3rd
August 2010
Writing for web is, in many ways, actually easier than writing for print. You can be a little more colloquial with your language even if working for a major company, simply because the general tone of the entire internet is a free-and-easy one, where everything tends to be approachable. It makes life easier, not being tied to the hard and fast rules of grammar and punctuation, and it makes for an easier read when that kind of starchiness is removed.
As a writer, you’ll have developed a digital style that’s perfect for readers familiar with the relaxed atmosphere of online copy and you’ll have worked on this by reading as many blogs, webpages and online articles as you possibly can, because that’s the way to get it right.
But when it comes to grabbing an audience, traditional means can often fail when viewed in the online environment. A catchy post header and follow-up strapline will work wonders to hook a reader in when they read a hard-copy magazine, but on a computer monitor or an iPhone display, a traditional layout can tend to look blocky and to some extent impenetrable. Because of that problem, your best solution is to break text up, bullet-point like a trigger-happy but coherent soldier and signal to your audience when you’re going to move from topic to topic.
Below are a few article layout ideas you can use to instantly make copy more web-functional, and provide an immediately appealing layout that should, if the copy is engaging, reel readers in like willing fish on a hook. They also provide a good starting point for writing, because going into a piece without an idea of how you’re going to structure it can be a nightmare, even at the best of times.
Lists
Everybody loves a top ten. It takes us back to our childhood, listening to the charts and deciding what singles to buy with our pocket money. We make lists of our favourite movies, we watch endless Channel 4 specials which create hierarchies of the best stand ups, the best sitcoms, the best whatevers… So take a tip from magazine editors and TV producers, and start making your own lists. If you’re working for a gadget company, avoid writing a rambling thesis on the best affordable digital cameras. Compile a list of the best on the market. Rate your findings to add value. Come up with an overall winner and make a sub list of the three worst.
When seeing a Top 10, a Top 20 or a Top 100, a reader’s instant reaction is to want to know what made it to the top – and by that point they’re already deep into your text.
News
A major flaw of many online arenas is a total lack of news. The value of updates on a chosen topic is very often underestimated. Which is baffling, because news stories can keep a website vital and vibrant, and online discussion is always easier to ignite if the topic is a current one.
These updates don’t have to be exclusives, or even from the same day’s morning papers. They can be your thoughts, or your company’s thoughts, on an ongoing issue in the news. They can be a reaction to an interview you saw in the paper at the weekend. They can be Youtube embeds of news videos that will affect your company or your customers. So long as it’s recent, fresh and worthy of discussion, it should go up as posting this stuff will boost your keywords, encourage discussion and keep your website fluid.
Galleries
Particularly good for sites looking to profit from traffic, galleries guarantee that viewers will click through from page one to page ten without even thinking about it. Add some commentary – wry, informative or link-heavy – alongside your piccies and you suddenly have a worthwhile article out of nowhere. The only possible issue here is one of image rights – so source responsibly and you’ll get results from a simple collection of jpgs.
Reviews & Previews
Where people love fresh news, they also increasingly look online before buying music, choosing a holiday destination or picking an evening movie. There are infinite numbers of review sites out there, but all the same, if yours are good enough you can get yours noticed. Whatever your chosen topic, write about stuff that is fresh and in demand. Ensure that what you write about has a guaranteed hoard of Google-happy fans and find ways to direct them to your post.
Even better, if you’re signed up to the right kind of press agencies, get yourself down on the CC lists of PR companies so you can actually get news of upcoming products at the same time as – or even ahead of – the competition. Previews of massively in-demand projects will always drive masses of traffic to a site, because when people are excited about something, they’ll always want to read about it and will trawl the web for even the slightest of information. If you provide even a grain of that information, you’ve guaranteed yourself some traffic.
Questions
Finally, if you have yourself a guaranteed readership and a crowd who regularly comment, it’s time to wheel out the total immersion social media interaction. By asking questions of your readers in a forum kind of way, you’re encouraging people to use your site as a medium for discussion and the importance of that is overwhelmingly huge. When they engage with one another in your backyard, they’re familiarising themselves with your branding. They’re actively aligning themselves with your state of mind and they’re telling you that they’re happy to be associated with whatever product or idea it is that you deal in.
