Category: Web design

While we all know that authentic design is catching up with web designers, let us take a historical look into the anecdotal evidence and the importance given to authentic design early on and how these designs evolved can reveal a lot of trends picked up in the web development now. A lot of contemporary designs have their roots deep into this historic past. What are its roots? Some of the pioneers in design like the Austrian architect, Adolf Loos had pointed way back in 1908 in an engaging essay that modern ornamentation was bland and the ornamentalist himself discarded his work with its aging, after say three years. True to his word, every work painstakingly executed loses its sheen in the eyes of the cultured man and is disposed off. Excess ornamentation is usually synonymous with compensatory behavior, something to hide a case of deteriorating quality. Evolution of modern design An insight into the advent of the steam engine can reveal a lot about the evolution of modern design. The steam engine revolutionized the idea of mass production and was no doubt an engineering marvel a couple of centuries back. Because of its invention, a lot of machines came into existence. This is mainly due to the sheer power of it harnessed, thus cutting and sculpting any substance more efficiently and with great precision. It was profitable for business owners and the idea of mechanized mass production was welcomed with open arms. The style of goods suffered as it could not match the mechanized mass production ways. This was very much evident in almost every product such as buildings, furniture, fabric and cutlery. All this was privy to the famed Renaissance era. Mechanized mass production took precedence Handcrafted products became very expensive and were reserved only for people with a lavish lifestyle. People involved in mechanized mass production blatantly imitated the historic styles rather than developing their own authentic style. These products found way into a number of categories of people because of its cheapness and affordability. Ornate mass produced products became more and more ubiquitous. Quantity took over quality and products suffered as a result of this. More insight into a trend towards ornamentation As a result of this haphazard evolution, many products that come in the market nowadays are intricately dressed and presented with ornate designs. But it should be noted that they lack in form or simply put, they do not meet the artistic standards when denuded. When this analogy is applied to skyscrapers it can reveal this disastrous trend wherein the artistic side is ignored. For example, if you peel off the outer plaster of the skyscrapers that dot the horizon, one is bound to see a lot of unfinished work which lacks in art. This may expose you to haphazard and a rough design of bricks and mortar less appealing artistically. Beauty should be exuded from the insides of the product and not the outside. A cast iron stove too with all the ornamentation costs more than a plain one. This is because of the huge emphasis laid on mechanized mass production wherein the idea of producing ornate products was not entertained and this aspect of form too took a backseat. In this aspect of design, a healthy trend towards architectural design would have been established that would give respect to the true form or the soul of the design in any product. In other words, products with ornate designs would have been cheaper and in vogue. This is not the case these days and a lot of design enthusiasts lament over this. Louis Sullivan, an architect who rightfully earned the sobriquet ‘Father of Skyscrapers’ and widely accepted as a legendary architect has to his credit many skyscrapers from the 19th century that could even now pass for a twentieth century building. His Carson Pirie Scott store originally designed in 1899 for Schlesinger & Mayer is a striking example of this aspect of designing wherein emphasis is laid on the product to look comely and attractive in the nude. This building has a lot of ornamentation on the lowest floor but the architecture from the first floor up looks strikingly modern. This is what an emphasis on form can do to a product. The intrinsic beauty of a product can do a lot of wonders to the architecture as we see in this skyscraper. German categorization of design Two German words can be used to categorize the designs. This can be the most effective way to do it. There are two types of designs: 1. Sachlichkeit This category can be explained as encompassing designs which are aptly termed as factual, matter of fact, practical or objective. The connotation of the word is rather obscure if one wants to put it in the English language. But these four words can describe it to an extent. 2. Maschinenstil This word’s English translation being Machine style, the word itself can convey a lot about this category of design. This category of products are found in railway stations, bridges, exhibition halls, steamships and the like. Here emphasis is entirely laid on the design meeting the purpose of its construction. Outward design is entirely ignored. Digital design compared to the general one A parallel can be drawn when this general design is compared with the digital one that became popular with computers. Mechanized mass production saw an increasingly evident revulsion towards form and the ornamental aspect of design gained prominence. This was particularly seen in software interfaces and websites. The use of bevels to denote file directories or buttons was in vogue. These icons were then construed as being modern. The folders too were used with images inspired from real-life. But this style did not grow as the designer’s abilities were limited because of low resolution offered by the black and white displays. All this stunted growth was in the visual aspect of design. Evolution in digital design with Apple and Microsoft With the evolution of technology in digital

