How To Choose A Logo Designer

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Finding a good logo designer is quite a difficult task; especially when you don’t have any knowledge about logo design. The intent of this article is to help the business people who navigate the potential minefield of hiring a professional designer.

So, if you are looking for a good logo designer for your current or future projects then definitely the given below tips will helps you.

1. Experience:

First analyze the previous project of the logo designer. Don’t consider about the quantity of logos. Concentrate more on his quality. Based on that you can determine what skill level the designer have and what you can expect from him.

2. Positive Testimonials:

Next thing you have to analyze is; whether they got the positive testimonials from their previous clients and colleagues? You can check that in their web address, otherwise send an e.mail to their company and ask feedback about your designer

3. The Logo Design Process:

So, once you satisfy with others feedback then check whether they have  a logo design process. Just see whether they follow any strategy to design a logo or simply they are producing a logo without any pre-plan. Will you receive the file types needed for both web and the print at any size of reproduction. Since you are paying money you have full rights to know about all these things.

4. Achievements:

Next analyze whether they received any awards for their previous projects? Is their work is published in any journals, magazines or books? How they are recognized in the industry?

Ofcourse not all the awards have criteria that effectively indicate that their success will carry over to the client work, however it is still something that you have to keep in mind before hiring a good designer for your work.

5. Strength of portfolio:

Just see the strength of their portfolio? Have they got 100+ mediocre logo designs or 20-30 excellent ones? Just analyze the ration of real to fake logo designs. The fake logos here I refer is the logos made for imaginary companies rather than the logos made for original companies.

6. Price:

How much a logo design costs usually? This is the most generally asked question that everyone wants to know and it is the hardest question to answer. This is because every company has different demands. The best way is prepare a customized quote for individual companies.

The cost of the service is usually quite apparent of what you are going to get. So,don’t take price as the only indication.

7. Timeframe:

The creative logo design will take more time. The time taken to finish the project will usually depend on a number of factors such as their own availability, complexity etc. As I have mentioned above, the good logo will takes more time. It is not something that can finish within 48 hours or less than one week.

A typical logo will takes atleast 4-5 weeks. But this is not standard it may vary depend on the designer, complexity in the logo etc.

8. Transparency:

When hiring a logo designer you must want to know who you are hiring. What you want is full transparency of the designer. Here are indicators of good transparency:

• The personal photo of the designer should displayed openly in their websites and social profiles.
• An established blog where they write articles related to their expertise.

If the social media profiles and the blog have large fans or followers then that is the good sign. Check what other designers are saying about their work. Based on that hire that person for your project.

9. Problem Solving and Strategic Thinking Skills:

It is one of the important quality a logo designer must have. Because it is not just drawing the pictures. A professional designer will take the time to understand your business goals and use their problem solving skill to develop the most effective identity.

As a client, it is little bit difficult to identify the designer’s problem solving and strategic thinking skills. If you find your designer is conducting research and brainstorming for your project then it will be the good sign. Usually the skillful trainers use the techniques such as sketching, mind mapping etc. Because, they help to generate the most effecting design ideas.

10. Professionalism and Communication:

How do they present themselves? Whether they quickly respond to your phone calls and e.mail quickly? Do they work with a contract to protect both them and you?

11. Appropriate Questions:

A good designer should ask a different array of questions to find out your requirements and achieve your business goals. Their questions should revolve around the companies history, competitors, goals, target market, audience etc.

In a nutshell:

You should consider the following 10 points while choosing a logo designer for your company:

1. Experience and Success in previous projects
2. Positive Testimonials from their previous clients
3. Awards, Achievements, Credits, Published work etc.
4. Good Portfolio
5. Good Customer Service
6. Proper and Relevant Questions
7. Professionalism and Communication
8. Time frame
9. Transparency
10. Problem solving skills
11. Last but not least the Price.

How To Create An Organic Web Design

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Organic Web Design has recently arrived as a trend. It is commonly applied to the products such as Note- books, furniture’s, home decor and electronic equipments etc. It is not a movement, it can be diverse and frequently unusual and controversial.