So ask questions of your people. Open-ended questions are the best, because then – by offering no opinion yourself and by demanding that they expand on a vague proposition – you’re essentially inciting them to babble. So grab a newsworthy topic, fashion a very much wide-open query out of it and then wait for the answers to come. Chip in yourself in the comments area, then sit back and watch the traffic rise.
This was a guest post from Liam Tucker of EWM. Want to write for the BaseKit Blog? – Drop us an email.
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3rd
August 2010
As an eager designer you’ll always want to improve the way people perceive and think about design, especially your designs. This is always great as design in itself is an ever changing industry, but what would happen if you came across a situation where you were asked to stifle the creative edge and stick to the guidelines?
Now granted this is not the case in most situations, I highly doubt that at some point in time you’ll be asked to get by in design with limited or no creativity. After all, isn’t it our creative flair that is one of the reasons we’ve been sought out by our client?
Anyway, let’s say for example you have a client that comes to you and they need your help in building a helpdesk design solution. Help desk and forums are two good examples, as you rarely see many changes in the two conventions. Normally with any other project you would meet with your client or the development team and talk about color schemes, functionality, goals, user experience and sketch out a couple of solid wireframes.
Your goal as the designer is to keep this system as simplistic as possible and for you to have plenty of fantastic examples out there to help keep you in the right mind-set.
One of these examples that has been an astounding success is Facebook. Have you ever really taken the time to sit back and notice the overall design of the network? Outside of the blue vs white color scheme, the design really lacks any imagination behind it. One of the goals of the conventional design is to shift the main focus towards the content so that you are not overwhelmed by all of the information you receive whilst looking at something visually complex. This creates a very easy readability across all age gaps.
Forums thrive on the thread system, and no matter which forum you browse you’ll notice their familiar information architecture with multiple levels. And what is another thing you’ll usually notice?
A focus on the content over the design. The functionality is the king of the hill because if something were to happen to the exchanges taking place in the forum, I’m sure the hosts would receive some less than desirable feedback.
Certain elements have slightly changed as time has moved on, but you can still recognize them. Such as certain icons and different elements of a website. For instance the RSS icon or recognizing a form. Although forms may be organized differently from site to site, you will still know where and how to input your data. Additionally you’ll be able to recognize search elements as well as shopping carts. Creating a familiar look and feel to a commonly present object in your design maintains the simplicity and readability.
Keeping things ‘in the box‘ for once won’t always be a bad thing. You’ll still be able to flex your creative muscles, just in different contexts.
This post was written by Joshua Rapp of Rappsody Studios creating modern beautiful and usable websites. Want to write for the BaseKit Blog – get in touch!
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2nd
August 2010
The first in a new series covering the leading lights on Twitter. Here are the people to follow on the micro-blogging site whose updates we consider a cut above the norm – whether they link to brilliant content that all news providers and web-addicts should get first dibs on, provide their own great content for others to view or even if they’re just able to be LOL funny in just under 140 characters.
We’ll give you a heads up so that you can go to their profile and click the ‘follow’ button, safe in the knowledge that they really are part of an elite group of Tweeters worthy of a your time.
One thing, however – don’t expect a follow-back from any of these folk. They’re all far too busy to be wasting their time mucking about with responses in 140 characters. As most find out soon enough, the celebrated tend to go to Twitter more to be heard than to engage socially.
Having said that, we’ll also be adding Tweeters who aren’t necessarily famous out side of the Twittersphere, so read on and get following.
It’s obvious, it’s accepted, it’s almost cliché, but if you’re not following Fry, then you’re not following the site’s most famous Uncle. Formerly one half of Fry and Laurie, Stephen Fry’s been working his way to national treasure status by way of brilliant performances in Blackadder and a number of decent films – and by now he’s pretty much set himself up as everyone’s introduction to Twitter.
One of the first demonstrations of Twitter’s power, for many people, occurred when Fry became stranded in a motionless lift and communicated that problem, with photos taken on his iPhone, to the world at large. This minor incident served as a lesson in how Twitter can be used to report news instantly to a massive readership, and there’s an argument that this one elevator palaver actually kickstarted the Michael Jackson and Iran election reportage that followed. A true Twitter pioneer.
