Source: The Evolution of Making Page 1 [INFOGRAPHIC]

Source: The Growth of Social Media: An Infographic

Where is the Party
With hundreds of millions of individuals now online, social networking sites are among the most popular sites. To attract groups, try using a blog, twitter, flickr, digg, YouTube or even create your own podcast. Let your creative side show with these emerging technologies and let the party begin.

Navigation is Everything
It actually is the web site. With bad navigation and poor site structure your site will be confusing and hard to navigate. Most users typically spend 30 to 60 seconds on the homepage. If they spend most of that time trying to figure out where to go next chances are they will go to another web site that is easier to use. You will want to have simple navigation if you want to build a good website.

Keep Your Message Short
Studies show that over 80% of people online don’t read, but they scan. Take the text you planned on using for your web site and cut it in half, then take that and try to cut it in half again. Only include important and relevant information. You want your message to be meaninguly and memorable.

Less is More
Your design, especially the homepage, should be clean and not cluttered. If your site is too busy it may scare off or confuse the user. Web users are busy and they want to get straight to the facts or order a product. (see billboard design)

Billboard Design
You want your homepage to be like a billboard. Imagine driving down the highway and spotting a billboard, you only have a few seconds to look at it, process the information, decide if it is for you and what to do next; call or visit their web site. Your homepage should be the same way; the user should know what you are about within a few seconds.

Nice Address
You will want to try to get a domain name that is either short, easy to spell, or easy to remember. Also, try to buy the .net .us .info etc. extensions if your budget permits. Try to include keywords or company name in the domain if possible.

Tie it All Together
You want your web site to match and flow with your current identity and other materials. Additionally, you will want to put your web site address on all of your printed materials.

Spiders See Things Different
Your web site may look easy to comprehend on the outside, but to a search engine spider it looks completely different. A web site should be both people friendly, (Good Design, Usability, Navigation, and Content) and search engine friendly, (Keyword Density, Page Names, Site Structure, META Tags, Links, Site Maps and more). High ranking on a search engine is a huge asset.

Measure The Results
Having a popular web site is great but is all that traffic converting into sales or leads? How is everyone getting to your site? Is there a section of the site you could improve upon? With analytics strapped to your site you will be able to make decisions to improve your site and business based on fact not theory.

You Get What You Pay For
You could have your neighbor or secretary design your web site, but owning a computer doesn’t make them a web design firm, just as owning a first aid kit does not make someone a doctor. It’s best to leave design and programming to a web design agency that knows what they are doing.

I was reading Smashing Magazine as I do every day and came across a cool site form their post “50 Powerful Time-Saves for Web Designers“. One of the sites that really interested me was Markup. It’s a very simple browser based tool that allows the users to make notations and markup a page right through the browser. The thing I love is that you don’t need an account, there is nothing to download or install. You simply bookmark the site in your toolbar, visit the site you wish to markup and click the link. Once you are done you can publish the page in which you are provided with a URL to email around showing your notations. The user can then make additional edits on top of that or start over.

From the drawing palate you can select from freehand, arrows, circles, rectangles, or lines. You can also select different colors and control the thickness of borders. There is also a text tool allowing you to the ability to type up explanations or directions for an edit.

I think as a web designer this application will be a good system for some clients to work with because there is no real learning curve or another login to remember. I know there are more elaborate apps and tools out there allowing for more detailed collaboration and version history but to me this is a great simple app. So make sure you check out Markup and let me know what you think.

Last week I had the opportunity to speak at a Career Day event for Eagles Landing Middle School in Boca Raton, FL. It was the 5th annual career day for the 8th grade class about to graduate and enter high school next school year. Each student got to select three different careers to hear about so they showed interest in the topic. I was chosen to speak as a Web / Graphic Designer. There was a wide range of professionals from Lawyers, Paramedics, Chefs, Authors, Veterinarians and dozens more.

I was in 8th grade when I started to get into the basics of web design. A friend of mine bought a book on HTML and he taught me some of the basics. I remember making my first website on things that I was into – Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, The Beatles, and things of that nature. I actually still have a copy of the first site believe it or not and like to take a look at it every 2 or 3 years and have a good laugh at how bad it was.