Talk to any sales person and they will tell you that the number 1 rules in Sales is that the customer is “always right”. This applies to the world of ecommerce as well and that is why web designing trends are constantly being changed and enhanced in order to give the customer a better experience. Mobile integration into our lives has increased and we no longer use our smartphones solely for the purpose of calling or texting any more. The world of technology has allowed people to have the convenience of being connected no matter where we are. As technology evolves, so too do the designs that define ecommerce. Below you will find a list of trends which have surfaced in 2013 that is deemed suitable to meet the needs and wants of today’s online consumers. Focus on Mobility Smartphones these days come with more features than the previous ones and thus our dependence for mobile Internet has increased dramatically. Consumers prefer the ease of browsing websites, reading articles and more importantly, being able to do their shopping while on the go. Many designers have responded to the social media craze by creating a Facebook profile and Twitter account so their loyal customers can receive updates on their smartphones. There has been an increasing emphasis for companies to hire Application designers for their business needs. Apps such as Ebay and Amazon are available for free on both the Android and iOS operating systems. These apps create a mobile buying experience for their consumers that are both seamless and convenient. Creative Web Design is the Key If you are thinking of improving your company’s website but don’t know where to begin, then you probably start by looking at the site’s visibility. Many companies prefer to use large, high-resolution photos on their homepage and throughout their entire website. If you are trying to sell something, then you should ensure that your customers can see what it is you are trying to promote and eventually sell. Having attractive photos of your products on your site will help you with this. One thing that annoys web users the most is side scrolling. Taking the time to make sure your website will stretch and fit a browser’s window perfectly will eliminate the need to side scroll. This way, your customers will have an easier time reading all of the contents that are on a page simply by scrolling from top to bottom. In the world of ecommerce, time equals to money. This means that you will need to make sure that your customers find your website to be user-friendly and as easy to navigate as possible. Utilize the Current Tools of the Trade I had mentioned earlier in this article about companies integrating themselves into social media. This is in fact one of the biggest leverages a company could ever utilize to increase its sales volume. Not only is it super simple to set up a Facebook profile for your company or a Twitter account, you can also use it as a means to communicate directly with your customers. Ecommerce sales always begin with awareness and that can be created by posting regular updates and announcements of upcoming products on your page. Your customers will then be notified provided that they have subscribed to your Facebook page or became a ‘follower’ on your Twitter account previously. A good customer remains loyal to the company but a great customer will spread the word about your products and services. They can easily leave feedback, comments and thoughts on your Facebook page which will let others about their experience as your customer. This will help increase traffic to your website indefinitely. Personalization on a Whole New Level Customers want to feel appreciated and the best way to do that is to have your website record and remember what they have purchased in the past. Prediction is the new term for ecommerce design of the year as shoppers no longer find it sufficient for websites to recommend items solely based on what they have purchased in the past. They want to learn of items which they might actually want or need in order to improve their lives. As you commit yourself to accessing your own ecommerce capabilities, keep in mind that you should always prioritize your user’s perspectives and how you can serve them better.

With the advent of different sizes and types of multimedia devices being able to access the internet, it became very necessary for websites to automatically adapt to the display unit of the device to provide optimum viewing pleasure. This concept became colloquial as responsive web designing and turned out to be a big hit amongst mobile phone users in the last couple of years. This style of web designing enables the user’s device to display a device friendly version of the desktop site, which is usually small in size, easier to load and can be navigated swiftly. Of course, websites like these are also great to look at. Creating a responsive website is a better option than creating a separate mobile site, as it reduces the responsibilities of a website moderator to a great extent. In case of a responsive website the content has to be posted only once and the way it is displayed on desktop and other devices is automatically taken care of. Responsive web designing may make viewing websites a pleasurable experience, but it is definitely a herculean task for the web designers to plan it. We will discuss a few points which will rule out most of the difficulties faced by web designers while designing a responsive website. 1) A simple layout goes a long way in easing the design of a responsive website. This tip may have been discussed many a times before and may sound like common knowledge but it is one easy way to avoid hassles in responsive designing. Steer clear of all the complications in the HTML code and keep it as basic as possible, the same holds good for the layout. Get rid of unnecessary inline styles, complicated JavaScript and Flash videos, these consume a significant share of memory and are difficult to load on a poor bandwidth, which, let’s face it,  most mobile phones have.  Do not hesitate to remove redundant text on your website, it not only occupies space but also annoys the users. CS3 special effects may be extremely enticing but they should not be used in tricky parts of the layout, the idea is to keep the HTML as basic and as possible. 2) Maintain brevity in the Web Content. Content is a vital part of a website, and in case of responsive website it becomes all the more important to plan the priority of the content as the users hope to access the entire content of a website irrespective of the device they are accessing it from. When a responsive website is being planned the content to be published on it should be succinct and not be remotely redundant. Every piece of content should be properly examined and only then should it be given a go-ahead. The content should be prepared judiciously so that its impact on the user remains unaltered irrespective of the medium he is accessing the website through. 3) Make the most of Media Query. Media Query, as we know, is the cornerstone of responsive web designing, without this technology designing responsive websites  would be a painful task. This module of CSS3 allows a responsive website to adapt itself with various parameters associated with the device screen. Owing to this technology the screen resolution, color index, width and height of the  of the website can be regulated according to the multimedia features of the device. Using JavaScript for resolution detection can be a tricky business as most browsers do not support it and on prompted there is a likelihood of it being turned off by the users, in which case the script goes for a toss.  