Monthly Archives: October 2015

The Web Design Trends Dominating 2015…

The Web Design Trends Dominating 2015…

Web design has come a long way since the under construction GIFs and marquee scrolling of the GeoCities days. Back then, we could not have imagined what the biggest design trends would be in 2015.

Top Four Design Trends

In all the sites I analyzed, there were four particular features that were prominent and that most or all of the sites had in common: A responsive layout, a list-style blog, CSS3 animations and bright colors.

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With mobile browsing steadily becoming more prevalent, it’s no wonder the top design feature is responsiveness.

These stats make sense when you consider 62% of companies that created responsive sites increased their sales, according to Econsultancy. That was back in 2013, but the stats have not changed – in fact, they have grown.

According to We are Social’s report called Digital, Social and Mobile in 2015, 51% of the world’s population uses mobile phones and 31% of the internet’s usage comes from smartphones.

In February, Google announced it would provide a boost to search engine rankings for responsive sites. In the company’s FAQ, there’s further explanation that sites designed for only large screens may see a significant decrease in their search rankings.

Each of the sites I analyzed weren’t simply functionally responsive, they had a specific layout designed for optimal viewing on mobile devices – visitors would not miss out on any content while using their smartphones or tablets.

Trends Coming in Fast and Furious

There are several trends that are also becoming more and more prominent, including full-width page sections, sticky navigation, one-page themes and well-placed parallax scrolling.

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Full-width page sections and sticky navigation’s are quickly becoming a must in relevant site design.

A sticky navigation bar is one that is visible even when a user scrolls through the page and, quite frankly, it just makes sense.

Why make your users work to get to the top of your site to click through to a different page? The easier your site is to use, the better your bounce and conversion rates will be.

It also helps if your site looks eye-catching and full-width page sections help with that. Taking a look at how Asana’s website has been design and you’ll see striking page sections in action:

What was also interesting to see was that many sites and themes either exclusively displayed blog posts in a grid or masonry-style or had them as additional options. In fact, 42.5% of the sampled sites had a grid-style blog, while 15.5% had their posts displayed masonry-style.

Many people dismiss these options, which is clear when you consider 66.5% of sites either exclusively had a list-style blog or had this feature as an option, but different blog styles are on the rise.

It might be surprising to you that 0.5% included music and had a video slider that played automatically. I, for one, was shocked since I thought this was something that died out in the 1990s. It can be alarming to visit a site that has music playing, especially if you have the volume turned right up on your device, which was, unfortunately, the case for me.

If this is any indication of the collective experience of humanity, it might be a good idea to leave any automatic sound out of your site design.

Homepage Featured Images are the New Black

Image and video sliders have been a big trend over the past few years, but they are beginning to be replaced by full-width or full page featured images.

design-trends-2015-tier3It might be time to start thinking about replacing the sliders on your homepage.

Although sliders can be a highly effective way to help drive an emotional connection with your business, you can still achieve this with well-thought out images.

It’s also worth mentioning that automatically scrolling sliders are not accessible to the visually impaired. For this reason alone, it’s easy to see why many designers are beginning to ditch sliders and opt for beautiful and colorful featured images for the homepage.

You can see how effective a single image can still be on most sites, including ours:

The Bottom Line

So what have we learned from these design trend statistics?

  • Your site should be responsive – It’s no longer good enough for your site to just be view-able on the go. The mobile version of your site should have similar capabilities and visuals as the desktop version.
  • Bright colors can help make your business more memorable – While an excess of neon colors may not be all that inviting, bright colors are a trend you shouldn’t miss.
  • Full-width or full-page featured images are a must – At least on your homepage. It’s time to start ditching those sliders.
  • Full-width page sections are elegant and effective – Nothing displays information quite so cleanly and beautifully.
  • CSS3 Animations can help bring your site to life – Placed above clickable thumbnails or buttons, animations can help your site form an emotional connection with your visitors.
  • One-page themes are nothing to sneeze at – They’re gaining popularity and it’s easy to see why when you consider how amazing they look. They also help make your site more interactive and easy to navigate.
  • Sticky navigation menus are here to stay – They just make sense. Why make your users work hard to use your site? Making it easy for them to navigate your site just makes sense.

By now, you may be thinking, “That’s great, but can I add these all-important elements to my Website?”

 

Source:

Two Brothers and the Geese

Two Brothers and the Geese

Two sons work for their father on the family’s farm. The younger brother had for some years been given more responsibility and reward, and one day the older brother asks his father to explain why.

The father says, “First, go to the Kelly’s farm and see if they have any geese for sale – we need to add to our stock.”

The brother soon returns with the answer, “Yes they have five geese they can sell to us.”

That father then says, “Good, please ask them the price.”

The son returns with the answer, “The geese are £10 each.”

The father says, “Good, now ask if they can deliver the geese tomorrow.”

And duly the son returns with the answer, “Yes, they can deliver the geese them tomorrow.”

The father asks the older brother to wait and listen, and then calls to the younger brother in a nearby field, “Go to the Davidson’s Farm and see if they have any geese for sale – we need to add to our stock.”

The younger brother soon returns with the answer, “Yes, they have five geese for £10 each or ten geese for £8 each; and they can deliver them tomorrow – I asked them to deliver the five unless they heard otherwise from us in the next hour. And I agreed that if we want the extra five geese we could buy them at £6 each.”

The father turned to the older son, who nodded his head in appreciation – he now realized why his brother was given more responsibility and reward.

  • A lesson in initiative, responsibility, thinking outside the box, anticipating, strategic anticipation, adding value to service, value and reward

 

Credit: Business Balls

The atheist and the bear story

The atheist and the bear story

A committed atheist (that is someone who steadfastly does not believe in a god of any sort) was on a trekking holiday when he became lost in some dense woods.

A large angry bear, with ten starving cubs back home and claws like kitchen knives, suddenly emerged from the undergrowth.  The atheist screamed in terror, turned and ran. The bear was quicker however, and after a long and desperate chase eventually cornered the atheist in a gully.

The exhausted atheist sank to his knees, shaking.
The bear, seeing that its prey was trapped, moved slowly towards the petrified man, drooling. The bear was drooling too.

The atheist lifted his head, with tears in his eyes, and uttered the words he thought he would never say in all his life: “God help me…”

With these simple three words, a blinding flash of lightning lit up the sky. There was a deafening crash of thunder. The clouds parted. A brilliant light shone down. The forest fell silent. The bear froze still, in a trance. The atheist stood gaping, transfixed.

A voice came loud from above, louder than twenty AC/DC concerts, all happening at the same time. We can safely assume this voice to have been the voice of a god of some sort.

“You atheists make me seriously mad,” boomed the god, “You deny me all your life. You tell others to deny me too. You put your faith in all that bloody Darwinian airy-fairy scientific nonsense, and then what a surprise – you get lost because you can’t read your stupid map, and now you’re about to get eaten by an angry bear all of a sudden you’re on your knees sniveling and begging for my help?……… You must be joking…”
The atheist looked down, realizing that he was not arguing from a position of strength.
“Okay, I take your point,” said the atheist, thinking on his feet, while he still had them, “I can see it’s a bit late for me to convert, but what about the bear? Maybe you could convert the bear instead?”
“Hmmn… Interesting idea…” said the god, thinking hard”, Okay, It shall be done”. At which the brilliant light dimmed and vanished; the clouds closed; and the noises of the forest resumed.
The bear awoke and shook its head, a completely different expression on its face. Calm, at peace.
The bear closed its eyes, bowed its head, and said, “For what we are about to receive, may the Lord make us truly thankful, Amen…”

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