Category: Design

This is a situation that commonly happens: you type in a URL or click on a link somewhere and it goes to the URL only to display a 404 error. A 404 error is merely telling you that the page you are looking for does not exist where you are looking for it. In other words, a 404 error page is displayed when a web page has been moved, deleted, or when it simply does not exist. A 404 error can also be displayed when the person who is browsing is not connected to the Internet or if he or she has typed the URL incorrectly. In most cases, the links are either broken or the person who is trying to browse has typed in a wrong URL. It is a usability feature which helps to improve user experience on the website, by letting them know they have arrived at a non-existent page. Website owners can optimize 404 error pages If you are the web administrator and are looking for fixing these 404 pages, think of them as your friend. 404 error pages need not be something that should be feared and they need not be something that will send people away. Instead, think of 404 pages as opportunities to bring back people who typed incorrectly or landed on a page that they didn’t mean to. In this article, let us take a look at how you can optimize 404 error pages to boost traffic to your other pages. Convey a personalized message One of the best ways to optimize a 404 error page is by customizing the message. Instead of displaying a cold ‘The page you are looking for cannot be found’, you can change the tone and make yourself seem more approachable. You can ask your developer to display a message that is friendly and polite, such as, “Can’t find what you are looking for? Click here to learn more about us”. Or something like, “Oops, are you sure you typed the URL correctly?” [php snippet=1] Offer sitemap and search features Ensure that your visitors have access to both the sitemap and a search tool easily. A sitemap helps people to find the page they are looking for, while a search bar helps people to key in words that may be related to what they are looking for. Apologize and boost customer care The best way to boost your 404 error page is to simply apologize and ask the visitor to call you or write to you immediately. In other words, the 404 error page can be used as a call to action. 404 error pages are your friends Instead of letting 404 error pages annoy visitors, you can turn them into positive tools to enhance visitors to your landing page or homepage, get them to take action or simply develop a more positive opinion about you. In most cases, 404 error pages should be seen a usability feature more than anything else.

Creative web designers with the passion for digital art have not shied away from exploring the magic of psychedelic designs. Psychedelic art form usually comprises of abstract visual art rich with colorful and vibrant designs. The designs are ingenious and artistic in nature employing curvilinear calligraphy, spiral patterns, intense colors and groovy typography. It is common to see psychedelic art in digital format in musical concerts, murals, and light shows. With the invention of computer graphics software and tools, web artists are better equipped to use their vision to create psychedelic designs. Various 2D and 3D graphics software allow designers to experiment with image juxtapositions, draw connecting patterns etc. Evolution of psychedelic illustrations Psychedelic illustrations evolved during the 1960s and 1970s. The evolution of this art form was inspired by ingestion of psychoactive drugs like LSD and other hallucinogens that became popular to the counterculture of the 1960s influencing music, dress, language, literature, philosophy, and political and social revolution.  It also led the rise of optical art and pop art. Some of the influential designers during that era were Wes Wilson for inventing psychedelic font design, Victor Moscoso for using the concept of vibrating colors to create the psychedelic effect. These illustrations were commonly found on concert posters, album covers, comic books etc. However, the psychedelic movement was not restricted to kaleidoscopic color patterns but also defined sentiments inspired by ideas conceived with the psychedelic state of consciousness. A Case study [php snippet=1] Psychedelic website design is brilliantly used by the Moogfest website. Moogfest is a multi-day annual event to honor Robert Moog and his musical inventions. It is dedicated to the synthesis of technology, art, and music. The psychedelic design was a result of rebranding effort taken up by the company in 2014. Moog music is into designing tools and synthesizers targeted towards artists. Its design team, inspired by Robert Moog – its founder, used the same innovative spirit to contemplate its design philosophy.  It exemplifies the ideas, concepts, sounds, images, artists and technologies that influence Moog brand. Website compatibility with psychedelic designs A website design is reflective of business perception, its values, and vision. It reflects the brand value of the company, event, or an individual. Psychedelic designs may look inspiring, philosophical, and overwhelming to you. However, does it go along with your business ideology? Psychedelic design work needs a lot of creativity, time, talent and money. Graphic designers need to fully understand what you are trying to achieve with the psychedelic design. How does it impact your customers? Do they like it or feel irritated?  For instance, The Coca-Cola Company used psychedelic illustrations for their Coke and Fanta advertisements for use in both print and TVCs. The campaign being targeted at a mass audience obviously made sense to use colors and psychedelic design to exhibit happiness and cheerfulness. However, psychedelic illustrations are not considered to be professional. You should thoroughly consider your business vertical, product, customers and purpose before going ahead with this design. Unless and until, it is a very creative and niche website, it is not worth the pain to invest in psychedelic design.  