The Organic web design is particularly needed, when all the activities deal with the biological products or with nature.

For eg: A business that produces honey, farm, nursery gardens, natural herbicides, natural insecticides, farm holiday center etc.

Apart from this many institutes and travel agency websites choose the natural-organic elements to highlight their attachment to the wellness and to the peace of nature.

The Organic web design is a extensive concept and can be divided into 4 categories:

1. Using abstract essences of nature:

Shapes, Colors, Materials, Brushes and Graphics that imitates the “flow” of nature. You can see this on the sites which have modern sleek graphics and a comfy natural touch.

2. Using the fabrics and materials that hint at organic elements:

The objects such as papyrus, wood, tape, burlap and muslin are used to create the web design. Because, these items are come from the natural environment and will give a natural appeal.

3. Create a whole rather than the sum of its parts:

If an image is created only by using the graphics and brushes in order to create another image, we can claim that we will get more out of the images as a whole than it’s parts (I mean graphics or brushes). It will come more usually in the negative space, as brushes may be used to fill or outline the another image.

4. A Looser translation of “organic web design”:

The organic web design is not coming from the nature alone, it is also something created (ignored) by humans. Organic in this aspect means something entirely different: it takes over the objects that are left behind by the society. For example: Old photographs, Distressed Wall paper, Ripped Clothes etc.

Tips for Good Organic Web Design:

1. Use the earthy colors:

Use the earthy colors such as deep gray-purples, olives, burnt oranges etc in your organic design. Because, they work better together without shattering the design.

You can even use cobalt blue or fire-truck red color because they are just as earthy and organic as gray and brown color. So, find these colors in a natural pattern or vintage pattern or distress a pattern that usually has these tones and utilize the same in your design.

2. Balance the colors:

If you carefully balance the elements in your design then the environment will remain stable. It is more significant especially in the organic web design. So, balance the gray tone with the more colorful ones.

3. Organic web design doesn’t mean scrapping the modern:

The organic web design doesn’t mean you have to disregard the modern impacts. You can keep your background color, complementary color or non-organic fonts etc.

Here are the few examples of organic web design:

Mobile Website – Pros And Cons

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In the upcoming years, the mobile devices will overtake the desktop computers as the primary devices to access the internet. So, it is important to have a mobile-friendly website for your business. You need to provide seamless and user-friendly experience for your clients/customers and prospects using the tablets and the smartphones.

What is Mobile Website:

It has been optimized for viewing on a mobile device (smartphone or tablet) which means, your current webpage address should reached the mobile web browser whenever the internet coverage is available. It does not mean that it will be easy to read and navigate on a mobile device with its current design. But it is significant to make your website mobile friendly.

Whenever the companies decided to build a new website they start to build in two ways. One is for desktop and another one is for mobile. The desktop site will found at your normal website URL. The mobile website is specifically built for mobile devices.

It will automatically redirected depend on from which the visitors open the website. The mobile website is nothing; but the condensed version of the desktop website. The features and content are streamlines so that the mobile visitors can get the information as quickly as possible. The pictures, videos and large documents are removed because of bandwidth limitations on visitors mobile data plans.

Like anything, the mobile devices also has its own advantages and disadvantages. Let’s have a look on it:

Advantages of Mobile Website:

• The mobile websites will works on all the app platforms like Android, iOS, Windows etc.

• It is easy to convert your current website to a mobile website. Moreover it is cheaper and faster.

• At the later stage of the development you can easily embed a mobile website into an app if you want.

• You can easily found and accessed through the internet searches and web links on a mobile browser.

• You can easily update your mobile site via your website management system.

• It will be quickly accessed within a few seconds in your mobile; since it is smaller than desktop websites and having only few files to be downloaded.

• The mobile websites don’t have a data hog. Due to that the visitors who have data plans will not be worry about the websites whether it will eat too much of their allotted data or not.

