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It’s Time to Get Your Modern E-Commerce Site on the Web

March 19, 2018/in Web Design /by Cary Blackburn

Are you a business owner? Are you in the process of establishing a new business? Even if you are only in the “could do” stage, you need to think about getting a site for your business on the web. This is the place where millions of people will come to see what your new business may have to offer them. If you want to gain the widest possible exposure for your business, this is one step you definitely need to take.

It Isn’t Hard to Build a Site, But it Needs to Be a Good One.

It’s hardly a chore these days to put up an official site for your business. But just because you can do it doesn’t mean you should. If you don’t know exactly what you’re doing, you just may make a mess of things. This is why it’s always a good idea to get professional help from an expert in these matters. If you want to establish a first-class modern e-commerce site, it makes sense to take counsel from a pro.

What Features Should Your Official Company Website Include?

There are some very important features that your new website will need to have. One of them is first class e-commerce web design. To be seen as a credible competitor, your site will need to contain such elements as a web store and shopping cart. It will also need to make use of the latest modern responsive website design features.

It’s an excellent idea to install an instant messenger system on your site so that visitors can quickly reach you with any questions, comments, or concerns that they may have. You can also have your official website synced up with your Twitter feed so that visitors can get the latest news.

A Fully Modern Web Design is the Mark of a Credible Online Vendor

If you want to survive in your chosen industry, you will need to establish instant credibility with the public. The way to do this is to present your prospective customers with a fully modern web design. Your site needs to be able to give your customers everything they need to quickly and easily make a purchase from you.

Calling upon the services of a professional e-commerce website developer is your best bet in this situation. At a stroke, you can get the aid and counsel of experts in the industry. If you want to make the best possible first impression on millions of visitors, you need a website of the best possible quality. This is only possible when you hire design experts to build your official company site.

Vancouver Web Design

Hurricane Web Design Vancouver
#1002 – 1831 Robson Street
Vancouver, BC V6G 1E4
(604) 256-7081

7 Web Design Trends to Watch in 2018

January 3, 2018/in Web Design /by Cary Blackburn

Web design has always been a creative discipline, and you could say that trends have nothing to do with creativity. You would be right up to some point, but you should also be aware of the audience that is customers. Not worrying about trends is like making an art house cinema, which is fine if you’re satisfied with a small fan base. But as we live in capitalistic times, we can’t afford to be artists without the audience. That’s why we should look at trends as some evolution of the language of our audience, for every art is a form of communication. In 2017 there were many changes in this communication, and they are the foundation of what’s gonna happen in 2018. So let’s take a look at the next steps of this language evolution that will make your sites innovative and user-friendly, at the same time keeping their beauty and consistency.

1. The world beyond the screen

The first step in successful communication is to pull your listeners into your world. Flat design trends that were popular in the past are not gonna work anymore because they seem too strict and restrictive. People want to see what’s beyond, and your biggest tool for showing them that is shadows. We know, shadows are nothing new in the web design, but web browsers have progressed and allowed some very exciting variations. You can now play with shadows using parallax layouts and grids to achieve depth and create the illusion of the new world behind the screen.

2. Somewhere over the rainbow

Probably every person alive dreams of going over the rainbow, but not many of the web designs have the means to take them there. It is an unwritten rule that you need to stick with ‛safe’ colors, but computer monitors and screens of other devices have technologically advanced and have become able to reproduce richer colors. Every experienced and innovative SEO Agency will emphasize the importance of being courageous with your colors – combining vibrant shades and supersaturation with reimagined headers (some hard angles and slashes) will instantly attract your visitors’ eye and make them want to explore the world on the other side of the rainbow.

3. Lightweight eye candy

It has been proven that videos are real eye candy for your visitors, but some websites have performance issues that don’t allow them to have a video background. There is a simple solution for this problem all you have to do is to make your images move using lightweight JavaScript animations called particle backgrounds. They are made in a way that the movement is a natural part of the background, so the loading time is a piece of cake. If it sounds too good to be true, just look at the impact that similar motion graphics have on social media.

4. Personality & Character

Using motion graphic techniques mentioned above can sometimes seem automated and not live enough, so you might want to spice up things a little bit by adding some personality and character. One of the best ways to bring your site to life is to give it a unique visual voice through custom illustrations. If you find the right artist for the job, he could tailor his art to your brand, giving it personality in a playful manner. No matter what your brand identity is, there is certainly an illustration out there that is a perfect match. People like fun stuff, and if your business is in a more serious sector, these illustrations will make it more approachable to your customers.

