Your Online Presence: It’s either making money or losing money. Nothing in between.

Posted on: February 20th, 2012 by Garrett R. Davis

It’s a very common expression in web design, your site is either making money or losing money, and nothing in between. We say it all the time, but let’s explore that further. Why is that the case??

Making Money

There are many ways a great site is making you money. The easiest is tangibly through e-commerce. You have to have a well coded, great user experience store, and a great product, and you could be making money hand over fist online. You can’t just build it and they will come though. There needs to be a solid marketing plan in place around the site, a good business model, and something that people want and need.

Well, I’m professional services you say, so it doesn’t apply? Not so, professional service firms, you are making money with a great site as well. First off, lead generation. 99% of you service firms are making money with your site through lead generation. A compelling story about your company, a professional design, and an easy to navigate site will go a long way. Depending on what you do, the site can be much more complex with functionality. But the goal is probably the same, get potential clients to think you are the best, and contact you for service. With a great online presence, you are WAY in front to achieving that goal. How many potential clients are grabbing your business card too, and going straight back to the office to look you up?? More than you think I would bet, and your site analytics can tell you that.

The bottom line is, with a great online presence, the site is directly or indirectly making you money, no question about it.

Losing Money

If you have a terrible, dated, unprofessional site out there, you are losing money, period. Too often, clients think they can continue to wait on redesigning when the time is right, or their business is cash flowing a little better. But the truth is, you are not just “doing well without a great site,” you are missing a huge opportunity cost, and likely losing leads every day if you have a bad impression online.

No site to speak of is an even worse impression. It makes the user frustrated they can’t find you to learn a little more. It makes your SEO results up to the whim of that one news story you were in three years ago, or possibly that bad review you got by the one crazy client you had in ’97. You have to get it done, and get it done right, or you are losing money. Remember the guy who took your business card at the networking event? They went back to look you up that evening and may have even tossed your card, wondering, “how can this person not have a web site, it’s 2012!”

Just because you don’t realize you are losing money, and it isn’t directly flowing away from your bank account, doesn’t make it so. You are losing a measurable amount of money that should be flowing in. We know this from typical immediate growth results when re-launching a site for a client. Why do the results show, even when we had a decent site out there before? Because you now have a more professional site, better user experience for your clients, better SEO optimization, thought through mobile and tablet functionality, and results are going to come from that, in the form of more revenue, directly or indirectly.

No In Between

Once again, you always fall on one side or the other. Your web site is a great addition to your company and your marketing presence. Or it is a hindrance to it, or simply non-existent, in which it’s a massive opportunity cost to your firm. Understanding this is the first step towards success.

Be on the right side.

-Written by Anthony Davis

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

State of the Web (Infographic)

No Comments

Posted on: December 15th, 2011 by Garrett R. Davis

2011 will be known as the year of Google Chrome’s emergence. In this State of the Web we take a look at the ever important browser usage statistics. Shops like iDesign pay close attention to these statistics because it helps us decide which browsers need to be catered to most heavily and let us know which technologies we can more readily use in our work.

The increasing popularity of Chrome, and more specifically the decline of Internet Explorer, opens up more possibilities to implement HTML 5 Video and Canvas, CSS3 and host of other techniques and technologies that work well in those browsers. These rich features also work best on mobile platforms and can help a mobile visitor have the same or similar experience as with a normal site.

Given how much more HTML5, CSS3 and other features add to a website we expect these trends to continue, with Internet Explorer continuing to lose market share and browsers like Chrome and Firefox dominating the browsing landscape.

Of course, these statistics are a global average so browser usage will vary greatly with region and demographics. Given this, we strongly recommend the best practice of analyzing site specific statistics when they are available.

Take a look at the infographic by clicking on the image below!

Posted in News | No Comments »

Can’t we all just get along? (Flash/HTML5/jQuery)

2 Comments

Posted on: August 12th, 2011 by steven

Ok, pick your side, grab your pitchfork and torch and lets throw down! Those that work with me know that I love a little hyperbole, but unfortunately a lot of people out there have a hard-edged attitude about why Flash should die or why HTML5 will never be as cool as Flash. I have long enjoyed building and viewing rich Flash content, but I tend to straddle the fence a bit these days. Let’s dig in a little, shall we?