Disadvantages of Mobile websites:

• The mobile devices are not built on the native code due to that it will affect the quality and performance of your website.

• While browsing on the mobile website the phone’s feature become unavailable. You will find some difficulties in that part.

• It is quite difficult to bookmark the mobile site. As a result you need to enter the full web address every-time you are browsing through mobile.

• The full content and features of the website will never be accessible in the mobile devices.

• You will run the risk of people ending up at the wrong website address.

• Many mobile devices are emerging frequently. Due to that you need to update yourself on the top of emerging technology, so that your mobile website will know what devices to detect. Ultimately, it is time consuming and takes high cost to maintain.

An Overview Of Responsive Web Design

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According to a survey, the PC sales are decreasing in the market. In the upcoming years the smartphone and tablets will replace the PCs and Macs. Because, they are performing the same functions as PCs.

So, in future the mobile and tablets will be dominant in web browsing. The question is whether the website has respond for those devices? The answer is “Responsive Web Design”.

What is Responsive Web Design?

A web page that “responds to” or resizes itself depending on the type of device. The device may be a oversized desktop computer, laptop, tablet or smartphone. While creating the web design the designer should create the website in such a way.

It is one of the most famous trend from the past year. Many of the users are using their smartphones to view the web pages. They are more comfortable with the technology and demand more website features.

But the users have to resize the site to read the different sections on the mobile. They find hard to use the small buttons. Here is where, the responsive web design comes. In the older days, the designers are in the situation to create a separate web page for mobile version. Now, with the help of advanced technologies it is possible to maintain only one site for both computer and mobile devices.

How it is possible through Responsive Web Design?

It is definitely possible; because, the responsive web design uses the CSS media queries which helps to adapt the web page on different devices based on orientation, screen size, color capability, resolution etc.

Check how Responsive Web Design works:

If you want to check how basically the responsive web design works, just go and access the internet from your smartphone and visit some sites.

Now visit the same website on another device like tablet, or computer. You will feel the difference. You can see how the web pages change their layouts to fit on the appropriate device.

You can immediately determine whether the website is responsive or not on the web browser. For example; if you alter the web browser into a bigger size or smaller size, you will see the website’s layout refitting to the new windows size in the real time.

Benefits of Responsive Web Design:

• The Web Designers, Web Developers and User Interface Designers are extremely benefited by the Responsive web design.

• Because, they never need to spend more time to create web site and web page for every version or model of the devices.

• With the help of responsive web design; all fonts, images and other HTML elements will be scaled accurately.

• No need to go for redirects. Without the help of redirects, the user can access the page they want to see instantly

How to get started with the Responsive Web Design?

If you are a newbie, you may find difficult to create a responsive web design. Here are the few resources which helps you to build the responsive web design.

• Skeleton

• Responsive design in three steps

• Responsive web design

• Adaptive layouts with the media queries

All the four resources will guide you to create the responsive web design quickly.

Conclusion:

So, by reading this article, obviously you have learnt what is mean by responsive web design, it’s importance, benefits etc.It not only helps the web designers and developers but also helps the small businesses to promote themselves since, the number of people who purchased in online through mobile devices are high when compare with the PC users.

So, if you would like to increase your sales, then it is advisable for you to have a responsive web design for your corporate website. Many responsive web design templates are now available for the purchase. So, don’t hesitate to choose the right one for your business.

Is Responsive Web Design Is Beneficial For SEO?

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Most of the website owners are frustrated to have separate website for mobile devices or make the current website is responsive.

If your website has responsive web design then it will respond to the screen of the device and changed itself according to that. So, there is no doubt that the responsive web design is good in it’s own way.

But the question is whether it will be good for SEO? The answer is “Yes without any doubt”.

Here are few reasons, why I’m saying responsive web design is good for SEO:

1. Responsive Web Design provides better user experience:

Of course, many search engines are available, the Google plays a major role. It’s algorithm gives more weightage to the websites which has better user experience. Google measures the quality of websites based on some key-indicators which includes Bounce rate, Social Sharing and the average time a user spend on particular website.