Media Query does not involve a convoluted and complex script, it is extremely user friendly and can be easily mastered, this upside makes this technology a huge success amongst web designers. 4)Focus on major resolution breakpoints to design your website. There are six commonly used screen resolutions and they should always be considered while designing a responsive website. Here are basic pointers which will help you in designing the layout for each resolution breakpoint: For first generation smart phones screen resolution of 480 pixel with a portrait layout is the best option. Sophisticated smart phones and iPads deliver best results with a screen resolution of 768 pixel or less. Only big tabs or a desktop can handle a screen resolution of more than 768 pixels. With tablets and big iPads it can get a little difficult to zero down on a screen resolution , as the suitable range for these devices is 768 pixel to 1024 pixel. 5) Define the maximum and minimum limits for the size of the elements in your website. When you are crafting a responsive website it is crucial to set the maximum and minimum limits for the website element to avoid inordinate changes in the shape of the website when it is displayed on extremely small or large devices. Use of a fluid layout makes a website capable to adapt itself to any kind of screen size, but it is essential to fix a limit for it and not allow to grow or shrink exponentially. To optimize the adaptability of a website to a device screen max/min limits should be set for a fluid layout media and this should be combined with media query break points. 6) Using pictures can also be a ‘fluid’ concept. Another upside of keeping a simple layout is, it eases the mobility of pictures and gives you enough room to experiment with your creativity. There are few pictures on a website which need more emphasis, this can be achieved by setting screen resolution breakpoints for alternate pictures. This tip could help you to play around with the pictures as much as you want to only if the bandwidth is not an issue. While selecting the pictures it is essential that pictures with intricate design pattern should be avoided as they tend to become hazy when displayed on a device with small screen. Restrict yourself from using

Risky marketing strategies are an out-of-the-box approach to the traditional ones. Here, the product owners do not hesitate to try anything new and push their products aggressively, even if it means for them to get embroiled in controversies or law suits. Businesses are willing to take the risks involved and get hitchhiked on their way to success. This puts your business on a war footing and your rivals on the edge of their seats, expecting the unexpected. When I say risky marketing decisions, it does not mean you need to gamble or try your lucky hand at poker. Well-calculated risks can take your business places. Many are oblivious of the change that can be effected by executing them. Let’s take a look at the possible well-calculated risky decisions that you can make in order to garner leads that can result in conversions. Needless to say, this is the main goal to strive for in any business. Examples of risky decisions that you can excel at The following decisions of marketing can be termed risky as your reputation is at stake. You can rope in people beleaguered and disgraced in the media as your brand ambassadors. They are game for it, as they want to start afresh and make amends with their fans. This way they can garner sympathy votes from their fans and you can capitalize on their situation. Being beset with difficulties and fallen from grace, they are available for their endorsements with a sizeable cut in their remuneration and can change your fortune. An example of this type of person is Tiger Woods. He was defamed and shown in bad light by the media by tapping into his personal conversations with a number of women. His love escapades had become the talk of the town (or globe to be exact). On account of this, he was vehemently opposed of being reinstated in the Pro Golfers Association (PGA). Later, after having his ‘me time’ retracting into his cocoon, the media raking in the moolah and him rendering a public apology, he was reinstated into the golf rankings, starting afresh. A small business would have capitalized in this situation, since he had no takers and thus achieve a great deal. Recently Rin (a brand name under Hindustan Unilever) publicly announced in one of its endorsements that it fares better when compared to Tide in producing whiter clothes after a wash. Immediately a war of words ensued between the detergent giants and culminated in Tide suing Rin for damages (normally names of rival brands are not mentioned in an ad). This resulted in Rin garnering all the attention of people as the televised ad was aired in the prime time slot. Personally, I too was inclined towards believing that Rin is superior compared to Tide. Whatever course the law might take, Rin has emerged the winner in luring the television audience and is amply rewarded for its risky marketing decision in that it did not fear of getting embroiled in a controversy or being filed a lawsuit. If a particular brand mocks you by mimicking or altering your brand’s slogan or punchline, do not hesitate to retort back with a selection of the choicest of words, but do not cross the line by being offensive. This type of derision is very common among multinational brands. Pepsi and Coke always slug it out for their customers. A while ago, General Motors and Microsoft were up against each other. As a reply to Microsoft’s accusation that even a pricey car of General Motors uses Windows as its Operating System, General Motors retorted back that its car’s drivers need not press the ‘start’ button to shut it down as in Windows. This General Motors’ dig at Microsoft was published in many newspapers. These are the many brands that did not budge from using the above mentioned risky strategies to increase its customer database. These brands being testimony to the success they have achieved by using risky decisions in their favour, have gained credibility in the people’s minds. This is a sure indicator that risky marketing decisions need to be taken to increase brand credibility, setting all inhibitions of marred and tarnished brand image aside.

