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What’s Up with Wireframes?

We mentioned in our previous blog entry that we’re a little bit obsessive about project planning. And we admit it—we are. But that’s because we’ve seen too many web projects derailed because of poor planning, or no planning. And that’s not what we want for our customers.

So we take planning and project management seriously. One critical step in those efforts is creating a wireframe for any new website.

What’s a wireframe? A wireframe is very simple design that lays out the essential elements that go on each of your web pages. A wireframe for a common webpage, for example, might include placeholders for a header, navigation, body copy, an image, a search function, a “call to action” box, and “contact us” information.

It would look something like this:

Why are wireframes so important?

  • Wireframes save time because they give web designers clear direction on what needs to go on each page of the site. With a creative brief in one hand and an approved wireframe in the other, a designer  begin developing a great visual image for your site – without having to worry that he might be leaving a critical functionality off of one of the pages. Too many web projects jump straight from creating a sitemap to beginning design, without creating a wireframe in between—and too much information falls in the gap in between.
  • Wireframes also save money because the basic elements of the site have been determined and approved before the creative design process ever begins. So there’s much less chance that a design will have to be torn apart and done over—which can drive costs up quickly.

Even though we’re a newfangled interactive firm, I guess we believe in the old-fashioned principle of “doing things right the first time.” We know that’s the right thing for our customers.

Want to learn more about wireframes and Atomic’s project management strategy? Contact us anytime.

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Picking the Right Browser

What if you developed a website based on a content management system optimized for one or two browsers? And then found out that your client is using neither — and can’t access your system or tools?

Say “buh-bye” to your new business.

Or, what if you sign a contract with a new online vendor for a key business process — accounting, for instance — only to find out that the application runs on an outmoded browser, forcing your entire team to ditch their upgrade or run two different versions of the same browser, one to work with the application, and one for everything else?

Say “buh-bye” to your sanity.

The new choice in browsers — with Firefox, Opera, Safari, and Google Chrome challenging the still-dominant Internet Explorer (IE) — is forcing us to change the way we think about and choose browsers.

A central question in evaluating Web browsers is this: What, exactly, does your business — or your customers — do online?

Do you rely on Web-based applications for many of your business processes? If so, picking a compatible browser is vital — as is making sure it remains so even as new versions of the application are released.

Many Web-based applications will run on almost all browsers, but exceptions abound. Constant Contact, the well-known Web-based email marketing tool, supports some browsers but not others (one of its rivals, Vertical Response, also works best in Firefox or IE). As eWEEK recently noted, other applications will run on most browsers, but may not perform optimally in each.

If you are developing online products or experiences for your customers, are you assuming everyone will gain access using the same browser? If so, you might be making a big — and costly — mistake. More and more people are attracted to different browsers for different reasons, so taking the time to find out where they are — um, browser-wise — might go a long way to establishing good customer relations and generating repeat business.

A single solution for picking the best browser probably eludes us, but here are a few tips:

  1. Evaluate what you’re doing most online to make sure your choice of browser won’t conflict with your online applications, slow you down, crash your systems, or frustrate your staff.
  2. Investigate and test browsers to see which one — or which mix of two or more — works best for certain tasks.
  3. Read all the different reviews, stay up on the latest evaluations, and know the impact of any upgrade on either application or browser performance.
  4. Learn what your customers are doing online and don’t make assumptions.
  5. Choose vendors and developers that understand browser technology, features, compatibility, customization, and performance and can match you with a system that meets your needs.

Do browsers still bewilder you? Contact us for more insights.

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How usable is your site?

How usable is your site?

If you asked your customers to discuss the fine points of web usability, you’d probably get a blank stare.

But would your customers recognize a site with poor usability? You bet. And by recognize the site, we mean leave the site – immediately.

Usability is about creating websites that make life easy for your users. So they stay on your site, easily moving through your navigation, easily finding how to contact you, easily making purchases.

Unfortunately, too many sites make life tough for their users. We won’t go into all the ways this can happen, but here are a few of our pet peeves.

  • Confusing navigation. Too often navigation is structured from the perspective of the company rather than the user. For example, we recently tried to register our kids online for summer camp. First we tried Registration, then Programs, then Events. Nada. Finally we took a wild guess and tried Classes – under which we found summer camp. Do you really want your customers to play guessing games before they can buy something?
  • Links that don’t behave predictably. Web users have become accustomed to certain navigation elements behaving in certain ways. We expect to click on your logo and be directed to your home page. We expect to click through long content using Previous and Next buttons. When we can’t do these things we get frustrated with you. We lose belief in your site.
  • Hidden Contact Us information. There’s nothing more frustrating than searching fruitlessly for a company’s phone number or address. First you look for a “Contact Us” page at the top. Then you look in the footer. Then, with increasing annoyance, you start digging through pages with names like “Our Firm” and “Get to Know Us.” When customers are at the critical moment of converting to a sale or seeking more information, it should be incredibly easy for them to contact you – not incredibly annoying.

