According to our analytics,  there is still a good group of people who view our sites in IE6, about 19% actually. This surprises me, considering that Microsoft has stopped supporting IE6. The browser is known for having a multitude of security issues, and for being slow, riddled with bugs, and generally unable to render CSS. Some users' reluctance to upgrade despite these problems is interesting to me.

Every web developer, like myself, dreams of a day without IE6. To be honest, in my experience, most companies still using IE6 are either stuck with Windows 2000 and cannot upgrade due to software costs, or the IT department is just too busy to perform the update. Then again, such IT departments might say that we developers should be content with IE6 since the other six browsers are not enough, and that IE6 came out in 2001 so maybe they should wait a full decade before the upgrade.

Unfortunately, we are not the only ones who have a problem with IE6, and this is nothing new. I have talked to a good number of individuals who work at the leading web designers firms and their companies have stopped altogether supporting IE6. I still use a png fix sometimes, but if you do not know much about web browsers, updates are very crucial and it will help speed up the way you look at the web. And considering that it is 2008 and IE8 is already out, I don't think an upgrade from IE6 is too much to ask at this point. In addition to these points, consider that IE6, IE7, IE8 really feel and render completely different makes my job as a front end developer that much more difficult.

Solutions

So you have started your own business, and even have a company website. Now you might be wondering how to drive traffic to your site. You need to first advertise your company, and secondly get people interested in your website, products, and services. There are a few particularly popular ways to do this, but one of the best ways to do so is to feature SEO articles about your business, both on your website and on other sites. If you have never heard of article marketing, you are probably wondering what it is and how it could help your company. Furthermore, you might not know what SEO is, either.

Let’s begin with SEO, which is a confusing term for many people. It stands for search engine optimization, and it involves the writer of your articles adding certain keywords to each article. These keywords are determined by how likely the big three search engines (Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft Live Search) are to pick up your article, and they can be a single word or a whole phrase. You need to put yourself in the shoes of your potential customers to determine these keywords. For example, if you own a waffle establishment, your potential clientele is probably going to search for terms like “waffle,” “the best waffles,” “waffle restaurant,” etc. If your article has all these terms, it is likely to appear towards the top of a search. If you cannot decide which terms to use, you can always leave this job to a professional.

Once you have decided which terms to use, you need to include the keywords in your articles as many times as possible while still having it look natural. Check out the following sample sentences for the term “great waffles”:

As an Arizona business owner or freelancer, you probably know the importance of a good design for a website, and you may think you have found an effective web design for your site. But is that outstanding web design really unique, or is it a template that dozens of other sites also display? There are few things as unprofessional as having the same website as some other business out there, and this blog will explain why.

If you are an artist, photographer, author, or interior decorator, do you tell potential clients that they should select your business because it is exactly the same as everyone else’s? Or do you focus instead on explaining why you are different and above average? Most likely, your marketing plan includes the latter. Many companies love to constantly explain how unique they are, but what is really important is to show customers that you are different from your competitors. It is all well and good if you claim to be above average, but when people view your site and then notice that it looks exactly the same as a direct competitor’s, all that explaining goes out the window in one minute.

One real-life example that was recently touched on in a previous blog is the existence of two competing photography websites that display the exact same template (here and here). When potential customers are looking for a photographer, they will usually use a list of Google search results. They will simply go down the list, checking out each website, concentrating first on quality of pictures, then on price. They will likely keep a mental list of photographers to keep in mind for whatever event they are thinking about, most likely using mental images of the website to remember which is which.

I came across a great blog post by colorlovers.com

Some of the best color palettes can be found in nature. A great example of this can be seen in butterflies: they have vivid colors either to trick their prey into thinking they are poisonous or to camouflage into their surroundings.

Sites designed with poor color choice can instantly ward off visitors faster than a can of raid on an ant hill. However, in just a few minutes and some inspiration, such as these gorgeous butterflies, we can quickly find some amazing color schemes. Now you are on the road to effective web design. Effective web design is truly about subtlety; the color palettes we see here are flawless.

There are a lot of websites that I visit while looking for inspiration or just when casually perusing the web that are like nails on a chalkboard for my visual cortex. So I decided to compile a list of things to consider when developing your own design or when thinking about how an effective web designer could create your website.

• What does that say?
  • Make sure you choose correct contrasting colors; green and red, despite being great Christmas colors, are poor friends when it comes to font relationships. Throw the gray background with red text out the window unless you want to give your Uncle Ben a stroke (he has been through enough already).
  • Make sure you spread out those fonts; line-heights are just like people…they do not like it when you are in their bubble. It will make it so much easier to read since spreading out the spacing between lines will put less strain on the client’s eyes.
  • Size does matter! No one likes small font so make sure your font is legible by even the oldest of individuals.

• Splash Page
  • If your website has a page before the actual content of your website is presented, and this page contains nothing but a logo and an enter sign, there are a couple things you need to think about. For starters, get ride of the full flash website and/or update your site because it was most likely designed in the late 90’s or early 2000’s.

• A.D.D. Distractions – Too Many..
  • Fonts – If you have more than three fonts on a page, you have commitment issues.
  • Animations (especially .gif) – Mid 90’s gif animations are pitiful as well as overly flamboyant flash animations.
  • Images/Photos – No need to take up so much real estate with dozens of pictures; spread them out…this isn’t a “See Spot Run” book.
  • Colors – Stick to a color theme, no more than three colors (slight variations in hue is acceptable, but do not overdo it)

 

• Overused Layouts
  • Déjà vu should never be going through your viewer’s mind upon first entering your website. If you are not trying to sell a product (forums, fansites, causal blogging, etc.) then a template design is fine. However, when you are trying to create brand identity and awareness, having the same layout as your neighboring competitor is the wrong path to take (here and here).

• Favicon
  • If you have no knowledge of a favicon, it is usually the sleek-looking icon that can be found in your bookmarks or next to the address bar for your favorite websites. This is something that everyone should have on their site. If you do not have one or do not know how to make one, you need to learn. It is a great way for users to be able to easily distinguish between other websites on their favorites list as well as free promotional real estate for your site, so take advantage.

 

The last topic in this ongoing discussion of effective web design will discuss how much patience the typical user has on your website, and why to have an effective web design you must make sure that you optimize your website with speed in mind.

Speed

One of the top complaints of internet users deals with the speed at which a website is being displayed. The faster your website displays, the faster your users will be able to get to the content they need. Even with today’s affordable high speed internet connection there are still a large number of users who rely on dial up connections or low bandwidth dsl connections (in many cases are only 2x-4x the speed of 56k). One of the goals of being an effective web designer is compatibility and optimizing a website to be viewable to the largest audience possible. If a user cannot connect to your website within a matter of seconds or content is loading too slowly for their taste, rest assured that they will venture elsewhere for that information or goods.

Before I begin, let me introduce myself. My name is Travis Simpson, co-owner and lead designer here at Arizona-based Webflo Studios. I graduated from Arizona State University with a degree in Digital Art. While I was going to school I learned a lot about design, but outside of school in the “real world” I learned a lot about marketing.

Unique web designers and web designs may not be as common as your typical layout, but there are a good number of them present on the web today. However, the issue with many of these websites is the inability to mix functionality with an attention-grabbing design.

Attention-grabbing design is basically when the web designers reach equilibrium between functionality and powerful design/art ideas. It allows the user to have an experience or remembrance when entering your site for the first time, but also allows for the least amount of frustration for the most amount of content.