The number of people using the internet is increasing at a phenomenal rate and with more and more people getting on the internet; it has become a perfect platform to grab attention. When it comes to marketing and advertising this community of internet users masquerade as potential customers for any kind of business hence having a website for your company is of paramount importance. Frankly, these days the need of having a website has gone beyond the realms of advertising and marketing, it has become an indispensible part of the business itself. A company could easily pass for being obsolete for not having a website. With myriads of websites cropping up every single day it has become a herculean task to make yours stand out from the crowd, until and unless it does not stand out it is not worthwhile to have a website. The importance of having a website for a start up is well realised by everyone and they strive to come up with a great website to put their start-ups on the map and propel their business to new heights. Having said so, you do not have to break your head over coming up with a groundbreaking concept for your website, all you have to do is abide by the famous dos and don’ts given below to make sure that your website fills the bill and serves the purpose. Identify your demographic Every business setup has a well defined demographic, it is very crucial to identify that community of target audience and focus on their needs and expectations rather than trying to please everyone. This could be little taxing, but its rewards are worth the pain plus it saves the extra time and effort you would have wasted trying to please everyone on the block. Once you are done identifying the target audience you can understand their taste and create a concept for the website along those lines. There are companies that focus on their potential customer to an extent of dedicating the whole website to their customers likes and this has paid off very well for them. Chalk out a launch plan: When a nascent business unit forays into a market which is already dominated by successful business units of its kind, it gets a tad difficult to carve a niche. To avoid being outshined by other companies and start-ups it is important to chalk out a launch plan for a start-up. You may go featuring ads on other famous relevant websites and create awareness amongst your target audience. It is a great way to gather publicity and advertise you web presence before it, but it may burn a hole in pocket. Nevertheless, this activity can put your website on the map and increase the web traffic by leaps and bounds. While you go about doing all the promotions make sure that you ladle out the reason why your start-up is better than other companies of its kind, almost making it sound like the prime feature of your advertising campaign. Do not forget to list out the FAQs. Answering FAQs may be the trickiest business, but having them featured on your website works like wonders. It helps you to rope in the potential customers without any hassles. While answering the FAQs make sure that you only sing songs in praise of your start-up and even if something in your FAQs alludes to a negative feedback, chew upon it, and try to make it sound favourable to your start-up. Having FAQs on your website may be like walking on eggshells, but it is one space on your website that every visitor watches out for. Visitors also have a propensity of believing all the answers mentioned in the FAQs, so it could be your chance of clearing the air about your start-up and dishing out information that you want to communicate to your customers. Interactive website are in vogue: When we plan a website we either end up flashing unnecessary information about our business, which is usually of no interest to the visitors. A website should be planned in a way to engage the visitors at it as long as possible which is only possible if it is an interactive website. This strategy is employed by most of the fast moving consumer goods companies; to help you figure the best suitable product from their existing range of products they ask you a volley of questions and even this interaction works to their advantage by making them look professional. Make sure that you do not spin the entire website around interaction with the customer, do dedicate a part of it to dish out information that you want your customers to know about your start-up. Pick the web images very carefully. Displaying pictures on your website is essential to save it from looking dull and vanilla. When you choose to display pictures be sure that they are relevant to your start-up and the necessary copyrights have been acquired. It is of utmost importance to have bought the images before displaying them on your website otherwise you could be charged guilty of stealing pictures and your website could be barred.Pictures in the home page of your website must represent your start-up in nutshell and should depict the purpose of your business rather than focussing on the products or services. In the other pages of your website you may post pictures which accentuate the content. You website needs constant attention, just like your baby. As you understand a website is your business home on the internet and needs constant attention especially when it is about a start-up. You will have to refurbish it every now and then; constant trending is a must to direct web traffic to it. To make your website successful you will have to engage yourself actively in social networking sites. This activity will not only direct traffic to your website but also advertise your start-up on social networking sites and as they say any kind of publicity