What is HTML5?

Ok, I’m gonna keep this short for our tech readers who are rolling their eyes right now, I think our layman friends will appreciate a pinch of info to level the playing field. HTML5 is the latest upgrade to standard HTML web coding. The new features can basically be summed up in 3 words: audio, video and canvas. You can now use HTML to embed audio or video instead of relying on Flash, Javascript, helper monkeys, etc! The canvas feature is a whole other animal (helper dolphins?). It is very deep, and web developers are only now scratching the surface of its potential. With the ability to create scalable graphics and 3D objects, it is (IMO) by far the most exciting feature of HTML5. Check out one of my favorite HTML5 demos.

When someone tells you they want a HTML5 web site, chances are they mean jQuery also. jQuery is an open source Javascript library and API structure that makes a lot of advanced coding simpler, faster, better looking, and more customizable. Even though it isn’t technically part of “HTML5″, a lot of HTML5′s great features simply aren’t possible without it, including every good use of the canvas feature that I have seen to date.

So I don’t need Flash anymore, right?

Well… maybe. First you have to ask yourself, “why am I trying to avoid Flash”? If the answer is “because Apple says so”, we’ll get to that in a minute. If the answer is “because HTML5 replaces Flash”, it is probably worth revisiting your wants, needs, and goals, just to be sure. It’s about time that this blog gave you a nice visual, isn’t it? Interpret as you please:

I want my site to…	HTML/ jQuery	Flash	Well…
be at the top of Google!			Even with HTML, you’ll need an SEO specialist. Also, make sure you developer doesn’t go and make your jQuery content hard for search engines to find!
be beautiful and exciting			It’s entirely up to you and your design/development team, no technology should prohibit you from having an awesome site!
include high touch animation and media			Sorry HTML5 evangelists, Flash is still king here. Scroll down if you need proof.
work on an iPhone			Apple still denies Flash access to the iPhone. iPad now has the option of iSwifter, which could be opening doors for Flash on iOS. Almost all other tablets and smart phones support Flash.
have a high level of interactivity			Based on your needs, either technology may be the right one for you. jQuery can do almost anything interactive, but even Google still uses Flash for high level interactivity
have deep interaction with Social Media			There are many exciting ways to connect your site with Facebook, Twitter, etc. APIs for social networks rely on Javascript and other dynamic languages, but that’s not to say that you can’t work it in to a Flash app.
have games or applications			Again, the technology that you need depends entirely on the type of game or application. Flash is often still the best choice, but canvas and jQuery are beginning to open up the field a little.
go viral!			Well I want to win the lottery! Fortunately, with viral hopeful sites there is a lot you can do to increase your odds.

So by now you may be seeing a little bit of my old Flash bias coming through. I swear, I can quit any time I want! To my own surprise, I have been shying away from Flash more and more lately. For one thing, we often don’t have time or budget to create both a Flash and iPhone friendly version of everything, and jQuery really is a wonderful library for simple animation and many other features that Flash used to be the best option for. For example, there is usually no reason to use Flash for photo galleries or drag and drop style interactivity these days.

However, when it comes to really cool (*wow*) animation, effects, interactivity, etc; boy oh boy does Flash perform ever so beautifully. If I may toot the iDesign horn for a second, we won an Addy for davidphelps.com this year, a site that simply wouldn’t be half as cool without Flash (don’t worry SEO peeps, there is a simple mobile version). But let’s look at some other amazing work out there that not only wouldn’t be as cool, in some cases wouldn’t be possible at all without Flash.

WHOOAAA!! Now tell me that those didn’t get you out of your seat. There just aren’t many sites this visibly rich in HTML5 (yet). A major problem with HTML5 is that talented designers and animators don’t have the kinds of tools to create sites like these. As far as web games go, all Facebook games still use Flash technology (send me a Facebook HTML5 game if you find one!) and so far HTML5 games resemble the crappy Flash games of yesteryear (see Unwaivering). This is not to say that it will always be this way, HTML5 just has a lot of catching up to do.

