The Strategic Web Designer


Book Description

Presents advice for designing web sites, discussing how to plan web projects, organize information in a meaningful way, optimize content, and use analytics to measure performance and customer satisfaction.




The Strategic Designer


Book Description

Providing insight on how to be a successful and strategic designer, David Holston answers many of the questions plaguing the profession today, including how to boost efficiency and enhance creativity. The design profession has been asking itself some important questions lately: How do designers deal with the increasing complexity of design problems? What skills do designers need to be competitive in the future? How do designers become co-creators with clients and audiences? How do designers prove their value to business? Designers are looking for ways to stay competitive in the conceptual economy and address the increasing complexity of design problems. By adopting a process that considers collaboration, context and accountability, designers move from 'makers of things' to 'design strategists.' The Strategic Designer shows designers how to build strong client relationships, elevate their standing with clients, increase project success rates, boost efficiency, and enhance their creativity.




Return on Engagement


Book Description

In the world of web design, if one wants to create a successful web site, one needs an effective content strategy. Return on Engagement shows web designers and developers how to implement an effective content strategy and how to stay ahead in the rapidly changing industry of web design. It presents best practices in terms of web design through a marketing function: content strategy, SEO, social media marketing, and success measurement to help web designers implement a strategy that ensures success for the site they are building. Return on Engagement shows web designers and developers how to not just design an aesthetically pleasing, functional website. This book shows those professionals how to implement marketing strategies and analysis into their website, thus ensuring its success. Nearly 3 years since the previous edition published, new best practices have been formed. Tools in which web developers use to analyze website metrics have advanced. New social media networks and communities have cropped up. New research in how audiences read and receive content has been done, subsequently refining best digital marketing practices. Return on Engagement features a step-by-step breakdown of how to use new tools, techniques, and technologies. The new edition also includes updated case studies of industry leaders who implement best practices on projects. Return on Engagement also features a regularly updated companion site that offers readers sample content, easy sharing tools, and web-based resources to help measure marketing viability of web properties.




Web Design and Marketing Solutions for Business Websites


Book Description

This book teaches you all you need to know to create effective web sites for businesses of all sizes. It’s packed with useful tips and practical examples. First you are taken through the planning stage, including overall site structure, grouping content, using content and language effectively, and planning for accessibility. Next, you are shown how to effectively design the different parts of your site as well as how to add specialized improvements, including feedback forms and search functionality. The examples focus largely on CSS and HTML, but the principles are applicable to any site and some useful Flash examples are also provided.




Adaptive Web Design


Book Description

Building an elegant, functional website requires more than just knowing how to code. In Adaptive Web Design, Second Edition, you’ll learn how to use progressive enhancement to build websites that work anywhere, won’t break, are accessible by anyone—on any device—and are designed to work well into the future. This new edition of Adaptive Web Design frames even more of the web design process in the lens of progressive enhancement. You will learn how content strategy, UX, HTML, CSS, responsive web design, JavaScript, server-side programming, and performance optimization all come together in the service of users on whatever device they happen to use to access the web. Understanding progressive enhancement will make you a better web professional, whether you’re a content strategist, information architect, UX designer, visual designer, front-end developer, back-end developer, or project manager. It will enable you to visualize experience as a continuum and craft interfaces that are capable of reaching more users while simultaneously costing less money to develop. When you’ve mastered the tenets and concepts of this book, you will see the web in a whole new way and gain web design superpowers that will make you invaluable to your employer, clients, and the web as a whole. Visit http://adaptivewebdesign.info to learn more.




Mobilizing Web Sites


Book Description

Everyone has been talking about the mobile web in recent years, and more of us are browsing the web on smartphones and similar devices than ever before. But most of what we are viewing has not yet been updated for mobile presentation. How can designers bring more of the web up to speed with the capabilities of today's mobile devices? In Mobilizing Web Sites: Develop and Design, author and designer Kristofer Layon addresses that elephant in the room --the many existing web sites that we manage on a day-to-day basis-- and walks through techniques that web designers can use to make these legacy web sites better-suited for mobile viewing. By focusing on content strategy and the mobile UI experience, web designers can use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to design mobile presentations of legacy, standards-based web sites. The techniques of gradual mobile improvement are all that a designer needs to help the existing web be more mobile.