CAPTCHAs (Completely Automated Turing Tests to Tell Computers and Humans Apart) are a mechanism to detect human element in the input on websites to keep the comment boxes free from unwanted comments. A popular CAPTCHA keeps websites free from 18 million unwanted comments per day. They are crucial for the success of businesses. Before we get into further details, I would like to share a fictitious incident with you that, let us say, made me a staunch supporter of CAPTCHAs in their endeavor to keep spammers at bay and guard your website from unscrupulous and illegal activities that can mar your image. The blood curdling story Not long ago, I happened to run into a long lost friend downtown whose lively talks and attitude would light up everybody’s face with a smile. We planned to catch up with each other sometime soon and reminisce nostalgic memories from the past. With this thought, we booked a table for the two of us in an up-market restaurant and left for our respective homes. When I retired to bed the night that followed our meeting, I started to contemplate on the activities of the day and could not help thinking about this friend of mine. Wondering what could have wrought this saddening change in his attitude- from the lively person that he was to the indifferent person that he has become, I decided to probe this change from every angle possible and help him to cope with any inherent difficulties (he used to radiate an aura of friendliness before). The date concerning the up-market restaurant that we had booked drew close and meeting along the way, after exchanging pleasantries, we huddled up to the restaurant and reclined against our chairs ordering a few drinks. During the course of sipping on our drinks, I decided to break the ice and engaged him in a conversation. I started with the question of his job satisfaction. He ran amok at the mention of his job- he ekes out a living as a psychologist and runs an interactive forum discussing various psychological issues plaguing teenagers. He was at his wit’s end dealing with the ingenious ways and devious designs that the spammers would come up with, to target his website. All these traits are truly endemic to a diabolical mind. His forum was always spammed with various advertisements and the spammers would mar the image and integrity of his website with malicious and sleazy content offensive to his clients. This hindered the smooth functioning of his business and put his reputation at stake, as an eminent psychologist. I advised him not to brood over the past and mull over things that he can do to fix these problems in this age of advanced technology. Then, I convinced him to gauge the possibility of using CAPTCHAs as a savior to the plummeting number of clients that he treats to. You cannot do without CAPTCHAs This story highlights the seriousness of the damages caused by not using CAPTCHAs in your website. The spammers who cause this nuisance are criminals who are out of reach to even the long arm of the law. They are funded by organizations and people who want to manipulate online voting systems, let’s say to win some contests; they can also be roped in to boost search engine rankings and in other cases, to aggressively promote and push their products which have no takers. In order to take on these spammers and thwart their attempts to bully helpless website owners like my imaginary long lost friend in the narrated story, we have to take a look at how these spammers work and delve deeper into their shady dealings in a bid to understand their psychology. As we have looked into the incentives the spammers garner by their illegal activities, we are going to probe the possibility of using CAPTCHAs in your businesses. In the section that follows, you are going to read about the CAPTCHAs available, their drawbacks, solution to these drawbacks and the best CAPTCHA suitable to your business needs. The best CAPTCHA would be the one which incorporates these handicaps of the computer listed below: 1. A task that users are good at naturally, but computers lag behind, such as recognizing complicated visual patterns. 2. A task that users can quickly perform, but proven a daunting one for the computer 3. A task that minimizes the need for additional user input 4. A task that users with special needs such as elderly people, people with visual impairment or dyslexia and people with hearing problems can perform. CAPTCHA with text recognition This type of CAPTCHA is very popular among website users. It asks the user to type in a set of words which are displayed in a visual pattern by altering their font. It banks on the fact that bots won’t be able to recognize visual patterns depicted in it. This CAPTCHA fools the optical character recognition technology into interpreting it as something else. The drawbacks of these CAPTCHAs are listed below: 1. As these CAPTCHAs use text in its letters that are almost recognizable to the users, the text displayed in them can be totally illegible and sometimes the user too won’t be able to recognize them. 2. This CAPTCHA provides audio alternatives to users with visual impairment, but this is not worthwhile as many website users are not well versed or even familiar with the English language because the internet caters to a diverse section of people who, as a matter of fact are from far flung areas of the world- the internet is dominated by 27 percent of English speaking people, followed by 25 percent of Chinese and a lot of other language users. 3. Spammers can come up with a software that can be able to recognize the image embedded in these CAPTCHAs and can employ them in their misdemeanor. The first drawback can be overcome by providing the user with the option of another set of words on

