5 Strategies to Making Your Site Picture-Perfect

Did you know that users’ will spend 10 seconds or less deciding whether a web page is worthy of staying on or not? Users are extremely skeptical, and if the content is not visually stimulating or interesting you will lose them within seconds. Even if the website passes this initial 10-second judgment, you still only have about 20 seconds to retain your viewers’ interest with your content. So how do you stop viewers from leaving your website and inspire them to explore your website? Have a unique web design full of colorful, invigorating imagery to capture the readers’ interest. Out of the millions of images out there, which one should you choose?

Here are a few tips that might make choosing your image a little less daunting:

1. Show Instead of Tell

Instead of bombarding your users with information, use your images to creatively tell your company’s story. The brand Chanel is notorious for its rich history in Parisian fashion, founded by none other than Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel. The website channels its energy towards the history of the brand through scrolling graphics and design rather than explicitly sell its products. Below details a photo of Gabrielle and on the left it is obvious that this is just one of twelve chapters detailing the history of the Chanel brand. If you were to click through each chapter or simply let the images scroll, the narrative of the company would be told through brilliant black and white imagery.

2. Be Creative, Be Unique

Don’t be shy with your creativity and uniqueness. Users will be drawn to stimulating imagery and design. A wonderful example of this concept comes from Finlandia, a vodka brand native to Finland. The specialty drinks showcased envelop consumers’ senses with crisp images of ice cubes floating in a colorful, fruity paradise. Each of the graphic blocks holds a recipe that awaits conception when the consumer simply scrolls over the image. This website exudes a certain level of elegance and class that is strictly unique to their brand and executes a creative edge to entice the potential customer to delve deeper into their site.

3. Brand Relevance

The imagery chosen for your site should be relevant to your actual brand. Any content put onto the site should relate directly back to the purpose of the company. Godiva does a great job of integrating its brand’s identity as being Belgian chocolate connoisseurs with a stimulating visual experience. Instead of simply selling plain chocolates online, each chocolate is arranged to get the company’s consumers’ salivating and ordering the deliciously wrapped treats. Godiva’s website is an experience full of delicious recipes, beautiful seasonal chocolates, classic collections and stunning graphics with every aspect relating back to the company’s brand identity. When you think Godiva, you think chocolate and that’s how it should be.

4. Evoke Power

Use imagery that sparks conversation surrounding the image. Furthermore, capture beauty, emotion, romance, or some other powerful ethos that will enchant the minds of viewers and evoke their curiosity to explore the rest of the site. A retail company that does this well is Anthropologie, which constantly uses bright and colorful visuals to showcase the newest designs and trends with a storybook feel. Anthropologie headed to Rajasthan, India’s largest state, for their Spring 2015 look book and enchanted consumers with beautiful palaces and fields of flowers. Anthropologie’s indie clothing may not be for everyone, but it’s hard to deny the appeal of the clothing in these photos.

5. Call to Action

Ultimately, producing an image that prompts followers to take action is what takes a regular image from simly improving the web design to providing visual content marketing for your site. Whole Foods dedicates its site to an assortment of calls to action from exploring the company’s blog to viewing various videos demonstrating cooking techniques. The vibrant colors and mouthwatering foods in each block entice consumers to watch the videos and read the blog posts for savory cooking tips, ultimately pushing customers to the store to buy Whole Foods’ delectable selection of groceries.

Images serve to enhance the web design of your site as well as aid in visual content marketing by giving viewers imaginative imagery that excites and stimulates their senses. If you follow these five steps of showing not telling, being creative and unique, ensuring brand relevance, evoking power and finally, having a call to action, then you will most definitely retain the interest of your website viewer for more than 10 seconds. For additional information on the topics of web design or imagery, check out articles by Mahnoor Mirza or Anthony Gaenzle for wonderful advice and profound insight.

Harness Social Media to Brand Yourself for Job Hunt Success

It is projected that in 2015, 93% of job recruiters will screen potential candidates’ social media profiles. That’s right, 93% of job recruiters. This means that almost every job you will apply to, a potential employer will be Googling you to see how you present yourself to the world. Additionally, 69% of potential employers have rejected a potential candidate because of what they saw on a social networking site.

