Machine learning is a vast subject that does things which seem almost magical. But how marketers can incorporate machine learning and artificial intelligence into their branding strategy and how they can use it to get more sales and ROI? I’ve answered all these questions below:

What Marketers Can Expect from Machine Learning?

With many methodologies and applications, machine learning can be used to solve problems by finding patterns that we can’t create ourselves.

As a subcategory of artificial intelligence, machine learning quickly processes huge quantity of data and then learn patterns from the data and information that it holds to make decisions. The results of these machines differ every time because they are capable enough to change their resulting actions based on patterns, trends and data-points.

The more information it holds, the more relevant and personalized and accurate the results are. You can notice machine learning in technologies that might amaze you. For instance, self-driving cars, spam emails filters, character recognition, Super Mario game, search engines and much more.

Machine learning can help eliminate the guesswork for marketers. It can provide you with the most accurate predictions about customer preferences, content targeting and website friction. With using that information, your company can be a cutting-edge business in the market, rather than simply reacting to the latest trends.

Machine learning is a magic, designed especially for a world of huge data. Marketers who want to make the most out of their agencies’ data should understand why it is meant for, what it can do, and what to watch out for while employing it. Obviously, machine learning is not something that comes from another planet. The main goal is to learn the ways to improve your business functions and operations.

Don’t let the technical term of machine learning overwhelm your marketing team. Start with the basics, build upon the knowledge, and then think how you can use it for your branding endeavors.

How Machine Learning Can Benefit Your Brand?

You need to understand the real potential of using machine learning, and how does it exactly benefit your business. For instance, in B2B businesses, machine learning helps digital marketers connect with users by providing recommendations based on customers’ behavior, interest, emotions, interactions and feedback with the development of knowledge graph technology.

Personalization is something that can do wonders in the digital world. Users desire personalization in everything, from emails to products to apps to shopping bags. And if you don’t understand your customers’ needs and interests, your business fails.

Machine learning takes advantage of customer data, it greatly helps you find what information is accurate and why it is occurred. Then, your marketing team can make better customer-centric and data-driven decisions.

Machine learning can serve as a powerful tool for your business that provides branding solutions, but to get the most out of it, you need to access all available datasets. For machine learning more data means accurate results, because new data will enable the computer program to teach and improve itself from time to time.

In addition, employing machine learning can help you improve your marketing strategies with customer segmentation, churn rates and customer value. Many businesses are leveraging machine learning techniques in a majority of areas of their brands. Discover how machine learning can help your brand grow and how to come up with some new avenues to learn more about your audience.

Use Cases

Machine learning is everywhere, and if you haven’t noticed it then start observing it today. It is already being employed in the digital world.

Amazon uses machine learning to offer their customers precise product recommendations. The most famous ecommerce business learns users’ interests based on browsing history and unique purchasing options.

Similarly, Siri, the speech recognition software by Apple detects patterns by learning natural language. This is why, Siri understands what you speak.

“Machine learning will begin to be less of a one-to-one interaction in which you ask one question and get one specific answer. We will first see it evolve into learning your preferences and patterns, and from there, it will become more proactive. IA technology will recognize questions that you might not be asking but should be”. The power of machine learning explained by John Bates, Product Manager, Adobe.

Customer Struggle Score uses cutting-edge machine learning techniques to robotically recognize specific areas of a website where customers struggle. This way, marketers can enhance conversion rate optimization, by diagnosing, fixing and optimizing their high-traffic ecommerce websites faster than ever before.

Change the way you do branding, learn from these industry leaders and deliver the perfect customer experience by making changes required to meet their needs.

Get Ready to Transform

It’s high time for businesses to transform their marketing strategy and start implementing machine learning techniques. Because as you collect more data, your marketing team will surely need some automation processes, so preparing for machine learning is key.

With the already profuse data expected to be increased further, there is a great opportunity for marketers to adopt artificial intelligence and cognitive computing to make the most of all the data to drive success for all your marketing campaigns.

Investing in machine learning can help brands to develop targeted display advertisement. This way, marketers can integrate constant testing of customer activity to predict the customer churn rates.

You don’t need to transform your entire business operating system, all you need to make a start from somewhere.

Key Takeaways

Remember, machine learning is not a substitute of strategic marketing and branding efforts. However, it should be used to enhance your current business techniques.

Introduce some machine learning tools to your marketing team. Explain them the amazing benefits to your band. And then start using products already integrated with this latest technology. Combine machine learning techniques into your branding strategy and it will surely double your ROI.

The post Here’s How to Supercharge Your Branding Efforts with Machine Learning appeared first on Branex Official Blog.

