VisionSnap: August 2006

Choose & Use The Best Colors
By Andy Eaton

Are you using the best colors for your web site? Many web designers often overlook the issues of color in web design. When choosing colors for your web site there are three main areas that should be addressed.

1. The psychological effect of colors,
2. The effect on the readability of your site, and
3. The complementary choice of colors for your background, graphics, links, and text

These are all areas that must be well satisfied to create an effective and professional web site.

Listed below are a few characteristics of color that should always be considered when designing your graphics.

• Colors have an effect on our emotions within 90 seconds of viewing.
• Color choices can motivate, impress, and persuade your prospect to buy from you.
• Colors not only intensify the item, they greatly influence our behavior.
• The effects of color differ among different cultures.
• Color choices alone are sending a specific message to your viewers.

Given the fact that people respond more to non-verbal cues than verbal cues, it's all-important that you choose the corresponding colors for the emotional trigger you want to trip. The following colors are associated with certain emotions or qualities in North American culture.

White - Suggests truthfulness, purity, clean, devotion, mild, and contemporary. White is the best color for a background color on the web. For business it can be refreshing and sterile.

Black - Suggests elegance, boldness, power, authority, seductive, evil, sophistication and classic. Black is the ideal choice for text on a light background. It is hard on the eyes when used as a background on web sites.

Red - Suggests strength, sex, excitement, passion, speed, danger, aggressiveness, and demands attention. In business it is associated with debt. Red is the most emotionally intense color. It stimulates a faster heartbeat and breathing.

Blue - Suggests security, trust, reliability, coolness, faithfulness, belonging, and dignity. Blue is the most popular color. It is the second most popular color. In business it suggests fiscal responsibility and sanctuary.

Green - Suggests abundance, health, fertility, freedom, healing, nature, growth, jealously, and cool. In business it suggests status and wealth. It is the easiest color on the eye.

Brown - Suggests effectiveness, politeness, richness, and helpfulness. Brown is the color of earth, and is abundant in nature.

Gray - Suggests earnestness, authority, and practicality. In business it suggests traditional and conservative. Pink - Suggests softness, sweet, femininity, well-being, innocence, and nurture.

Purple - Suggests dignity, spirituality, royal, luxury, wealth, authority, mournfulness, and sophistication. In business it is upscale. Purple is favored by the artistic.

Orange - Suggests playfulness, pleasure, cool, warmth, cheer, vibrant, strength, endurance, and ambition.

Yellow - Suggests sunshine, warmth, cheer, happiness, cowardice, and jealousy. In business it is appealing to intellectual types and is good for accents. Yellow enhances concentration, increases metabolism, and is the most difficult color for the eye to take in.

Gold - Suggests expensive, and prestige. Silver - Suggests cold, scientific, and prestige.

Whenever you begin to choose your colors, think about your target market. What emotions do you want to evoke? Give some thought to the current emotion of your prospect and to the message you want to send. Then choose your colors.

10 Tips forKiller Website Design
By Jan Peterson (c) 2005
Does website design make a difference in how long people will visit your website or if they'll stay and shop? You bet. You've seen the websites that scream "bad idea" and you know those folks are losing potential customers to their ineffective website design. Whether you are an internet newbie or an experienced marketer, you should understand that good website design is part of the success equation.

So here are my 10 tips on how to create killer website design that will invite potential customers in instead of scare them away.

1. Easy Navigation- The Road To Success
When people come to your website they are usually searching for something in particular. It might be recipes for a healthy low fat diet that takes less than 30 minutes to prepare or what is the best business to start online. Whatever they want, you need to have the answer. So ask yourself, why do people come to my website? When you know that then you know you should make it easy for them to find it.

I have been on countless websites that make it difficult for me to do business with them. And you know what my first response is? "Next!"

I am onto the next website to see if they can answer my question. People don't want to waste their time hunting for things that should be easy to find.

So, if people come to your website to find widgets, have a button easy to see and locate that says "Widgets". People have been trained to look to the left of the website for the navigation bar.

2. Flashing Gizmos - The Exit Ramp To A Dead End Street
You've seen those sites where the elephants are dancing and the poker chips are running across the screen asking you to click on them; ­the only thing they have ever done for me is give me a headache and to reach the "let me get out of here as fast as I can" button on my computer.If you are a running a professional site, please don't use flashing graphics. Guaranteed you are encouraging people to leave your site. People have come to you for information. Not to click on an ad or have their brain scrambled.