• Bounce rate:

The bounce rate is based on the percentage of visits that enter the website and then bounce (immediately exit) before viewing any other pages on the website.

The bounce rate will be high that does not display well on the tablet or smartphone.

• Average time spent on the website by the user:

It is the important indicator of the Google. If you provide the useful content on your website then the visitor wills spend more time on your site. Based on that, Google will give ranking to your website.

• Social Sharing:

Social sharing are less; when your website is viewed on the mobile. Because, the visitor may have a perception that; there friends may have the difficulty to view the page on the mobile device. In case, if you have the responsive web design they never think like that.

Actually the responsive web design will reduce the bounce rate of your website and increase the average time spent on your website by the user. Moreover, it encourage your visitor to do the social sharing of your website. If all the three factors are correct; undoubtedly your SEO rank will be high.

2. Higher Local Rankings:

If you are targeting the local keywords for your business, then the responsive web design will increase the ranking of the website enormously.

For example:

If the visitor search for a term like “Facebook services or good web design company” the Google will identify your responsive website as being the most optimized and worthy site for placement in it’s search results.

3. Onsite SEO efforts will become more stronger:

Optimizing the website for keywords, content, link building etc requires more time and money. In case, if you fail to choose the responsive web design for your website all your SEO efforts will remain intact.

So, having a great SEO tactics along with the responsive web design will greatly increase your visibility on the search engines.

4. Never use the duplicate content:

Google takes utmost care in this aspect while ranking your website. The responsive website ensures that your content stays unique since; it only has to create once.

The webmasters who have another mobile version of the website will duplicate the content from the main website. It completely reduce your SEO efforts and make it more difficult for their mobile website to rank on the Google.

The other added advantage of responsive web design is; it entirely removes the task of updating the two sites.

5. Google encourages the Responsive Web Design:

Google recommends the webmasters to use the responsive web design. They advise to use the same HTML for all the devices like smartphones, tablets, mini laptops, ipad, desktop computers etc.

Why Google encourage the Responsive Web Design?

Because, the responsive web design have only one URL and the same HTML code regardless of the device. It makes the Google to crawl, index and organize the content easily.

Final verdict:

If you want to improve your visibility and ranking in the search engines like Google, then you must have a responsive web design for your website. Otherwise, it will difficult to succeed in your own way.

Advantages And Disadvantages Of Responsive Web                                               Design

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So, in the previous article, we have seen about what is mean by responsive web design? and whether it will be beneficial for SEO.

In this article, let me going to discuss the pros and cons of responsive web design in a detailed manner.

Without, going to much introduction, let me directly come to the point. First, let us see; what is the advantage of having responsive web design for your business.

Pros of Responsive Web Design:

1. Less Maintenance:

The responsive web design needs only one set of content. Due to that; you no need to create a separate website for every kind of devices like smartphones, iphones, blackberry phones, tablets etc.

In responsive web design the web designers using the CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) code. This code helps to swap out from the current view and can change into the viewers screen dimensions.

Once loaded, the CSS re-size the browser window (it drag the corners so it becomes either smaller or larger) and you will notice the content on the screen adjusts itself accordingly.

Since, the responsive web design has all the code for all the sites in one central area, adjustments can be done easily for any devices. It saves the money, time, manpower etc. It is one of the greatest advantage of Responsive web design.

2. Gives better user experience:

One of the main advantage of responsive web design is; it maximize the user experience on different devices. The users find it much easier to go and use the websites they are customized for the device they are using.

3. Social Sharing:

In case, if someone on a desktop computer share the links on the social networking site but the other person who browse the website cannot open that in mobile device; normally.

But in the responsive web design you never face this problem; you can easily open the link in your mobile and can share the same on the social networking sites.

4. New devices:

Since, responsive web design can easily adapt themselves according to the screen size, you need not to worry about creating a whole new site; every time a new screen sized device is introduced in the market by the manufacturer.

