Every web designer and web development team craves great icons, sometimes we create our own and sometimes we take inspiration from the many icon source websites out there on the web… we found this one to beexceptionally helpful with many free resources
In advertising a web designer or an interactive art director is usually paired up with an interactive writer. In the interest of keeping web designs clear and concise, there are a few principles that we should work toward together to acomplich successful web designs. Below are a few of those web writing principles that every web designer should know:
1. Put conclusions at the beginning
Think of an inverted pyramid when you write. Get to the point in the first paragraph, then expand upon it.
2. Write only one idea per paragraph
Web pages need to be concise and to-the-point. People don’t read Web pages, they scan them, so having short, meaty paragraphs is better than long rambling ones.
3. Use action words
Tell your readers what to do. Avoid the passive voice. Keep the flow of your pages moving.
4. Use lists instead of paragraphs
Lists are easier to scan than paragraphs, especially if you keep them short.
5. Limit list items to 7 words
Studies have shown that people can only reliably remember 7-10 things at a time. By keeping your list items short, it helps your readers remember them.
6. Write short sentences
Sentences should be as concise as you can make them. Use only the words you need to get the essential information across.
7. Include internal sub-headings
Sub-headings make the text more scannable. Your readers will move to the section of the document that is most useful for them, and internal cues make it easier for them to do this.
If we can weave these principles into our web designs, we can keep people on our web pages longer and be able to drive them to where they want to go faster and much more effectively.
Does the web designer of today need to be someone that can formulate great looking interactive design and super charged creative concepts ? …or does it require much more than that ?
Web designers in today’s 2.0 web landscape should also be communicators of sure-fire function and logical, simplistically elegant end user experiences.
Did someone say “strategy” …or is that the internet marketer’s job, or the digital strategist’s responsibility? Does your web design crave an inbound marketing strategy to generate leads for your clients, a content rich search engine friendly environment, viral marketing features ? A blog that has purpose? A web designer will need to know exactly where to inject these web design strategies into the work, or we risk the marketeers claiming ‘form without function’ and I can hear some people-who’s job it is to say this “it looks nice, but….where’s the value?”
“We want motion and animation” an excited client calls out!
And…what about getting it all done? Without knowing which technology or combination of technologies we should be use, to effectively and efficiently produce the web design, so that it’s on budget and on time, you need extensive knowledge. Knowledge in this case is a catalyst for creativity.
So — what does all this mean? An even newer breed of “interactive art director” and “interactive writer”. In some interactive design firms – we call this person a “hybrid”, or a person with the special talent to seamlessly integrate both the right brain thinking and left brain thinking principles of good web design and development. Some web design companies employ an acting internal “bridge” group, used to translate with knowledge of both languages (design language and development language). The ability to communicate verbally to others encompassing the full vision, and communicate with visual and functional interactive prototypes is now required for anyone that is serious about web design, interactive creative direction, and interactive copy writing.
Without the old school back-and-forth – and the days when the developer and web designer pass projects between each other while the vision is attempted to be matched — can now be eliminated. Without the elimination of this, often time consuming balancing act (too often work that is either sub-par or way over budget is the result) we are left still in the stone ages of web design. Besides there is so much creativity in web development mixed within a web designer. A true feeling of acomplishment can be attained when you can communicate with the full range of tools web design is ment to encompass, not to mention self-reliance, and the potential to create something that has never been tried before!
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