5 THINGS EVERY DESIGNER SHOULD PROBABLY STOP DOING

I think the title explains what you can expect from the write up below. Stereotypes exist for a reason, patterns exist for a reason, typecast exists for a reason. At times, it’s a safe place for us designers, knowing what to expect, and how to approach a certain problem. But at times, in our pursuit to fit in, we confine ourselves too much into these stereotypes and lose our creativity and ourselves in the process. True creativity only fosters in an environment where patterns don’t exist. Below points are just a fellow designer’s observations, and needn’t be politically correct or applicable to everyone (Pray thee, don’t bring out your pitchforks, just yet). Even if you do not agree with these points, I do sincerely hope you enjoy reading it with an occasional smile and a nod!

WhatsApp Will No Longer Work On These Phones!

WhatsApp has again planned to end support for devices that are no longer important according to them. Recently, the company announced in one of its blog post that it will end support for Blackberry, Microsoft Windows, and Nokia.

It might be bad news for few WhatsApp users! As we have already seen, WhatsApp at the end of every year ends support for few number of devices. The previous year we have seen WhatsApp ending support for some outdated devices that are no longer used.

Now, it looks like the company is ending support for more devices. WhatsApp has again planned to end support for devices that are no longer important according to them. WhatsApp is now owned by Facebook and the instant messaging app is used by a majority of users worldwide.

Recently, the company announced in one of its blog post that it will end support for Blackberry, Microsoft Windows, and Nokia. So, if you are running Blackberry OS, Blackberry 10 and Windows Phone 8.0 or Older then you will no more use the app after December 31, 2017.

WhatsApp on its blog stated that “This was a tough decision for us to make, but the right one in order to give people better ways to keep in touch with friends, family, and loved ones using WhatsApp. If you use one of these affected mobile devices, we recommend upgrading to a newer Android, iPhone, or Windows Phone before the end of 2016 to continue using WhatsApp”

To recall, the company had already extended the support for both platforms in June this year. The company had also announced a list of platforms that it ceased support for in February. These included Android 2.1 and 2.1, Windows Phone 7 and also few version of iOS.

Basic Website Requirements

What are the basic website requirements that need to be considered when it comes to designing and developing your website? Optimus 01 has an extensive list of what you should know.

Your website is used as a form of advertising and it allows your potential clients to learn more about your company and the available products you have to offer however, there are certain things that your website needs, to ensure that your potential clients are happy.

Designing and developing a website should be a fun experience. Not only do you have the opportunity to put your company’s name on the very large internet map, but you also have the opportunity to put your best foot forward to potential visitors.

Basic Website Requirements for An Effective Website

• Content is the most important part of the webpage. No matter how flashy and aesthetically pleasing the website looks, without the content the website would be useless and of little value to the readers or visitors.

• Navigation is crucial when it comes to website design. Without it your potential clients would not be able to find out about you and your company. The navigation should be easy to use and clearly visible. Some examples include visible links to home pages, “About Us” and “Back” buttons.

• White space is crucial when designing your webpage. This will make it less cluttered, easier to read and manoeuvre around the website.

• Website Speed. It is important that your website loads quickly. This is one of the most important requirements when it comes to designing and developing a website. To ensure that your website downloads within 15 seconds, it is advised that you avoid excessive use of images, animations, videos, flash designs and audio.

• Branding. Your name and company logo needs to be included on every page so that the visitors know exactly where they are and what to expect.

• Consistency. Your design, font, style, content and other aspects need to be consistent throughout the entire website. Remember that keeping it simple and consistent is one of the most important basic website requirements

• User Friendly. This means that the website should be user-friendly, simple and reliable.

• Mobile Friendly. It is important that you ensure that your webpages are responsive & can be read on a variety of different browsers and screen sizes as well as on mobile and tablet devices.

For more information visit our post about:

• Website Design Do’s and Don’ts
• Website Upgrades vs Doing A New Website

Basic Website Page Requirements

Below are the 4 most important pages that your website should have, based on years of web design and development experience, and brand psychology.