Before we dwell into the integrities of how different web copy is from web content, let us first understand what they both mean. To highlight the difference between copy and content, we can broadly say if a website is considered as a maze, then Web Copy would be the sign boards that give you directions and web content are the small little bits the maze is made up of. Web Copy: It is that part of the website that persuades you to take action. For e.g.; “Like us @” “Leave a Comment with” or “Subscribe Now”. It is that part of the site which makes us feel as though we are having a conversation with the organization, telling us to do things and giving us suggestions. A lot many times, Web Copy subtly answers questions that we have in mind. For e.g. if we are wondering whom we can contact, we come across a message saying ‘mail us @’ or ‘you can talk to X, Y & Z’ for further queries. Making these texts catchy and placing them right is the science behind crafting a Web Copy. Web Content: All the information about the organization that is available on the website makes up for the Web Content.  Right from the page that talks about the organization leading all the way to describing the effectiveness of the after sales service, comprise the Web Content. When we say information, it is not just random figures and jargons about the company, information should be persuasive, appealing and captivating for the viewer. While being all this, content should not be too pushy or either boastful resulting in viewer’s repulsion. Differences Between Web Copy and Content The stark difference between content and copy is that while copy is almost always suggesting for some action, content gives out information that the viewer is looking for Web Content comprises of:  Information about the Company, Media, Press Clips, Videos, Product Descriptions, Executive Summary Web Copy comprises of:  On-Page Text, Blog Sites, Social Media Posts, Advanced Content (white papers, eBooks, guides) Copy has rules it needs to follow in terms of grammar and language Content has no boundaries, it can be tweaked to fit in varieties of uses Even though both of them at the end show great amount of correlation leading to increase in sales, Web Copy is what gives the organisation leads or sales while Web Content helps the viewer know everything he requires to know about the product familiarizing him to the brand What they are both capable of doing when put together Each brand, organization or institution has an exclusive mission, vision and goal. Most organizations would have developed their own culture defined through images and words which furthermore defines the organization and its offerings on the whole. When Web Copy unites with Web Content the brand is able to define its offerings in a more comprehensive and appealing manner with the help of videos, blog posts, social media websites, detailed relevant information on the websites, testimonials to show goodwill etc. Harmony between Copy and Content forms a complete package for the customers, answering almost all their queries. Web Copy and Content are also used exclusively for marketing purposes in trade shows, on bill boards, posters, advertisements and many others. Each of these marketing tools leads the customer back to the website in order to help themselves with all their queries. Hence providing a complete package with all the relevant required information on one platform is quintessential. What else they can do together: Lure more Visitors: An appealing website will lure visitors even if they are not interested in the product. But with tempting content, it can also convert the visitor into a customer. People also would like to share things they like with their friends, and if the website is truly charming, then through word-of-mouth and social media websites, your site will reach a plenty Successful repeat Visits: Due to its appealing factor, people would like to revisit the website either for reference or to share it with someone else Love at First Sight: An attractive website will make the viewer fall in love with at first glance itself! 

Before you start reading this article, I would like you to think of a font you like the best. Chances are that you are a lover of Helvetica and hence you chose to read this article, if not, you might dislike Helvetica and would like to see what this article has to offer, waiting for a chance to negate any claim made here! In either case you are free to share your comments on what you think about the famous font, but for me Helvetica has been and will always be my personal favourite. Helvetica, a sans-serif typeface font happens to be both an infamous and famous designer’s font. It is legible, eye catchy and beautiful in its own minimalist elegance. Could you think of another font which has a movie to its credit? Doesn’t this fact in itself talk about the excellence of the font! History of the Font Helvetica was crafted in 1957 by Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann with the idea to create a font which could be used by all and a font that had the most clarity. It was originally called Neue Haas Grotesk and later in 1960 came to be known as Helvetica to make it marketable friendly. From then on, one could see the font on everything he set his eyes on. Billboards, shop fronts, labels…you turn your head and you would spot the font. As years passed by, thousands of other fonts were created, but none gaining the popularity that Helvetica did. A Few Reasons Why Helvetica is Hailed as The Best Font It’s One of the Oldest Fonts: Helvetica as of today is more than 55 years old and is still going strong. Its popularity hasn’t been threatened even once in these years and is celebrated for its pedigree and longevity. Even though it is closing in on the standard retirement age, it is still widely used by most designers It has its own Movie: Ever heard of a movie based on a font? The movie, Helvetica is a feature-length documentary talking and showcasing the way fonts and type can affect a person’s life. It has also been successful in expressing the way the designers feel about the font their