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Mobile Site Design: Responsive Design vs. Mobile Specific

Posted on January 24, 2013 by Danielle Edwards

Mobile Site DesignMobile site design has exploded over the last year, and it’s no wonder why.  With millions of cell phone users in the US alone, more and more people are accessing the web via their smartphones and tablets than ever before.  This mobile surge has been met with two types of mobile site designs:  Responsive Design and Mobile Specific Site Design.

Responsive design is site design that resizes to fit a multitude of screen sizes, including desktops, tablets, and mobile devices.  A mobile specific site, on the other hand, is designed exclusively for mobile phones.

At Artonic, we have fully supported mobile specific sites over responsive design.  Although not everyone agrees, a growing number of experts have come to realize that the best mobile user experience is found on a mobile specific site.  Forbes posted an article stating, “Responsive design… may not represent the best option for organizations aiming to deliver unique and innovative experiences to customers.”  We agree, and we’ll tell you why.

The Downsides to Responsive Design:

1.  When you access a site from a mobile device, you are, most likely, on a slower data network.  As a result, the website takes longer to download.  Even though a user views only a small portion of the website through a responsive design, she still has to download the entire site.  Slow load time equals unhappy visitors, and unhappy visitors leave.

2.  Responsive design doesn’t allow complete control and flexibility of the layout and user experience on a mobile device.   Instead, responsive design is a “one size fits all” option.  A mobile device offers very small screen real estate, and it’s got to count.  Responsive design doesn’t make good use of layout and prime site real estate for mobile users, because it’s not specifically designed for mobile users.  It’s designed for the desktop first, and then squished down to work on a mobile device.

The Upsides to Mobile Specific Sites:

On the flip side, a mobile specific site handles these issues wonderfully.

1.  A mobile site is designed to load quickly on a mobile phone, which is imperative to keeping and converting visitors.  73% of mobile internet users say they’ve encountered a website that was too slow to load.  How long is too long?  6 to 10 seconds, according to a study conducted by Kissmetrics.  What do these visitors do when greeted by a slow loading site?  They leave, which is exactly what you don’t want them to do.

2.  A mobile specific site is designed distinctly for mobile users.  This means the site layout, load time, and content are all created to meet the needs of mobile users.  When designing a mobile site, ask yourself, “What does the mobile user want?”  The answer is unique to mobile users vs. desktop users.  Mobile users want less information and they want it quickly.  They’re looking for location, operating hours, social networks.  They want the site to fit the screen size of their mobile device, and they want large buttons that are easy to tap.  This differs from what a desktop user seeks, which is why the design of a traditional site should differ from the design of a mobile site.  Mobile users have specific needs and therefore, require a specific site design.

Mobile Site Design Done Right

When it comes to mobile sites, it’s always best to put the user first.  This is a key piece to Artonic‘s philosophy:  excellent user experience and beautiful design.

Artonic designs mobile sites with user experience in mind.  Don’t settle for less!  Get your mobile site designed the right way, by Artonic.  Contact us today:

WEBSITE:  www.ArtonicWeb.com
PHONE:  517-902-7851
EMAIL:  info@artonicweb.com
ADDRESS:  200 E. Russell Rd. Ste D, Tecumseh, Michigan

Posted in Monbile Site Design, Website Design | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment




Web Design Trends: Modern UI

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Danielle Edwards

A new trend in web design is Modern UI (Modern User Interface).  Modern UI emphasizes typography over graphics.   It is a simple, elegant, and clean design trend that makes use of tiles.  Examples of this are seen in Microsoft’s designs for phones and Windows 8.

I sat down with Artonic owner, Matt Harper, and asked a few questions regarding Modern UI.

Danielle:  Tell us a little about Modern UI.

Matt:   It makes use of solid colors, straight lines.  There is a lack of gradients, a lack of drop shadows.  Good contrast between the colors where there isn’t a need for a lot outlines, gradients, or shadows.  So it’s really an improved design.  It’s a lot simpler, it loads a lot faster, and it’s also faster to design and make changes.

I really see Modern UI as something that will be classified as web 3.0.  And I see SAAS applications, cloud applications, being classified as web 3.0 also.  Modern UI works very well for mobile devices.

