Hi All Just wanted to get some help around here regarding some content decisions I am struggling to make for a web design project I am currently working on. I will post some more details about the project once I get some replies coming in. Consecca
What kind of replies? "I've seen your post, it's useless, give more info?" A post like this IS completely useless - if you need help, provide as much useful information as you can - right of the bat - don't tease. It's annoying, it's useless, it lenghtens the thread for no reason, etc. etc. and so on and so forth. Learn to forum, please.
Always research your problems, Google, forums, mail-lists, &c. before posting your question. You won't look like a leech and more importantly, you may look like someone with clue and maybe an interesting problem. The folks who offer help are often those who take the problem as a learning opportunity. If you really want to appear clueful, read and absorb the lessons found in Eric S Raymond's "How To Ask Questions The Smart Way". cheers, gary
Well you said you wanted more detail right? Lol In all seriousness though thanks for your reply guys, now I know I have posted a huge post reply but please don't be scared off by that, it's just that I wanted to give as much detail as possible on my thoughts about the project and the reasons behind my sticking points. So, the client is only fictional but that's not important, the point is I am using it as a brief that I can eventually use to showcase in my online portfolio. So in terms of what the actual project is about, it revolves around a website redesign for a fictional web development and design agency. Here is a snippet taken from the brief that lays out what the task is: "You work for a design agency whose portfolio does not reflect the caliber of work it can do. As a result, the agency keeps landing projects that don't especially intrest them, much less help them move to the next level. The agency wants to attract better clients with a marketing campaign that includes a website redesign. My job : Design responsive, portfolio-centric website that inspires potential clients to call your agency." For me personally, my natural starting point was to take a ride into "googlesphere" and bookmark a ton of cool looking modern and current looking web agencies that are real and already in business. It made sense to make that my first step because I have never worked on redesigning a web agency website before, so by gathering inspiration from other web design agencies meant that I could get more familiar with the types of content these types of websites were presenting to potential clients, after looking at a ton of them you naturally start to see familiar patterns. For instance on the home page you often see the agencies portfolio of work as one of the first and highest stacked sections of their home page ( this makes sense because in order to attract more clients, they want to let there work do the talking and for a potential client looking for an agency to work with, he/she too is arguably going to be most interested in the standard of that agency portfolio more so than any other of the marketing babble on their website. My point is I can clearly see why the portfolio section is almost always one of the highest stacking pieces of content across any design agency website. The stage I am at now with the project is deciding on what content sections to include for the agency site I am working on. After I have bookmarked a high number of website inspiration, and which are similar in terms of the industry I am designing for (otherwise known as the competition) The next step I like to take is to always start with a content first approach starting at a macro high level, as in "types of content" what will those content blocks consist of in a general sense etc, and then moving slowly into the micro level of each of those content blocks as in deciding on what the actual content is going to be for each of those content blocks in the stack, text, images etc, once that is all down in black and white only then am I happy to move onto the actual "look and feel/branding" of the site, once all the content arrangement and actual content has been decided upon. Where I am starting to get really stuck with this is that when I was scanning over the many agency websites that I had bookmarked, I come across so many arrangements and inclusions of similar content sections that all looked great and "correct" so to speak but I still could not decide what would be right for my project. A project lets not forget who in the real world would have the same business goals as all these other websites. That was my first dilema, when so many arrangements seem right, how do you begin to narrow down the stacking order of content? Here is an example of a content stack I have come up with so far for the home page: (from a high macro level) Top Container (this would include the logo and the navigation) Large Hero/Jumbotron Area ( this would act as the typical attention grabbing element that you see on most websites looking to sell such services) Company Blurb/Intro Portfolio Who we are Client Testimonials Call to Action Footer This to me looked like a strong candidate for a content stack, because it did state in the brief that the company were looking to attract start up business as their ideal client. Here is another one I come up with: Top Container (this would include the logo and the navigation) Large Hero/Jumbotron Area ( this would act as the typical attention grabbing element that you see on most websites looking to sell such services) Core Services Portfolio Client Testimonials Client Trophy cabinet (this is typically a section where agencies slap a load of well known logos on there home page, to build up a reputation of trust of who they have worked with) Blog Articles Call to