Archive for year: 2017

Original Source: https://webdesignledger.com/5-examples-of-awesome-and-5-examples-of-awful-landing-pages/

In an absolute sense, landing pages are any web page where a visitor can arrive at or “land” on as a response to clicking on a search engine optimized result or an online advertisement. Regardless their types (click through or lead generation), the only purpose of the landing pages is to convert the visitors to the next stage of their buyer’s journey.

Although their goal is simple enough in theory, in reality, designing an efficient landing page that really converts, requires some detailed planning, creative designing, and testing.

There are few core elements that a successful landing page should include:

Simple design – including here the hero shot (images/video showing context of use)
Unique Selling Proposition (USP) – the main headline, a supporting headline, a reinforcement statement and the closing argument
The benefits of your offering
Proof – including social proof and trust indicators
A single conversion goal – your Call-To-Action (CTA) (with or without a form)

Although you have to follow the best practices for designing a successful landing page and you will find many trends related to this subject, there is no “right” way of doing this.

Regardless of what conversion you hope to get, it’s always helpful to check out some examples of great and also of awful landing pages, in order not just to get some inspiration from the best, but also to learn from the mistakes of the worst ones.

Keep in mind, I don’t have access to the analytics for each of these landing pages, so I can’t tell you specifically how well they convert visitors, contacts, leads, and customers. Also, for shorter pages, I’ve shown the entire page; for longer pages, I only displayed above the fold. You may need to click through the page to see some of the points I discuss.

 

The Good Ones

Many marketers and designers know the basics of a great landing page: clever, simple and attractive design, easy navigation, impactful copy and clear call to action. Anyway, an excellent landing page has to have the right mix of all of these elements.

Here are five examples of companies that do it well:

1. H. Bloom

H. Bloom is an online floral arrangement service that allows their customers to subscribe for having custom tailored bouquets delivered at home or at the office or for scheduling a complimentary design consultation. Its subscription landing page is a pleasure to look at, first because of using a high-resolution image and of a lot of white space that allows the visitor’s eyes to breathe.

Also, this landing has all the great conversion elements laid out: the benefits of the service and what customers will receive if they subscribe, the above-the-fold form superimposed over the image and even the bright orange “Submit” button. There are a few more images and information below the fold, but all the key information is listed.

 

2. PeekCalendar

An app for managing your time on the go, the PeekCalendar landing page uses images and two calls to action. Although this may distract the visitors from the purpose of the landing page, both CTAs are simple enough not to conflict each other. As powerful use of images and putting the call to action at the top of the page are effective strategies, we can find both of them here.

The page gives viewers the option to watch a video about the product or download the app. The background images show people using the product. While scrolling down, the page has logos and links to good press about the app, enhancing social proof and also the benefits the users will get.

 

3. Litmus

Email marketing platform Litmus has a great landing page for subscribing to its newsletter. The call to action is the first thing you can see on the above-the-fold white background, along with the snappy headline “Keep up with the latest in email”.

The subhead clearly communicates the benefits of the visitors after taking the action and all you have to do is to enter your email address.

Bellow the one-field form, Litmus has some trust indicators and a colorful list of newsletter archives.

 

4. Airbnb

Airbnb gives us another great example of an excellent landing page. For converting the website’s visitors into hosts, the company offers some enticing and personalized estimated weekly average earnings based on your location. If you want to get an even more customized appraisal, you can enter some additional information about your potential accommodations. Scrolling down, the landing page has listed the benefits the visitor can get if he becomes a host. If you’ve already used the website for a some of your travels and you visit the page knowing how the things work, the clear call-to-action at the top of the page makes it easy to convert on the spot.

 

5. Shopify

Like the other landing pages listed in this post in “The Good Ones” category, Shopify‘s trial landing page keeps things as simple as possible. The user-oriented headline is short and impactful, followed by the sub-headline that includes a trust element, like the number of users, for example. Also, the page relies on simple bullets, not paragraphs, to communicate the trial’s details and benefits. There are only a few fields you need to fill out before you get started. All of this makes it easier for you to get to the point: selling online with their tool.

The Awful Ones

As I mentioned in the beginning of this post, your landing page must be focused on a specific purpose and have a clear call to action. If you try to mix too many different elements into a landing page, it’s no surprise that things can go wrong and you don’t get the results you hope for.

Anything, starting with using too many colors, poor contrast, disengaging copy or just not understanding what your audience needs and wants can destroy your communication efforts and sent the visitors away from your landing page instead of making them go further with your website.