We are going into an era where we’re able, through browser wars between Chrome and Firefox, and finally IE, to use new technologies, and do bigger things.  There is a real need for clean, simple, straight-forward design.

D:  What about Web 2.0?  Where did that go?

M:    It’s important to note that these web versions, so to speak, are really just a view of things.  There isn’t a difinitive definition of Web 2.0 or Web 3.0.  Web 2.0 is generally characterized as sites that employ larger fonts and graphics, and have very clean layouts.  Web 2.0 was also the beginning of real web applications.  Web 3.0 will consist of even powerful web applications that come very close to replacing resource intensive desktop software.  Web 3.0 websites will likely include those that utilize an even more modern and simplistic design than Web 2.0 sites have.

D:  How does Modern UI affect web design?

M:  The internet is a place for information.  It can be a place for art, but when art becomes the primary focus of web design, it muddies the user experience.  You can have a very pretty website where you can’t locate any information, or it’s hard to navigate, or hard to read, whatever the case may be.  And at the end of the day, the user prefers a better experience over a better design.  That’s where Modern UI comes in.  It gives the user a better experience.

D:  Do you think this trend will continue?

M:  I think the trend will continue because it facilitates user experience.   I think that’s why Microsoft will be successful with this design trend that they’ve invested a lot into, and are taking a lot of risk on.  With all of the information that is thrown at us every day, we will continue to latch onto anything that makes it easier to navigate and filter it.

Web Design by Artonic

If you seek modern, clean web design, Artonic is your answer.  We offer beautiful, professional web designs nationwide.  We look forward to collaborating on your next Modern UI website design!

Contact us today:

WEBSITE:  www.ArtonicWeb.com
PHONE:  517-902-7851
EMAIL:  info@artonicweb.com
ADDRESS:  200 E. Russell Rd. Ste D, Tecumseh, Michigan

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Yelp Help: Combat Negative Reviews

Posted on November 27, 2012 by Danielle Edwards

Yelp Reviews:  Are they really unbiased?

Do you use Yelp as a resource when looking for advice on restaurants, handymen, or other professional service providers?  You may want to look elsewhere if you seek unbiased reviews.

Yelp Extortion

The review site, Yelp, has received a lot of negative press lately, concerning unethical business practices, concerning how the site filters reviews.

It gets worse.  Not only does Yelp arbitrarily filter reviews, it is speculated the site also offers to remove negative reviews in exchange for advertising dollars.   According to news site East Bay Express, “Yelp sales representatives promised to move or remove negative reviews if the business would advertise. In another six instances, positive reviews disappeared — or negative ones appeared — after owners declined to advertise.”

“Don’t Believe Yelp Reviews”

Complaints of extortion came to a head in October of 2011, when a class-action lawsuit was filed against Yelp claiming that they were removing negative reviews in exchange for “advertising.”  This lawsuit was dismissed, but it brought Yelp’s reputation under fire, and extortion complaints continue to grow.

Huffington Post wrote an article titled, “Yelp Review Problems:  Top 9 Reasons You Can’t Always Trust the Review Site.”  This article, too, states, “Yelp salespeople have been known to call restaurants offering to push bad reviews far down on the list, if they’ll agree to pay to advertise.”

In an article written for Forbes blog, Jim Handy states, “…to put things in simple language, don’t believe Yelp reviews.  Who knows how many of them have been deleted or obscured according to some secret policy?”

Combat Yelp Reviews

So, how do you combat Yelp’s biased display of reviews?  We suggest taking a proactive approach through Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and promotion of legitimate review sites, such as Google.  Thankfully, Yelp isn’t the only review site online, and users are becoming more aware of how biased and unethical their company practices are.

Here’s a quick list of ways to combat reviews on Yelp:

  • Encourage clients to leave positive reviews on Google + or Yahoo! Local
  • Engage in an SEO campaign that pushes your business to the top of the search results
  • Leave positive, helpful replies to negative reviews
  • Build your reputation with social media, such as Facebook and Twitter
  • Post testimonials on your website and blog
  • Update and monitor local listings online

More Yelp Help

If you’d like a detailed, personalized plan for your business, contact Artonic.  We offer SEO, Social Media Management, Reputation Management, and more.  Visit www.ArtonicWeb.com; Call 517-902-7851; email info@artonicweb.com.

