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10 Principles of UX

Posted at 10 Jan 2015 , UX Design
10 Principles of UX

1. The Experience Belongs to the User: Designers do not create experiences, they create artifacts to experience. This makes all the difference.

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7 UI/UX Principles

Posted at 10 Jan 2015 , UI Design, UX Design
7 UI/UX Principles

Most of us spend 3+ hours online every day using a myriad of devices with screens that require near exclusive attention where over 1 trillion web pages and millions of mobile apps are competing for our time. To help you be effective, Fresh Consulting has selected 7 of its 50+ principles that assure your application or website is sweet and stands out from the rest.

1. Design should focus on an experience

People don’t always remember information presented, but they do remember what they feel. Advertisers focus on selling to our hearts, so why shouldn’t you? As Geoffrey James, in an Inc.com article states, “[It] is not the information itself that is important, but the emotional effect that the information has on your audience.”

This is why User Experience Design, or UX design, has become such an integral part of web and application work. It should effectively weave together a combination of text, graphics, layout and interactive elements to ensure users have an experience, not just an informational view.

With all of the complexity and quantity of information we are swimming in, differentiation matters. If you scan through today’s interfaces, they incorporate more visuals, more story and more emotion to help convey why theymatter in the sea of competitors. This brings us to our next point…

2. People scan websites, they don’t read them

Make your website scannable because users don’t read websites the way they read other material. Is it any wonder why the use of infographics has become standard fare for anyone looking to convey sets of data or instructions? Research shows that “users switch from scanning to actually reading the copy when web content helps [them] focus on sections of interest.”

Case in point, you probably are not going to read this entire article, rather scan the headlines and dive in where you want to read further. Making your interface scannable will make it simpler for today’s audiences, which brings us to our next point…

3. Users crave simplicity and clarity

It takes as little as 0.5 seconds for visitors to decide whether they are interested in a website or not, so be clear with what you want users to do. Today’s interfaces need ‘preferred actions’ to be as obvious as possible. User’s should not have to think about what you want them to do. For example, it could mean focusing visual attention on one button vs. four on your home page.

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55 Quick SEO Tips

Posted at 05 Jan 2015 , SEO
55 Quick SEO Tips

Everyone loves a good tip, right? Here are 55 quick tips for search engine optimization that even your mother could use to get cooking. Well, not my mother, but you get my point. Most folks with some web design and beginner SEO knowledge should be able to take these to the bank without any problem.

1. If you absolutely MUST use Java script drop down menus, image maps or image links, be sure to put text links somewhere on the page for the spiders to follow.

2. Content is king, so be sure to have good, well-written, and unique content that will focus on your primary keyword or keyword phrase.

3. If content is king, then links are queen. Build a network of quality backlinks. Remember, if there is no good, logical reason for a site to link to you, you don’t want the link.

4. Don’t be obsessed with PageRank. It is just one isty bitsy part of the ranking algorithm. A site with lower PR can actually outrank one with a higher PR.

5. Be sure you have a unique, keyword focused Title tag on every page of your site. And, if you MUST have the name of your company in it, put it at the end. Unless you are a household name, your business name will probably get few searches.

6. Fresh content can help improve your rankings. Add new, useful content to your pages on a regular basis. Content freshness adds relevancy to your site in the eyes of the search engines.

7. Be sure links to your site and within your site use your keyword phrase. In other words, if your target is “blue widgets” then link to “blue widgets” instead of a “Click here” link.

8. Focus on search phrases, not single keywords, and put your location in your text (“our Palm Springs store” not “our store”) to help you get found in local searches.

9. Don’t design your web site without considering SEO. Make sure your web designer understands your expectations for organic SEO. Doing a retrofit on your shiny new Flash-based site after it is built won’t cut it. Spiders can crawl text, not Flash or images.

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10 SEO mistakes

Posted at 05 Jan 2015 , SEO
10 SEO mistakes

Beginners to SEO make mistakes either because they are not aware of some factors or because they don’t understand them correctly. It is also a fact that SEO is a fast changing industry and what worked a few months ago may not work today so you need to stay educated and informed about the latest developments.