So many elements go into creating highly usable sites; several basic checklists are available online. But all of them are based on a focus on the user – what she is looking for, what she expects, what she needs from your website and your company. Without that focus, all is lost.

Want to talk about your site’s usability?

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Why content is still king

In our previous post, we talked about the importance of including keywords in your site structure.
What we didn’t say is that keywords mean nothing if they’re embedded in cruddy content.
By cruddy content, we mean content that’s poorly written or organized. That’s salesy or full of typos. That’s been pulled from a print publication and slapped into your site without being webified.
As web developers, we’d like to think that we can create perfect sites using clean code alone. But we can’t. It’s the content in your site that matter most. Great content helps establish you as an expert in your field. It gives customers a reason to visit your site. And it helps Google understand your site and classify it properly in search results.
Need help creating great content? Here are a few tips.

  • Unless you’re a professional writer yourself, hire one. And not just any writer – one with experience writing sites optimized for web readability and web searchability.
  • Write for your customers. Yes, your website should tell your story. But think first about your customers’ story. Who are they? Why are they visiting your site? What information do they need? If your content consistently addresses your customers’ questions and interests, you can bring them back to your site again and again.
  • Remember that size matters. To optimize search results and get Google visiting regularly, you need lots of content – and you need to update it regularly. How much content do you need? Start with at least as much as your competitors have, and go from there.
  • Don’t write for search engines. Yes, keywords are important.  But if you overload your copy with keywords, you’ll lose credibility with your readers. Plus, Google knows that trick and is so over it.

The bottom line is that customers come to your site for content. Give ‘em that, and they’ll always be happy.
Want to talk with our SEO copywriter about your content? Contact us today.

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Keywords: the key to an effective website

Most people know that including keywords in your website helps improve searchability.

For example, if you sell backyard playsets, you’d want to include terms like swingset, gymset, and playhouse throughout your site – terms that customers might use when Googling your products.

What most people don’t know is that you should include keywords in the structure of your site as well as the text.

Why? Because when Google “reads” your site, it doesn’t start with the text. Instead, it starts the same way you would – with the title of the site, the navigational structure, and the names of the pages. If your keywords aren’t included in those elements, Google won’t understand and classify your site as well as it could. And your search results won’t be as good as they should.

At Atomic, we work with our clients before planning or building their site to decide on the right keywords. We use a four-step process:

  1. Our clients brainstorm several keywords for their site
  2. We research those terms to find out if customers are actually using them in searches – or if they are using alternatives or derivatives of those terms
  3. Together with the client, we pick the best keywords
  4. Finally, we build the site structure around those keywords, embedding them in important elements like the title tags and heading tags.

For clients who are serious about optimizing search, we revisit their keywords regularly, helping them evaluate their effectiveness and pick new ones as needed.

Wondering if you’re using keywords as effectively as you could? Contact us anytime for a free consultation.

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Things to ask when looking for a new web provider

1. Will it have a content management system (CMS) in the back end? A CMS will allow you to make changes to your web pages easily, at any time, just as easily as making changes to a Microsoft Word document. A CMS helps you to:

  • Save time. You can make changes instantly yourself — there is no need to send changes off to someone else, wait around for them to make them, check behind them to make sure they were done correctly, etc., etc.
  • Save money. If you can make changes yourself, there is no need to pay a web designer $75 to $100 per hour to make changes to your site indefinitely into the future.

2. Will it be built using current Web content standards (as defined by the World Wide Web Consortium – /www.w3.org/)? Using W3C standards helps to ensure that:

  • Your site will work in multiple browsers (Explorer, Firefox, etc.) and on mulitple devices (PC, Blackberry, tablet computer, etc.)
  • Search engines will be able to most easily find your content. (This has to do with whether the text of your site is coded properly — search engine “spiders” look for certain codes and if they are not there, they cannot easily find your keywords.)
  • Your site is “forward compatible.” That means that any design changes you want to make to the site can be done very easily. In other words, you can make one coding change and quickly change the look of your entire site, without having to re-do the coding on every single page. This also will save significant $$ and headache in the future.

3. Can you create a professional design that will …

  • Put us on par with our competitors?
  • Help us capture a larger share of the marketplace?
  • Showcase us as a 21st-century company commited to progress and quality?

4. What is your work style?

  • Can you advise us of best practices in web design and development?
  • Will you develop a schedule and project plan for my site development, or will I have to?
  • Can you advise me on a web strategy for my company, or will you just “take orders and build what we tell you?”
  • Can you give me a reasonable cost estimate up front, or will I have to guess what my costs will be at the end of the project?