5. Every language needs the right letters

The textual content on your site is not there just to provide all the necessary information, but it can also be a powerful visual tool. Typography can be of great assistance in setting the tone of your website as it can build your personality and evoke emotions. There is a great opportunity to use custom fonts now that screen resolutions have become much sharper and easier to read. Big & bold is back in fashion, and if you combine it with serif and sans serif headings, it is the thing that will make your visitors keep reading.

6. Take it apart

The key to attract your customers is to try to give them an active role, and for that, you need to have interactive content. People have always loved solving puzzles and looking for clues. This tendency was recognized already at the beginning of 2017 when unconventional asymmetrical layouts were introduced. This technique of broken layouts is going to be even stronger in 2018 since it has been proven that this design can produce quite balancing layouts. So by breaking it apart, you will be able to create a beautiful balance that is distinctive and unique.

7. Take it with you

And in the end, the thing that probably everyone has been expecting – mobile browsing. There probably isn’t a single person who doesn’t at least occasionally shop on his smartphone, and this browsing has now officially surpassed desktop. There were some issues in the past, like how to create decent menus and submenus on a small screen, but now mobile design is fully mature and large number of users have already adopted it. You might not be able to enjoy the full resolution of high-quality pictures, but it certainly saves space and time with every step.

If you look at this upcoming trends, you’ll see that these are just improvements in the communication. They will allow you to pull the customers to your world, to bribe them with the explosion of colors and to create illusions with a personal touch. These are not rules, but elements of the interactive playground where you’ll be able to fulfill everyone’s deepest desires.

Web Design Vancouver BC

Hurricane Web Design Vancouver
#1002 – 1831 Robson Street
Vancouver, BC V6G 1E4
(604) 256-7081

3 Basic Web Design Hacks to Skyrocket Your Conversions

November 17, 2017/0 Comments/in SEO /by Cary Blackburn

Traffic is only as good as it CONVERTS into phone calls, sales, and revenue for your business. You can have the best website designed in the world, but if you cannot get your visitors to take action, you’re not going to be able to monetize the traffic.

In this article, we will discuss some basic and beginner-friendly tactics to ensure that people who visit your website get enough information to feel comfortable enough to pick up the phone and call your business or fill out that Contact Form. This is mostly applicable to independent business owners who may have put up their site a while ago and have not seen tangible results from it yet.

Prominent Call to Action

Make sure your PHONE NUMBER is visible no matter where the visitor is on your site. An easy way to do this is to make it prominent in the top right corner of the site, visible on all pages along with your Navigation Menu. If your website does not have a prominent and clear call-to-action, ask your web design company to set one up as soon as possible.

Making it difficult for your customers to find your contact details is one of the biggest mistakes that beginner business owners make, especially when they haven’t had a professional consultation. For a customer to find their way to your Contact page just to find your number is big No-No!

You need to understand that your customers are going to be different kinds of people and at different places in the buying process. Some are going to want to call you right away and will get frustrated if they can’t find your number. Others won’t feel comfortable calling you just yet but might fill in a Contact Form to find out more. So, you also need to have a prominent secondary call-to-action to capture these leads.

Add Trust and Credibility Elements

Understand that MOST people who come across your website DO NOT contact you. And think about why. Is it that they are just browsing for the services you provide and not really looking to buy? Or were they disappointed that the information on your site was not sufficient, so they went to look for someone else? Or perhaps you did have enough information, but they just didn’t feel comfortable or didn’t trust you yet?

All these are possibilities you must consider to improve your conversion rate. Think about the first impression that your site is giving to your visitors. If necessary, ask some people you know about how they feel when they first visit the site. It always helps to get a fresh visitor’s opinion on a site you might feel biased about as you may have put a lot of work into it.

Once you have a list of potential issues, think about how you can solve them on your site. For example, if trust is a factor, you can add some of your past client’s logo so convey that other businesses have trusted you. You can put up video testimonials as well.

If credibility and information is a problem, you can display some of well-known websites, magazines or newspapers that you have been featured in, put up photos of events you have spoken at or a video of a TV interview.

Harness Social Media to Humanize Your Business

Your website is the online representation of your business. But don’t forget that people feel most comfortable buying from other people, rather than websites. This is particularly true for B2B businesses and service-based businesses.

As a human, you can only be at one place at a time. But as a website, if you do it right, you can be in many places and always be operating! So don’t make the mistake of hiding behind your website. Instead, use it to ramp up your presence online, create and publish as much content as you can, and you will see your organic leads go through the roof!

