Web Design

Common UI patterns in web design

Article Written by : How Merchant Accounts Work

Design patterns have matured greatly in the last few years. There are probably two reasons behind this. First is the proliferation of responsive design. The second is the sheer popularity of WordPress and its theme market. In a way, there is very little left in the way innovation to be found in design for a multi-screen world. It would take a shift to a medium like VR for these fundamentals to change. Here are the most common UI patterns in use today:

The hamburger menu

There is a lot of criticism of the hamburger menu. Regardless, its use has spread from mobile view pages and Android apps to any collapsed menu. It was popularized by Google’s material design guidelines.

New account creation

This is another common pattern that will have a basic information form or buttons to sign up using one of the primary social networks. Some sites break chunk the required fields into multiple pages to make it easier.

Long scroll

Thanks to the smartphones, everyone is now used to continuously scrolling down. The requirement that all important content is above the fold no longer holds true. Part of what makes this effective on the web is when the long scroll is sectioned into clear parts.

The card layout

The credit for this goes to Pinterest. Since then many interfaces have changed their layout to mimic the card layout that was used so effectively. It makes for perfect cross page scanning and the rectangular shape allows for easy arrangement of different sizes.

Landing Page Design Tips

Article Submited by Pierre Zarokian, CEO of Submit Express

The one sure way to mess up a marketing campaign would be the landing page. Primarily the mismatch message after they are taken to the website. This fundamental item causes frequent failure in peoples campaigns and costing them money off the table. The proper initial message match is when the copy or offer in your ads maintains momentum throughout the conversion funnel. There shoul be consistency from any of your PPC ads, banner ads, email messages, Facebook ads, etc, through to the landing page, then the destination website or wherever you need them to go. Of course the ad copy should be enticing them to go to your landing page in the first place.

If you break the conversion momentum you are telling your visitors they may as well go somewhere else. Maintaining your message across the campaign touch-point saves you from failing in a big way.

If you’re doing it all yourelf, that’s fine but the problem comes when different people handle different aspects of a campaign. For example, the guy sending out emails doesn’t speak to the main campaign manager who in turn doesn’t know what the PPC team is doing. If so, get everyone together and discuss the marketing plans collectively with them. Draft the campaign flow and sales funnel on a whiteboard to ensure the plan transfers to everyone on onboard without changing direction. Research and SEO practice gets your page up in rank and helps boost conversion rates more.

Another issue, over looked by many, is a lead generation form that is broken or not installed properly. Imagine spending days creating the perfect landing page then you or your guys put a form in it for lead capure, but it fails. If you’re day dreaming about all the leads coming into your inbox, then test. Other times it ends up being the autoresponder not sequenced properly or failed to engage after people sign up. Always test your landing pages to ensure anything interactive works perfectly. Even the gurus become complacent, trying to get their campaigns out fat to make money, forget to test. So, these technical aspects could mean people seeing your ads or landing page once, not being able to engage so they leave. Worse off, the next time they see the landing page, they believe it’s a cam and won’t think twice to delete it quick. Also, don’t forget how much you could lose in cash if you you were running a PPC ad for example and nothing worked.

A/B test your page. Why? In many cases color, copy, type of photo, how you ad was devised, etc, could be a factor on how customers react to what you show them. A landing page conversion rate could also run tests to compare the following things:

*Video or non
*With and without photos
*Having few, many or no testimonials
*Capture name, email or both

Why a landing page is crucial? Your website may have too many distractions and different pathways that can lead people away from the all-important sign up you are looking for. These include:-

*Navigation to your entire site leaving them confused on what you are selling
*Additional banners on other offers you placed, taking them away.
*AdSense ads, although you earn money, in the long run could have nabbed you a long time customer instead.

So, the landing page without all other distractions and a clear definition of what people will get is you first line of attack. Remember, even if they end up at your website later and don’t buy immedeatly, you got their email address for follow up action or other offers.

When dealing with potential prospects get right to the point with a no fuss landing page. No one likes to read something the length of “War & Peace”. People’s attention span is generally short. So, focus their attention with a clear and concise headline
Like a magazine cover you see in a store rack. If you’re in a hurry and the headline grabs your attention, you may pick it up, browse and end up buying just so you can read it all at your convienience for its value. Happen to you?

End of the day, good landing pages are clean focused content that don’t need common elements of a full website. It allows people to see the benefits of what you offer in a brief summarised content format and helps them make the decision to get your offer. Think of it as a poster or trailer for a summer Hollywood block buster movie. Wouldn’t you buy a ticket to go after you saw one that stirred your interest? Simply, that’s what landing pages do.

If you are interested in professional help with Landing Page Design Services, please visit www.submitexpress.com.

A List of Website Awards

Article Written by : Deka Design

Much like theater, film and television get together for a couple of nights to celebrate their best work over the past years, the internet industry also has a slew of awards that are given out to the best websites created year after year.

So, here are the best three website awards that are given for innovation and excellence in the internet industry:

1. Favorite Website Awards (FWA)
With traffic of two million visitors a month, the FWA claims that it is the most visited website award program. The FMA bases its results on these factors: Design (40%), Navigation (25%), Content (15%), Graphics (15%), and Personality (5%), and thus puts up the Site of the Day, of the Month and of the Year on their site. One more award is the People’s Choice Award that is awarded based on the online people vote.

2. Interactive Media Awards
With the objective of encouraging innovation and excellent in website design, the Interactive Media Council, a non profit organization of web developers, designers, advertisers and other web professionals seek to offer the winners a boost in marketing and exposure. The awards are annual, and the factors for deciding winners are Design, Usability, Feature Functionality, Content, and Standards Compliance & Cross-Browser Compatibility across a hundred categories.

3. WebAwards
While being one of the oldest awards for the industry dating back to 1997, the WebAwards grants annual awards to websites in 96 categories for which entries are encouraged. These entries are based on factors such as Design, Innovation, Interactivity, Content, Copywriting, Technology, and Ease of use, and are given equal weight.