I present below what I think are the 10 most common SEO mistakes to avoid and what to do instead to give your rankings a boost.

Mistake #1: You are not using the Google keyword tool

Some people believe that by using the Google keyword tool before creating their content, they are somehow cheating. This is nowhere close the truth, it is in fact a big mistake. The Google keyword tool will give you an indication of what queries searches use to find you and by including those keywords in your article or page you make it easier for them and for search engines.

In addition, another common mistake most webmasters make is going after the popular keywords believing that they will get more traffic. The truth is that high traffic keywords are mission impossible due to the competition. Instead you should target low completion, long trail keywords that are easier to get good rankings.

You can read how I use the Google keyword tool (real examples included).

Mistake #2: You do not have unique title tags and description

This is probably the biggest SEO mistake and despite the emphasis given by both Google and Bing still some web sites do not have unique titles for each page. The most common mistakes are:

  • Having all pages under the same title
  • Including the web site name in the page title (it’s ok to do that for the home page but it’s not needed for the rest of the pages)
  • Making the title more than 65 characters in length

Descriptions should also be unique (between 150-160 characters), non-keyword stuffed and attractive to the user. A good description can increase your click through rate (CTR) and if your content delivers what promised in the description, it is more likely to have high conversions as well.

Read my seo tips for beginners article (point 1) on how to SEO your page titles and descriptions.

Mistake #3: You are not active in social media

Social media is one of the best and most effective ways to promote your web site or new content.  It is a huge mistake if you are not active in at least one social media platform. Most SEO experts agree that social signals are gaining more ground as a ranking factor and besides the SEO benefits, social media is also a good source of traffic.

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Web Accessibility

Posted at 08 Oct 2014 , Web Design
Web Accessibility

What is Web Accessibility?

Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can use the Web. More specifically, Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the Web, and that they can contribute to the Web. Web accessibility also benefits others, including older people with changing abilities due to aging.

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What is SEO

Posted at 29 Sep 2014 , SEO
What is SEO

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine’s “natural” or un-paid (“organic”) search results. In general, the earlier (or higher ranked on the search results page), and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine’s users.

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Responsive Web Design

Posted at 26 Aug 2014 , Web Design

Responsive web design (RWD) is a web design approach aimed at crafting sites to provide an optimal viewing experience—easy reading and navigation with a minimum of resizing, panning, and scrolling—across a wide range of devices (from mobile phones to desktop computer monitors).

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Why Do You Need SEO?

Posted at 16 Aug 2014 , SEO
Why Do You Need SEO?
  1. SEO Is Not A Cost But An Investment

    An investment with a high return. By tying in SEO to Web analytics data, you may observe certain keywords having great conversion rates for which you rank only on page #2 on Google and know that you’re leaving money on the table.

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Approach

We conduct initial one-on-one sessions to get a good grasp of what your unique needs, challenges, and overall goals are. We take a user-focused approach and observe your motivations and needs. During this stage we learn as much as possible about your business and identify short and long term goals. Our design team then analyzes what we have learned about your business, your audience, your goal and your budget to create a roadmap for your website project.

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Design

Our goal is to provide you and your clients with a quality digital experience. To successfully execute your web development project we have implemented a proven multi-stage workflow. Every stage of the website design process focuses on creating a clear and unique user experience for your target audience. The design team identifies areas of opportunity and structures a project proposal with our recommendations. We know time and money are important to every business-- we always strive to deliver on time and on budget.

The followings are our focus areas when preparing your project:
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Develop

We develop your website with your brand in mind and blend your style with all the components of the new site. We provide frequent checkpoints to ensure we stay on course with your visibility. Appzaar developers focus on quality, functionality and usability. The team uses its comprehensive experience to build a stable and scalable website regardless of the complexity of the project. Our web development process considers all the web design requirements of the project and implements them using the latest technologies and open content management systems (CMS).