action Footer The is kinda where I am stuck at with this project, which I why I wrote this post so I can get some advice and help on moving it forward. The sections I am confident on including so far are the top container which holds the logo and navigation, this is a given for most websites as most include navigation and a logo, including it at the top of the pile seemed like an obvious decision as well, I have even gone as far as deciding that on desktop the links will be a presented as a horizontal row of links and then on a tablet and mobile those links will collapse into a classic hamburger menu that when clicked will display as a full screen modal overlay. The large hero area is also a given certainty for these types of websites as its generally the first part of the page where you really get to make a striking visual impact on the user, so like the top container, this is also a pretty consistent element in terms of its inclusion and placement in the stack. All I have to decide now is how my jumbotron will behave, will it be a looping video reel, a slideshow, a static image or a looping illustration animation, most agency hero elements fall into one of these four categories. still not sure which one to pick yet though. I will come back to sections that would fall around the middle zones of the stack as that is where most of my indecision lies. The footer like the top container is also another given for most websites so that again is a no brainer. I do like the idea of a nice large call to action block towards the bottom of the stack, this was another common feature that I noticed on most of the agency websites that I bookmarked and it make sense from a business perspective to have this as a must have inclusion and to have towards the bottom as a hook point to encourage potential clients to call your agency for new business. So like I said above most of my indecision lies in the middle areas, not really sure if I should include things like "core services", "client testimonials", blog articles, things like that, these kind of items are all up for debate and seem to be optional given the variety of arrangement and inclusion configurations the other sites have used, ie: does core services really need to be spelled out to clients on the home page, or could I get away with just tucking this information away somewhere on a separate services page on the website but still expect them to find and click on the section of the website to find out more for themselves? Other content sections that I have noticed on other web agency home pages include things like "why choose us" "fun agency facts" "our process" "meet out team" I could potentially include all these things on the homepage but then that would just make the webpage really really long and would just dilute the overall message. Plus throwing all those things on the homepage would just make it feel like a cheap bootstrap template for web design agencies, and the last thing I want to look like is a cheap template design, I want it to look like a real company design even if it is not. Like I say this dilemma brings me back to my original question of if they all seem to work successfully and attractively, and all of them have the same business goal of attracting new clients, how should I go about deciding on what that content inclusion should be for my fictional agency homepage and in what order that should be? Thanks for reading, I look forward to your advice and opinions. Kind Regards DK
Well - first off, I would suggest trying to think a bit outside the box - if they all "look the same", maybe what's needed is something not similar at all. Second, I would focus on code - granted, most clients won't know a H1 from a P-element, and this might seems insignificant, but if you happen to have a client who knows something about webdesign and code, it gives confidence that you know your stuff. Personally, I would probably ditch the Hero-bit - I would rather amplify the Portfolio part - maybe have a 2x3 grid of the latest projects, or best projects or something - these can even be set as a rotating slideshow if you want, maybe showing 12 projects in total (with a link to see all in the menu) - that way you show off different things you can do, quickly. I would, if you chose to keep the hero-bit, at least avoid video - this is a personal PoV,, but I HATE videos on websites - especially craptastic stuff that autoloads. They slow the site down, they provide little to no value (especially if it's just a marketing speech or similar), and only gets in the way of keyboard navigation and other page-functions. I would also drop the blog-idea - it's not really something you want to present as a huge part of a professional site - usually, blogsites run my companies and corporations are "tucked away" a bit, maybe under a subdomain, and the good ones (they're very few) are usually from companies that feel that they can provide extra value by blogging about what they do - exactly how will a blog-element benefit a design-company? Providing tips and tricks on design just benefits your competitors, or customers you want to attract, not you. Writing about new projects and similar, might not even be allowed by the clients. And so forth and so on. Core services might be a important part, especially if the company provides other services as well, apart from the general web-design bit - logo design, copywriting etc. might be what gets you in the door. A Call to action is probably good, but so is a regular contact form as well - potential customers might have questions they want answered before even getting interested, and letting them easily get in contact with the company is important. I can't stand sites that makes you look for information on how to get in contact with them, and perhaps hides an email way down on the "about the company" page.