What often gets ignored in the loop and goes down the priority list is a ‘Contact Us’ page. Be it in terms of copywriting or an overall design, businesses are least bothered about paying heed to the contact pages. While all of the website is all neat, trendy and various other elements set in place, the contact page looks like they are from the 1990s or something.

If you have done that to your website, then perhaps it’s time to realize the mistake and correct it. What makes it so important is that it is one of the most-visited site pages – and that, my friend, is reason enough to make it as appealing as the rest of your website.

So, what do great ‘Contact Us’ pages have in common? Let’s take a look at 10 of the most inspirational contact pages to gather notes from and improve things for your business website.

Choice Screening

Perhaps the best copy for a ‘Contact Us’ page that you can stumble upon today. It clearly says: “Talk to a Human” and that’s what wins the heart of many. Not to forget how well-organized the entire page is as contact information for different departments, alongside the emails and a form follows up. While the form may seem longer than usual but as the business runs background checks, it seems only necessary for the nature of their business. In fact, this may be one of those rare avenues where longer forms are taken as a necessity for collecting inquiries.

choice-screening-contact-us-page

Morroni

When the talk is of the forms, how can we forget Morroni? Based on the solid idea that people would rather prefer filling out a form, over getting on the phone and talking to someone. Just ensure that only the areas that really helps the person contacting you to understand your business and eventually converting as a lead are required. Then there’s also a challenge-response test to figure out the humane side of visitors which adds up to the simplicity and completeness of the design.

morroni-contact-us-page

Dubsat

The classic customer service question, “How can we help you?” will always win our hearts, no matter what. It is quite obvious that a contact page is the best place to offer customer services and that is exactly what people at Dubsat did. Then there’s a hero image on top, followed by a dropdown menu which completely personalizes the experience. Also, they did something very creative to make their page look like fun. On hovering your mouse over the cities where they have locations at, the image changes to the actual location on a map, displaying the necessary contact information.

dubsat-contact-us-cities

Tune

When it comes to the contact page of Tune, there’s so much to talk about – the carefully and beautifully designed page, perfectly placed calls-to-action, the visible contact information display and a form below the fold for entertaining the specific queries. The copy is a real winner too for a simple sentence like “We’re here to help!” and what follows are quite welcoming for visitors. There’s a warmth friendliness about the copy that helps in building a relationship or at least take the right initiative in doing so.

tune-contact-us-page

Weifield Group Contracting

With the push for mobile web browsing for better results on search engines, it has become a basic necessity for websites to go mobile-friendly, including the “Contact Us” page. In an effort to make your page favorable in that regard, brief forms, large CTA buttons for thumb-tapping and a simplified navigation are all preliminaries. Weifield Group Contracting has pulled this off really well. Their “Contact Us” page is a perfect example of a seamless mobile experience.

weifield-group-contact-us-page

Achieve3000

Achieve3000 has various kinds of visitors digging into their website which is why they needed to fit in an approach that is in some way acceptable by all. A nicely pulled off hero image is not the only thing that is a real charmer about their “Contact Us” page, what follows is even better: you have three choices, choose from requesting a demo, reaching out to a sales rep or simply get in touch with customer support. All of these options leads to landing pages of their own. To sum it up, it is a great way to cater the common needs of various visitors.

achieve3000-contact-us-page

Atlas1031 Exchange

While the page for Atlas 1031 Exchange is not the most interesting of page that you would stumble upon, there’s something else about their page that is appealing. It has all the qualities of a good “Contact Us” page and that is what the real name of the game is. Explaining how they are utterly responsive to and value the questions, they have also mentioned a time-frame for their response which sounds professional and fulfilling. There are also social media buttons placed nicely, links for various offers, a visible contact information and recently published blogs – just perfect!

atlas-2031-exchange-contact-us-page

Pixpa

There are always those visitors who don’t want to fill out a long form in order to get in touch with you. To cater to such an audience, a secondary CTA can be placed that leads to your blog, a demo of the product, a video or a how-to guide. A form that be filled out with ‘Lightening speed’ is the perfect idea to help such visitors connect immediately without testing their patience.

pixpa-contact-us-page

Legalia

A “Contact Us” page with a pristine feel and a functional design, Legalia sets a perfect example of a consolidated short form with only the necessary information confined in a small and clean space. A transformation of those large images for the building into maps for locations as you click “voir le plan” (“view the map”) button is a simplistic approach towards presenting a contact page that is not overdone and is just right.

