The Ocean Agency

Our web design company is proud to present one of our most recent projects, the rejuvenation of MagellanSells.com. In addition to their Chicago apartments website, Magellan needed an easy to use and pleasing site where customers could find all the information they needed on buying a condo or townhome in one of Magellan’s many developments.

Now, it’s easy for potential customers to find what they need– the properties are easily searchable by development, location, price or other attributes. The new site has extensive photos and videos, so users can really experience the property, too.

The Magellan experience has also been refocused on the online community of Magellan owners, renters and potential buyers. You can read the blog of Magellan’s Senior Vice President of Sales, Leila Zammatta, or see what’s going on from the Magellan side of things by checking out the News blog. You can catch up with the Magellan team on Twitter and Facebook, right from the homepage of Magellan Sells. If you’re interested about what’s going on in Chicago, take a look at the Chicago Life section of the site, where you can find events and entertainment throughout the city.

To make information easily accessible for potential buyers and current clients, Magellan invested in a renewal for their web presence, and our web design company was proud to be involved with the largest development company in Chicago.

Our web design firm would like to formally introduce our most recent launch: MedicareSupplementsForYou.com. The new site for this supplemental insurance vendor features a clean design and very simple to use navigation– perfect for anyone who needs information but isn’t entirely web-savvy.

For senior citizens in Arkansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Illinois, you can visit the new site to get the information you may need about your medicare supplement plans. As the Medicare and insurance markets change with the administration, Medicare Supplements For You can help you understand the changing policies and choose which plan is best for you.  With one simple step of filling out a contact form, you start the ball rolling. Medicare Supplements For You will find and compare the best options for your supplemental plan, and supply with a quote of the lowest rates available.

Friday’s here and so are our links. This Memorial Day weekend, we’ll be thinking about online business development, branding and business cards.

Mayhem Studios gives recommendations on how to better brand your Twitter presence with a customized background– check out the do’s and don’ts.

Web Designer Depot talks branding, too, and shows us 50 great circular logos. Check ‘em out. We do love NASA and Wordpress!

Smashing Mag talks cool (but maybe impractical) business cards. It’s good to have a stand-out card, but don’t get this attitude.

Finally, advice on pleasing clients is always good. Vandelay Designs gives some good tips on understanding your client from the get-go.

Have a safe Memorial Day weekend!

Many people assume that creativity and humor are the only things that make a video, website, or application go viral. But Daniel Tenner gives us a much more strategic look at how to increase the virality of your apps. If you are looking to spread the word about your website, here are some tips to getting that viral loop started.

Although humor, creativity or just plain addictiveness makes apps more viral from the start, there are some simple strategies to draw users in and keep them coming back.

First, make inviting a core process. Of course, you want users to want to invite their friends to try your app, but you should encourage them at each visit by making inviting a core process, not just an initial one. And putting it front and center will encourage users to invite and share each time.

Secondly, persistence pays off. Tenner explains, “What this means is that you should not just send them one invitation and then wait for them to join. And once they’ve joined, you should not just wait for them to start using your system and inviting more users. You should keep sending useful communications and/or showing signs that will encourage people to use the system.”

Last, make sure your app benefits the user, even if their friends don’t sign up. Of course, you want them to– but the user should have some core benefit just from joining or using your app. In other words, “Even in applications like Twitter or LinkedIn, which are really all about the network effects, the fact that there is something meaningful for the user to do right away, even when they know nobody, is a huge plus.”

The article has even more ways to make your app spread like the plague, no matter what the idea behind it is. Check out these strategies and more at Daniel Tenner’s blog, and remember to wash your hands… Spread apps! Not swine flu!

Once again, our web design firm brings you links to what’s inspiring us this week!

First off, Smashing Magazine came in with two convincing and helpful articles– one on how to increase conversions, and one on how to publicize your content. Combine the two, and you could have a very successful website!

A List Apart reminds us that a huge part of a creative web design being well-received is communicating with your clients. Set clear goals, stay organized, and finish on time are some of the tips they give.

Web Designer Wall shows all the great uses of hover– it’s not just for changing text color anymore.

Graphic design is still the basis of great web design– check out this video of the design process from Think Vitamin.

That’s all we have this week! Keep your eye on the design until next week.

The Ocean Agency is proud to present the new and improved iTrees.com website! We provided iTrees.com with a new eCommerce and informational website solution to bettersuit  their users’ experience buying trees online.

We redesigned  iTrees.com’s website and identity to better reach their business goals. The site itself needed to provide an easy-to-use shopping platform for the merchant’s unique offerings– selling large trees online and then delivering and installing them at your home. The branding and messaging of the new site needed to make users confident about purchasing trees online, while also communicating accurate details about the products and services provided. Through an eye-catching design and a friendly feel, the navigation of the site is now simple and clear, making shoppers more confident in their landscaping decisions.

Check out the new site’s design below, and shop mature trees here!

Our web design firm is proud to present our newest design– PayLeap.com! We redesigned PayLeap’s site to better embody their mission as an online merchant account provider.

PayLeap’s unique offering is that they bundle the services of a merchant account and payment gateway into one simple and affordable solution for merchants, developers and resellers. We helped them out by creating a logo and brand message that conveys the simplicity, trustworthiness and advantages of their service, while also implying a greater level of professionalism and customer service than their competitors.

Our designers created a navigation on the site that seamlessly targets PayLeap’s three main markets and represents the distinct benefits offered to each group. Information on the site is presented with the transparency that PayLeap prides itself on.

Having a confusing or poorly designed website is a direct reflection of the kind of customer service you offer, and you don’t want to mess that up. Ensure that your current site gives the message you want to show to first-time and returning customers.