Here is some food for thought, why not use social media to brand yourself as the perfect candidate for the job rather than as a liability? In fact, 68% of potential employers have hired a candidate because of what they saw on a social networking site.

We hear about how businesses try to create their own unique brands all the time, but what about people branding themselves? Ever found an Instagram or Twitter user you love to follow because they have so many interesting things to say? Well, that is an excellent example of someone branding themself to be a social media success.

Let me give you two examples of successful “branders,” so to speak, that I have observed on Instagram.

One of the users I follow, a woman named Kino MacGregor, posts detailed yoga poses for each day accompanied by an inspirational caption. Her captions typically involve a message about how much diligence and hard work it has taken her to reach her level of strength – at times even a decade! With 498,000 followers, I began to analyze her success. It’s not just her ability to put her feet behind her head that is fascinating, it is also her ability to bare her vulnerabilities to her followers that ultimately makes her such an inspirational person to follow. She manages to showcase her talents while reminding her followers that it is continuously striving for success after facing failure that makes you stronger.

The other user I follow is named Courtney Kerr, who uses bright photos and clever captions to capture the interests of her followers. Courtney’s posts are a little more lighthearted, yet she is similar to Kino in that she showcases pieces of herself as well. Typically these pieces are brightly colored jackets and bedazzling jewels, but it is the way she pairs these together that gives her followers a taste for her personality, interests and fears without even truly knowing her. Courtney also uses quotes, moments of sadness as well as joy that give her followers the feeling that she is a real person who has important attributes to show the world.

A few of my takeaways from these Instagram personalities are that in order to brand yourself you must showcase what you love in a clever, tasteful, soul-baring way. These are not just photos of a woman doing yoga on the beach or another posing in a hounds-tooth coat; they are windows into the lives of other people.

I have used these women as inspiration to advertise what I love in a manner of self-expression. In fact, my Instagram is full of dishes I have tried, places I have been and hobbies I love. These past few months I have begun using my Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn as a complete reflection of my resume. Anything and everything I have put in my resume, I have attempted to showcase in some form on my social media. Not only does this prove to employers you are not lying, but it also serves as a portfolio to show my potential employers what I am capable of.

Social media is a wonderful way to brand yourself as a cooking connoisseur, a culture junkie or even a music enthusiast. Let your social media accounts be another voice that speaks truths about who you are as a person and what you can accomplish. Harness the things you care about and put them out there in a way that show your potential employers what you love too!

How to Optimize Your Website for SEO Success

Nowadays you are probably hearing a lot about the importance of SEO and content marketing and how it can affect the success of a company if done correctly.

To start, what does SEO even mean? Well, SEO actually stands for Search Engine Optimization and is defined as the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine’s “natural” or un-paid (“organic”) search results.

After some research I found an excellent article from Elumynt.com, where blogger William Harris delves into his own depiction of SEO through a stimulating SEO Food Pyramid visual. I don’t think I could find a better way to break down SEO than this. Below you can see the detail Mr. Harris went into describing the complicated nature surrounding SEO.

Architecture

He starts off with the basics, saying how the “Architecture” of a site should involve the most effort and detail. Proper code, optimized page titles, meaningful descriptions, sitemaps, and eliminating crawling errors and duplicate content are all mentioned in the foundation of an SEO. The architecture refers to the basics, this is where all the information expands upon and is absolutely imperative to have a handle on for your site.

Content Creation

Do you want people sharing your content? You should. And what is the best way to do that? Essentially, you create relevant content that people actually want to share that is relevant and interesting. Content is imperative for the success of your site or company. ESSENTIAL. If you want some good advice on the subject, check out Rand Fishkin over at Moz.com. He is basically a content marketing wizard, so if you need some perspective, he’s your guy.

Promotion

Promoting your brand is a cornerstone for success. People won’t know to share your content if no one even knows your site exists. Start by getting your name out there. Tell your friends and family and let that network expand. BizSugar.com is a great website that will help your content reach sites with bigger communities.

User Experience

The design, navigation, usability, graphics and content are all key factors that will get visitors to stay on your website. If these factors are in place, then you are on the track to creating a community surrounding your site. Check out some good examples of websites that contain these elements below!