legalia-contact-us-page

Survicate

A friendly welcoming copy is what really complements the beautiful layout that sets out the perfect tone for a “Contact Us” page. You can learn from Survicate to create a conversational tone that will set you apart and make your visitors feel closer to your brand. The form on the page is also simple and to-the-point with a yellow colored CTA that reflects the logo – very impressive. To add a cherry on top, the page is mobile-friendly which makes the page exemplary.

survicate-contact-us-page

Takeaways

Let’s quickly take a look at the takeaways from the above examples:
Be welcoming about letting visitors to contact you and how you can be a problem solver to them
Don’t forget to include an email and phone number
Insert a short form (or longer if it deems fit given the nature of your business)
Include a call-to-action in order to keep people to your website
Add links to social media accounts for giving visitors a chance to interact with the business
Give a reason to the visitors to contact you by showcasing your thought leadership
So go about recreating your “Contact Us” page for better leads today. You can thank us later!

=

The post 10 Inspirational “Contact Us” Page Examples to Complement Great Web Designs appeared first on Branex Official Blog.

Given how the customers are finding what they need online, it has become quite mandatory for businesses to make themselves discoverable. Since a search engine is the first place to hit, search engine optimization plays an active role in making all this possible.

But for starters, all of this will happen if you have website. Because only a website will act as the home of the product or service that you provide. Without it, you do not exist to the world digitally, which also means missed opportunities.

Now, talking about the website, it may have seen like a daunting process some five years ago but today, it is no longer expensive or complex. The advanced technology, any top-notch web design company to offer its expertise and online site builders are there to help you out in the basic website building process.

But how would you organize everything if you are completely new to the idea? Here’s how:

Plan it

It is almost impossible to organize anything without a plan, let alone achieve desired results. Pen down all the objectives of actually creating a website. Think of what would you like to achieve out of it and what should it be able to accomplish. Gather a list of inspirations that are close to how you imagined your website to be. A plan will help you stay on track in terms of what you want and how your goals will be measured accordingly.

Think of a name

All the websites need to have a domain name in order to be accessible. It also acts as the first impression of the website. Therefore, it is important to think of a name that describes your profile or your business. This is the part where most brainstorming efforts are required because it is more or less the same as a thinking of a business name. Even if you have an existing business, for an online identity, you need to think of a name that is precisely short, sweet, easy to find and promote.

In most cases, your company name is your domain name. If the domain name in the name of your business is already taken, you can purchase it from the owner. And if that isn’t a possibility then you can get creative with the generic top-level domains followed by .photography. This is also an amazing opportunity to define your business/product/location.

Choose a provider

There are some providers that have online tools to help you build a website. While others have other integrated tools and solutions to help you with which may or may not include domain name registration, security tools or other website building tools.

However, what you primarily need to watch out for is the kind of customer support that your provider has in restore for you. A 24/7 support will do you good so that there is someone you can speak to when the need be. Furthermore, you can also look into other marketing and productivity tools to aid you in the growth of your business.

Site-builder/agency

Coding is something we all run from when we are only just creating a website for the first time. Well, the good news is that there are easy-to-use tools available today that help in creating stunning websites. The simple drag and drop model that they work on is best for beginners. Just choose a template of your choice, drag and drop text and images in accordance with how you have wireframed your websites or picked up from inspirations.

If you are still unsure about it, then take your plan to a web design agency and let them take the lead. The first thing that you need to put into consideration is to go for a locally renowned agency. If you happen to be in Dubai, look for services that have professionally proven the quality of their services in the region locally.

Design it

Website designing has no set rules. You will decide how you want your story to be told to the world which means it may vary from one industry to another and from one business to another. How you would want to set the various elements of a website is up to you but seeking inspirations will help you figure out how the best have done it and make notes from their success pointers.

While there is no formula to a perfect website, there are certain pitfalls that you need to be wary of. Take a look:

•         Ensure that your website is uncluttered with the right contrast of colors in terms of background and fonts. The purpose of the website should strike to the user within the first 10 seconds that are the make or break of it.
•         If you want your prospects to be able to explore your website without any hassle, give them an easy-to-use navigation that is simple and easily recognizable in terms of the categories that you have put in.
•         The copy of your website should be unique, in a tone that is meant for your particular audience and includes accurate information to help your customers find what they are looking for.
•         Make yourself reachable by putting contact information in the footer of each page, with social media icons for a proof of existence there as well.
•         Since most websites today are accessed from devices other than the desktop, thanks to how the smartphones, tablets, and other smart devices have stormed the market, you need a responsive design. Instead of the visitors tweaking their screens to get the information that they require, give it to them in an organized manner, or they will abandon your website.