Oh, how does an awful landing page look like? Let’s check the examples listed below:

1. Chase

For a large bank, with sleek advertisements, Chase’s landing page for credit cards looks pretty bad. It is cluttered and some specific pages, as the sign in for existing customers, signing up for the new ones, using the token and learning about different credit card offering have irrelevant calls to action.

In terms of design, the page doesn’t look too bad, but it could look better if they would focus on just one goal. In terms of functionality, multiple calls to action could perform well and be efficient, but only if they don’t conflict each other and confuse the visitors.

 

2. Novum Publishing

Taking into consideration how many information related to design trends for online communication there are out there, Novum Publishing’s landing page is surprisingly outdated. Because the first impression always counts when it comes to your website’s conversion rate, having a fresh and up-to-date design is one of the key elements for a landing page.

Even if there is nothing wrong with the content in the top paragraph, its actual placement is a distraction from the sign-up form listed below the fold. Therefore, switching these two elements would be more beneficial for this landing page.

 

3. Lowes

Home improvement retailer Lowes has an issue of trying to get too much from one single landing page and see what finally gets. Its landing page includes a bevy of calls to action, which could easily overwhelm the visitor.

Instead of putting all on the same wall and see what will stick, it’s more efficient to have more landing pages, each of them being streamlined around a single goal.

 

4. Marketo

I’m sorry to put this on the list of the awful landing pages, but there is real room for improvement here.

First of all, there is too much content here and therefore the page looks cluttered. The bolded text “Download The Definitive Guide To Digital Advertising to learn:” explains what the visitor gets if he downloads the guide, but it should be further up the page. Most viewers will start reading from the top and they might be bored before they reach the bullet point section, especially because it’s below the fold.

Also, the contact form is too intense. Maybe this comes from the desire to get as much information as they can about their audience, but having lots of section to fill is labor intensive and might determine people not finishing the signing up process. Contact forms should only ask for necessary information like an email address and a name.

 

5. Office Furniture

I think this is one of the worst landing pages I’ve ever seen. It’s so much clutter here, that I don’t have any idea where I’m supposed to look. First, this landing page really needs some white space to make the content and images more digestible for the viewers. Second, it needs a clear direction for the visitor.

One positive note – when scrolling down, you’ll find on the right side the customers reviews, which is an encouraging social proof.

Bottom line

Landing pages work or don’t work for many reasons, but they are effective when they speak directly to your audience.

Trying to do too much with a single page is almost always more overwhelming than impactful. Therefore, before designing a landing page, you should set a clear goal and follow the best practices for doing this.

 

Read More at 5 Examples Of Awesome And 5 Examples Of Awful Landing Pages

Original Source: https://line25.com/web-development/15-awesome-tools-resources-boost-productivity-2017

Web designers, like anyone else, are sometimes guilty of procrastination. The reasons for putting off a project may be many. But one of them is because you feel you don’t have the right tools or resources to get it done quickly. Even if you have the necessary tools, you still might feel a need to have something better.

These days, it’s admittedly difficult to keep up-to-date.  The stream of new and improved products and services appears over the horizon day after day. This collection of our favorites was assembled with the idea of making your work a little easier. We also aimed to give you a good reason to take that project off the shelf and get started.

Whether you’re an expert designer, or still relatively new to the game, doesn’t matter. You’ll enjoy working with any of these tools and resources.

Proto.io

          Proto.io enables you to construct prototypes at any level of complexity. You may want to share a low-fi prototype to get feedback on the design direction you’retaking. Or, it may be an ultra hi-fi test version that’s difficult to tell from the real thing, or something in between.

You don’t need special design skills to use Proto.io, and you don’t have to worry about coding. All you need is an idea of what you plan to build.

Proto.io enables you to do your design work, create prototypes, preview and share information, conduct testing, and collaborate with team members; all from a single platform.

This web application is made up of three major elements. 1) The Dashboard helps you maintain version control, and helps you with your collaboration efforts as well. 2) The Editor takes on the heavy lifting required to build complex, interactive, high-fidelity prototypes. 3) The Player is indispensable for conducting testing and viewing the results of your efforts on your browser to see how your prototypes look and feel on mobile devices.

SITE123

          SITE123 is a great choice for beginning web designers,as well as for those who are strapped for time and in need of something that will enable them to set up a website (or a portfolio) in mere minutes.

Since SITE123 comes with ready-made layouts and a WYSIWYG editor, all that’srequired is to upload your content and put it in its proper place. The intuitive interface encourages using text, video, gallery, and other modules which can be customized and arranged on the dashboard. Every website you create automatically adjusts to tablets and smartphones, so your brand will display perfectly on every device.