Cultural appropriation is a term that we often hear in news these days. Cultural appropriation refers to the act of using an underprivileged group’s cultural symbols by a dominant group, in order to financially exploit it. For example, when hip hop music was sung by Caucasian artists, there was cultural appropriation charges leveled against them. Why is this a problem? Dominant groups such as Caucasians often did not understand the difficulties in which hip hop music came to be. This, many non-Caucasians felt, was a free ride to success for white artists. There are of course arguments on either side. How is this relevant to technology or web designing? If you thought carefully, there is a lot that can be called as cultural appropriation. For instance, if a web designer starts making websites that are inspired by someone from a disadvantaged group but fails to give credit to them, there can be such accusations in the future. Is cultural appropriation a big problem in web designing? [php snippet=1] We feel, plagiarism is a far more serious issue in the field of web designing. A number of younger designers often copy designs of reputed designers and fail to credit them back. This can be a serious offence whenever copyright laws are applicable, and that is almost across the world. Younger designers should be very careful not to copy designs of other designers, no matter how far away or far apart they may be located from each other. Cultural appropriation is thus not a big issue in web designing. Plagiarism and failing to seek permission or pay royalties to original designers is a far more serious and punishable offence. It is should be noted that many designers do not understand that they are even being copied. A number of times, such acts go unnoticed and everyone is happy. However, as a professional group, web designers should be very wary of designers who do not remain honest or professional enough to remain original or create authentic designs. It is a professional issue that designers need to make note of. Handling plagiarism More than cultural appropriation, web designers should start worrying about remaining authentic and original. It is easy to report designers who practice unscrupulous methods to deliver projects to their clients. Unfortunately, we live in a society where it is often too common for people to steal codes and replicate designs. However, the silver lining on the cloud is, it is not possible to survive in a competitive profession if one continues to plagiarize. Only those who remain hard working and are original enough find success in the field of web designing, just like in any other creative profession. There are several ways to deal with plagiarism in the world of web designing. If you feel your design has been copied, or if you feel your designer has copied someone else’s website, you can always seek legal help. Creative work is usually protected by copyrights laws and if you are unsure about your country’s legal system, you can speak to a lawyer close to you. This will help you to find legal recourse if you have been a victim of plagiarism.

It is not just the companies or SMEs that need a website, as we have known from a very long time. Consultants and professionals too make up a large number of website owners today. This is only going to increase in number as most people may ask you for your web address or a link to your blog. Thus, a well designed professional website is a must-have for most professionals and consultants, whether they like it or not. If you find yourself unable to keep up with regular blog posts, you can always outsource your blogging to someone else. It makes sense to have a website that is consistent with today’s technology and visitor expectations. This will help you to build one on your own or ask a web designer to help you do so. At the end of the day, a professional-looking website will help you get more clients and that means you will grow professionally and financially as well. Indeed, one cannot avoid having a well-designed website anymore. In this article, let us take a look at some of the most important characteristics of a professional website. In fact, these can be thought of as golden rules to follow while developing a website for a consultant or professional. 1. Keep it simple and minimalist A professional website should never be loaded with features, buttons or information. The design should be as clean and simple as possible. Even the number of pages should be reduced to a bare minimum. Some of the most important pages that you can think of are ‘About’, ‘Contact’, ‘Services,’ and ‘Blog’. you can also choose to have a ‘notices’ page or a small box, which will help people to know if you have something important to announce, like a workshop or an event you are conducting. The content should be easy and precise too. Do not write blog posts that are overly lengthy or complex. People may feel turned off. Stick to the minimum requirements and you will do very well. 2. Have a blog It is very important to have a blog that showcases your knowledge. A blog helps you to register yourself online as a thought leader. It helps people to know that you have certain capabilities which others may not have. When you write your blog post, ensure that it is concise, clear and to the point. IT should help the reader to think, find answers and also take an action: usually to contact you for further information or a consultation. 3. Ensure the website loads quickly Many websites look great and are very well written, in terms of information. However, they lose marks in the technology department. These are the websites that load very slowly or the professional has uploaded full resolution pictures that take an awful lot of time to load. It is important to ensure that professional websites load fast as this can make or break your relationship with the visitor. Hire a seasoned web developer to ensure that your website is in order and functioning well enough. 4. Ensure the website is responsive Most visitors these days arrive on web pages using their cellphones. They may also use tablets or desktops/laptops to do so. This means, there are a number of different screen sizes when it comes to designing websites. The only solution to this problem is to have a responsive website. A responsive website automatically adjusts itself to the screen size of the visitor and will ensure that your content is displayed in the best format possible. 5. Have a picture of yourself A lot can be said about the importance of having a face picture on the website. When people look at your face, half of their doubts will be cleared. A human face humanizes websites. If it is your own website, it is very important to humanize your website and that means, adding your profile picture. Make sure you do not come as a narcissist by uploading flashy or large pictures. Profile pictures should be small enough to not distract, yet large enough to be noticed. Also, it does not matter how good or bad you look. 6. Provide contact information and links to social media profiles Most professionals fail to have functioning social media profiles. It is important to have social profiles such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook so that people can find you easily on the Internet. This will help to find you elsewhere and know that you are a real entity with friends, followers and acquaintances. This helps to build trust and warmth. Moreover, adding contact information ensures that you will be contacted if the visitor chooses to. That is, after all, the most important reason why you would have a website in the first place. 7. Update the website regularly It is understandable that a professional neither has the resources of a full-fledged company nor the time of freelancers to continuously update websites. Writing regular blog posts can become a chore even when you are probably a good writer. It is advisable to hire a content marketing team which will help you to deliver great content to your target audience regularly, without which, your website may go stale and the number of visitors dropping in will reduce. Updating also includes making sure that the rest of the information, including your contact details, are up to date. If you change your mobile number or your email address, do let your visitors know. Follow the rules and your website shall work well If you follow all the golden rules stated above, there is no reason why your website should not fetch you great results. Unfortunately, a website isn’t something that can be created and forgotten. It needs constant work and upgradations. Ensuring that you update everything regularly, including the themes and coding will make sure that your website remains functional for a very long time. After all, a website should be current and in sync with the times we are living

