Design is everywhere. When you use silverware, you can taste the design that went into making it. Design can also be heard in beautiful music. From traffic patterns to light switches to gloves, design plays a role in almost every aspect of our daily lives.

However, design isn’t about inventing something new, it’s about improving and putting your own spin on something old.

Design benefits all, including the designer. Arise and design!

Please visit the brand new FLPowersports.com, dealer of high-quality pit bikes, dirt bikes and scooters.

This new custom website is a stellar example of e-commerce done right. The shopping cart features multiple product display modes, is sortable and has built-in product search. Best of all, the checkout process is extremely quick and convenient. In addition, the client can update the rest of the site using the seamlessly integrated Content Management System.

During this project, I got to ride one of the 125cc pit bikes and it was a lot of fun. It’s hard to believe how affordable these bikes are. If you know someone interested in getting into motocross or you just want a fun bike to thrash around on, FLPowersports.com has you covered.

Visual Harmony offers E-Commerce Shopping Cart solutions starting at $1999.

Here are just a few benefits of owning an online storefront:

• Wider Reach: If you own a “brick-and-mortar” store is in Florida, you can now reach potential customers in California, Maine or even Zimbabwe (if you ship there) much more easily.  You can get a lot of exposure that you otherwise would be missing out on.
• Increased Revenues: An e-commerce capable website can make sales 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
• Low Overhead: Once your e-store is operational, there is very little-overhead to keep the site running for years and years to come.  Unlike the expenses for operating a walk-in storefront which pile up month after month.
• Better for Local Customers: People within driving distance of your physical storefront can learn more about what you are selling before they come there.  Just think how many times you have checked a price on something online before driving to pick it up.  I do it all the time.

Do you really need a Brick-and-Mortar Storefront?

It’s clear that some stores such as Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy make the majority of their sales in their brick-and-mortar stores.  I assure you that they are the exception and not the rule.

If you do not already have a physical storefront, who says you need one?  Statistically, the need for a physical store increases your overhead and cuts away from your bottom line by at least 15%.  Why give that up?

Fact: Visual Harmony has been in business since April 2007, without ever needing a physical office.  Everything clients need to know about us or how to communicate with us is available on our website.  By declining to use a physical storefront, we are able to offer higher-quality services at a more affordable rate than the competition.

Get it!

Give us a call at 352.207.5855 or email us to discuss your new online e-commerce store.

If you are looking for Florida employee health insurance or other team benefit solutions, they’re the ones to call.  Not only do they know their stuff, they’re a pleasure to work with.  Many thanks to Michelle, Ray, Donna, Neal and the rest of the team!

An example color scheme created by Color Scheme Designer 3

Looking for a time-saving tool to help you pick great color palettes? Well, make sure you check out Color Scheme Designer 3.  It is by far the best and most feature-rich online color choosing app I have ever used or come across.

It allows you to choose a base color by clicking inside the color wheel.  From the base color, it can generate a monochromatic, complementary, triadic, tetradic, analogic or accented analogic color scheme. You can further adjust the scheme’s saturation, brightness and contrast to your liking.

Both a light-dominant and dark-dominant preview are available to show you a couple of ways the generated scheme could be used to color a web page.  Click the button labeled “Light page example” to view the light-dominant preview and the button labeled “Dark page example” to see the dark-dominant preview.

Once you are satisfied with the scheme you have created, you can export it as HTML/CSS, XML, plain text, a Photoshop palette or even a GIMP palette.

Other nice features are the ability to randomize the palette and vision simulations that allow you to understand how your scheme will appear to the visually-impaired.  Checking the box next to “Show text” will display white, black and grey text over all of the different colors in your palette.  Did I mention that it’s FREE?

IMHO, splash pages are a big no-no.  Here’s why:

1. Splash pages usually take a loooooooong time to load.  Do you like having to wait when you do your web surfing?
2. Your site’s most important page is the home page.  Why would you want to make it harder for visitors to get there?
3. They get old real quick.  Would you watch your own flash movie 100 times without losing interest?
4. Every portion of your site should have a reason for being there.  What purpose does your splash page serve?
5. They are usually expensive.  Flash development isn’t cheap and depending on the depth of your splash page, it could potentially cost more to create than the rest of your site.

I’m sure there are plenty of other good reasons NOT to use splash pages and it’s hard to think of a good reason for creating one.  So, don’t waste your time or budget!

Put Your Visitors First

It takes some work (sometimes hard work) to get people to visit your website. So why chase them away with a site that isn’t usable? If you invest the time to make your site(s) visitor-centric (Warning! Additional work required), people will stay on your site longer and are much more likely to come back. To get a better idea of what I mean, let’s look at Merriam-Webster’s definitions of usable:

Now, I would say that most websites are capable of being used to some degree. So let’s not dwell on the first definition. Being the proud designers and developers that we are, we want to go the extra mile and make websites convenient for our visitors to use.

Why, you ask? As we all know, the internet is a busy place filled with many things to do, see, read and learn. When a person sits down to surf the web, she may have many goals to accomplish in a limited amount of time. This leads to a decrease in her attention span. If she can’t find what she is looking for on your site, she will quickly move on to a site that is easier for her to use.

A Real-World Example

So if Bobby wants to buy a new Celtics NBA Finals championship jacket, how can we make it convenient for him to accomplish this goal on our sporting attire website?

1. For starters, we would probably want to have a clearly displayed search box on our page so that he can search for it. Since he wants something specific, he will look for the search box first. Please note that not all websites require the ability to search. However, on sites that sell multiple products, it’s a must have feature!
2. Secondly, we need to have a logical navigation menu in case he wants to find the jacket that way. Most of the time, the navigation will be placed along the top or left side of the page. That doesn’t mean the navigation menu has to be in one of those places, but you better have a good reason for putting it somewhere else. No mystery meat!
3. When he finds the product page, it would be nice to have multiple pictures of the jacket and an accurate description. Right next to the price should a big, fat BUY IT NOW button. Shipping time and costs are common concerns, so it would be beneficial for Bobby to see that info on this page. Additionally, links to the product pages of similar jackets could be displayed in the sidebar of the product page in case he decides to choose a different style.
4. Lastly, the checkout process should be completed in as few steps as possible. It would truly be a shame for Bobby to make it this far only to abandon his shopping cart simply because it takes 12 steps to check out when it could’ve taken three. After checkout, Bobby should see a printable order confirmation page.

Congratulations! You just made a sale because you took the time to make it easy for that to happen. Go ahead and send out an automated email saying “Thank you for your business. Enjoy 10% off your next purchase with promo code CONVENIENT.” As long as your shipping is reliable, Bobby will probably check out your store first the next time he needs a jersey or baseball cap.

Bobby’s fictitious jacket purchase is just one example of how to improve a site by making it more visitor-centric. If your site isn’t getting the attention you think it deserves, try putting yourself in the shoes of your visitors. I’m sure there are plenty of things you can do to make your goals more convenient for your visitors to accomplish. Or, you can hire me to improve your website for you.