SITE123 is multilingual. This new feature makes it easy to create a website in any language you select. Other clever features include an app market that enables you to integrate external apps into your websites, and a web wizard for updating a website after it’s up and running.

Xfive

          Xfiveis an Australian-based development agency with offices of three continents, and can boast of a worldwide network of professional developers. When you need their services, help is usually close at hand.

Xfive(formerly XHTMLized), not only performs the development work on website designssubmitted to them, but they can also assist in the design if needed; including the design and development of WordPress themes and plugins. They offer their services to large teams or agencies, as well as to individuals, and they provide assistance to those having large projects or multiple projects.

The Xfive team likes to think of themselves as a partner or an extension of a design team, when they provide their development services. They also carry over their idea of caring for their clients when working with you on a single project, whether you represent a team, or an individual or freelancing web designer.

Pro

The Pro approach to website building differs from that of most of its competitors. This WordPress app features 3 separate builders (content, header, and footer), along with a valuable selection of web-building tools that primarily consists of popular Themeco and 3rd party developed plugins.

Pro’s focus is on creative website design. As such, it offers free access to Themeco’s creative professionals community, where you can share ideas, seek assistance, and learn.

wpDataTables

It’s generally not a difficult task to create simple tables or charts to incorporate into a website, but building complex, interactive, and responsive charts based on huge amounts of data is a completely different story.

wpDataTables does all the heavy lifting for you. With this app in your toolkit, you can create tables and charts that are not only informative and accurate, but attention-getting as well. Even better, there’s no learning curve involved.

Webflow

          Webflow is a multipurpose web design tool that unites your prototyping, design, and development work in a single platform. There’s no need to write code, and once your design’s ready, you can launch straight to the web, or export your code to hand off to developers to use however you’d like.

Webflow enables you to create ultra-high-fidelity prototypes powered by HTML, CSS, and JS, allowing you to dramatically shorten design and development time, as well as the inevitable feedback loops.

Pressmate

Pressmate is for those who already have websites up and running, own a website, or are finding it difficult to keep up to speed on design and development tool updates. Pressmate keeps its clientele up to date on everything to do with WordPress, including its themes and plugins.

They also monitor website performance, remove malware, and offer 100% uptime reliability by backing it up on the cloud.

Ultra

Meeting and exceeding a client’s requirements sometimes requires taking a novel approach to website building; and a novel approach is precisely what Ultra offers its users.

This innovative website-building tool relies on a modern, well-structured collection of customizable and responsive pre-made row designs. Using drag and drop, you can apply this modular approach to page building, and create or change a page in minutes.

FFonts

It’s a good feeling to know that there’s a large inventory or free fonts you can tap into, but what about the time it takes to find exactly the font you want? FFonts solves that problem by neatly placing its thousands of free fonts in 30+ clearly defined categories. These categories range from serif and sans serif, to classical, comic and cartoon, to computer and digital.

WhatFontIs

It can be more than a little annoying to come across a “must have” font for one of your projects, when you don’t know its name, nor do you have the means to identify it. WhatFontis provides a ready solution to that problem.

Simply submit a sample of the font in question, and this free service will either identify it, or provide you with one or more nearly exact matches.

SnapPages

SnapPagesis well named. The professionally-crafted template included in the latest version, SnapPages 3.0 provide excellent starting points for building page after sharp-looking page quickly and easily. Your work and your completed website are hosted on the cloud. You’ll have access anytime when there’s a need for editing or maintenance, plus you’ll enjoy 100% reliable backup.

SnapPages is a great choice for bloggers.

Goodie

          Goodie is a software development service/platform that joins clients directly with developers. It is an excellent match for designers of single-page or simple WordPress websites, or e-mail templates. They do quick work, for a fixed, previously agreed upon price.

Once you’ve selected Goodie for your coding needs, you’ll be working directly with a web developer. Should questions or issues arise, they can be dealt with quickly.

BBT Drag and Drop Email Builder

It’s all too easy for a business to get in a rut and keep using the same old e-mail template time after time. Even if it’s producing good results, there’s always room for something better.

The Big Bang Themes Drag and Drop Email Builder offers an easy way to build templates that are customized to fit the marketing situation at hand. A nice selection of responsive pre-made templates comes with the package.

Stockfresh

In the relatively short time Stockfresh has served as a resource of high-quality stock photos and vectors, it’s accumulated an inventory of several million of these items for its clients and customers. Their service is excellent and the prices they ask are competitive.