Make your website a pleasant environment for the customer to be in. Just like a store. Think about when you go to the mall. You want to go in a store that is clean, well laid out, has good customer service and the products you are looking for. Your website should reflect this. If it is what you expect in your shopping experience, then isn't it reasonable that your customers are looking for this in your website.

What about music? Well, it depends. On most business sites I would suggest not. But let's say you have a realtor by the ocean who rents out homes for summer vacations. They have music that sounds like the ocean is lapping at the foot of your desk. I think music is appropriate in this venue, but I would definitely have it "off" as people log onto your site and give them an option to turn it on. Don't forget many people are surfing in their office environment and don't want the boss to find out. If your music is loud or on as people log onto your site and can't find a quick way to turn it off, they will leave your site faster than a cat that just saw the jaws of a Doberman!

3. Color - Enhancing The Highway Scenery
Color is an individual preference, but studies show that colors have an affect on people's emotions. Look at the top sites like Amazon; their layout is simple and so is their color scheme.

My recommendation would be to go with the flow. If you have a financial investment site, then conservative colors seem to follow. If you sell beach items, then lots of fun colors apply. If you have a bridal shower website, I would say soft pastels. Think about your audience and you will know the color scheme.

4. Page Links - I-95 To Your Destination
This is a no brainer but make sure all of your buttons are hyperlinked to a page and the right destination page. No one including Google likes broken link pages. It can be tedious but do it anyway. As you hover over the button and look down in the left-hand part of your screen, you will see the hyperlinked page. Just verify that yours are correct.

5. About Us - Is Your Map Reliable?
People usually want to know basic things before they do business with you. Who are you, how do I get a hold of you, what is your product or service guarantee, will you resell my email address, what is your privacy policy, when will I get the product, etc. You need to answer these questions to create trust between you and your potential customer.

6. Sitemap - How Do I Find My Way Around This Big City?
Let's say you have a lot of products or pages and resources. A sitemap helps people to find what they are looking for quickly without have to rummage through your whole site like a lost soul. They are not hard to create but are useful for large sites. It also helps the search engines to know what you are about very quickly.

7. Fast Loading Pages - All Lanes Are Go!
There is nothing worse than slow loading pages. You can optimize your graphics for your website. People hate to wait. You can check your page load time and page rank on Alexa.com. Slow pages equal death to an online business.

8. Shopping Cart - Need To Buy Some Souvenirs
If you are selling items or services, you need a reliable and well organized shopping cart. I have seen some websites that have a zillion products listed and to email them for orders. What a nightmare! Yes, the shopping carts will charge you a fee, but it is worth it for them to handle the transaction. There are many good shopping carts available and I would research them based on your business' needs.

9. Templates or Original Design- Chevrolet or Porsche
People often think that to have a website designed is going to cost thousands. So they opt for the templates and throw together sites. There is nothing wrong with this approach except I can tell the difference between what I call a "canned" site and one that was created from scratch. While I don't think a website that uses templates will turn off a customer, I just think it may not be as appealing.Have fun with your online business. You can go to any number of photography sites and download professional photos from cows to race cars. This will make your site look more customized.Again, I recommend that you shop for a good web designer. I paid around $400 for a basic site to go up. I know others would have charged me $1000 or more. That's why you need to shop and see examples of their work.

10. Customer Service - The Finish Line!
Okay so how is customer service a website design? Well, customer service should be written all over your site. From tips, to frëe reports, to guarantees, to fast and reliable shopping. People want to know you know what you are talking about and can deliver the goods they want. Give a little and I guarantee you'll get in back tenfold..

Do's and Don'ts of Launching a Small Business Website
By Alicia Harper
Launching a small business website can seem like an enormous task, although it does require some research, if done right it might be just the marketing tool your business needs.

The road to a website is filled with website designers, website developers and graphic designers. This in itself is very confusing. A website designer is someone who produces the design. A website developer is someone who creates more of the program side to your websites rather than the actual design. Nowadays most website designers are also developers. A graphic designer is the person who makes the images at the top of web pages, the buttons, and menus on a website. The whole process should not be so difficult and full of surprises. Therefore the 6 Do's and Don'ts should be a great start to help you launch your small business website.

