was to look out of the window when stopped at a station to see which one it was. Instinctively I looked for the station name. Now it wasn’t during the Earth Hour so all the lights were on, but I couldn’t…
People expect clear definitions about what kind of business you are. In fact, directories have boxes that state either one profession or the other when you apply, without an option for anything else. And if you join a networking group this rule also applies. You are supposed to be either a designer, or a marketer,…
I really don’t mind giving my opinion on website design. And it’s always so nice to comment on a really good one for a change. A photographer friend of mine asked for my reaction to his new website design while it was being renovated. My first reaction was very positive, with its clean, clear, crisp…
This morning we all woke up to the news that Woolworths and MFI have gone into administration. Such well known institutions in the market place now reside in the hands of the receivers. But where did they go wrong? One idea banded around at a breakfast networking group I attended this morning was due to…
When you write about a specific subject in your newsletter, the best way is to break it down into its basic components, and explain it simply using everyday language. This exercise is more difficult than it sounds, because the idea is to make it not only interesting, but to appeal to as many readers as…
One of the most difficult things in networking is adequately describing your business so that your listener’s eyes don’t glaze over. With some networking groups you only get 60 seconds to give your pitch, which is actually a blessing in disguise. It makes you concentrate your mind on the most important parts, enabling you to…
A colleague recently showed me her portfolio, which I admired appropriately, but something didn’t seem quite right – and then I got it – there was an inconsistency of edge space, the space around the outside of each piece of work. This lack of awareness within this area of design can be disturbing, as its…
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