Echoing PoPSiCLe to some extent, I would put the emphasis on solving a business problem. Businesses don't buy a pretty face. The pretty face might get you a second look, but it won't ever close the sale. Get rid of the jumbotron. It's a total waste. It can only distract the visitor from doing what he came for. He has a problem to solve and you need to show him how you can do it, show him early and show him often. "Yeah, but the market research shows ... ." It may show who your potential customers are, but the marketing dweebs get egoistic about pretty pictures and catchy product names, &c.. Talk to the sales people. Let them tell you their problems, and their customers' problems. Show them how your design company can solve those problems. Your portfolio, customer testimonials and problem/solution should be combined. IOW, show the pretty pic, outline the problem the customer had and how you solved it. Then quote a short blurb from the customer. Link to the full testimonial if available. Every folio page should link to or include a contact form, an email address and a phone number. Use only a few, say 5–7, thumbnails on the front page. Link them to a full page for each. Also link to a gallery of t-nail. Don't let your ego control the user interface. If you do, you've already screwed the pooch. cheers, gary
Thanks for both of your responses, you both make some really excellent points. Popsicle, if I could just fire back some comments based on what you suggested, starting with the hero. Hero: I would still would like to keep the hero element in there, but with a slideshow containing professional but natural images of the team at work around the studio instead of showing images of the actual work. Over the top of the images I was thinking of having a heading saying something like: ***”Hello, welcome to Kaleidoscope Studios”***, with a short but to the point leading paragraph underneath saying something like “we specialise in building online brands and engaging experiences for tech start ups” and then underneath that would be a button saying “Learn more” - which would link the site visitor to the “about page” or “services” page. Another idea was to label it “contact us” but I later decided against that because I highly doubt a customer is going to contact the agency after a few seconds of landing on the site without scrolling first to check out the rest of the site. I also think the “learn more” button is a better alternative because it will lure them into a warmer sell less aggressively than a cold "contact us now" kind of statement, in many ways i feel this is similar to your lines of thinking regarding the “call to action" section where you were saying: “potential customers might have questions they want answered before even getting interested” *Kaleidoscope Studios is just a completely made up name I thought sounded like a cool name for an web design agency. The Blog: The only reason I was thinking of including this element, especially on the home page is I thought by doing so would enhance the reputation of an agency that is trying to raise there profile in the industry. I just thought that by including a few choice articles on the home page, say a speaking event they were hosting, an award, or a major client pitch they had just scooped up, surly that is something you would want visitors to know about rather than “tuck away” would it not? Doing so would only enhance the reputation of the agency and using a blog as platform to announce this kind of news could be a determining factor in winning or losing that site visitor. What about google rankings? I thought having up to date and fresh content on the home page would give the site a higher ranking would it not? However I like the points you made against including blog articles on the home page, you make some excellent points there, my thoughts for not including it would be that it could potentially derail the attention away from the business goal of the website which is to get clients/site visitors to contact the agency, in other words I have a feeling this would detract them away from the call to action at the bottom of the website. Core Services: I totally get what your saying about letting customers know about the not so obvious capabilities of the agency, spouting off things like we do “logo design”, and can make websites responsive on the HP is a bit pointless really as i think that would be generally assumed from savvy clients. So my take on it was to instead have 3 of the 6 core services advertised on the home page with a button link to entice site visitors to view all 6. i.e.: <btn>View All Services</btn> which would link off to a separate and dedicated services page. The three on the home page would be something like: Branding Identity Web & App Development Digital Marketing ************************ Once they had landed on the services page, thats when they would see the all six of the umbrella service that they had to offer. The other 3 on the page would be: Content Strategy Ecommerce Design & User experience Call to action: That’s why I wanted to have a nice clean, bold and stand out section just before the footer of links with a message such as: Do you have a website, app or brand identity that you need help with developing? then we’d love to talk about your business. with a button link saying “Let’s talk” Clicking this button would link them off to the contact page, where they would then have the choice to ether fill out a project form with details about there project, or they if they preferred, to call the agency direct or email. I would make a conscious effort to style the phone number and email