1. Don't concentrate on images and how pretty your site will be. Remember that your sites' purpose is to answer your customers questions and inform your customers of what you have to offer, such as services and products. Don't use too many images because if your site is so "new age" a lot of people will not be able to navigate and find their way around it therefore they will get frustrated and not stay on your site and that would defeat the sites purpose.
   
2. Don't compare web designers by their price. Not all web designers are created equal. You must not only compare the price but the type of service you will require such as internet marketing and updates, will they continue to create the site until you are satisfied, and can they write the content. Some designers will create you a site and mail you a CD with the files and you will then have to figure it out on your own how to get it on the web. Others will help you choose a domain and a hosting company, upload your files to your site, and will write your content. Writing on the web is different from writing in print. A good content writer will know what to say to keep your visitors on your site. Keep these things in mind when choosing a web designer.
   
3. Don't hire a web designer until you are ready. Once you are finished shopping around for a web designer, do make sure you have purchased a domain name, hosting, have a general idea of what you would like your site to look like and written your content, if you will be doing this yourself. This is important! Web designers work virtually, that is directly on-line (through the Internet). You might not actually ever meet them. This style of work is very different from working face to face and have times set up as to when you will meet. It actually benefits you, the designer can get your website on-line faster. Therefore it is important for the web designer to have all your information. If they have to wait a week or so for your website content then you will be pushed to the back burner.
   
4. Do request a quote from a few web designers before you decide on one. Once you have looked at some websites find a few who you like and request a quote from them. Explain that you are interested in a website, explain a little bit about your business, how many pages would your site need and what are other services you would need from them. Ask them to send you a price detailing what would be included. Understand that this is a quote and if you are requesting any other additional services there will be an additional cost although designers will usually let you know beforehand.
   
5. Do plan on keeping your site up-to-date. Keeping your site updated keeps your customers coming back to either find out what's going on with your company or about new promotions or sales. It also gives your customers the impression that you care about keeping them informed and that you value their business. The benefit of having a website is it's easy to update and don't cost much. Usually a web design firm will have special packages for updates. Find a designer who also can provide updates and when your site is finished discuss an update schedule and what they can suggest to keep your site looking fresh.
   
6. Do find a designer who specializes in small business. Small design firms understand the needs of another small business and are more likely to be more personal with your questions. A big design firm might have 5 people working on your website and they might not all have gotten the e-mail that stated what you want. Whereas a small design firm would have one person working on your site with whom you communicate directly.

This guide to launching a small business website is just the tip of the iceberg. The best thing is always know what you are going to receive in return for your hard earned cash. Make sure that your website is like an investment and that you are actually going to receive a return on your investment. Also, don't be afraid to ask questions! Most designers will answer most of your questions, no problem.

VisionSnap Now offers high resolution online virtual tours!

Virtual tour or panoramic tours are used to visually show customers online your interior or exterior of your business. VisionSnap offer the latest state of the art full immersive virtual tours and panoramas. Our virtual tour services are more than your basic panoramic tour, we shoot our final product in high resolution, in order for your customers to see and feel the detail or your locations.

Virtual tours are created with a still camera, taking a number of pictures from a single point. The camera is rotate on what is called a nodal point (the exact point at the back of the lens where the light converges) which then the images are stitched together using special software and rendered out into a QuickTime movie or flat image.

Our QuickTime movies are rendered to optimize on-line viewing yet having no distortion and keeping the high resolution and detail. Depending how you would like to display your area, a spherical (360 degree bubble) or cylinder virtual tour can be created. If interiors or exteriors are next to each other hotspots can be added to click on to go to the next area. Using hotspots allows users to really get the feeling of your business area.

Due to the high resolution and the detail in conducting a photo shoot these virtual tours are not cost efficient for real estate agents turning homes. But these virtual tours are perfect for businesses, restaurants, malls, doctor offices, etc.

Need to send out e-mails to your customers?
VisionSnap has developed a custom email system that incorporates your web site design so when your current or new potential clients receive your email in their inbox it looks like your web site with your email and content. We can build the body area to fit your text, pictures, ads, specials or whatever you need to send via email.

This is a cost efficient way to send out to your existing customers. There isn't any postage, they opt-in so you know they are interested in your information, and all you need to do is type, cut, paste, and send. Then 100's to 10,000's of your clients have your specialized email!

Interested in how to get started, call or e-mail VisionSnap today...
602.885.1393 / contact