Creative Strategy and the Business of Design


Book Description

The Business Skills Every Creative Needs! Remaining relevant as a creative professional takes more than creativity--you need to understand the language of business. The problem is that design school doesn't teach the strategic language that is now essential to getting your job done. Creative Strategy and the Business of Design fills that void and teaches left-brain business skills to right-brain creative thinkers. Inside, you'll learn about the business objectives and marketing decisions that drive your creative work. The curtain's been pulled away as marketing-speak and business jargon are translated into tools to help you: Understand client requests from a business perspective Build a strategic framework to inspire visual concepts Increase your relevance in an evolving industry Redesign your portfolio to showcase strategic thinking Win new accounts and grow existing relationships You already have the creativity; now it's time to gain the business insight. Once you understand what the people across the table are thinking, you'll be able to think how they think to do what we do.




The Smashing Book


Book Description

These eBooks are the long-awaited digital version of our bestselling printed book about best practices in modern Web design. They share valuable practical insight into design, usability and coding, provide professional advice for designing mobile applications and building successful e-commerce websites, and explain common coding mistakes and how to avoid them. You'll explore the principles of professional design thinking and graphic design and learn how to apply psychology and game theory to create engaging user experiences.




Strategic Leadership in Responsive Web Design


Book Description

Maximize your web strategy and future-proof your digital assets with this comprehensive guide for tech leaders, providing strategic insights into responsive web design to enhance ROI and user engagement Key Features Learn strategic frameworks to develop high-performing RWD applications Explore practical case studies and real-world examples to aid in understanding RWD app development Future-proof your approach with tips on emerging web technologies Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free PDF eBook Book DescriptionStrategic Leadership in Responsive Web Design is an essential guide that will equip you with the knowledge and foresight needed to navigate the ever-evolving digital landscape. You’ll start by learning about the strategic importance of responsive web design (RWD) before delving into its intricacies. As you progress, you’ll not only discover the technical aspects of adaptive design, but also learn how to seamlessly integrate these principles within your organization’s business objectives. You’ll develop the skills required to integrate RWD principles into broader business goals. Next, you’ll learn how to navigate SEO in modern times while ensuring platforms are consistent in design across devices. Later, this book shows you how to measure the ROI when making RWD decisions, and how to ensure you’re making the right one. By the end of this book, you’ll have understood the role that RWD plays in achieving broad business objectives.What you will learn Explore the synergy between RWD and business goals, boosting brand reputation, retention, and conversions Embrace a mobile-first approach for multi-device digital landscapes, tailoring user experiences while ensuring adaptability Develop leadership skills to drive innovation and alignment within design teams Strategize content for diverse screens, ensuring consistent user engagement Unlock the link between RWD, SEO, and performance for broader reach and user satisfaction Harness web accessibility for ethical growth and market expansion Who this book is for If you're a senior tech executive, CTO, web development leader, digital strategist, or UI/UX director, then this book is for you. Knowledge of fundamental web concepts, digital business, design principles, and the basics of user experience, as well as a foundation in marketing and project management will be beneficial to get the most out of this book.




Designing for the Social Web


Book Description

No matter what type of web site or application you’re building, social interaction among the people who use it will be key to its success. They will talk about it, invite their friends, complain, sing its high praises, and dissect it in countless ways. With the right design strategy you can use this social interaction to get people signing up, coming back regularly, and bringing others into the fold. With tons of examples from real-world interfaces and a touch of the underlying social psychology theory, Joshua Porter shows you how to design your next great social web application. Inside, you’ll discover: • The real reasons why people participate online and the psychology behind them • The Usage Lifecycle—or how people use your web application over time • How to get people past that trickiest of hurdles: sign-up • What to do when you’ve launched a web application and nobody is using it • How to analyze the effectiveness of your application screens and flows • How to grow your social web application from zero users to 1000—and beyond Designing for the social web is about much more than adding features. It’s about embracing the social interaction of the people who make you successful—and then designing smartly to encourage it.