I remember this time frame very well I took them for a trip down memory lane and explained what the internet was like back in 95-96 (many of them weren’t even born yet!). I told them how most people connected to the Internet with AOL 2.5 which came on a floppy disc, that most of them probably have never used a floppy. How it was through a dial-up connection running windows 3.11. When I told them Yahoo was only formed a year before and Google was just a project at Stanford University I could see some of their eyes light up – thinking a world without Google!?! This was several years before iPods, iPhones, Twitter, Facebook and WiFi connections. As I was preparing the presentation and coming up with these little tidbits of information it got me thinking that all of that stuff seems soooooooo long ago when in actuality it’s a very short period of time. Needless to say it made me feel old.

I went on to tell the kids some of the basics of web and graphic design, what an average day is like, the types of programs you use, and the types of people and clients you work with. Some of the kids showed a general interest asking good questions about the job and industry. I was able to present to three different groups on the topic and showed some samples of my work. Following the presentations all of the speakers gathered for a group photo and kind words from the principle and teachers in charge of organizing this as well as receiving some nice gifts.

So thank you again to Debbie Miler and the Eagles Landing Middle School for allowing me to help out.

I’m pleased to announce that we have officially launched our first product line over at GRAFF TOYZ. This has been a great project to work on, we have had bumps in the road which is to be expected when you are creating everything from an idea.

Our first line of Graff Erase Boards feature 3 original designs that make traditional white boards look extremely boring. All of our products are Made and Sprayed in the USA™ something we are very proud of!

The boards are laser cut on heavy-duty transparent Plexi. The cloud and hello tag are all painted for a unique design every time. . Each board comes equipped with a velcro mounts giving you total freedom to remove the board from the wall, draw on any other flat surface and place it back for all to enjoy. Each board comes with two markers that wipe completely clean with only a damp cloth, looking as good as the day you bought it.

In addition to working on the product development and everything else involved with the company we also designed and launched the website www.grafftoyz.com. I am pleased with how it came out and still working on developing content for it along with our next product line. Enjoy!

Local Mojo is finally up! We’ve been working on this behind the scenes at AgencyWeb for the last several months. I designed the front end of the site and built the css framework. Again we worked worked with Luke and his guys who built all the amazing features that make this platform work. It’s currently in soft launch but ready for some businesses to sign up for. It’s the perfect blend for most businesses. We found that a lot of companies don’t need or can’t afford a full blown web marketing agency like AgencyWeb, or they need something more then a directory listing like National Online Directory. Along came Local Mojo.

Local Mojo provides businesses with free local sites that provide the standard directory style information such as location with maps, hours of operations, payment options, services etc. But they allow you some “mojo” by having the ability to embed your own YouTube videos, Flickr photos, Twitter updates and more. Local Mojo also gives the user to track everything with powerful state of the art analytics and the option to buy targeted localized traffic to get even more visitors to your site.

So if you want a free website to help your local business check out www.localmojo.com and if you want to really have some mojo sign up for some of the enhanced features.

One of my favorite design sites Smashing Magazine just posted a new article about Backgrounds in Web Design. The article talks about the new trend in web design about using backgrounds as the main focus of the design. The sites they feature are very impressive and I can’t wait to have the chance to try out some new ideas.

My favorite would have to be the SilverBack web site, resize your browser smaller and wider to see what I am talking about, very cool stuff!

The good thing is I have been designing sites like these over the past year or so for here at Digital Skratch or at my other company AgencyWeb. I’m looking forward to trying new trying some new techniques and keep coming up with creative designs that are also functional and search friendly.

Body and Content Background as One
www.greengarbagedesigns.com
www.lifeskillssouthflorida.com

A Subtle Texture
www.agencyweb.com
www.digitalskratch.com

Semi-Transparent Content Backgrounds in Layered Designs
www.ihoopmadness.com

View more web design from Digital Skratch

I changed the skin of our blog today. I think it reflects our corporate web site better and ties in nicely. I also changed the look of the AgencyWeb blog today. Now that we have this one updated, AW and the iMadness blog running maybe I’ll start to blog on a regular basis!

We launched the website for Green Garbage Designs. They specialize in eco-friendly clothing and jewelry. Go check them out for some cool gift ideas for the holiday season. We also launched another new site for Jack Lannom – Lannom Worldwide.