1. About Us – It is astounding, the number of companies that do not have an about us page on their website. This is one of the most important pages and for a company this is one of the best pages to reach out to your clients and tell them who and what you are about.

An About Us page should usually comprise of the following:

• who we are and how long we have been in business
• what we provide summarizing the products and services
• why we are the company to deal with
• when we can assist you and information about project time lines etc.
• how to contact us and start doing business with us
• Mention some clients that have utilized your product or service, hyperlinking to their website. Essentially this is the page where you toot your horn and get visitors interested. Remember to make sure that the About Us page is written according to your company’s image for example, corporate, or relaxed etc.

2. Contact Us – There is no point in spending money on a brilliant website, if you don’t make sure of 2 things in relation to your contact us page:

• that your contact us page (link to it) is clearly and obviously visible on your home page
• that your contact us page actually works
• These 2 factors may seem quite logical but I have seen hundreds of companies whose contact us page simply doesn’t work. You take the time to find it (again note the visibility issue) and then you fill it in, press submit and you get an error notification. This is the quickest way to tell people that you are unprofessional, slack and very careless. This is also the fastest way that a visitor will decide not to use you.

3. FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) – This page is so often overlooked by website designers and developers as well as website owners alike. Yet it is probably one of the best sales tools you have on your website.

Here you can go on and on about how wonderful your product is, how brilliant it is with helping people, and how you are the best people to use for the supply thereof.

You can also assist people with understanding your product, learning about your company and above all else supplying them with information so that by the time they call you, they are already rather inclined to use your product or service as they know all about you.

4. Products – Many people take for granted the fact that their visitors know about their product or service before they enter their site. This is completely wrong!

Whilst visitors may have a general idea of what your product or service is they do not know the particulars about it in any way shape or form. So it is imperative to have a page called products (or services) and therein you provide an index page of your various products or services that you supply as well as a general short write up of each of your products.

This is a brilliant SEO tool as it assists your website with keyword density and it also gives people a quick overview of exactly what you supply and how you can serve them.

What Is Digital Marketing?

At a high level, digital marketing refers to advertising delivered through digital channels such as search engines, websites, social media, email, and mobile apps. While this term covers a wide range of marketing activities, all of which are not universally agreed upon, we’ll focus on the most common types below.

Paid Search

Paid search, or pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, typically refers to the “sponsored result” on the top or side of a search engine results page (SERP). You only pay when your ad is clicked. You can tailor your PPC ads to appear when specific search terms are entered, creating ads that are targeted to a particular audience.

PPC ads are flexible, visible, and most importantly, effective for many different types of organizations. They are also contextual advertisements—ads that appear when a person is searching for a particular keyword or term.

Search Engine Optimization

Simply put, search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing the content, technical set-up, and reach of your website so that your pages appear at the top of a search engine result for a specific set of keyword terms. Ultimately, the goal is to attract visitors to your website when they search for products, services, or information related to your business.

SEO can almost be viewed as a set of best practices for good digital marketing. It enforces the need for a well-constructed and easy-to-use website, valuable and engaging content, and the credibility for other websites and individuals to recommend you by linking to your site or mentioning it in social media posts.

67%of all the clicks are from the first 5 listings on a search results page

71%of searches resulted in a page one Google organic click.

Content Marketing

Have you heard the expression, “Content is king?” If not, you have now. Great content is the fuel that drives your digital marketing activities:

• It is a key pillar of modern SEO
• It helps you get noticed on social media
• It gives you something of value to offer customers in emails and paid search ads

Creating clever content that is not promotional in nature, but instead educates and inspires, is tough but well worth the effort. Offering content that is relevant to your audience helps them see you as a valuable source of information. On top of that, resourceful content makes it less likely that they will tune you out.