choices and the aesthetics behind choosing Helvetica over others. The movie has just about covered the world of graphic design, typography and how Helvetica has played a role. The movie was released as a tribute to its 50th anniversary. Unique Characteristics:  A few exceptional characteristics of Helvetica: The x in Helvetica, stands out making it easier to read even in small prints The fonts appear to have two levels to them The square looking S is a looker rounded off square tail of R The font is legible even when the viewer is in motion, making it popular amongst signage and airline logos Versatility:  Agree that all fonts are versatile in nature, but the versatility that Helvetica provides is different. Be it bold, italics or any size of font, the elegance of the font is never compromised. The font also is close to human hand writing and less robotic in nature, giving it a natural yet professional feel. Its main distinguishing feature is that the font, depending on the context, makes the writing look formal or relaxed  Simplicity: Helvetica, though sophisticated, classy and elegant is simple in nature. The font passes all tests between being archetypal, fresh, traditional and edgy. Depending on the other design elements accompanied with the font, Helvetica can be all the above. Due to the fact that it belongs to the sans serif family, it is more over looked as a fresh design, but due to its age, it is also considered as a traditional font.  Safe: If you are a beginner in the world of design, then Helvetica is what you should be using. Not being sure of how typefaces influence the already created design, Helvetica can be safely used ensuring that the look and feel of the design remains intact  Omnipresent: A lot of big brand have their logos in the Helvetica font. Even though it was widely used, the message it sends across and its professionalism is unmatched. A Few examples:  (can we have this in Helvetica…also thought if we could have the entire article in the same font, I don’t have it in my comp) 3M BASF BMW Harley Davidson Oral B Panasonic Toyota Tupperware Awards: Helvetica was ranked first in the Fontshop Germany’s   list of “Best Fonts of All Time”.  It was also the first typeface that was added to the Museum of Modern Art, situated in New York. Fonts that tried to compete with Helvetica Helvetica’s contemporaries were many, imitating it as well as competing with it, but none could match its acceptability. Helvetica’s contemporaries were Univers, Folio and M S Sans Serif. Arial happens to be the only font which almost looked like Helvetica but was in many ways different. Unknown Facts about Helvetica When the name Helvetica had to be changed from Neue Haas Grotesk, the first option was ‘Helvetia’, a Latin word for Switzerland. Eduard Hoffmann did not find it fitting to name a font after a country and hence suggested ‘Helvetica’ meaning Swiss Helvetica was originally developed for printing purposes. During those times, letters were arranged by hand on a page and then printed. The invention of the computer made life easier for printing and along came with it many other fonts. Inspite of the birth of new fonts, Helvetica lived on to be everyone’s favourite rightly claiming its place as the most preferred font especially by Holloywood producers  Why Helvetica will remain to be the Preferred Font Helvetica has no doubt become the language of marketing and commerce. Almost all the big shot brands have their corporate logo in Helvetica font. Because of the overuse of Helvetica, it has developed a sense of familiarity to an extent where it is now welcomed by all. Steve Hicks is of the opinion that due to the fonts

Talking about kids, most companies desire to create a website which is more colorful, less formal, more invigorating and a design that does not require you to follow too many rules. This kind of an opportunity is rare to come by if you are a professional web designer and if you’re clientele is mostly a corporate one requiring you to follow the norm. Kids are now more web-savvy as their access to the Internet has increased over time. They are on the lookout for better and more interesting things to do. While parents cannot hand hold kids all the time, website designers/owners must undertake the responsibility of delivering safe and child proof information to the kid accessing their website. Here are a few handy points one can lay there basis on for creating a kid’s website: 1.Use Vivid and Lively Colors Lively and energetic colors are bound to capture and grasp a kid’s attention for a longer time. A kids’ website does not have to be filled with uniform or professional colors. Contrasting shades and colors you fancied and never thought could be used can take their place in this design. The important thing is, it should create some amount of energy, attracting kids and parents to look on further. Outline a design that will perk up the users mind, making the kid want to get more absorbed in the game and something that will register in his memory so that he will come back to the same website the next time he logs in. 2.Create an Upbeat Mood  Ensure you create a happy mood all through the website. The kid should feel the positive vibes when he browses through the website, giving him more ideas to add on to something he is already at. Constructing a happy mood will also make the parent look forward to the kid engaging with the same website, having no objection to its usage. 3.Increase Interaction An interactive website will prove challenging and communicative to a kid. By allowing the kid to participate in contests, quizzes, make your own creation activities, a sense of healthy competition develops in the kid, training him for such activities even in school. This will also prepare him to face healthy competition in a balanced way. Creating opportunities to showcase the kid’s creation sets a platform to do better when given a second chance. 