Sample Tweet: Oh lor. O crikey. Heckamighty. Lumme. Cripes and botty. *gulp*
(sent during the England v Slovenia game, World Cup 2010)
A massively-respected film critic for the Chicago Sun Times, Ebert has also worked in TV and is considered a critical God in America. His website is worth a look alone, but he also shines on Twitter.
As well as linking to his latest reviews, since having his lower mandible removed due to cancer, Ebert has been pounding his keyboard heavily ever since, in constant communication with his followers. Whether he’s telling you about the latest review or his latest medical news, his tweets and links are at once touching, amusing and sweet.
Sample Tweet: Woody Allen picks the six best woody Allen Films, and is wrong. http://dld.bz/j5Hq
Known to comedy fans as the character Dwayne Bensey in Spaced, or as the creator of Look Around You, and even known to sci fi fans as the voice of Darth Maul, the man with the intensely hard to spell surname is a man of many talents, but for me, Twitter is where he really shines.
Serafinowicz seems to use Twitter as a notebook for storing half-ideas and one-liners. A quarter of the time these are unremarkable, but far more often than not he comes out with some absolute gems – often asking his followers for inspiration in the form of bizarre questions and single word muses.
Sample Tweet: The bottom line is this: the crease between the buttocks
If you’ve not heard of David Lynch, then I despair. Seriously, if the name doesn’t even ring a vague bell, you should probably get hold of Blue Velvet, Eraserhead, Wild At Heart, Twin Peaks, Mulholland Drive, Inland Empire and every other masterpiece he’s made in the world of cinema, watch them, then come back here…
…Back? Good. So David Lynch was an unexpected arrival on Twitter, but he certainly brightens up the Twittersphere with his detailed, precise weather reports and also some truly bizarre and heartwarming weirdness.
Only recently I found myself baffled but won over when Lynch tweeted ‘This week I’m going to find out if I’m connected to the moon’, before I saw, a couple of days later, that he’d followed up with
‘I’m pretty sure I’m connected to the moon’.
Gnomic, enigmatic, clever, silly – a lot like his best films.
Sample Tweet: It really is about how we feel when we wake up in the morning and head off to do whatever we do.
A well-kept secret here until his Bush taunts and evangelism for HBO series the Wire made him big news overseas, Brooker is now the host of three or four separate TV shows and still maintains his famously scathing Screen Burn TV criticism column in the Guardian. The workaholic’s also added another Monday column to his workload, so it’s a wonder he ever finds time to tweet his brain-missives to his thousands and thousands of followers.
But tweet he does, and his 140 character sound-bites are often as amusing as lines in his newspaper pieces. To his immense credit, he also engages with his audience, which is rare in celebrities on the site.
Sample Tweet: Ice duvets. Why haven’t we invented ice duvets yet? Icy clouds that wrap round you and slowly evaporate in the night. Come on, scientists.
And, finally, one not to follow:
We love Dude, Where’s My Car as much as the next moron, but Kutcher doesn’t really do himself any favours with his tweets. Since the infamous upskirt twitpic he uploaded of partner Demi Moore’s behind, the imbecility hasn’t really lifted. He may nearly have more followers than Jesus, but Kutcher’s feed is one to avoid.
Sample Tweet: Y is it that every time some1 does an act of charity on twitter, vampires come out, call u an Ahole & complain abt what u r not doin 4 them?
Seriously – who types / texts like that these days?
This post was written by Liam Tucker of the excellent Watch With Mothers. Which is another great way to waste your day. – Want to write for the BaseKit Blog? – Drop us an email.
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30th
July 2010
When first starting out in the world of web design there is so much to learn in order to improve your craft that you are bound to make mistakes along the way. Even after a few years in the industry you will still make mistakes that you know you could have easily avoided but didn’t for one reason or another. I thought I would share with you some of the mistakes that can be very easily made by the inexperienced (and sometimes experienced!) web designer and why you should avoid them.
Not Designing to a Grid
There seems to be one of two reasons why newbie web designers don’t use a grid based system when designing: 1) They have read somewhere that it limits creativity; or 2) They are unaware of it.
Designing to a grid does not limit creativity; it allows you to be more creative by giving you a clear understanding of dimension and scale from the offset. Just as artists are confined to the size of their canvas, you are limited to the size of the browser. Using a grid allows you to plan the size, positioning and the flow of your elements within the page.