Designing your logo is a defining moment for any business. Giving a graphic representation to the ideals of your business can effect your company for years to come. When you think of a company, you usually relate your experience with it directly to its logo– and for online businesses, this is even more true. The first thing a user comes into contact with– especially in the incredibly graphic-based experience of the web– is your logo. Here are some tips for getting it right the first time and not having to go through countless redesigns and companies to perfect your online brand.

This article from the New York Times gives some great insight into logo creation– we’re going to tweak it for company owners working with an online business development firm.

1- Sketch. As an online business owner, you might not have the skills to create exactly what you want. But walking into a meeting with a design with a blueprint is always good. Print things you like, iconography you relate to your business, or sketch as best you can what you envision representing you.

2- Check out your competition. You want to distinguish yourself, but you want your customers to indentify your company with your  market. You don’t want to get so far away from norms that your customers can’t relate to or trust you within your niche.

3- Timeless over trendy. Especially–especially– in web design, this is so important. A trendy logo of a new company will often look dated a few years down the road. Make sure yours will hold up.

4- Less is more. Web users always prefer simplicity. Clean, sleek and clear are words we hear our designers using all the time, and for good reason. Logos that are busy or messy are as bad as websites that hide their function in clutter.

5- Easy on the colors. Especially for a corporate presence online, you want to stay on the “friendly” side of the color spectrum. You never want to alienate users with lurid colors that are trendy or you think stand out.

6- One size does not fit all. The article pretty  much nails it- Have your consultants “test your logo across different reproduction sizes to make sure it is scalable. Web logos may look different in print than online, different when faxed than when printed on a business card or mug. Consider all the possibilities, including aspect ratio.”

7- Go beyond photoshop. DIY may work for a small business, but if you’ve got bigger goals, “then hire a qualified professional with proven experience. The difference between a poorly constructed logo and a well-designed one is self-evident.”

8- Graphic vs. text logos. Although some of the most memorbale logos, like the Nike swoosh, are simply graphics, if you’re a new company, you may need a little more brand explanation. Make sure your logo meets the needs of your online business development– you may need to explain what your business does before you start branding it.

9- Get feedback. Ask your office, ask your consultant. But never stray too far from your vision to accommodate the opinions of everyone you know. Don’t let your designer lose the “you” in your design.

10-  Simplicity, again. Yep… simplicity is so important, the article recommended it twice.

The logo is often a first step of business development, and it’s important to get it right. A web design firm should understand the principles above and help you achieve your vision.

Last week, SEOBook pointed out, to our great pleasure, that you can learn a lot about SEO from Bob Dylan. Using the lyrics of “Like A Rolling Stone” to illustrate their point– “When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose/You’re invisible now, you got no secrets to conceal”– they pointed out that young and unestablished websites have a bit of an advantage when it comes to link-building, since they have no associations, good or bad.

Well, that got us thinking about Bob and how he relates to our industry, online marketing, how great it would have been to live in the 60s, facepaint, album covers, ticket stubs, justice in America, and other things… but mostly, it gave us a great example of how old dogs can learn new tricks in creative web design and online business development.

Bob Dylan has one of the best web presences in the music business, if you ask us. His website is an amazing combination of information (for instance, the lyrics to his entire discography in alphabetical order by song title) and viral fun– the collapsible music player at the top of the site allows you to play any of his tracks, and the “complete unknown” button in the top left corner takes a fan to a random page of the site. You can see everywhere that Bob has ever played a show, and you used to be able to personalize the “Subterranean Homesick Blues” music video to send a message of your own to a friend. You can buy fine art inspired by Dylan, or join the Dylan community. Additionally, his community links out to the many fan sites and interesting projects created by Dylan fans to preserve his appeal. At 67 years old, Dylan is kicking the pants of most young music stars in the online field. 

So perhaps the lesson is, if you’re cool, you’re just cool– on the stage, on the web, wherever. We think a more apt lesson might be that, with a developed web presence like Dylan’s, you can extend your appeal to new markets while expertly entertaining old fans. You can’t put a price on an engaging web experience and what it can do for your image. 

Plus, we just wanted an excuse to finally embed this video on our blog. Thanks, Bobby!

You will hear from many web designers, including some of ours, that “eye candy” websites– or visually appealing ones– aren’t practical for businesses. The argument stands that websites should be immediately usable and functional; you almost shouldn’t even notice the design, but instead navigate through it without stopping to think about it. But there’s definitely an argument for beautiful websites, too.  We recognize that creative web design should sometimes include daring visual designs that are more than “mere styling”.

The relationship between aesthetics and usability is more closely linked than some may realize. The way users perceive a website is almost entirely visual, so of course, the visual design of a website can govern the way it is used and influence functionality.  An aesthetically pleasing website is necessary, therefore, as far as it positively affects your users. A graphic that is good looking and well designed, but merits no helpful repsonse from your user, must be reevaluated. Similarly, the photographs and images you use on your website, though they may have special significance to you, may not inspire any particular emotions in your visitors.  Allowing your designer to help you choose the graphics that will be most moving for your users is usually a safe bet.

Part of attracting users to convert on your website is providing them with attractive features– enticing contact forms, buttons and copy. If a button is functional, but not attractive, no one will be tempted to use it. If the content is there, but is layed out in an unattractive way, it will not get read. And if your contact form has no allure, you won’t be capturing anyone’s data. Visual designs are more than mere styling in these cases.  Attractive designs add to the functionality of your website; they function to attract more users to complete your desired conversion.

Flowery visual design isn’t always necessary on a website, but used properly, it accentuates the usability. A web design firm that employs beautiful aesthetics when beneficial to a new site can enhance your site, in visual enjoyability and in true functionality.