to be big, clean and bold. ************************************************************************** Kk5st If I could now respond to some of your comments as well. Hero: As I mentioned in my response to popsicle about the inclusion of this hero element. I understand what your saying about getting to the point quickly by showing the customer you can solve there problems, which is why I wanted to implement a clear call to action button into the hero area, something like “show me how” or as already mentioned “learn more” that would link off to a separate and dedicated “about page” or even better a “services page” that was my idea of getting to the point quickly and showing the customer what the agency is capable of. But let’s assume they choose not to click that button and choose to continue scrolling, maybe that is another strong reason to include a “core services” section after all, that could be seen as another opportunity for the agency to present there capabilities to het world and for a site visitor to gain a quick and to the point summary of the agencies capabilities. Portfolio/client testimonials: I like your idea of combining the portfolio, customer testimonials and problem and solution, I was thinking along similar lines. my version of that idea would be to include the client testimonials on the home page, (like I had in my first stack idea above) but within that I would include a button saying “view result” which would link the viewer off to the dedicated case study page for that particular project/client. Thats where they could learn more about the original problem, and how it was solved, the services used to solve the idea could also be listed, they too could also be linked back to the services page. At least that was my idea of a interconnecting the client testimonials, portfolio and services page. When you say every project/folio page should include a contact form, email and phone number, my interpretation of that was to include a sales line near the bottom of each of the case studies saying something like: Now you have read how we helped Company x, we want you to be our next big success story… “Let’s connect” Is that the same idea you had in mind? Thanks again guys for your input, it has really helped me shift my focus from designing just a pretty picture website to a more business focussed website with stronger emphasis on how pages would interconnect to each other and at the same time aid in funnelling the site visitor into a sales close. I very much look forward to your further responses.
A slideshow of the worker bees flitting from flower to flower does not address the visitors' concerns. You're wasting your visitors' time and your own precious real estate. Kick it to the curb and walk away; far, far away. That was the sort of thing you'd see almost twenty years ago, when the web was new and so were its developers. Just like every programming language since ever, the first program echoed or printed "Hello, World." The first html page taught was hello.html. You've done it, and once is enough. See? Your heading says nothing at all about the ensuing topic. Keep in mind that if your blurb is the same as everyone else could say, you're not saying anything. Is there a design house anywhere that is saying, "we don't build online brands and engaging experiences for tech start ups"? Your blurb has no meaning. Don't prattle. Learn more of what? So far you haven't said diddley squat. See prior comments. In a side column, show your blog titles with a brief synopsis and a link to the article. You aren't selling blog articles, so make them available if you like, but don't feature them in expensive web space. You want to enhance your image/reputation? Do good work and solicit reference letters (on their letterheads with signatures) from your clients. Again, events, &c. are not your line of business. They are supporting evidence at best. Always talk about solutions and always ask the visitor to contact you. In the web world, there are very few savvy clients. Hell, the are very few savvy web designers. There are reasons for bulleted lists. Use them. Not seeing the actual design, I am left with the feeling that the visitor is being shouted at. It's ok to use your indoor voice; more professional, too. Yeah, mostly. But, don't talk about what you want or over-hype. Simply invite your visitor to contact you for information. You're not Amazon and you're not going to make the sale off the web page. Turn the visitor into a prospect. cheers, gary
I'm mostly agreeing with @kk5st - the blurb, the slideshow of the "worker bees"... it doesn't add any value to the customer at all. It's mostly obvious stuff, and as s/he said, every design company does what you present it doing - you need to create something that's not just a rip-off of other sites, and perhaps something that will draw the user in. Presenting value to the customer, maybe even offer up free consulting to get to now what the customer needs, present former clients / solutions, and present solutions (not "this is what we can do", but "we can solve your problems by doing..."). Personally, I'm not a fan of jumbotrons/heros - they take up too much real-estate, and they provide little to no value at all - they're just there to look shiny, and while they do, they're not really adding anything the client might need. Perhaps you could utilize it to show of the latest solutions / projects? Still not sold on the blog, and as for fresh content, yes Google looks at that, but it's not just about the content, it's mostly about back-links and shares (for ranking). So it depends on what you present on the blog, what you