Social Signals

Social platforms like Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest and even Snapchat are excellent places for viewers to share your content. Harris adds, “Social signals are a part of the algorithm that tells Google how authoritative and relevant the content you are creating and promoting really is.”

Link Building

Finally, link building is best when used sparingly. Only replacing dead or broken links is essentially all the link building you need to be doing. You don’t want to overwhelm your viewers.

I would say Harris is on the money with all of his ideas. Have you ever gotten to a site and immediately noticed how slow it is or even how hard it is to find what you’re looking for? I would say you give up looking for what you need in under a minute because you, just like everyone else, hate wasting time. If this is a common phenomenon, companies should get the picture and spend a little more of its budget on fixing these problems.

So, what are you looking for in a website? Well, personally, I am looking for the following:

• Lightning fast speed
• Easy to navigate
• Provides a search function (that actually works!)
• Stimulating visuals
• Relevant content
• Links, URLs, etc. to back up content
• Creative content
• Interesting stories

Essentially, I want to arrive at a site and think to myself, “Wow this is really cool, I want all of my friends to see this.” Honestly, you can have just about any subject on your website and make it look really awesome. Who does it best? Let me give you some examples:

1. SuperHeroCheesecake.com is a creative digital production studio based in Amsterdam, raising the bar in digital for advertising agencies. I would say the bar has definitely been raised. Below you can see a picture of the website, full of stimulating visuals, bold colors, easy click navigation and interesting graphics. Admittedly, I am super impressed with this company’s website.

2. StinkDigital.com is an interactive production agency with offices in Los Angeles, London, Paris, Berlin and New York. This global creative agency dedicates its time to building better digital experiences and I would whole-heartedly agree. An entire page showcases this company’s work and one specific ad caught my eye – an interactive digital game for Ray-Ban fans to rescue their Facebook friends from the clutches of Dr. Compliance. Cool advertising, Ray-Ban!

3. Hyperakt.com is an independent NYC design firm based in Brooklyn with a passion for creating work that affects change in the world around us. The company essentially celebrates people’s beautiful stories through innovative designs and bright, bold colors. From the graphic below, you can see the type of work that Hyperakt does, and it is pretty neat.

So, what does all of this information mean? Essentially, it proves Harris’s point that there are a conglomeration of factors that go into successful SEO and content marketing. Viewers are more tech savvy than ever and having a website that is slow, outdated, boring and stark with broken links will only harm you and your brand. All of the sites I mentioned are various types of brands, but all have two things in common: bright graphics and interesting content. Honestly, I am not looking for any of the companies’ services, but that didn’t stop me from exploring the sites and soaking in the beautiful graphics and fascinating content.

Now I am not saying that you need to have something this innovative because most of these companies specialize in graphic design. However, providing fresh content and colorful graphics is an attainable goal for everyone and it will absolutely give you more viewers, more shares and eventually, a higher ranking through SEO.

Check Out My New Website!

http://alexbuchart.moonfruit.com

Conservative Chic: The Documentary

Enjoy!!

The User Experience: Navigating Through the Clutter

A user-friendly experience on any website or blog begins with the functionality and coherence of the entire page. If you look at the page and everything just “makes sense” then you are probably going to have a great user experience. Essentially, the more simple yet creative a page, the better the experience. I mean, no one wants to enter a page, only to reason it will take 10 clicks to get to your target.

Take Zara’s page for instance, the entire site exudes a kind of stark simplicity. The title of the website is top center, the left side has all of the links and the middle of the page features a slideshow of the updated items on the site. If you click on one of the buttons, for instance “Woman,” you are greeted with several different options from there to pick. From “Coats” to “Accessories,” you have the option of clicking several categories for your shopping pleasure. If you click “Coats” you are immediately taken to the coats page where you can finally pick out and purchase that leopard fur coat you’ve had your eye on.

Zara focuses mainly on their products, so the user experience is a good one. You don’t have to sift through articles and blog posts about their newest products or see endless explanations about how something can be worn. Zara is essentially simple and to the point with no fuss on anything but its products. Furthermore, if you’ve ever been in a Zara store, you realize that the site is a reflection of the stark simplicity of the inside of its actual store. The parallel there is fantastic since it actually embodies the character of the brand.