Social Media Marketing

People aren’t just watching cat videos and posting selfies on social media these days. Many rely on social networks to discover, research, and educate themselves about a brand before engaging with that organization. For marketers, it’s not enough to just post on your Facebook and Twitter accounts. You must also weave social elements into every aspect of your marketing and create more peer-to-peer sharing opportunities. The more your audience wants to engage with your content, the more likely it is that they will want to share it. This ultimately leads to them becoming a customer. And as an added bonus, they will hopefully influence their friends to become customers, too.

47%of all Internet users are on Facebook

88%of product purchases are Pintrest pinned

Email Marketing

Email has been around for more than two decades, and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon. It’s still the quickest and most direct way to reach customers with critical information. The reason is simple: Consumers are very attached to their emails. Just ask yourself how many times you have checked your email in the past hour…See what we mean?

But great marketers know that not just any email will do. Successful email campaigns must be engaging, relevant, informative, and entertaining. To succeed, your marketing emails should satisfy these five core attributes:

• Trustworthy
• Relevant
• Conversational
• Be coordinated across channels
• Strategic
• 

Mobile Marketing

As mobile devices become an increasingly integral part of our lives, it’s vital that marketers understand how to effectively communicate on this unique and extremely personal channel. Mobile devices are kept in our pockets, sit next to our beds, and are checked constantly throughout the day. This makes marketing on mobile incredibly important but also very nuanced.

From SMS and MMS to in-app marketing, there are many ways to market on mobile devices, so finding the right method for your particular business is key. Beyond the mechanisms to deliver your message, you also need to think about coordination of your marketing across digital channels and make sure mobile is a part of that mix.

Marketing Automation

Marketing automation is an integral platform that ties all of your digital marketing together. Without it, your campaigns will look like an unfinished puzzle with a crucial missing piece. Marketing automation software streamlines and automates marketing tasks and workflows. Most importantly, it measures the results and ROI of your digital campaigns, helping you to grow revenue faster.

When used effectively, marketing automation will help you gain much-needed insight into which programs are working and which aren’t. It will give you the metrics needed to speak confidently about digital marketing’s impact on the bottom line.

 

 

WhatsApp update: Tap to unblock, reply privately in groups soon

WhatsApp update: Tap to unblock, reply privately in groups soon

The Private Replies feature will let users reply privately to a person within a group.

San Francisco: WhatsApp is testing new features for its over one billion users that include tap to unblock and private replies in groups, among others.

In the latest WhatsApp Android Beta version, spotted by the popular fan website WABetaInfo, “when you want to select a contact from the Contact List, you can easily chat to blocked contacts simply unblocking them using the new action: tap and hold the cell to unblock and send a message”.

The Private Replies feature will let users reply privately to a person within a group. With this feature, you need not leave the group to reply someone.

In Group Info, WhatsApp has added a new shortcut called Invite via link, very similar to the option you can find in the iOS app.

“This is visible only to administrators,” the website said.

“In future, you will also be able to shake your device while you are in a chat to report something wrong to WhatsApp!,” the website added.

This action will open the Contact Us section, where your logs can be sent to WhatsApp to help them to investigate.

In an iOS update, WhatsApp is also working on an option that will allow users to make a group call.

“You will be able, in future, to find a new section called Admin Settings, where there will be two options: Send messages and Edit group info,” the website said.

Another “Picture-in-Picture” feature will soon let users have a video chat with their friends and simultaneously message someone else.

As businesses widely use WhatsApp to communicate with their customers, particularly in Asia, the Facebook-owned service also appears set to launch a brand new app for them.

In a new FAQ published on its site, WhatsApp revealed more details about the upcoming Business accounts like how to identify verified Business accounts from non-verified ones.

“While chatting with businesses, you can check your contact`s profile to see which type of account they`re using. A verified account has a green checkmark badge in its profile,” WhatsApp wrote in the FAQ.

The much-talked-about WhatsApp for business app is currently being tested by a private group of testers and the company will introduce it as a WhatsApp Business` a” a standalone app.

 

Source by zeenews..