5. Gives good SEO:

With a responsive web design you will create only one URL for all kind of devices. Due to that your Search engine optimization will not get diluted with different URLs. So, you can easily improve the SEO ranking for your website.

6. Web tracking/analytics:

As I have already mentioned, the responsive web design uses a single URL. Due to that, instead of analyzing the data from each different websites, a single URL makes the tracking of website very easier.

7. Google endorsed the Responsive Web Design:

Recently, Google encourages the responsive web design for their mobile sites. By using responsive web design; it is easy for the Google to rank the websites in it’s search results.

Cons of Responsive Web Design:

1. Loading time:

Due to the unnecessary HTML/CSS code downloads in the mobile device the loading time is higher on the mobile. It is one of the major drawback of responsive web design.

2. Development of responsive design:

The initial development of responsive web design will takes longer time. Generally, it is much easier to create RWD from scratch than to convert an existing site.

3. Implementation problem:

The implementation of responsive web design takes a longer time than the expected time. Since it is a new concept; still some unfamiliar problems are there that we cannot fix.

4. Limited Resources:

As it is a new concept only limited resources are available. Due to that you cannot get proper solutions for unknown problems.

5. Design:

It is essential to design several layouts via wire frames with the graphic designer. Atleast, you will need minimum of two layouts, full site and smartphones.

Conclusion:

The Responsive web design is a powerful strategy in certain situations. But it is not an ultimate solution.

7 Reasons Why Responsive Web Design Is Wrong Choice For Some Businesses

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Responsive Web Design is a hot trend in the year 2013. Some people says that half of the web traffic will be delivered via a mobile in the future. In case, if your website is not optimized for mobile then the bounce rate of your website may increase.

Although the responsive web design offers many advantages to us; it is not perfect for every kind of businesses. Here are the seven strongest reason why I’m saying it is not good for all businesses.

Reason-1. Create the website for users not for devices:

Most of the web designers advised you to create a website first for the mobile devices and then for other platforms. See, actually this is a harmless advice. You first give preference for the users and then consider the platforms (i.e mobile, tablet, phablet, laptop). Bear in mind that someone on a mobile may have different needs (i.e phone number or to find directions in new places) than the same person when he is on a laptop or desktop computer (to find deeper sources).

Reason-2. Redesigning a mobile website is expensive:

Just assume; first you designed your website for mobile website and then redesign the same for desktop computer definitely it costs a lot. Apart from the cost, it definitely a tedious process to do.

It is not a matter for some great businesses; but the small business people will definitely suffer due to that.

Reason-3. Responsive Websites are slow on the mobile devices:

The loading speed matters a lot while you want to visit many number of pages for references or other purposes. Majority of the people who browse through the mobile are expect to load a website maximum of 3 seconds and about half to return to the previous pages.

Still, 85% of the Responsive mobile sites counterbalance the loading speed as much as their desktop versions because they are mobile-adapted but not mobile optimized.

In general, the responsive websites load slower on mobile especially you are trying to access the long content pages and images; definitely it hurts the SEO of your website.

Reason-4. Some Info are more important than others:

In the mobile website, you have only a small room to jumble up. Due to that you cannot provide detailed information and can highlight only some important points. This could be useful for some users but the another user may be looking for some deep resources or enthralling images or any other thing can’t find in responsive website. Eventhough it is possible, he must wait for some time until the loading is complete. This definitely will give painful experience.

Reason-5. Browsing habits on mobile are completely for some traditional websites:

Will the responsive website looks great on the Google Glass? Certainly not. The form factor is more than about width and height. It is about the context, purpose and function.

You can have my location on a mobile, are you using it? In case, if you have a multi-location business, can you order the locations by which is nearest to me? You can do; but the responsive website never do the same on it’s own. When you think about the mobile particularly rather than just another form factor, you build a better product.

Reason-6. No “Desktop View” On Responsive Web Design:

If you see the non-responsive websites always there will be an option at the bottom of the page to view in the “desktop mode” or something similar to that mode. This option allows the user view the website as it was designed for a desktop computer.