Posted in Internet Marketing, Website Related | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment




Why build wireframes and prototypes?

Posted on November 16, 2012 by Matt Harper

When working on new client projects, we are often asked what is the wireframing stage of planning and development. Here is a post from Site9 founder and CTO Andrew Mottaz to explain a bit better why this stage is so important. His team developed ProtoShare, the wireframing and prototyping software we use when wireframing your website or application.

Why build wireframes and prototypes?

Wireframes and interactive prototypes are your guide to the end product.

When starting a project, the first task is to get everyone on the same page with respect to the project: what are we doing, why are we doing it, what are the goals?

Wireframes and prototypes are a way to jump-start this understanding.

Like Artonic, Site9 started as a development agency. Back in 1999 and 2000, we used to skipstraight to design comps from brainstorming. It was always easier to “wow” a customer with pretty pictures than to do the hard work of figuring out exactly how to best meet a customer’s needs. As we grew more experienced, we added discipline to our process. It started with big specification docs that we forced a customer to approve. Strangely, this didn’t prevent the problem of getting a huge number of last-minute changes after a site was developed.

What was the problem? Engagement. No matter how complete, a big book of dry specs can’t be adequately understood by the customer.

Just as Artonic also discovered, our solution was wireframing and prototyping. We define wireframing as creating very low fidelity conceptual sketches. It lays out the skeletal structure of a website, so you get a better idea of what will go where and how a user will navigate. Wireframing definitely helps make sure you’re on the same page as the creative team. It’s like agreeing on an outline.

But wireframes can still leave too many questions up in the air. At some point, we started increasing the fidelity of our wireframes to interactive prototypes, better simulating a website experience. What we find most valuable about high fidelity prototypes is the level of engagement received from customers like you. We don’t believe teams should prototype every minute detail and expect a prototype to replace a spec, but a highly functional prototype will get customer engagement. And a lot of the ‘last-minute’ questions and rework requests can be extracted by working with a customer engaged in a high fidelity prototype.

 

Andrew Mottaz is founder, CTO and president of Site9, Inc., developer of ProtoShare collaborative prototyping software for websites and mobile applications. Andrew is based in Portland, Oregon and writes and presents on prototyping, team collaboration, and Agile and Lean UX methodologies.

 

 

 

Posted in Website Design, Website Related | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment




Web Design Trend: Parallax Scrolling

Posted on October 22, 2012 by Matt Harper

At Artonic, your Michigan Web Design company, we closely follow all trends relating to web design.  Parallax scrolling (PS) is a web design trend that’s definitely worth looking into!

What is Parallax Scrolling?
Nike Better World was one of the first sites to start the parallax scrolling trend in web design.  This trend has taken off across the internet.  It offers innovative and eye-catching design elements, replacing the need for Flash (which is no longer supported by Adobe, smartphones, or tablets).

Parallax scrolling offers a new way to scroll through a website.  It creates the illusion of depth, much like a 2D video game, by moving foreground images faster than background images.  This technique came about through the multiplane camera technique, used in animation since the ’40′s.  It was made popular by Moon Patrol, an arcade game from 1982.

Coding Parallax Scrolling
Zach, one of our programmers at Artonic, offered his input on parallax scrolling:

How do you code a site that uses parallax scrolling?
Parallax scrolling is a very complicated process that involves heavy amounts of layers and jQuery, which is a multi-browser Javascript library that is widely used in many different websites and web applications.

Are there any special coding considerations with parallax scrolling?
There are many tutorials floating around on the internet. It is highly advised to use these as it cuts down on time spent.

Is it difficult to code PS?
Just like all coding, it is difficult at first, but becomes easier over time.

What’s your favorite example of a site that uses PS?

http://www.inception-explained.com/

Super Cool Sites that Use Parallax Scrolling
Our senior designer, Ashlee, suggests looking at some of the following sites for inspiration:

http://krystalrae.com/
http://www.marcusthomasllc.com/#/about

http://community.saucony.com/kinvara3/

Interested in Web Design?
If you’re thinking about a new site design (or redesign), simply contact Artonic!  We’re Lenawee County’s leading web design and internet marketing company.  Call us at (855) 278-6642 or email us at info@artonicweb.com.