If you fail to use a grid you will more than likely discover (after countless hours work) that your design will have to be redone as your elements are too big, too close together or even worse – you have forced a horizontal scroll into the users browser!
There is an excellent article on Grid Based Web Design over on www.noupe.com.
Not Sketching
Sometimes it can be eagerness, other times it can be ignorance, but many newcomers fail to sketch when designing for the web. It can be too easy to get excited by the prospect of a new design project and to jump straight into Photoshop to begin designing a layout. I sketch everything, from wireframes to logo design – although I never used to. I find that sitting down with a notepad and a pencil helps me release ideas that I never knew I had and my work has got a lot better as a result.
I’m currently in the middle of redesigning my portfolio (www.leehardingonline.co.uk) and although I already have a rough idea of how I want it to look it was a nice sunny day so I decided to sit in the garden, get away from my desk and enjoy the sunshine. Being a bit of a workaholic I began sketching layout ideas and after only 20 minutes or so I had come up with some really great layouts, a few of which I will definitely use in future.
Sketching makes it easier to be creative, if you are sat in front of your computer working with Photoshop, you only have that one design idea in mind and it becomes a lot more difficult to come up with new ones – especially if you have already spent a good few hours on one design and become committed to it, even though deep down you know it could be better.
Following Trends
If I hear one more person utter the words “It’s not very Web 2.0 is it?” I think I’ll break down and cry. I heard this from a client once when showing them a mock-up of a web layout I had done for them, I asked them what they understood by the term “Web 2.0” and they didn’t really have a clue. They based their idea of Web 2.0 on the presence of gradients, gloss effects, reflection effects and big bright colours.
If you type “What is Web 2.0 Design” into Google you will find over 174 million results, each of which will have its own varying definition. Try searching on “What is Web 3.0 Design” and you will find over 69 million results, “Web 1.0” will give you 89 million results. I don’t think the term “Web 1.0” was even a term until somebody came up with the term “Web 2.0”.
My point is that trends come and go and tend to last between 3-5 years. Would you rather design a site that is “Web 2.0” but wrong for the job in hand and will probably need a complete redesign in a few years, or would you rather design a site that a timeless design, is a bit different from everything else and perfect for the job?
Following trends doesn’t really teach you anything, whilst it’s good to be aware of what everyone else is doing, it doesn’t encourage you to be creative. Don’t follow trends, set them.
Becoming a pixel pusher
Why did you become a designer? Was it to unleash your creativity and find solutions to problems, or was it to have someone stood over your shoulder telling you exactly what to do – or even worse was it because you wanted to copy www.someone-else-ssite.com. Firstly copying someone else’s site is just plain wrong, your client gains nothing unique and you learn nothing. If a prospective client wanted me to copy another site I would simply refuse. I’d ask them what aspects of that site they liked and try to incorporate those elements into my own unique design but I’d never copy.
If your client is happy to steal somebody else’s hard work, is that a client you really want to work with anyway?
Pixel pushing is different from taking constructive criticism or being open to suggestions. Accepting criticism and communication is an important part of being a designer, but pixel pushing is different. It starts with a simple, “can you make this a bit bigger, move this to left, change the colour of this, delete that” and before you know it your entire design has changed beyond recognition and 99.9% of the time it looks awful.
Pixel pushing demeans your skills as a designer. You have become no more than a tool to the client and your only usefulness to them is that you know how to use Photoshop. The countless hours you have spent studying typography, colour theory, usability and accessibility have been a waste of time.
We have all been a pixel pusher at one point, usually to keep the client happy and get the project done as quickly and painlessly as possible, fully aware that the project will not be a portfolio piece and you will deny any involvement in its design to friends and colleagues.
Try to stay away from these types of projects, they limit your own creativity, you learn nothing and eventually they will kill your love of the job.
There are many mistakes that we make when we first start out in the design industry. The most important thing is that we learn from them and try not to make the same mistakes again. I have made all of these mistakes before and continue to make different mistakes or errors in judgement now, but from each mistake I make I learn how to improve my skills and ability as a designer. What types of mistakes did you make as a newbie web designer? What types of mistakes do you make now?
This post was written by Lee Harding of Lee Harding Web Design – creating modern beautiful and usable websites. Want to write for the BaseKit Blog – get in touch!
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