Black backgrounds or rather, a dark design is not something that one sees every day. Yet, it is common for certain luxury brands and authoritative entities to use a dark/black web design. Many other websites that try to use a black background can’t really pull it off. Research shows that nearly 50% of readers prefer a white background with dark text. On the other hand, only 10% preferred a black background with a light colored text. The rest of the 40% answered that it really depended on the site in question. However, one thing is for sure: people generally prefer white background over black background. It might make sense for you to choose a light colored background over a dark one because of people’s preference for the same. Nevertheless, the fact that 10% of those interviewed did mention that they like dark design is something that one must consider. One needs to find out who these people are and why they prefer a dark website over a light colored one. The answers could be many but as research shows, these people are mainly drawn towards a sense of exclusivity that black background project. There are certain times when it may make sense to use a black background more than a white one. In this article, let us take a look at when that is so. If you are a quirky business A black background sets it apart from the rest. If you have a business that is sort of quirky and cannot fit in a box, a black background may just be what the doctor prescribed for you. A dark background enhances your quirkiness and makes you stand out from the rest of the crowd. However, you will need to back up your quirkiness with actual quantity, as non-luxury and non-creative companies with black websites are looked at with a questioning thinking paradigm. If you are sure you can carry a black website, there is no harm in going ahead. Just make sure that you have something really different to offer, as a product or a service. Certain kinds of consultants Consultants are another kind of entity who might want to use black websites. There are many occult professionals, lawyers and even certain kinds of business executives who use dark backgrounds. It helps them to stand apart from the rest of their breed, effectively making them popular. It may also add to a sense of awe and mystery, which might help in getting clients who are looking for particularly out-of-the-box kind of professionals. Brands targeted at the affluent Affluence and the color black go hand in hand. A lot of big brands that are associated with luxury often have black as the background. There is already a tendency to believe that black is luxurious. When you design a website in black and ensure that it looks great, it helps to add to the affluent aura. If your product or service is targeted at the uber-rich, you might probably want to think about a dark colored website. This will help you to project wealth and prosperity. Websites that have very little content Black has a tendency to fill the void, literally. We all know how black makes things disappear even when something is kept against it. For instance, a black cloth will hide more objects than a white cloth does, according to psychological research. People were able to recollect fewer objects when they were exposed to objects on a black background than on a white background. This means, if you have very little to say and you want that little content to stand out, black can be a very good background option. To add to a sense of authority and mystery Black is always mysterious. It is also associated with a sort of quiet authority that beams from the dark hallways of a castle. It is mysterious, authoritative, beautiful and elegant all at the same time. This makes the black background a valuable design approach, that most website designers cannot take for granted. Black is heavy, and the content that will be published on it will have to bear the burden of that heavy mysteriousness. If you are ready to do so, there is no reason why you should not choose black as a background. To add visual appeal and make colors and effects stand out Black is a great way to make light and color stand out. If you have art to sell or if you are into photography, black can really help to provide the kind of canvas that may be better suited for you. For this reason alone, it makes sense to have a black background that provides a sort of quiet canvas, while the art or photography stands out on its own, without any crutches. Willingness to add a style switcher A style switcher is added into the code so that people who prefer a light background can do so by just clicking a button. This solves the problem of people preferring a lighter background over a darker one. Many websites tend to have three or different versions of their websites but it is better to just have two: a dark one and a light one. This helps to bring in uniformity and allow for fewer choices, which also means people will not be distracted by various styles for just a single website. Choose carefully and do not be whimsical All said and done, just because you like a black background does not mean you should be choosing that for your website. People may not like it and they may even be put off by the sight of a black background. Unless you are really sure you can handle a black website, it is probably a better idea to stick with lighter backgrounds. However, if you deal with products or services that need to project an image of luxury, elegance or mastery, black is the way to go.