Stockfresh’s offerings will soon be significantly expanded, making this a good resource to have for your web design needs.

Aurora

Award-winning websites are generally the result of careful attention to design and great content, including high-quality, attention-getting professional images. With the help from Aurora HDR, you can create jaw-dropping images for your websites.

This project by Macphun and Trey Ratcliff offers more than 40 tools and features to aid you in creating the ‘next generation’ dramatic images. Aurora HDR was created for Mac users, but a PC version is scheduled for release in September.

Conclusion

Just select one or more products from this list of tools and resources! It should go a long way toward making your web-building efforts a little faster and easier.

Now, you can take that project off the shelf that you had put away in mothballs, and get started on it. The new tools and resources you’ve selected should give you that extra free time you’ve been chasing after.

The post 15 Awesome Tools and Resources to Boost Your Productivity in 2017 appeared first on Line25.

Original Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Colorburned/~3/4giKiGLazpU/

A’ Design Competition is one of the World’s largest international design competition. The A’ Design Competitions are organized in numerous creative fields to acknowledge the very best designers from all countries in all disciplines. Entries to the competition are peer-reviewed and anonymously judged by an influential jury panel of experienced scholars, prominent press members and experienced professionals. The A’ Design Award promises popularity, eminence, promotion and international recognition to The A’ Design Award Medalists through the A’ Design Prize which is given to celebrate the awarded designs.

The “A’ Design Prize” was designed to create value for the awarded works. The Coveted “A’ Design Prize” includes : design excellence certificate, invitation to the black-tie award ceremony, online + offline exhibition of award winning designs, poster of award winning designs, hardcover annual of best designs, special 3d printed metal award trophy in luxury black box, international press campaign, interview with the award winning designer, press kit preparation and distribution, good design symbol, pitching award winning designs to press members worldwide, articles through design award press partners, inclusion in World Design Rankings and further tools and services for PR.

A’ Design Competition was founded to publicize and recognize top design works in all countries and in all creative disciplines. The primary aim of the A’ Design Award is to create a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles by promoting the best designs in all countries and in all creative fields. The ultimate aim of the Award is to encourage designers, companies and institutions worldwide to create superior products and projects that advance society.

Every year, original design work that focus on positive change, technology, design and creativity from across the globe are awarded with the A’ Design Award. Entries to A’ Design Competition are accepted in categories such as Spatial Design, Graphics Design, Industrial Design, and more. The complete list of award categories are available here.

Submissions are accepted every year until the design award deadline of February 28th and results are announced every year on April 15. Designers worldwide are called to take part in the accolades by signing-up their greatest design works, projects and products. Learn more about A’ Design Award & Competition and see past winners at A’ Design Award Winners’ Page which showcases great design work worldwide.

Present Your Works today to The A’ Design Award : Submit Your Design Work.

Below enjoy a selection of some projects that you might like:

Pepsi Metlife Stadium by PepsiCo Design and Innovation – Platinum A’ Advertising, Marketing and Communication Design Award in 2015

Santander World by Jose Angel Cicero – Platinum A’ Arts, Crafts and Ready-Made Design Award in 2015

Netatmo Welcome by Netatmo – Platinum A’ Home Appliances Design Award in 2015

Ane by Troy Backhouse – Platinum A’ Furniture, Decorative Items and Homeware Design Award in 2015

Smrt Image Lumica by Design Team – Platinum A’ Scientific Instruments, Medical Devices and Research Equipment Design Award in 2015

Lin Mao Sen by Ahead Concept Design – Platinum A’ Interior Space, Retail and Exhibition Design Award in 2015

Ice Krakow by Ingarden & Ewý Architects – Platinum A’ Architecture, Building and Structure Design Award in 2015

Air Touch by LKK Innovation Design Group – Platinum A’ Home Appliances Design Award in 2015

Pegtop by Anastasia Gavrilova – Golden A’ Bakeware, Tableware, Drinkware and Cookware Design Award in 2015

Plexus by Taras Zheltyshev – Golden A’ Lighting Products and Projects Design Award in 2015

Reflect by Ice9 Interactive – Golden A’ Generative, Algorithmic and Parametric Design Award in 2015

Sarp 46m by SARP YACHT – Golden A’ Yacht and Marine Vessels Design Award in 2015

Bond by Jimin Jung – Golden A’ Jewelry, Eyewear and Watch Design Award in 2015

Nissan Skyline by E-graphics communications – Golden A’ Advertising, Marketing and Communication Design Award in 2015

