Ben Hunt’s Newsletter, April 2009
This is the first of my monthly newsletters since setting up my mailing list earlier in 2009. I'm delighted that we've got over 500 subscribers already.
I'm committed to sending out a newsletter on or around the first of each month - provided I've got something interesting and useful to tell folk about! I don't need to add to your email overload with a weather report.
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Ben
Latest Article: Zooming your Content
I’ve just published a new article that illustrates a core principle of design that I’ve been brewing for a while. I’m calling it “zooming your content” – and it’s about how to size different bits of content on the page.
In a nutshell, zooming your content says:
- Choose the content that’s most relevant to most people, that helps them “get” your site as soon as they arrive, and make that content BIGGER and BOLDER.
- Cascade the zoom effect down to 1 or 2 further levels, to address the second/third scan of the page.
- Apply relative sizing to headings and “hook” elements, in a hierarchy that makes each level clearly distinct, so there’s an obvious 1st-level, 2nd-level etc.
- Finally, optimize the scale of visual elements within their space (keeping sufficient white space). See the article for examples.
Web Design in the Economic Winter
Last week, Lizzie and I attended a seminar by business guru Brad Sugars
The backbone of the seminar was understanding the economic cycle like the cycle of the seasons, and how to respond to that effectively. Right now, we’ve had Fall, and we’re in the economic Winter. That’s not a bad thing – in fact it’s a great opportunity if you’re aware and prepared.
In Economic Winter, things are clearly different to the Summer. In the Summer, we should be making and storing money (like hay) to see us through tougher times ahead. If you spend all your money in the Economic Summer, you’re risking your business survivability in the Winter. No – Summer is for saving, not spending. If you have cash stored away, then when Winter comes, your cash can go a lot further. Property, personnel, machinery, everything gets cheaper in the Winter. It’s time to reinvest, to train, to tool up, ready to start making more when the Spring starts.
Marketing in Winter
Customers also buy differently in Winter. It’s a buyer’s market, on one level, as more people who bought too much in Summer are trying to sell to make it through the Winter. Also, people are more sensitive to return on investment and value for money than they were in Summer (when it may seem like there’s money to burn).
- Tip 1: Acknowledge you’re in an Economic Winter. Get out of the car and “walk the road” (as Ken McCarthy puts it), to get the reality for your market. What bumps are there (things that shouldn’t be there but are)? What holes are there (things that should be there but aren’t)? How can you fill the holes?
- Tip 2: If you’re a small business owner, look into Brad Sugars’ coaching company, ActionCoach. They have a presence in most countries, and have a simple, structured programme to help any small business become stronger and less reliant on the owner/founder. We’re just a month into the program with our coach, and are already seeing significant successes!
No Downturn Yet
The good news is that we’re not yet feeling any significant effect of the current economic difficulties at Scratchmedia. That’s probably thanks in part to being a small team that addresses a niche market (in Web2.0 site and application design). We’re also in a very fortunate position to have great exposure from Web Design from Scratch and, increasingly, Save the Pixel. A significant proportion of the 1500+ people who’ve read the ebook get in touch with us with a project in mind, so it’s turning out to be a great marketing tool as well.
- Tip 3: If you’re not already publishing all your expertise online, it’s never too late to start. Get blogging, get sharing your ideas and know-how, and you will gain more than you ever lose.
We’ve also recently gone through our database of previous customers and simply called round to discuss how their projects have gone since we worked on them. In at least 2 instances, this has led to more work, which represents time very well spent. (If you get an ActionCoach, you’ll find dozens more simple but smart ways like this to help your business
Clicss meets CMS From Scratch
Many of you will know we’ve started building a series of simple web site templates, which we’re making available for sale on Clicss.com. Clicss templates are different from everything else on the market, because they’re designed specifically to be customisable.
Whereas many templates you can buy online will look great, once you try to put your own content and logo in, they’re not flexible and robust enough, so can prove to create as much work as doing an original design from the off.
Clicss templates are built around a very strong CSS base, and have flexibility built in from scratch. So you can have any combination of up to 3 columns, arranged in any order, and there are multiple navigation options, all achieveable through just rearranging HTML.
The big news from Clicss is that we’ve just released our first Clicss template that incorporates CMS from Scratch, so now you can get practically a ready-made web site!
You just need to upload, log in, change the logo, and start entering content. All the content templates are in place for you to add things like FAQs, callouts, quotes etc., and you get a contact mailto form out of the box.
Other Scratchmedia News
Lizzie, Dan and I have been getting very busy in the past few weeks. We’ve launched new marketing sites for QVision (a forward-thinking eye surgery in Arizona, USA), Skinner (the New England auctioneers) among others, as well as marketing and UI design for a handful of startups, including clients in the US, UK, China, and a couple more in Australia.
Design by the Day
One thing we have noticed is that we’re finding we’re delivering more design by the day than we have previously. The upside of this approach is that clients get to cap their initial investment to a comfortable level, which of course makes it easier to make a decision to proceed with work. The flipside is that we get a short time (usually 1-3 days) to deliver an initial piece of design work that makes a big impression, and that’s a process we find really positive and energising! It’s opening more doors for us to make a difference, which is a real privilege.
Web Doctor Reports
In March we also started doing Web Doctor Reports, and have delivered 3 reports to very happy customers. You can see a sample report here. The thing I love about the Web Doctor service is that it gives me a chance to deliver the maximum value in a very short space of time, and at a lower cost, which means I get to help more clients get web sites that work better. That certainly helps deliver our team goal, which is “Everyone’s Web Site Works“.
Tip 4: On a couple of occasions, I’ve even been able to deliver a Web Doctor Report including a quick home page redesign for only £395 – a fraction of the cost of getting a bespoke new design – which our customers have gone ahead to implement! If you’re looking for a really affordable way to make significant improvements to your home page design, I recommend a Web Doctor Report.
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