4.Keep Your Content Simple Keep the content simple. Do not talk down or even make it jargon heavy. Balance the images with the text. While images can speak for themselves, having no content will lure the viewer away from the page by not sharing and explaining more than what is displayed. The layout though simple should not get boring and neither should it be complex that the viewer loses his way. 5.Use Everyday Elements While designing the website, use elements that children come across in everyday life. Trees, water, kitchen vessels, animals, vehicles this will help them understand what you are showing and also will help them remember the object easier, acting as a reference image. Animating the object will serve two purposes: one, for the child to remember the newly introduced everyday object and two, it also will help him remember the object by itself. For eg: Introducing trains through talking Thomas the Tank engine will help the child remember TRAINS and it’s uses, the way it moves and what it runs on. 6.Educate while Playing If you find the moral need that you need to educate a child as well as entertain him, make this a part of your website. Feed in content that will help them learn basic things. It might be a fun way in teaching them about sea animals or educate them about the nature. Children grasp things very fast. Sharing the right information the best way for the first time is of utmost importance. Eg: The Discovery Kids website has an element of fun and education attached to it that a kid can have fun learning. While these basic rules are kept in mind, a few alterations need to take place depending on the age group of the kids the website is addressed to. By understanding the child demographic your business is catering to, you can create websites that are effective, kid-friendly and attractive.

2013 is predicted to be the Year of Responsive Design. RWD or Responsive Web Designing is an approach used to create sites that are compatible for optimal viewing experience across range of devices – i.e. from desktop computer monitors, to tablets and to even smart phones. This design is now being adapted by companies to provide a website that is easy to read and requires minimum navigation in terms of adjusting the screen to fit the device. The article proves helpful to people who are planning to adopt the concept of Responsive Web Design and also to the amateurs in creating Responsive Web Designs. What Responsive Web Designing promises: Less Maintenance: RWD gives you one site that is compatible with all sizes of devices, which means you would not require sites in all different screen sizes. This one site will have the codes of each size centralized in one area, reducing the work of having to go to each code area to make any changes in the site. Enhanced SEO combined with Easier Web Analytics: RWD provides you with one URL helping you to strengthen your SEO, unlike having one URL for each different site which diluted the SEO’s. The single URL will also help in easy tracking of your website avoiding the practice of going to each URL to pull out data. Better User Experience: Providing a site that is customized to fit the screen, no matter the size of the device provides the user a comfortable experience in navigating through the site and helping himself with the information he requires. Social Sharing: RWD makes social sharing easier and more fun. Without RWD, if a user of a big screen shares a site link with a user of a smaller screen then he would not be able to open the link to the website. But in the case of RWD, the link automatically fits itself to the small screen enabling the user to use the site. What RWD Does Not Promise at the Moment:  Technical Glitches and Introductory issues: RWB is a new concept which has just been introduced. Like any other new entry it will have its own set of rules and techniques that one person has to work with. With time, the RWD concept will grow to adjust as explored further. Implementing RWD to each person’s needs will take time with each new problem arising on its usage. Limited Creators: As RWD is a new concept, you will not find many people agile in creating the concept. But, again with time, we are sure to have more than a hands full. Key Things While Creating a Responsive Web Design Different Browser Widths: Make sure that any particular web design has atleast three versions for each browser width 320px-480px, 480px-768px, 768px+. Now with these dimensions, the website content can fit in well making it readable. Sticking onto three or more fixed layouts and adding margins whenever necessary makes it easier for you to design and implement all the changes. This is not the case in fluid scaling. But on the other hand, fluid scaling tends to provides better user experience on wider range of devices. Hide Content to the Minimum:  Decide on what content you would like the user to see depending on the device used. This does not mean that we punish the user for the device used by him. The most common techniques to ensure most of the content fits all screen sizes is to hide a footer or slider for the smallest screen. But again, this technique should be used to its minimum. Attention towards CSS Constraints: Ensure your design has page elements that have are pure CSS. This guarantees more flexibility when the pages are modified to fit different screens and also reduced the loading time. Usage of Same Content and HTML: This means that it would be better to use and reuse the same graphical elements for all the screen sizes. You could also create a graphical image for the biggest screen and then reduce the necessary elements inorder to fit smaller screens. Apart from the above mentioned, let your imagination create the design combined with coder’s skills.