Robo Ming by LKK Innovation Design Group – Golden A’ Digital and Electronic Devices Design Award in 2015

Méo by Desrochers Olivier – Golden A’ Furniture, Decorative Items and Homeware Design Award in 2013

 

Dell’ Albero Limoncello by Kent Walker – Golden A’ Packaging Design Award in 2013

Paintable by Nien-Fu Chen – Golden A’ Baby, Kids and Children’s Products Design Award in 2013

Xx265 by Vestel ID Team – Golden A’ Digital and Electronic Devices Design Award in 2013

Multimedia Exhibition Lsx20 by Design studio H2E – Golden A’ Interior Space, Retail and Exhibition Design Award in 2014

Hope, you liked the designs above. We will publish a selection of award winning projects on April 15, once the results are public. To have an opportunity to get your design published, featured and exhibited, remember to enter it before the deadline. Take part with Your Greatest Designs today to The A’ Design Competition : Nominate Your Design Design.

The post You Still Have Time to Enter Your Designs to The A’ Design Competition appeared first on Colorburned.

Original Source: http://blog.teamtreehouse.com/lowdown-on-becoming-a-developer

If you’re searching for a new career path and you’ve heard that the tech industry has a staggering number of jobs available, then you’ve heard correctly. In fact, economic research by Glassdoor into the value of unfilled U.S. jobs estimated that there are “263,586 open IT roles listed online, with an economic value of $21 billion.” As tech becomes more and more integrated into our everyday lives, so does the need for people who can shape and control it. The result: a booming demand for developers. But there are a few key factors that are often left out when people talk about the demand for people who can code. Below are a few important caveats to becoming a developer that aren’t always mentioned.

Location

Yes, when it comes to the opportunities available to those who can code, there are jobs in startups and silicon valley that much resemble pop culture’s portrayal of the tech industry (think “The Social Network” or “Silicon Valley”).

But, in reality, the demand for developers expands far wider than that, tech jobs are everywhere. In fact, you’d be hard pressed to find an industry or a company that isn’t touched by tech today or featuring talented programmers on their teams. Don’t assume you’d need to move to a tech hub or big city to embark on a successful career as a developer. Don’t just take my word for it, search “developers” in your local area, or even take a look at open positions at a particular company that interests you.

Career Attainability

Yes, when it comes to how attainable developer careers are, anyone can learn to code and you don’t necessarily need a CS degree to be a developer. Stack Overflow’s most recent Developer Survey illustrated that 50% of the developers who participated confirmed they didn’t have a CS degree. Provided you have the right coding skills, the majority of employers will be interested, regardless of where you learned those skills.

But, don’t assume learning to code and landing your first job will be easy. Learning a programming language is similar to learning any language. At first, it will be challenging and alien to you, but with hard work and dedication, you’ll progress. There will be learning roadblocks along the way, and occasionally, you will feel like you want to quit. When that happens, know that you’re not alone. Both aspiring and professional coders encounter challenges with their code, but problem-solving is the skill they – and you – will use to overcome them.

Be Patient

Yes, there is demand for developers and there are a lot of people taking advantage of the opportunities and competing for positions. Make sure you are ready before you start interviewing for your first job as a developer.

But, if you don’t land that first job, don’t be disheartened. Ask for feedback from the interviewer, take it to heart and go into your next interview more confident. Also remember that new job opportunities will open up, and it may take time to find the right fit for you. It’s worth the wait.

Find the Right Language For You

Yes, there are a lot of programming languages out there today, which can seem a bit overwhelming when you start learning to code.

But, you don’t have to be good at every aspect of tech. Don’t try to be a Jack of all trades, master of none. Find which language you like and focus on specializing your skills. Not sure where to start? Here’s a great post about choosing a programming language. Once you’ve sharpened your skills, you’ll also find it easier to embark on your job search. There’s also no reason you can’t add languages to your skill set as you grow as a developer.

Never Stop Learning

Yes, you may have heard it takes X number of weeks or months to learn to code.

But, as an aspiring developer, you should also be comfortable with knowing that your learning is never complete. Tech is constantly evolving, which means that your programming skills will have to too. Keep your skills sharp and your knowledge up-to-date to stay competitive in the industry.

Hopefully, these caveats will help depict the bigger picture when it comes to embarking on a career as a developer. Have thoughts you’d like to add? Share them below.

Start learning to code today with your free trial on Treehouse.

Tips I Wish I’d Known When Learning to Code

The post The Lowdown on Becoming a Developer appeared first on Treehouse Blog.