Final Word

Building a website is super easy today. There are a variety of options available alongside affordability that allows the overall process to become easier. Just plan everything, organize it all, and you can too build a website that will be the true asset of your business – a digital presence that will home to your company on the Internet.

The post The Ultimate Guide for Newbies in Web Design appeared first on Branex Official Blog.

If not that then at least dipping a toe into both worlds that are closely related to each other could be a safe option for survival.

Take a look at the job roles of a UI and UX designer. Although they may not always overlap, but having a command on the skillset that does overlap is life-saver.

So, it’s not necessary that a UX designer will be a master of Photoshop or Sketch, neither will a UI designer understand the psychology of user experience.

But if you are easily able to alternate between the two roles, you will look clearer ahead of you, in the bigger picture. It would also give you an edge in any creative project if you know a little bit of this (UI) and a little bit of that (UX).

So, take a quick overview of these overlapping super basic skills that you should have mastery in to make the best of both worlds.

Empathy and user advocacy

When you are to design, the first thing that you need to do as a designer is to find out who your target audience is. Why? Because we create for the user.

Gone are the days when products and services were created in isolation and then being sold to the customers. It is the age of the buyer today and if you do not empathize with them and present yourself as a solution to their problems, you will fail.

As a UI/UX designer, you need to speak for the user. Asking the audience what they exactly like or dislike via usability testing could help you find root causes and figure out what changes are required.

Listening to the complains of prospects and existing customers is important than just a pretty interface. Advocating the user is the number one requirement of a good UX designer today so empathize with your customers and be open about rethinking the ideas that revolve around fulfilling their needs in any way.

Visual communication

Visual communication falls amongst the most valuable skills of a designer. It is because it all starts with an idea in your head that may have several inspirations but nothing that is as original as your idea. That idea must be explained to the project managers, team mates and developers.

If you can sketch, that’s awesome but if you can sketch digitally, that’s even better. Learn to work with digital wireframes, mockups and other interactive prototypes that serve the similar purpose.

No matter what medium you use for creating visual assets, at the end of the day, it won’t matter. You can have various tools in the toolbox. In fact, if you know how to wireframe, you may even get away without touching Photoshop.

The idea is to let your ideas flow to the design team, development team, marketing team and other teams as well. Words are fine but with a visual representation, it’s a lot less complicated and then, of course, the biggest advantage is that we all understand well when explained with the support of visuals.

Apart from making everyone understand, another responsibility that lies on the shoulders of web designers are the soft skills. When you explain the idea, don’t just let people sit there and nod at you. Be open to take questions, it is vital to your work.

Design software

A UX designer may not be aware of Photoshop, Illustrator or Sketch but a UI designer is well-versed with at least one of these.

Yes, sometimes it’s hard to differentiate and that is exactly what tightens the job market, requiring you to achieve maximum skills. A UI designer is focused at creating the visuals, like logos, while a UX designer works to ensure how they behave in real-time.

But if you do want to stand out as the best candidate for the job, perhaps studying Photoshop, or even Sketch could add up.

Another desktop software includes Adobe suite that you can have in your arsenal. InVision, UXPin are vital to the portfolio in this regard. A plus point is that a lot many UI designers are adding up UX designers’ skills and vice-versa. For your convenience, there are various online courses and tutorials available that you can learn heaps from!

Critical thinking

Empathy may be quite an abstract skill to have but it can work wonders in a larger context. To analyze your target market to cater to them better, you will be needing to critically think about them. It will not be possible without empathizing with them and finding about their problems first.

Contemplate your audience, interpret the individual problems, find out more about their needs and how they perceive a design with the help of user testing. Gather user feedback, the complains and try to crack them one by one.

So, this may sound like an easy job and anybody may be able to extract problems. The real deal is to have critical thinking skills and coming up with real solutions.

All of this comes by mean of practice and experience as you go up the ladder. Continue to read patterns, how they behave and how you can make the life of a user better.

Way forward

These skillsets have been acquired from talented UI and UX designers who act as living examples. So, enhance your skillset and be the next inspiration while you earn a good living for yourself!

The post Super Basic Skills Every Talented UI/UX Designer Possess appeared first on Branex Official Blog.

While there could be no one rule, there is, however, one foundation that each top-notch web design company or independent professional web designer follows: Make it for the user. This user-first approach helps to make things a lot easier as you have a starting point (the user’s preference) and an ending point (the user’s perspective).

So how do you go from here? Well, you keep your user up front and take it from there. Conduct a research upon what your typical user would like to explore? What kind of questions can she ask? What answers is she looking for? How are you solving her problems? If you are unique than the rest, are you telling her that? Is she at great ease while browsing your website for all of the above?