If you take note from Zara, you will quickly realize the following: 

• Design with your user in mind
• Keep it simple
• Make it so easy to navigate your dog can do it
• Keep it consistent
• Be a minimalist and lose the complexity 

Let’s peel away the layers of the user experience using the 5 planes discussed by Jesses James Garrett in his book, The Elements of User Experience. 

• The Surface Plane: Series of images that perform different tasks, visual and clickable.
• The Skeleton Plane: Placement of buttons, controls, photos and blocks of text.
• The Structure Plane: How users got to that page and where they could go when they were finished there.
• The Scope Plane: The way in which the various features and functions of the site fit together.
• The Strategy Plane: Incorporates not only what the people running the site want to get out of it but what the users want to get out of the site as well.

So let me break these terms down for you with the example of Zara. First, you get to the page and you see the simple layout with self-explanatory features. This is the surface plane made up of the different images featuring new fall fashions and items new to the sale category. The skeleton plane features things like “New Arrivals,” “Woman” and so on that allow you to click on these things to get to the “Coats” and “Tops” sections in order to shop. The structure is basically how you got from the home page all the way to buying your favorite leopard fur coat and then back to shopping. The scope is how all of the pictures of the coats and various other items like the jeans are incorporated so the page is clean and not jumbled. The strategy essentially is to ensure that the site is easy enough to navigate for people to shop and buy things while having a user-friendly experience where they come back for more.

Questions to ponder:

1. Is a page ever to over-simple making it seem boring?

2. What are the worst user experiences you’ve had and what did you learn not to do?

Source of image: http://www.zara.com/us/en/woman/coats-c269183.html

Do Not Reinvent the Wheel: The Dummies’ Guide to Website Literacy

When someone looks at your website you have a little less than a minute to capture the viewer’s attention. In that short time span you have to engage your viewer almost instantly and if your page isn’t up to snuff, goodbye viewer. So, what can you do to keep your viewer’s interest? Well, Krug outlines various ways starting with “don’t make your viewer think.” In fact, it is Krug’s First Law of Usability.

Your viewer should be able to “get it” – what it is and how to use it – without expending any energy, after all you have less than a minute to keep your viewer interested. For instance, icons on the front page should be labeled as “pictures”, “about me”, “contact me”, not “graphicland”, “moi”, “let’s chat”. The navigation through your site should be obvious enough that thinking is hardly required. Essentially, your main objective when creating a website should be eliminating your viewer’s question marks.

On the other hand, if you can’t make something self-evident at least make it self-explanatory (so it only requires a little mental effort). Make your page so easy to navigate it’ll make your user squeal with excitement (I don’t know if squealing will actually happen, but they’ll at least be a little pumped). The content is where you can put your originality and creativity to work, leaving your viewer wanting more. However, in the case of your page – give your viewer everything they could want and more.

So for simplicities’ sake, let me break it down for you:

• Intuitive: like Jimmy John’s, the site should be so navigable the viewer will freak
• Scannable: the content should be broken up so the viewer can scan the page and pick up the gist of what you are saying in a matter of seconds

1. Use of conventions: essentially graphics that are universal and let your user click on the image without a sliver of a doubt (i.e. the shopping cart icon leads them to the check-out)
2. Do not reinvent the wheel: use these conventions and use them well my friends, they’re universal for a reason
3. Visual hierarchies: write like a journalist (i.e. inverted pyramid of most important info. first, least important last)
4. Use headings: duh.
5. No extra noise: let your content speak for itself
6. Highlight: if something is important, show your reader (see what I did there?)

• Rule of Clicks: the user should only have to click to something in 3-4 clicks and it should be as painless as possible (i.e. Contact us > Advertising Department > Advertising Director > Bingo: Betty 555-5555)
• No nonsense: get your point across in as concise a way as possible and get rid of all that fluff

I’m a shopping addict, so the Piperlime site is as intuitive as anything I could ever want. Literally, you go to the page and immediately you are greeted with gorgeous pieces that you want in your wardrobe in a clickable scrolling headline. There is a tool bar across the top, the logo is in the left corner and daily deals are mentioned at the very top. Then you click on what you want.