Apple vs Flash

Whew, this discussion takes a lot out of you! We should take a minute to reflect on why this debate is so hot right now in the first place, though. Apple has made it clear that they don’t like Flash and many people are hopping on the bandwagon. The claim is that Flash sucks the battery life out of devices like the iPhone and is too resource intensive. Before we just mark this off of our “to-think-about” list, a few recent developments should be noted.

Flash is becoming more widely used on mobile devices… except for the iPhone
Flash has updated its player to reduce computer resource use from about 33% down to about 10%, and in many cases, outperforms HTML5. This feature is called “hardware acceleration” and it all but eliminates the battery life and performance argument originally presented by Apple as cause for denying the use of Flash in their products. Whether or not Apple will allow their customers to experience this benefit is still unclear.
Flash browsers are emerging for the iPad.

The battle between Flash and Apple has been fairly petty and dramatic, and unfortunately, consumers end up getting the short end of the stick. Whether or not the 2 sides will ever start sending each other Christmas cards again is uncertain, but fortunately it is still a free internet and ultimately consumers will determine the fate of Flash and HTML5.

Wrapping up

Wowee, I didn’t expect to write this much, but this saucy topic deserves it’s due diligence, so thanks for hanging in there.

To wrap up, I have to reiterate that whether you need Flash or HTML5 really depends on your project and your goals. If you are trying to sell product online or take over organic search rankings in your field, Flash isn’t the best option and probably isn’t even necessary. However, if you are trying to create a rich experience to excite and inspire people, Flash may be just what the doctor ordered.

Posted in Design, Programming | 2 Comments »

B to the Log

6 Comments

Posted on: June 17th, 2011 by Garrett R. Davis

Unless you are somehow new to the internet, maybe you just now decided to cash in on those 100 free hours from a Blockbuster AOL CD that you picked up in 1997, you may be thinking, “We need another blog like we need another Starbucks on our block.” Allow me a few moments to convince you why this isn’t going to be your typical tech blog.

For starters, we are going to make it interesting. I am blowing you away, I know, stay with me. We are going to be interesting by talking about the web in ways that anyone from the developer to the marketing guru can understand and enjoy. Occasionally we will dip into some topics that highlight the great minds we have here at iDesign, which our mothers will greatly appreciate since we don’t call as often as we should, and other times we will open up the classified files and share some insider tips and tricks.

We want to be more than just a blog about our company parties or a brag book about our amazing clients, we want to give you some useful and interesting substance. Here are some of the things we will be covering in the coming weeks and months:

Flash vs. jQuery

We get it, Apple doesn’t like flash and therefore it must be evil. Some people do turn to Flash too often but we are going to tell you that they are incorrect in assuming that jQuery and HTML5 (for now) can get the job of Flash done. It may be bulky and resource inefficient but it is still the Ferrari of the Internet.

What is HTML5?

Other than the latest buzz word. HTML 5 is making its way into a browser near you and it may be time to start thinking about how to use this emerging technology.

How Far Should I Push My Site? Will I Scare My Key Demographic?

How to know when you are coming on a little too strong. Your visitors have certain expectations when they come to your site, and we want to exceed those expectations, but we want to do it with a precise mixture of finesse, style, and intuitiveness. For example, your visitors may not want to play a mini game of space invaders where they are blowing up parts of your website design so that they can find a phone number and order a pizza from you. Although it may seem awesome (and it does) it may not deliver the marketing results that you desire.

A Guide to Buying Commercial Design and Understanding the Design Process

Design is a mysterious beast that often visits when you aren’t ready for it. We hope to outline some tangible ways that you can tame the beast and allow that explosive creativity to formulate into a finished product.

Shorthand CSS: How to write CSS faster.

CSS has some interesting tricks that are too often overlooked. In this article we will share some of the shorthand that we use everyday to make the CSS coding part of the web faster and simpler. After all, one line of code is always better than five.

The iDesign Side Projects Guide to the Universe

Believe it or not, but we don’t sleep in our offices (very often) and sweat over codes and designs. We actually have other things that we like to do on the side and, furthermore, we believe that being a more rounded individual actually helps spark our creativity and makes us better at our jobs.

Not bad huh? Those AOL CDs are already paying off! I will leave you with this:

Posted in News | 6 Comments »