St. Petersburg Web Design Blog

Archive for the ‘Graphic Design’ Category

We’ve all heard the rumors. They’ve working on the “Holy Grail” of the computer world. Pieces of inexpensive paper-like material that are disposable and reusable and can display digital content. They’ve come close several times and there are a few projects out there that could, if successful, change the world.

Now they’re saying ¹ they almost have ready something that’s going to do it. It’s the newspaper and magazine people that seem the most interested in it for right now. Without have any real idea what the demand for a product like this the newspapers and magazine publishers have made it clear that they are interested. It seems they feel (or are being led to believe) that using this content delivery method instead of paper will save significantly on the 70% of production costs that are paper related.

I don’t know if I’ll prefer reading my newspaper on a piece of electric paper that can be easy stuffed in a pocket (I’m not fond of newspapers that don’t fold easily and leave ink on my hands), but I do know I’m rooting for this technology.
It’ll create more demand for web designers and computer graphics design.

Here’s a list of some of the sites I’ve done for superpages.com Please remember that these are all editable by the client with a web based tool. The appearance could have been changed drasticlly since I designed the web site.

• Tampa’s Gold Club Gentlemen’s Club
• Anglin’s Landscaping
• Couture Painting
• Shapes Fitness for Women
• A Mobile Break Service
• Cunningham’s Pump and Well
• Insurance Marketing Specialists
• Gulf Coast Surplus
• Anteres Diamond Company
• JMI Mobile Detailing
• J. Michael Conaway – Attorney
• James Thomerson Attorney
• Collins And Hensley, Law Office
• Terrence L Ivey, Attorney and Couselor at Law
• AccessIT

Compared to my regular work I consider most of these sites to be sub-par. At this former employer of mine, site quality is not prioity one. Getting as many web sites out as quickly as you can, being nice on the phone and making more “up-sales”.

Service at my own Florida Web Design is far beyond what I could give the clients at superpages.com (they don’t even do photography). And my prices still beat them by a long shot.

First impressions really do count, especially for web sites according to the Behavior and Information Technology journal. According to a study they’ve just released, a web user makes up his or her mind, thumbs up or thumbs down, within less than a twentieth of a second.

This could explain a lot of pages that mysteriously have high “Bounce Rates.” While the researchers couldn’t seem to pinpoint the reasons for poor or positive ratings by these viewers, they were able to determine that the results weren’t random. They flashed some of the sites on screen more than once and they consistently got, well, consistent ratings.

The lesson learned? If a page has a high bounce rate, try changing it’s look.

Read the quoted news story

Lightbox.js is a simple implementation of javascript, css and images to cause thumbnails (or any link actually) to display in a floating layer that appears to be above your page. Check it out on their website. It’s a nice way to present thumbnails that varies on the pop-up theme, without being a pop-up.

I haven’t tested it on larger images yet. but on smaller images it seems to work great.

What’s new in my life?

Well since my new job as a web desinger at Results Driven Marketing, I’m feeling more fufilled and busier. I knew I had what it takes to do thhis for a living! You can check out some of my work on our proofing site at: IzonDesign.com.

Ok we (my fiance’ and I, that is), got a new cat. We adopted him from some cat rescue thjing. He’s less than a year old and he likes us. His name is Spooky. I’ll post some photos later.