180 by Design

My mother recently asked me to speak to her Database Management class about the role of database design in building websites. Being the good son I am, I said yes. I then rushed into her office to try to skim read the database design basics! I know something about databases. But the fact that I’m … Continued

Earlier this year, i accidentally picked up Malcolm Gladwell’s book ‘Outliers’. I didn’t intend to read it. Not really. At least not thoroughly. My book list already chalked full with a cannon of life-changing-you-can-do-it-here-are-fancy-statistics-to-prove-it books. But Outliers sucked me in. It had one concept, really, that grabbed my attention: the 10,000 hours rule. The idea … Continued

Simon Sinek wrote “Start with Why,” a book that shows that successful companies always find a way to connect with their clients (and employees) based on why they do what they do. The why of a company, is – in reality – more important to the world than what the company does or how they … Continued

Recently as I was reading Jim Collins book, Good to Great I was propelled into thought. Collins’ book helped me consider the areas of my life where I can be great personally, and within that vision, the specific areas in which 180byDesign can ultimately be great. This is a bit of a non-traditional (and longer) than … Continued

Websites are representative of the organization that runs them. They are many times the first impression a visitor will have with that institution, therefore they need to be impressive. Website visitors expect to see organized information that is relevant to their needs. The work required to give them that information is well worth the effort. … Continued

A common thread among both humans and search engines is to check the POST date on website blogs, news, and comments. Humans often relate the freshness of content to the organizations’ own understanding of current trends. This connection between a website and its owners does not have to be true, it is just perceived. Also, … Continued

The surest way to impress on a visitor that an organization is unprofessional is to have overly cheesy catch-phrases, misspelled words, unorganized lists, or sections of the website that seem challenging to understand. In many cases (although not all) websites will start with well-structured professional content. But just as the company grows, the website will … Continued

The primary role of the website design team is to design the experience visitors will have from the home or landing pages through the rest of the site (all the way to checkout, contact, or final action). However, without continual testing, there is no way to know what visitors are actually experiencing. These tests will … Continued

Research demonstrates that slow web pages decrease a companies perceived credibility (Fogg et al, 2001). Essentially, visitors see a connection between the website and the parent organization’s ability to do business at a reasonable pace. Amazon tested and found that increased load times of just 100ms decreased sales by 1% (Kohavi and Longbotham 2007). Even … Continued

For many organizations, website visitors will enter the site multiple times before or during a relationship with the company. Their first visit is extremely important. But their return visit is equally important. If any of these initial visits plant seeds of doubt as to the professionalism of the institution, the visitor will either stop considering … Continued

This post is the Part 3 Finale in the series “A Picture is Worth 1000 Words” on the essence of good design.  Missed it? Click here for Part 2. Spending your hard earned money on a website design only to later cut corners is neither smart nor wise. Designed websites are sometimes thought of as … Continued

This post is Part 2 in the series “A Picture is Worth 1000 Words” on the essence of good design.  Missed it? Click here for Part 1. So. You’re not a designer. What should you do? The first thing you want to do is make sure your vision for your company is clearly articulated before ever … Continued

This post is Part 1 in the series “A Picture is Worth 1000 Words” on the essence of good design. Design, by definition, is the purposeful planning and communication that expresses the objective thing that is your business or organization. More simply, design is communication purposed for a desired outcome. It is the clothing of … Continued

Trust. There’s no better philosophy for adding content to your site than the mantra: “Use words when you must.” Trusting in your design to speak for you is the best practice when it comes to site content. Take, for example, this image of the helicopter disrupting the sky with its power and almost mysterious elegance. … Continued