While these could be a few questions you would ask and collect the information on, there are a lot deeper tricks that you need to pull off in order to deliver the best to your users. Many at times you may not be able to achieve them in the first instance. How would you know that? By conducting A/B Testing of the little changes (that could make a BIG difference) and analyzing the fluctuating results.

To make things easier, we did just that for various small business websites belonging to different industries and we found the following changes that worked just right for each of them. So when you are through the research and are looking forward to improve the design for better, here’s exactly what you need to do:

Avoid the JavaScript overdose

When you overuse JavaScript, sure, it provides ways to create a responsive website that is also transparent. But it will also become a problem for the visitors.

Popular web browsers are updating so frequently that it’s harder to keep a check on them all the time. So, there are so many different versions in use at the same time. Many visitors are using outdated versions of those browsers that will not support your code. Your website will not be able to function for these users at all: missed opportunity.

Optimize for older and newer versions

One way to cater to those using older browser versions would be to optimize your website so that it can handle the computers running those older versions. You also need to take this into account that no matter how much you loathe the Internet Explorer; some people still prefer it over others.

So make your website workable for literally all the renowned browsers. Remember, it’s about the users and their preference, not yours.

Keyword research is key

Keyword research is important for two reasons: You really want to be found online and you want to increase a customer base who are looking for those keywords. Search engines crawl particular keywords that they see being looked up most. If you get those keywords and put them to good use, the prospect user will come to you automatically.

Of course, providing the relevant information will do the trick for at the end of the day we all want answers. But don’t forget, not including the keyword will leave you missing out from the search engines and eventually your prospect users’ eyes. So conduct a proper keyword research before you go ahead producing content. So that’s that but no matter what you do, don’t overuse the keywords or it will harm the quality of content. Just enough that it looks like a part of your regular and finely crafted content only.

Photoshop your way to victory

Although there are numerous sources of stock images lying around all over the Internet but at the end of the day, we all want professional looking images, probably with text and with a little bit of changes to match a theme of our website or brand.

Photoshop can help you accomplish just that and this is no news to everyone. But sometimes we rely on stock images so much that we don’t even think about editing them. If you really want them to look a tad bit of your own, edit them. Hire a graphic designer if you don’t have the time to learn the software. Another hack for this is to use other online services for creating visuals if you want to keep it super low on the budget.

Pop-up adverts are overwhelming

Pop-up advertisements are probably the worst things that you can do to your visitors. Especially the ones that have such a miniature or hidden ‘Close’ button or those that continue to appear. They irritate the user and he/she will abandon immediately at the sight of it and probably not return.

It’s alright to have a single pop-up ad but ensure that it is not annoying by having a visible ‘Close’ button and setting a time for it. One of those times is certainly not right when the website is opened. Give the visitor at least 2 minutes to browse and then present a decent pop-up ad, one that does not occupy the entire screen.

Different page for different topic

When different topics inhabit the same page, it creates a confusion within the content. Imagine someone typing their query in the search box and once they hit ‘Enter’, the page automatically scrolls down to a 20^th heading that is the answer. Okay, he’s there. Now what if he wants to type another query? He will go all the way up, then down again for the answer, then up again… It might as well not continue for even the number of times it has been mentioned it will continue for it will immediately frustrate the user.

Therefore, all good brands ensure that they have a separate landing page, with the relevant keywords. It also helps the customer to quickly find the information they are looking for. A dedicated page for their findings is the best treat you can give them.

The simple fixes mentioned above are applicable to all websites regardless of the industry they belong to. If you have a website, or are about to create one, then ensure that you make all those changes to improve the overall design of your website.

The post Simple Website Design Ideas to Improve the Overall Design appeared first on Branex Official Blog.

When you come to think of how the e-commerce web design and development has actually transformed in all, there’s just one major element that dominates all others: User. The more we try to make it easier for the user by becoming a problem solver, the better designs we create.

Think of an eye-catching website that offers zero functionality. The user will stay there for a few seconds to absorb it all in only to find out that it offers little or no user-friendly attributes. Imagine spending a fortune on creating a beautiful website that leads to a bounce rate. What a mess! This is why you design first for the user, functionality and later for merely flaunting because, in the end, all a visitor wants is a solution, a result, something that will help him find the answer to the questions.

Does that mean that creating a masterpiece isn’t important at all? Of course not. This only means that function to go first and art is to follow. First impressions matter too so excluding them completely won’t do you any good. That means inspiring design and cutting-edge development go hand in hand.

Take a look at some of the most fine-looking website designs that we picked off to brighten things up. They are a good blend of flamboyant and awesome outlook with a great taste in color scheme, fonts, and textures. There’s a lesson to be learned in each of these designs so keep your eyes open for that.