Social media helps to accomplish exactly this. It tells your visitors that your business is active and current and values their customers enough to engage with them on social media platforms. You can embed your feed in the Sidebar of your website if it goes with the look of your site or you can simply.

Vancouver Web Designer

Hurricane Web Design Vancouver
#1002 – 1831 Robson Street
Vancouver, BC V6G 1E4
(604) 256-7081
https://www.hurricaneweb.net/

Unique Designs For A Website To Be Visually Appealing

June 6, 2017/in Web Design /by Sujain Thomas

Web designers use different designs to appeal to the audience, and this is the reason why they ensure that they keep specific factors in mind when they are creating designs for a website. These designs need to appeal to the targeted audience so that they stay on the website and fulfill the call to action.

Meeting the needs of the targeted audience

Every website has unique features, and it needs to meet and match the needs of the client. When it comes to designs, websites can deploy character design, animation, integrated location maps, photo and text placements in the layout of the website. For example, take animation for instance. Experienced web designers state that the use of animation is not fancy. However, it can make the website unique. The layout allows you to scroll down the page and have the background animate gradually. Animation can improve the user experience as the transition is noticed as you go from one section to another.

How is the website design determined?

The following are some of the factors that determine the design of the website:

The designer must decide where the specific design elements should appear. This will determine the focal point where the design might not be very intricate and detailed. This is precisely true for designers that are using character design for their websites.
Experts companies like Las Vegas Web Design Co in the USA say that when it comes to parallax scrolling, where the background moves at a slower pace compared to the foreground, there is a 3D effect when visitors scroll down the page. However, it should be done by a skilled web designer or else the effect will get overwhelming.
Displaying multiple sides of a product in one glance is perfect for product pages. Visitors can understand products better when this design is used. It is ideal for e-commerce websites that sell products online. The images have the same background, and this makes for a smooth and seamless core.
When it comes to some websites, designers use real human beings that are behind the apps, products, and companies of the website. They place photos of these people in their descriptions and role in the website design.
Black and white color schemes are at times resorted to by some web designers. This is a reverse color scheme and is often used by web designers. Some designers often couple these black and white designs with grids to create the desired effects.

Therefore, web designers across the world use the above design ideas when it comes to the creation of their websites. The site should be interactive and communicate to the visitor when it comes to selling products or services. The design of the website will also help visitors to navigate without difficulties. Every website must be unique so that they appeal to the targeted audience and create a positive impression to keep them coming back to the site again and again!

Web Designer Vancouver

Hurricane Web Design Vancouver
#1002 – 1831 Robson Street
Vancouver, BC V6G 1E4
(604) 256-7081
https://www.hurricaneweb.net

Sujain Thomas is a freelancer, blogger, and most importantly SEO specialist attached to a private SEO company of repute in Boston. She is an avid blogger and a source of inspiration and authority for budding SEO experts.

WordPress 3.9: What’s New for Web Designers

May 21, 2014/in Web Design /by Cary Blackburn

wordpress 3.9 upgrade

WordPress is a content management system that can be used by anyone to build, design and maintain a blog or website. It’s an open source CMS, which means it’s free for everyone to use. Initially, WordPress was intended to be just an easy way for internet users to set up blogs. However, due to the efforts of a huge open source community of WordPress programmers, there have been various improvements and extensions made to WordPress. It has now become much more than just an ordinary tool for potential bloggers and web designers and powers close to 20% of all websites on the Internet.

What’s New in WordPress 3.9

WordPress recently made the WordPress 3.9 upgrade available on the market. The upgrade comes with some additional refinements that are geared towards better website management. It was dubbed the name “Smith” in honor of Jimmy Smith, who was an African-American Jazz Musician.

In addition, the WordPress 3.9 was also designed to provide users with a better understanding of how their content would look like once it was published. This has been fantastic for web designers like us.

New features in WordPress 3.9:

Improved Visual Editing

WordPress 3.9 has been equipped with a new visual editor for high-speed functions, better accessibility, and mobile support. Users can now paste directly into the WordPress dashboard from their word processor. This helps to save from wasting time that usually occurs when cleaning up messy styling.

Easy Image Editing

It now offers quick access to crop and rotation tools. Users will now find it much easier to edit their images. In addition, editing posts and scaling images can be done directly in the editor.

Dragging and Dropping Images

With the WordPress 3.9 upgrade, uploading images have become quite simple. The process now involves taking your images from your desktop and then dropping them into the editor. Most users have found this particular feature to be quite efficient, practical and easy.