Posted in Graphic Design, Website Design | Tagged , | Leave a comment




Internet Explorer is a Terrible Browser

Posted on October 15, 2012 by Zachery Stuart

Why you should make the switch from Internet Explorer to Firefox or Google Chrome

The State of the Browser Industry (Brief History of IE)

Internet Explorer is an Internet browser that comes bundled with all Windows based Computers.  At one point, Internet Explorer was the best browser for developers to support (1995 – 2000). During this time, it featured the modern web technologies that Netscape (another popular browser) chose to neglect.

Once Firefox launched in late 2004, a shift in browser usage started.  Firefox supported modern web technology and took users away from Internet Explorer.  This browser war continued with IE losing and Firefox gaining until 2008, when Google Chrome was introduced to the mix.

Between 2008 and 2012, Google Chrome shot from 0% of the browser market share to a whopping 43.7%.  This growth was mostly at the cost of Internet Explorer.  At its peak in 2008, IE had 54.8% of the market share. Firefox peaked in mid 2009 with 47.9% market share.  Now, IE has 16.2% and Firefox is at 32.8%

*Source:  http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

Google Chrome’s popularity comes from how fast and usable the browser is.  Here is a video of some speed tests:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCgQDjiotG0&feature=player_embedded

Why You Should Switch

Although Internet Explorer 9 has made great improvements over its predecessors, there are still many features it doesn’t support.

HTML5 and CSS3 are the future of website coding languages.  Here is a CSS3 compatibility list with every major browser:

As you can see, even Internet Explorer 9 only beats its predecessors.  Although IE 10 is expected to have increased compatibility with HTML5 and CSS3, other browsers that extensively support this up and coming standard already exist.

Try it yourself:

Go to this website on your normal internet browser: http://neography.com/experiment/circles/solarsystem/

If the planets are moving, you are either on Firefox, Safari, or Chrome.

If the planets are not moving, you are either on Internet Explorer or Opera

Browser speeds:

As you can see from this video, Internet Explorer 9 places dead last in 3 out of 5 important speed tests.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BtZdnOymzQ

Ready to switch?

Download Firefox Here

Download Chrome Here

Written by Zach Stuart.  Zach is a coder at Artonic, a Michigan Internet Marketing company.  He recently joined the Artonic team and does amazing work for us!  Zach excels at front-end coding, wireframing, and more.

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How to Choose the Right Content Management System (CMS) for Your Business

Posted on July 18, 2012 by Danielle Edwards

To update the text and images on your site, you have two options:

  • Hire a programmer
  • Do it yourself with a Content Management System (CMS)!

Obviously, it’s more cost effective to update your site with a CMS. We wrote this article to help you understand important features of a great CMS.

What is a CMS?

Our customers tell us all the time that one of the most important things for their website is an easy-to-use CMS. A CMS allows you to:

  • Add New content
  • Edit existing content
  • Upload and edit images
  • Make changes to your site immediately

Why is Fresh Content Important?

It’s vital for you to be able to manage, add, and publish new content on your site. This keeps your site fresh and up-to-date. Fresh content is very important to your site:

  • Customers love new content; it keeps them coming back again and again.
  • The search engines (Google and Bing) love new content; and it will help improve your rankings.

Choose a CMS

Before you decide on a CMS for your business, ask yourself some questions:

  • Is it easy-to-use?

Not everyone is tech-savvy. Make sure the CMS you pick is simple, straight forward, and easy to use. Remember, one of the main reasons you’re choosing a CMS is so that you don’t have to hire a programmer to do the work for you. If you don’t understand your CMS, it isn’t going to do you any good.

  • Does it include the features you want?

Determine which features and functionality are important to your business, and double check that your CMS offers these things.

  • Have you looked around? Research is extremely important in choosing a great CMS. Make sure you’ve looked around and know what is available. Don’t make a decision until you’re sure.