Nurture Digital

Nurture Digital is a creative agency that aids brands by creating award-winning digital campaigns. With duotone implemented, their website is no less than a surreal piece of art.

Diesel

If any website looks forward to becoming chic and trendy, Diesel has to be their go-to inspiration. With cards, colorful pictures and some more spectacularly humane shots as you scroll down, the website is a real winner for a clothing brand that offers something hip in every season, for everyone.

Amax (Responsive multi-purpose WordPress Theme)

Apart from just creating out of the world designs, the focus today is also on keeping it real. Amax displays some amazing photography of actual people for a greater motivation.

Oneill

A one-stop shop for surf, snow and lifestyle shopping, Oneill has high-quality items for people of all ages and all kinds of crazy interests, including men, women, and kids. The website is a true representation of what the brand offers and is absolutely user-friendly for an online store.

So these are all for today. Hope that each of them inspired you in their own unique way. Did you stumble upon any flashy designs that have a good UX and is stunning too? Feel free to add it in the comments. We would love to hear from you!

The post Inspiring Website Designs That Will Brighten Up Your Day appeared first on Branex Official Blog.

However, that ‘something’ is somewhat unclear. If you had a process, a recipe to a UX design that you could follow every time perhaps that could do the trick.

We all know how demanding users today can be and retention is even more so difficult. To ensure that you do your part fully as a UX designer, you need to have a checklist to tick against after you’re through. Consider it to be a cooking endeavor with a great many ingredients. Together, they can turn out to be an assimilated and smooth version of what we call a successful UX design that is the final look of our meal.

Having a checklist of those ingredients can make your life a lot easier because it will allow you to not only stay focused but will also simplify the process. The entire phase consists of so many processes including estimation, planning, preparation, competitor analysis, mobile assessment, SEO, analytics, and lastly, testing. Testing plays a major role especially conducting UX tests when redesigning websites. But other processes require a smooth transition as well. So before we get into the elements that majorly define the checklist, here’s a topical view of the process:

•         A thorough analysis of the project.
•         Researching upon user insights and behaviors from various sources.
•         Identifying research needs.
•         Formulating brief design structure that represents initial design elements that are to be implemented in the UX.
•         Review user personas.

Now let’s head to the checklist of those important elements that we have been talking about:

• Homepage

A homepage is your very first impression and so it must project positivity. It is also responsible to make or break the conversion process. To start with, make sure that the homepage really describes the business/product/services that the company is offering. It should be clear so that the user is not lost. What you need to do to further complete it is to add in company details and contact information that are easily discoverable by the user. Also include clear calls to action using words that are describing the process further and what are the benefits of it to the user.

• User experience

Making the best user experience on a website is like a dream come true for a web design agency. There are so many petty things that are to be kept in consideration. First things first, ensure that the webpages mustn’t automatically refresh for such a behavior irritates the users. Hidden costs are yet another thing that infuriates them so say no to them. Using real images of products (preferably models wearing them) is yet another trait of a good UX design. If you want them to register followed by purchase or any other action, remember to keep it short and simple by asking the necessary details only.

• Search functions

If a website is large enough to hold too many details, nitty gritty information, then ensure you have included a search function. The search bar must have a search field that is wide enough to clearly display the typed content. Make it a form than a link and have it available for all pages to make each element of your website easily accessible.

• Navigation

Insert a sitemap as a favor to your visitors, and especially if it’s a large website. The navigation on top should also have clear and easily recognizable terms to navigate easily within categories and it should be consistent throughout the entire website. Not to forget the URL of the website should also be easy to remember.

• Links

If you are using a particular color for the links, make it uniform and different than the color of the links that have been visited. If there are particular commands, ensure that they are there on buttons. You may include them in the form of links as well but not everyone hovers to find out the command. User wants everything upfront – make him hunt for it and he will abandon the website. Also take into account any broken links, when found, fix them so that clickables are easily recognized.

• Content

A lucidly written content that is understood to a common man should be your top priority. Take care of the color contrast for background and text color. Once you have created relevant content that is precise and includes short paragraphs or bullets to be easily scanned, don’t forget to update any information, statistics, and necessary details.

• Forms

When you create forms, first step into your user’s shoes to see how much it irritates him with unnecessary questions. Avoid them straight, there’s no argument about that. Next, include the details that are ABSOLUTELY necessary by using field labels that have common terms like location, first name, etc. Also include autofill options and avoid long drop down menus that would have the user scroll and hence become irritated once again.

