Written by Ahmed Hussam  for Web Design TutsPlus (Apr 13th 2012), the following is an excerpt from Visual Direction in Web Design.

Just came across an excellent article that clearly illustrates core design concepts that help inform any website design.

Written by Ahmed Hussam  for Web Design TutsPlus (Apr 13th 2012), the following is an excerpt from Visual Direction in Web Design.

One of the big secrets of design is learning how to guide the visual direction of viewers.  This principle is often overlooked by even the most experienced designers, so today we’re going to take a deeper look at how it works.  Visual direction controls the eye movement of the user, and this is achieved through the combination of careful image selection and well-placed and aligned design elements.

It is greatly established that the default eye movement throughout the page (in an LTR – Left to Right – layout) is from the top left towards the bottom right as the image illustrates:

However by arranging the composition elements in a certain way, a designer can control and force the movement of the viewer’s eyes in and around the layout of the design. For example, the eye will travel along an actual path such as solid or dotted line, or it will move along more subtle paths such as from large elements to little elements, from dark elements to lighter elements, from color to non-color, from unusual shapes to usual shapes, etc. Graduation of size, and repeated shapes and size of related elements subtly leads the eye as well.

1. Controlling Directions with Images

Images can easily control how your clients view your design, below are some explicit examples of directional images that can either be used as part of your design or in the content to guide visitors around the page:

Of course it’s pretty obvious which direction these images are pointing to, however many images may not be as clear, take a look at these other examples:

Next chapters discuss:

2. Leading the Eye, 3. Forms and 4. Design Direction

View these in the rest of the article here.

That’s where Content Repurposing comes in. [...]]]>

Sharing information is crucial to success in the modern online marketplace. Well written and well researched articles aimed at educating, entertaining and engaging your site visitors can help boost your business’ credibility and favourably influence your site visitors behaviour. But what if your audience doesn’t like reading on screen?

However, not everything we own comes with a manual. Looking for a specific one on [...]]]> If you’re like me, you may have a section in your filing cabinet for instruction manuals for household equipment and electronic devices. Everything from your wireless printer to that novel bread machine that lurks in the back of your pantry.

However, not everything we own comes with a manual. Looking for a specific one on Google may bring up plenty of results, but more often than not you will need to pay to download it before you can check and see if it is what you’re after. Getting the right one for free is even harder.

So I am pleased to have found ManualOwl.com. It offers free manual downloads for up to 200 brands and a multitude of products. There are no clues on the site as to where they are based or who is behind this service, but if your desperately in need for obscure manuals (such as an ancient 4-Track Cassette Recorder) you may just find it here for free!

]]> http://kindlevision.com/blog/damn-wheres-that-manual/feed/ 0 http://kindlevision.com/blog/wordpress-to-twitter-and-facebook/ http://kindlevision.com/blog/wordpress-to-twitter-and-facebook/#comments Mon, 03 Oct 2011 06:57:48 +0000 kim http://kindlevision.com/blog/?p=239 One way is to tie your blog into the social media sites. The heavy hitters are of course Twitter and Facebook. I have tried numerous plug-ins in an attempt to make an automated connection between my blogs and associated Twitter and Facebook accounts. None of them have [...]]]>

Everyone wants to get their blog as much attention as possible.

I recently needed to reduce an A0 size file down to A3 and was confronted by loads of pages showing formulas for working this out.

But I wanted an easier way. Thankfully Markus Kuhn‘s website has a quick reference chart with ready-made resizing percentages.

The A series of paper [...]]]>

I recently needed to reduce an A0 size file down to A3 and was confronted by loads of pages showing formulas for working this out.

But I wanted an easier way. Thankfully Markus Kuhn‘s website has a quick reference chart with ready-made resizing percentages.

The A series of paper sizes is based on these simple principles:

• The height divided by the width of all formats is the square root of two (1.4142).
• Format A0 has an area of one square meter.
• Format A1 is A0 cut into two equal pieces. In other words, the height of A1 is the width of A0 and the width of A1 is half the height of A0.
• All smaller A series formats are defined in the same way. If you cut format An parallel to its shorter side into two equal pieces of paper, these will have format A(n+1).
• The standardized height and width of the paper formats is a rounded number of millimeters.

For applications where the ISO A series does not provide an adequate format, the B series has been introduced to cover a wider range of paper sizes. The C series of formats has been defined for envelopes.

Read more here; http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/iso-paper.html

So you’ve gone ahead and made a Facebook Page for your business, but you’re disappointed to find that each time you log in, there’s still only the loneliest number saying they ‘Like this’. So what so you do? How do you start to attract potential customers/clients/fans?

Start here!

Inbound Marketers flip outbound marketing on its head.

Instead of [...]]]>

Inbound Marketing is marketing that focuses on being found by customers.

In traditional marketing (outbound marketing) companies focus on finding customers. They use techniques that are poorly targeted and that interrupt people. They use cold-calling, print advertising, T.V. advertising, junk mail, spam and trade shows.

Inbound Marketers flip outbound marketing on its head.

Instead of interrupting people with television ads, they create videos that potential customers want to see. Instead of buying display ads in print publications, they create their own blog that people subscribe to and look forward to reading. Instead of cold calling, they create useful content and tools so that people call them looking for more information.

Instead of driving their message into a crowd over and over again like a sledgehammer, they attract highly qualified customers to their business like a magnet.

The most successful Inbound Marketing campaigns have three key components:

(1) Content – Content is the substance of any Inbound Marketing campaign. It is the information or tool that attracts potential customers to your site or your business.

(2) Search Engine Optimisation – SEO makes it easier for potential customers to find your content. It is the practice of building your site and inbound links to your site to maximise your ranking in search engines, where most of your customers begin their buying process.

(3) Social Media – Social media amplifies the impact of your content. When your content is distributed across and discussed on networks of personal relationships, it becomes more authentic and nuanced, and is more likely to draw qualified customers to your site.

This model gives your site visitors choice and freedom to choose the amount of interaction they will have with your business.

First they feel as if they organically “discovered” you, your site and your brand, interact with you on their terms and have the option to give or not give you permission to sell and market to them. But most importantly, they retain their right to cancel their permission at any anytime. In this model the marketer passively provides messages to the customer and gives the customer all the power so the customer feels more comfortable in their interaction with the brand.

To find out how inbound marketing can work for your business, contact us by email or call us today on +61 7 3102 3177.

To read more: Inbound Marketing the Next Phase of Marketing on the Web and Permission and Inbound Marketing