talk about, and what value it adds. It can be utilized to give the customer extra value, of course, it just needs to be a sidenote, not a big part of the main page (I think). I would perhaps redo the core, fundamental services a little bit: If you want to split them up, I suggest using the following "above the fold": Branding & Company Identity (these can be two different things) Solution Development (avoid using web and app - you're talking to the ones making decisions, not geeks and savvy users) Design & User experience (this is a very important part of the solution, and should have a higher ranking in the hierarchy) ************************ Content (Keep it simple - you can expand on the strategy bit in the blurb about this service) Ecommerce (Smart choice, and maybe something you want to have above the fold - if you do, I suggest taking off Branding & Company Identity, and put Ecommerce at the bottom of the two remaining) Marketing (you're on a website - not really that important to specify digital) And, one last pet peeve for me: you're constantly using "there" when it's "their" - have someone proof-read your content (not that many mistakes, but that one is a bit glaring) before using the brief for your portfolio
Hi Gary Hmm quite a damming criticism on some of my ideas there, I must admit that does sting a bit, but maybe it's the kick up the arse I need to up my game and to think outside the box. So what you are saying is that most of my wording is too cliche right? thats a fair point, I can see this now you have pointed it out. In which case what is a better way of saying "what we do and who are" without sounding cliche but at the same time making it clear to the user what the agency is all about? I'm not asking you to spoon feed me a word for word heading that I can use (if you don't want to do that) , but just a good vs bad example that you have seen elsewhere on the web just so I can at least understand the difference in the wording and tone of voice and the principles behind creating great content messaging vs bad content messaging. It's a bit like when you said use your indoor voice, what did you mean by that? Again, it's a bit like when you said "invite your user to contact you" rather than talk about what you want or over hype, I'm struggling to see the differences between what I have said and a better way of wording it that is more natural, some examples would be helpful. Can you recommend any books on crafting great content strategies or marketing messaging that I could look into?
Not so much cliché, as meaningless. Clichés are clichés because they are true so very often and are overused. How about a heading such as, "Kaleidescope is a web development agency for small and medium businesses", followed by a bullet list of services? Don't, on the pain of death start throwing buzz words around. “we specialise in building online brands and engaging experiences for tech start ups” What the eff do either of those statements actually mean? You don't specialize, that's patently ridiculous. At best you try to be pretty good at the various things you do. A potential customer can smell that one a mile away. "… engaging experiences". Seriously? See above example for a good(ish) example, and your own heading for the bad. Write as if you were seated across a coffee table, simply having a conversation with a prospect. That's your indoor voice. Waving yours hands about and shouting (like obtrusive buttons) is reserved for outside. You said, How about something like "Can we help you? Let's talk." Google for writing sales letters. I did and the first link that caught my eye was 7 Tips for Writing Dynamic Sales Letters. Not everything fits the web, but what doesn't is still helpful toward the best approach. cheers, gary
Thanks Gary (again ) I get what you are saying about phrasing my content in a more human relatable way now. It will certainly make me more mindful of this when it comes to the wording of the rest of the site. Putting the content stuff to the side for a moment, Are you suggesting in all that you are saying that I go back to the drawing board to work out some user flow charts, how a prospective client might journey through the site from a 50,000 foot level and once that is worked out use that to determine my page structure?
Hi popsicle, The reasoning behind including a jumbotron/hero was to tell people in a 2 second pitch what we do, surly you would want to know straight off the bat if company "x" services are any value to you before exploring the good, would you not? and I just thought well thats why the hero/jumbotron element exists because it gives you that platform to do that, to tell the world what you are about and what you can offer, quickly and effectively.
Truly individuals get to be dither in the wake of seeing your postings for answers lolz, simply bring up the following things 1. what sort of substance choices you need to be settle 2. Whats your web design ventures? 3. What answers you hoping to get after individuals seeing your posts? then again what you are expecting ??
WORD. What do people go to websites for? The CONTENT. That's why my rally cry is "Content FIRST!" and why I consider most of what people call "design" to be goofy artsy garbage that has jack **** to do with actual design. Though honestly, @Consecca 's use of vague marketspeak gibberish and "Engrish moist goodry" lacking anything remotely resembling a coherent thought still has me baffled as to what the blazes this thread is even about. I'm really hoping that's "English as a second language" just getting in the way as if it's not... well... Doomed before you even start.