• Errors

When you are through, you need to test it for any errors. If you are to test, then do so with target users and that too in real-time. Custom error pages like 500 and 404 should exist. Certification and compatibility with various browsers is also a plus.

So you now have a checklist for your website UX design. The next time you are on it, include this in the process and put a tick against all that has been done. It will enable you to process smoothly further. Good luck!

The post A UX Checklist Every Designer Needs appeared first on Branex Official Blog.

There is no counter argument to that. Nope, a mere Facebook page is not your website, and Instagram should not be your only digital existence.

Having said that, owning a small business will mean that you are to encounter budgeting issues. That will be a major obstacle in creating a website that is appealing as well as fully functional to cater your customers in the best way possible.

So those running a startup, go ahead nonchalantly with website designing and usually end up with something that is not quite appropriate. The key is to follow a formula, a set of guidelines, powerful tips, that work every time and for everyone.

While it may not encompass the individual needs of defining a distinguished brand identity, but it can surely give you a kind of roadmap of what needs to be done once you have already decided to go digital. Here are life-saving tips that can take your startup website from “Okay” to something “Spectacular” that stands true to your business.

Layout for navigable websites

A layout is the basic design feature that you need to take into account. Think of it like this: Without having this as a strong foundation, everything will be at risk. It is because only a layout will tell how your entire website will look like.

In order to give your visitors a seamless experience, you need to figure out a smooth layout so that they do not have to wander about wondering where and how to get where they need to go.

To be able to do that successfully, you will be needing a professional logo to identify yourself. Then the products and services you sell should visibly be a part of your website. Optimally position the images and make them responsive so that they can be easily viewed on devices other than the computer.

Compatibility with various devices

Did I mention other devices earlier? Yep, I did. Today, the Internet is accessed via various devices and browsers. With mobile phones becoming increasingly common, people are fulfilling their fundamental browsing needs on their smartphones and tablets only.

This means that you need your website to be optimized for mobile users. While there are so many ways to do that, responsive web design is considered as one of the best and most effective of techniques.

You will also be needing to optimize the CSS across your site for a smoother experience and get your code done correctly for a no-glitch journey. No compromises on the user experience.

Functionality for a fluid experience

When today’s user enters a website, she immediately expects a fluid experience.

One of the many reasons of bounce rate are glitches that ruin the smoothness of the experience you worked so hard in providing. This makes it a big no for nurturing real time leads.

Remember that 55% of total visitors who hit your page spend less than 15 seconds on your website. This must be alarming for you. A website that took so much time, energy, resources and finances, and so less time to judge it all?

Happens to everyone for that’s how it is. The visitor won’t care unless the website acts as a friendly solution to a problem she is facing. So optimize your functionality to cater better to the user and reduce bounce rate as much as you can. But what would you really do? First things first, avoid 404 redirects and broken links. All internal and external links should be working correctly and be pointing to relevant websites. Avoid linkage to resources that offer little or no value to the customer. Also, don’t forget about having the links open to a new page (in case the visitor doesn’t lose access) and any pop-ups that you can be easily closed. You need your visitor to be at peace while browsing and not worrying about trivial matters all the time that may cause them to lose their patience (and cool).

Website loading speed

Remember, time is of the essence. So when the matter is that of a website loading speed, you need to take this into account that your visitor’s time is valuable. A larger percentage of visitors abandon a website due to slower loading times. Yes, it is THAT frustrating.

Instead of doing that, ensure that you make use of high-quality servers and the number of images, animations, and any flash content or media on the page is not excessive. Also, avoid going overboard with the plugins. If you are unable to compromise on some of the things mentioned above, the least you can do is have your above-the-fold content load quickly. The rest can take a few seconds longer.

Content is king

So no arguments here, content is king. It is actually the lifeblood, what gives your website a sense of credibility and integrity.

Since content is how you express yourself and how you reflect your business’s personality and vision, having an A+ quality is of utmost importance. No compromise in professionalism whatsoever. You may also consider using jargons targeted to your audience or a language that is simple but a mediocre quality is definitely a BIG ‘No’.

So what could you possibly do to increase the readability of your content? Avoid any spelling or grammatical error and that could only be done via proofreading. Use captivating titles to engage your audience and break it up into digestible pieces. Bullet points will help you in doing just that.

For an even better visibility, also ensure that you have used a lighter background throughout the site and complemented dark fonts with it.

Conclusion

The set of tips mentioned above are the guidelines that will help to create a foolproof startup website. Just keep an eye on the petty matters (that have a bigger impact) like proofreading everything that you produce or plan to place on your website.

Also remember to add a little extra: that aesthetic appeal that will get those heads turned. That could act as a real ice-breaker. After that, let the rest of the elements take control.

