I’ve always known that something wasn’t quite right with corporate websites, and after seeing things like Dustin Curtis’ mockery of American Airlines, I couldn’t help but explore the topic furthur. Why is it so hard for a large corporations to create successful strategies online? Bureaucracy.
I’ve recently published an article about the various frustrations of working with corporate clients in the web design world. It’s located on the new Fresh Tilled Soil: What’s Fresh blog.
Sometimes words do matter. I’ve always wondered how content and writing style can effect conversions. It can be seen all around you in the wonderful world of advertising. Just look at the way marketers have changed content to market Aloe Vera to men, calling it Cactus Milk to sell Lynx body lotion. How does this sort of thing apply on the web? Does the way you write about your product or call to action directly affect how many conversions you’re getting? Many designers have always illuded that this sort of thing exists, but few have tested it.
Luckily, there is finally some proof out there that you can use to start driving more conversion on your website using specific copyrighting styles. Dustin Curtis has recently posted about his little You Should Follow Me on Twitter experiment. Using AB testing, Dustin was able to test various ways of getting people to follow him on twitter to find out which combination achieved the highest conversion rate.
WordPress is quickly becoming one of the most well known open source PHP platforms for content management. Surprising, there is a lack of quality literature out there for professional designers and developers looking to learn more about working with the platform. In my opinion this is because WordPress is a constantly changing beast. Write a book on WordPress one year, and it will quickly be out of date the next. This makes it undoubtedly hard for traditional writers to keep on the cutting edge of things.
If you’re a developer I recommend reading the many high quality sources of information available on the web. This is really the only way to stay on the bleeding edge of things. I’ve decided to share with you the sources I frequently read, and hope that you can contribute some ideas to make this list grow as time goes on.
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WordPress has robust login system built in that is often under used because of it’s design restraints. Anyone that create’s an account and edit’s their profile info may be confused when they see the WordPress backend. It would be ideal to have your login, create account, and edit profile screens look like the rest of your site. This is easier to do than you think.
Recently I worked with a client that requested a similar feature. Because of their less than tech savvy audience, they wanted to have a local avatar system that was dead simple. Here’s a video explanation of the system I setup to handle the situation. Even though I am addressing the client directly, this provides a great introduction to how everything works.
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Smashing Magazine is a website and blog that offers resources and advice to web developers and web designers. It reviews software and web-based tools for web designers and developers, and publishes guides and how-tos on web design and web development. From time to time they offer free fonts, icons, and templates for download.
Nettuts is a web design and development article depot with many contributing authors. It is part of the Envato blog network. The articles range from software reviews, discussions on new technologies and frameworks to improve process, how-to guides on WordPress, and interviews with renowned developers. Nettuts+ gives you access to the extended set of paid tutorials and articles, and only costs $9 a month with no commitment to get started. One great thing about Nettuts+ is that it offers quality screencasts to show hands on examples. Also be sure to check out PSDTuts for high quality photoshop tutorials too!
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When you start to use WordPress as a CMS you begin to realize that one WYSIWYG area isn’t going to cut it. At that point you may start to explore the option of custom fields. They’re great, and they work well for handling small changes. But what happens when you need to have multiple WYSIWYG areas, or upload files, or manage content using other form fields like checkboxes, radio toggle’s or text inputs. To do this you’ll need the power of custom write panels. There are many ways to create them; some involve the use of plugins and some don’t. I’m going to discuss a few of the way’s I’ve created custom write panels, and explain the ups and downs of each approach. If anyone has any suggestions please leave your thoughts as comments; they may be added to the post in the future.
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