Attention Wizard vs Crazy Egg
I appreciate his sentiment as I have had the occasion to work with a designer I felt would do better on a short leash. However, there are many more great designers that will take into consideration usability and user experience to make for a better overall design. While I was reading his article I noticed that he was using images from a product called Attention Wizard (This is a product created by Site Tuners). So I ran Codero through the Attention Wizard and tracked our actual clicks through a product called Crazy Egg.

The bright areas on both images are suppose to be the most viewed and most clicked. As you can see the results are slightly different. This is due to the fact that Attention Wizard is an algorithm that is trained to believe that people’s eye path will work a certain way. Where as the Crazy Egg image is tracking actual clicks by customers of Codero.

Room to Breath, Not a Leash
If you provide your designer with information about demographics and the purpose of what they are designing, then you will get a fully-optimized website that excels in usability. However, if the decisions are made based on a favorite color or just because it feels good, then you have already cut your leash too short for your designer to create something good and usable.

Based on this data the Attention Wizard, which in general provides good information, doesn’t seem to be in tune with what customers are looking for and clicking on as they experience our site. If you disagree, feel free to comment below.

Good Designers come a Dime a Dozen…(pt 2) is a post from: Codero dedicated hosting blog

5 things to look for in a Great Designer during the initial meeting:

1. “We need to see what your target market is looking for before moving forward with your design.” This indicates the designer cares more about the fine tuning for ease of use on your website, poster, flyers and the list continues on. A statement like this also indicates the designer is there for your product not just to make another “great portfolio piece.” It also indicates the designer understands A/B testing.
2. “What has your company done in the past about design and where do you see your company in 5 years?” While may appear to be a rather mundane and unrelated question, it indicates the designer cares and wants to provide the best solution for your company. They are interested in where your company has been and aims to be in the future.
3. “Based on what we have talked about, I will build the budget and time frame this project will require. I will have it to you in 2 days.” You may think the designer is trying to put one over on you by not giving you a price quote right a way. In fact they are trying to save you a lot of money.  A great designer will take what the project is and scope a proper deadline and budget so in the end you are both happy.
4. “Is there a special deadline that you need this project to be completed by? This might include a conference, tradeshow or grand opening.” This information lets you know the designer will factor your time frame into their invoice so there are no “emergency” costs in your final invoice.
5. “Would you like you project to be SEO friendly?” In this day and age many projects a designer specs or quotes to a client include SEO elements this is especially important when you are running an ecommerce website. A graphic or web designer may not have experience in actually SEO-ing your website or fostering a proper Social Media relationship, but they should have knowledge that it will have to be factored into your design from the beginning.

These are just a few items and statements that set a great designer above a good one. Don’t be fooled, you pay for what you get and great designers are far and few between.  If you have any experiences with good, bad, mediocre or great designers please feel free to comment below.

Good Designers come a Dime a Dozen…(pt 1) is a post from: Codero dedicated hosting blog

Among the new ideas and technologies up for debate at this year’s FOWD, I personally find it exciting that advancements underway in HTML5 and CSS3 will improve usability for consumers on the Internet. These advancements will also help small businesses as well as designers provide a better service for our customers. It will also make the interaction between designers and developers easier due to the built-in UI features in the browsers.

One of the best changes coming in HTML5 and CSS3 is browser verification. Instead of writing code to verify that a customer fills out a form properly, the browser performs this automatically. This allows for cleaner code and makes your website load faster. You can even set up patterns to ensure the correct responses; for example, use “xxx-xxx-xxxx” if you want a customer to provide a phone number. This lets browser know what needs to be completed in the form for verification purposes.

CSS3 contains an option to add an ‘alpha transparency’ this is known as RGBA. This allows you to set solid color blocks as transparent so you can see the image or background behind the color block. Use of the alpha transparency will also cut down on page-load time since it won’t be loading more images. This will also allow a company to design progressively for browsers that allow RGBA and still give an adequate experience to browsers that don’t allow the alpha transparency.

These are just two of the many great features coming to the web design and web applications as part of CSS3 and HTML5 in the next couple of years. More information on the HTML5 and CSS3 movement can be found on Carsonified’s blog, the Vitamin The qualities and tags to be included with these tools are still up for debate, and some are not supported in all browsers yet. Any specific features or enhancements you’re looking for in HTML5 or CSS3? Feel free to comment or expand on them below.

The Future of Web Design: It’s All in the Details. is a post from: Codero dedicated hosting blog