The post Life-Saving Tips to Launch Your Startup’s Website appeared first on Branex Official Blog.

The post Top of the List Ecommerce Web Design Trends in UAE appeared first on Branex Official Blog.

The answer is a big NO!

It may get you all the attention and glam but it cannot certainly do the latter. This means that there has to be a lot of effort required to build a website for greater impact. From planning to research, trends also need to be taken into account.

It is because trends are a result of customer engagement only. Today’s customer is quite demanding and so studying them is crucial to the success of organizations. Gone are the days when product/service was sold based on the features only. Now those features are to be customized and promoted in a way that they satisfy a particular need and only then will the customer buy it: Customers’ needs before yours. Many industry leaders’ tried and tested elements in accordance with how the visitors are interacting with the current design or new design, via A/B Testing, put forth trends that are worth all your time and effort.

Talking of trends, some design paradigms stay with you forever, such is their promising nature. Others, however, have a shorter lifespan. Both are equally important as the former ones are to stay for longer and the latter ones will fade away so adopting them later when they are outdated, or about to become so, will surely affect your success rate.

If you are to find out what lies ahead of the web design industry, this is where you find all the information on existing trends with a long-lasting impression as well as upcoming trends.

Flat design isn’t dead

Flat design came to us back in 2013 and spread like wildfire in the early 2014. While many argue that it is dead and doesn’t work anymore, it still is operating and at a covert mission to save the world of web design. Blended with certain advancements, you can still see professional web designers and developers using flat-ish design as base for something more interesting.

For instance, take a look at this combination of flat design and minimalism pulled off by Pelican Books and how they go hand-in-hand to develop usability and simplicity in a website. It seems like an easy implementation but the tricky part is where you need to get hold of the fewer elements only to create the perfectly pristine look. Use the readily available elements with utmost care and you’re good to go! Also, combine flat designs with simple typography, dynamic colors and more to experiment some crazy combos that can really make your website stand out.

Rich content storytelling is awesome

The web is amazing! It allows us to create some vivid visual experiences that can entice the emotions when combined with long form articles and content. Big media players were the first to discover this terrific potential and implemented it so adequately.

New York Times was the first one to initiate, back in 2012, with their Snowfall story. It was so extravagant that it stirred in excitement and got attention from all over the web.

But it seems like it wasn’t just the media players who realized this potential. Polygon gave a comprehensive analysis of PS4 in a wonderful way with the help of this spectacular visual experience. The page continues to load as you scroll down and you are welcomed with a no-delay pleasant experience. Add in something like this and surprise your users!

Bold and beautiful mages leading the way

High quality images took the world of web design and logo design by a storm last year. Faster broadband speeds, readily available unique stock images, high quality images were able to leverage the proliferation that was a real head-turner.

Check out Uber’s website and how powerfully impactful high quality images are. Real people with real experiences. Seeing that helps us to see the product/service in a better picture, how it will look/feel when being utilized. Since it is proven that humans like more humanized pictures, representing the products and services, that are big, bold and beautiful, this trend is not going anywhere for quite some time.

Background videos are the new fad

Thanks to the ever increasing broadband speeds, video footage is taking control gradually to leverage the situation. A lot many websites are already replacing static backgrounds with subtle and ethereal videos that are not hurting the readability of the content in any way.

The ambient and self-explanatory video for Three Sixty° Property Group is quite subtle and aids in visualizing the soul of the company in a glance. More and more websites will seemingly transform their static images to videos that explains the essence of their business in a manner so interactive that will prevail. It has only started to spread so better convert your backgrounds into a dynamic video and become one of the trendsetters.

Kudos to hand-drawn illustrations

We are already seeing small illustrations that have paced up in the past few years but a full-time hand-drawn imagery is yet to be seen. With the use of strong fonts, some exciting colors and larger than life images that takes up the entire page, web designers can really make a difference. Hand-drawn illustrations have recently begun to seek attention of many web designers.

It is a rare possibility to see a site that is based on a complete flash experience. But sometimes it’s simply fun to play around the UI to break free from the chains that bounds the overall web design. This website from Salt Films is really something! Following nothing but the heart, the designer really has put in entirely hand-driven aesthetics that are worth learning from. Perhaps there could be no better way to showcase a film.

And it’s a wrap!

Remember, All that glitters is not gold: Don’t always trust popular trends for web design. However, those with a promising future, strong notion and an impactful nature should be the ones that should really become the center of attention. Make notes on these artistic, vibrant and energetic web design trends that are shaping the future of web design.

The post What Future Holds for The World of Web Design appeared first on Branex Official Blog.