Artonic’s CMS

At Artonic, we offer the easiest to use CMS on the market today. Period. It’s seamlessly integrated into your website, making it very simple to edit text or upload images. Some features of our CMS include:

  • Hosted platform, so you get upgrades to the CMS without any negative side effects to your website.
  • Live preview to see your changes as you make them
  • Multiple editors with different access levels
  • WYSIWYG editor (similar to Microsoft Word)
  • Changes are retained for 180 days. Make a mistake? No problem, just revert to the original version
  • View Google Analytics on your CMS dashboard
  • Built-in Image Editor
  • Upload files without leaving the CMS

Our CMS puts you in control, so that you can make changes to your site immediately. No more complicated editing systems, or out-dated image editors; our CMS is cutting-edge and truly simple. Make changes to your website without a programmer, which saves you time and money.

Contact Artonic today about our easy-to-use CMS. We’ll answer any questions you have and show you just how easy it is to maintain your website. Call us at 855-ARTONIC or 517-902-7851. We’re also available at sales@artonicweb.com or you can contact us on our site.

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Is Your Website Compatible with Your Mobile Phone?

Posted on July 9, 2012 by Matt Harper

Do I Really Need a Mobile Site?

Do you really need a mobile site? Do people actually use their phones to browse the internet? Are mobile sites just for super tech-savvy companies? Here are some stats that may help:

  • There are 4 billion mobile phones in use worldwide
  • 84% of users use their smartphones to browse the internet
  • 25% US of mobile users are mobile-only (they don’t use a desktop, laptop, or tablet)
  • One half of all local searches are performed on mobile devices
  • By 2014, more people will browse the internet on their mobile phone than they will on their desktop

The stats make it obvious: the mobile market is booming. If your business has a website, you need to ask yourself this question: “Is my site compatible with mobile phones?” If it’s not, you’ve got a problem.

Can My Customers Navigate My Business Site on their Mobile Phone?

Half of local searches are done on a mobile phone. That number is huge! If you don’t have a mobile site (or a website that’s compatible with mobile phones), you are literally ignoring 50% of people trying to find your local business online.

Your customers are accessing the internet on their smartphones and tables more than ever. If you haven’t thought about how your site looks and functions on a mobile phone, chances are you’re losing customers.

Many sites are not compatible with mobile phones and tablets. Is yours? If you have the following features on your website, it’s time to think about mobile design:

  • Flash Components
  • Lots of large images
  • Lots of text
  • Complex navigation
  • Lots of form fields
  • Small or elaborate fonts

Features of Great Mobile Site Design

Mobile sites are different than traditional websites. If you’re seriously interested in capitalizing on the growing mobile market, you need to consider the following features for your mobile site:

  • Touch-friendly navigation
  • Convert “click” into “tap”
  • File size and load time
  • Mobile specific markup tags

Want to reach the mobile market online? We can help. Artonic has the experience and knowledge to make your website compatible with smartphones, or design a mobile site that matches your online presence.

Contact Artonic today about building a mobile site for your business. We’ll answer any questions you have and show you just how easy it is to reach the huge online mobile market. Call us at 855-ARTONIC or 517-902-7851. We’re also available at sales@artonicweb.com or you can contact us on our website.

Stats from mobilthinking.com; ansonalex.com

 

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Michigan Web Design | Affordable + Quality

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Matt Harper

One of the many challenges facing small and medium businesses today is effective marketing.  Marketing through the use of a website requires not only a website, but an effective website.  Artonic, a leading Michigan Web Design company, says you can have a high-quality, marketing-oriented website, without breaking the bank.

Artonic not only offers affordable pricing for any size website or web application, but we also guarantee to beat any competitor’s price.  This new policy went into effect May 1st, 2012.  It’s important to note that this requires an apples to apples comparison.  When companies receive quotes for their web project, they are often getting drastically different pricing without any solid way of comparing the two.

Pricing discrepancy amongst various Michigan web design companies has resulted in a new program at Artonic.  Artonic uses a highly advanced planning and visual mockup tool to map out an entire project.  This service can be purchased from Artonic without any further obligation to hire Artonic for the full project.  This way, clients can obtain a solid guideline for web companies to quote the project on an even table.

Michigan web design clients should contact Artonic for further information on this new program.

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E-mail: info@artonicweb.com

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