Like I said I have an addiction so the “What’s New” tab is my go to – I literally already have the old pieces memorized and categorized, it’s sad. At this point you now have the option of clicking several different categories and shortcuts to get where you want to go, i.e. OP Picks (Olivia Palermo and her fashion fluency, of course). Or, I mean you could just look at the entire list of new goodies right then and there (where I then add 30 new items to my shopping basket – do they have a shopaholics anonymous?)

Questions to ponder:

1. How simple is too simple?

2. Is re-creating the wheel ever useful?

Source of Image: http://piperlime.gap.com/browse/home.do

A Very Graphic Resume

If you would like to get in touch, e-mail me at: abuchart93@hotmail.com.

So, just to be clear I spent a lot of time doing this Infographic Resume on Photoshop and I really loved the outcome. I picked a color scheme of pale yellow, turquoise, black and white (of course with a hint of purple for good ole FU).

I happened to already have the photo of myself (senior photo) and it fit perfectly with my color scheme. And to also give credit where credit is due, the Furman University graphic is from the source (http://www.bekahoconnor.com/138640/2726457/illustrations/furman-university-campus-map – very lovely by the way).

I only used two separate fonts: Candara and Zapfino. I wanted the script to be elegant, simple and clean – and I think the fonts accomplished just that.

Also, I used the Furman University graphic to base my timeline around because all of the activities I have listed took place in college.

I love the turn-out!

Editing: How Our TV Addiction Was Established

Have you ever thought producers of shows might edit the various shots to be more meaningful in order to capture your interest? If you have ever pondered this for a second, you are indeed correct. In the chapter entitled, “Aesthetics of Editing,” Osgood & Hinshaw discuss the different ways one may edit a video and the significance of editing.

So…what goes into editing? Well, let me outline it for you!

• The Order: the way shots are arranged develops a plot line
• The Relationship: establishing believability with patience and attention to detail
• Time: the editor must constantly consider the length of each shot, each scene and each program
• The Rhythm & the Pace: an image should be on screen long enough to transfer the information to the viewer
• The Continuity: maintaining story consistency from shot to shot and within scenes. Remember to:

1. Maintain screen direction
2. Matching eye lines (when two characters speak with each other)
3. Use of vectors (i.e. character looks off-screen, then shot of what the character sees shortly follows)
4. Establishing shot (establishes the location of the scene each time location changes)

• Montage: a grouping of unrelated images to produce a new meaning
• Sequencing: a series of shots that relate to the same activity
• Transitions: change from one shot to another

Before I go onto an example of all of these elements in action, let me rant about transitions and the importance of them. A series of shots should flow naturally together so the audience can follow the storyline without getting a headache from confusion. There are several different types of transitions like mixing, fading, dissolving and wiping. However, the most important transition to me is the fade from one scene to the next. I mean honestly, a video isn’t a slideshow of your favorite photos with nifty transitions. The transition should be seamless and smooth and occur so un-dramatically that the audience is simply aware of a continuing storyline. Simple is better, people!

Alright as promised let me provide you with a little example that incorporates all of these elements so you get the picture. I particularly like the show Gossip Girl, so I’ll focus on an example from that. First, the opening shot of each show pans over Manhattan in some dreamy way, slowly focusing in on Serena’s Penthouse all the while GG (Gossip Girl, duh) begins with her snarky dialogue about the debaucherous Upper-Eastsiders. The relationship is thus established between Manhattan, the Penthouse and then an image of Serena laying in her bed thinking about her lover-boy, Dan. The rhythm is slow with a consistent pace where each image stacks on the next to provide a clear storyline of where that particular episode is going. The sequencing of the images not only establishes the location, but the deeper meaning of the episode as well, naturally with the help of GG’s narrations. Also, each scene fades into the next to distract the audience as little as possible with the actual changing between scenes and have them focus more on the actual plot line.

Isn’t editing fun? I bet you never even knew how much thought and work went into each tiny scene shown in your favorite shows. Gives you a whole new appreciation for them, huh?

Questions to ponder:

1. Who came up with this genius idea of editing images in movies and shows so we become even more addicted than we already are?
2. Are there any new techniques to try?
3. Where will the future of videography and editing go next? (I can only imagine!)

Source of Image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gossip_girl.jpg

The Unedited Gems of “Conservative Chic”

This post is simply to show the transition the photos took before Photoshop editing took place.