For decades, the line between what we need and what we want has been blurring, leading to overconsumption and a range of environmental issues. Who’s to blame, and what can be done?
How to Critique Copywriting and Design
Due to the subjective nature of copywriting and design, copywriters and designers have difficult jobs. They get hired for their expertise, tap into their knowledge and experience, and propose a draft. When the response is positive, fantastic. But when businesses offer vague critiques such as, “I don’t like it,” that’s absolutely meaningless, setting the stage for unnecessary frustration, countless revisions, and wasted time for all parties involved.
When you hire with a copywriter or designer, you can eliminate misunderstandings, and achieve effective web copy or design without delays, by following these basic feedback guidelines.
Need to Hire a Copyrighter? Are You Sure About That?
I am a copywriter, and along with my fellow copywriters, I write copy intended to communicate the benefits of certain products and services to people who will potentially use them. My logo is not a little ‘c’ with a circle around it, and my job has nothing to do with legal rights associated with creative works.
Is Poor Website Design Holding Your Business Hostage?
Online visitors form a first impression of a website quicker than the blink of an eye — literally. It typically takes humans 300 to 400 milliseconds to blink. Meanwhile, scientific research led by Dr. Gitte Lindgaard at Carleton University in Ontario reveals websites have as little as 50 milliseconds to establish a first impression — a mere 1/20th of a second. That’s it!
This is crucial information for any business because once a visitor forms an impression on a subconscious level, he or she will selectively search for information confirming that impression. People do this because we all want to prove we have good judgement. So, if our first impression of a website is negative, we have a tendency to mainly seek and see the negatives, regardless how good a business’ products and services might actually be. Alternatively, if we immediately like what we see, we’ll look for positive information to reinforce that impression.
So how do you avoid making a bad first impression on the Web? Easy. Get a good designer.
The Evolution of Language on the Web
If English weren’t an evolving language, we’d still be satisfying our retail needs at ‘Ye Olde Shoppes’ and referring to our less intelligent peers as ‘unpregnant’. Many factors contribute to the evolution of language, including geography, culture, and technology — but what determines the changes that are deemed acceptable enough for purists to relent?
How Is Social Media Affecting Web Design?
Social media empowers consumers to be recognized by marketers as human again, their voices amplified through an expanding array of platforms in the transparent online marketplace. Businesses are learning the value of this increasing amount of unsolicited market data, as well as the power of engaging their customers in conversation. As a result, products and services are being tailored to customers more efficiently, and businesses are able to respond quicker to issues and concerns.
How are these changes affecting web design? In order to fully leverage the benefits of this new relationship between business and consumer, websites must be designed with and for the ‘social Web’, affecting aesthetics, functionality, and the development process itself.
Why Design Needs to be Like A Quesadilla
Award-winning designer Gonzalo Alatorre, speaking at a TED conference in Mexico last month, suggested design needs to be like a quesadilla. Where was the Founder and Principal of Creative Engine, and designer of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics logo going with this? We spoke to the Alatorre to uncover his motivation for making such a seemingly bizarre claim.
5 Reasons Not to Hire a Web Designer
With technological advances, and templates galore available on the Web, it’s a wonder the average person hasn’t become a web designing guru by now. You’ve got a blog, you’ve got iWeb, and you know how to copy and paste from a source page, so what more do you need, right?
Webcopyplus is here to let you in on some secrets. There’s a lot more to good web design than you might think.
