Re: Be critical or be nice?
I agree that there should ideally be just one font but two fonts; one for headings and one for body text work really well, as long as the heading font is different enough from the body text. I have seen many exceptions to the rule and a good professional can make them work.
A good concise guide I found is http://www.prodo.com/blog/web-design...b-design-tips/ clearly explains without going into too much detail which can put newbies off.
Re: Be critical or be nice?
@skech -- I enjoy criticizing your commercial websites, via the X-U forum. It is easy for me to spot areas where the content could sell 'harder'... from a copy or product illustration viewpoint. A strong sales message seems to be a constant... outside of trends in web design. But I am increasingly uncomfortable criticizing -- that design trends area. Retired for three years now; haven't kept up. So when I look at one of your websites -- as far as the layout goes -- I just assume that what I'm seeing is current, and looks 'normal' to the average customer. As long as the navigation is dead-simple, the design's OK. Or at least yours are, since you've spent a great deal of time and effort on all this.
But going back to the message. The headline, the selling points, the illustrations. And the customer-response method -- the free phone number, the e-mail contact, whatever's the simplest easiest way to bring the customer into the showroom... physically or for an on-line purchase. Sales are the lifeblood of business and the website is absolutely amazing as a VERY low cost way to increase sales.
Anyway, if someone asks for criticism, they'll get both positive and negative from me... on the sales-message aspects... and on basic presentation to get that message in someone's face and get a response. And that response is easily measured, like the results from direct mail. Obviously, if the website design does not bring results, the design is bad. Period. Which also makes it hard to criticize. You could make a design that -- to me -- looks like a dog's breakfast, but pulls customer responses like crazy. And that site would be the most beautiful of all.
Re: Be critical or be nice?
Obviously, if the website design does not bring results, the design is bad. Period.
Well I'm not so sure. You can have a website with poor, overpriced product. Can you really always say that the website is badly designed in those circumstances?
Re: Be critical or be nice?
I agree on both counts. As a designer it is up to me to make sure that the site is as good as it can be (or rather as good as the client allows us to make it - when it comes to design by committee, all sites are bad, the ones we are left to design are the best ones). But when it comes to the actual content of the site; prices, order process etc, then that is upto the client and sometimes they can ruin a whole site.
When I know that a site has been designed for a client I will only comment on the design, when it is a site by the designer/client then I will make comments on the selling points etc. That is why I do not understand some comments on my site about the sales message (because such things are out of my control and beyond my brief)
I will give you an example. I designed a nice website for a client and not only was the site appreciated by HIS clients but we managed to get him number two for his non geographical keyword (google uk) eg. 'fish tanks' and not 'fish tanks in leeds' (as an example) and were expecting him to do well and going by his google analytics account he was doing very well (7000 hits per month) but he complained that he was not selling any fish tanks and we pointed out that it was not our responsibility; we had him at a high position, he had a very low bounce rate etc but we pointed out that his prices were 30 to 40% higher than other online stores and that was the reason he was not selling any. Any way that was a while back and now his site is now where on google as it has been down for over a year as he did not pay his hosting company and ended up loosing his domain name as well.
Anyway I was getting of track. Critique should be given on the design, layout, colours, quality of pics, type etc.
Re: Be critical or be nice?
@skech -- "Critique should be given on the design, layout, colours, quality of pics, type etc..." Understood. I made the mistake of thinking of the website designer's role as more like an ad agency, rather than like a graphic artist. Won't comment on the headlines or body text in future!
@pauland -- "You can have a website with poor, overpriced product." On second thought, you're right. It's like a print ad, where success can be measured by an increase in customers coming to the point of sale... but the agency will still get fired if the product is junk or the price too high! Life isn't fair sometimes.
Problem is that computers have made the process of designing ads (and now websites) so easy that clients have the illusion that they can do it themselves, and that they don't really need you like they used to, before PCs. When I was self-employed, my goal was to make the most money for the least work... and the most money came from designing ads for publications with tight deadlines. Everything else came a long way behind... brochures, annual reports, etc. The more time the client had, the more changes they made, and while I could bill per-hour for changes, the $$-per-hour was far, far less than the charge for the ad itself, where I had variable pricing depending on how rich the client was, how large the ad was, and how significant the publication was. Like a LOT more for a small ad in the Wall Street Journal, as opposed to an ad of any size in our local paper. It worked; had a good run for 15 years following the tight deadlines = maximum profits guideline.