But in responsive websites, we don’t have such kind of options. Many people still prefer to view the website on the desktop design on mobile. It is a great truth for the websites that get a lot of repeat traffic.

When someone has convenient with this desktop design why should we teach them to learn new interface and why not we give the desktop view option?

7. Not sure you will get more mobile traffic to your website:

There is no warranty that you will get more traffic in the future from the mobile. It may be true for some industries like news, shopping and hospitality. But others will take more time to adjust to that. The only way is to track your mobile traffic using any analytical tools.

Final words:

Don’t bury your head on the sand! Just take the decision that make more sense to your business and not for your web designers. Before go with the responsive web design think well whether that will be apt for your business and give profit to you and then decide.

 Great Advantages Of Mobile Website Optimization

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Mobile used only for the communicating purposes are gone; nowadays apart from communicating mobile is used for many purposes such as downloading the apps, making the mobile payment, getting info from search engines and etc.. 

Introduction of smartphones made the users to do multiple tasks and also another reason is; it is flexible to handle. Within the just few clicks users can connect into the whole world.

In order to reach the maximum number of users and also to increase the conversion rate of casual visitors into the paying customers, mobile optimization is important for every companies.

It is estimated that on an average of 25-30% of the website traffic comes from the mobile devices. The advantages of optimizing the website for mobile devices are mentioned below:

#1. Easy portability and connectivity:

This is the major reason why everyone wants to browse via a smartphone or a tablet. From anywhere in the world people can easily access the website using the mobile devices; especially business people can reach their customers or audience quickly.

#2. Faster Download Speed:

By optimizing the website particularly for mobile, the downloading speed will increase which can reduce the browsing time of the people.

#3. Improved User Experience:

Mobile websites are especially designed for a mobile devices- no one wants to browse the desktop websites on their smartphones. Research shows that the mobile optimized websites will give enhanced user experience, more satisfaction and ultimately positive impression on the websites.

#4. Maximize the Average Time On the Website:

Time plays a crucial role in the online. You have only a limited amount of time to capture the attention of the visitors especially they are browsing via the mobile. This is because, most of the users are accessing the site while they are out and about on the go. So, if you provide the website with easy navigation and mobile friendly content then definitely you can increase the chance of converting the visitors into your customers.

#5. Geolocation:

By using the mobile users can find out the geolocation of the stores or the business using the map facility associated with any mobile app preferred by the users. It will indirectly increases your sale.

#6. Click to Call:

The mobile optimized websites avail the opportunity for the apps to utilize the click to call option for the users to get in touch with the businesses.

#7. Create Brand promotion:

The mobile websites helps to establish the brand loyalty among the customers; due to that their sales will increase along with the brand identification.

#8. Improved Mobile SEO:

Google is the major search engine when compare to others and if we want to improve our website SEO on Google then we must follow its guidelines. The Google recommend the webmasters to build their website as responsive. It will help to improve the ranking of the website on Google Mobile search.

#9. Advertisements:

The mobile websites are one of the best medium for the advertisements as it can reach more people through their hand-held smartphone.

10. Offline Integration:

The QR codes are mainly helpful to integrate you with the print and press media. It can be easily scanned on the mobile devices and these can then electronically translated into the information such as URL, e.mail address or simply the SMS.

#11. More affordable than the mobile app development:

Optimizing the website for the mobile devices are much easier and also very expensive than developing a mobile app for the business. The major downside of the mobile app is; you need to be formatted in different ways for different mobile devices. And also you need to download and install in order to access.

But you never face this kind of problem in the mobile optimization. Because, it works simultaneously in all kind of smartphone browsers. In case, if you want to reach maximum number of target audience then you can use both the mobile app and the mobile optimized website. It’s your wish and depend on your business.

Final Words:

Without any doubt the mobile website optimization gives more benefits and better results. So, don’t wait to optimize your website for mobile devices.