Design on the mind

HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Hope you all have a fun and relaxing time! Look forward to seeing you all next year!

From all of us at Deckchair:

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Castle School in Thornbury, Bristol approached the web design team at Deckchair to design and build a new school website. They wanted to have complete control over the content of the website and the ability to change and update the copy on any page. We have given them exactly that; a fully content managed (updateable by them) website built using Wordpress. It has intuitive navigation, search function, multiple sections and news and events calendar.

It has created a single point of information for Staff, parents and pupils. Files, letters and information can be downloaded from the website very easily. For example parents can download the latest ‘letters home’ and view homework timetables. (Sorry kids, no getting out of your maths homework now!)

Staff can upload images and photographs to a website called Flickr which will automatically display the images as a slideshow on the school website.

Are you a school or college in or near Bristol? Can we help you with your website to give you full control over your content? Call us anytime for a chat and some impartial advice.

Toni

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According to a BBC report, shoppers in the UK will spend £200m a day on the internet in the run up to Christmas; with the total holiday spend likely to hit £4bn. This Year’s online spend is set to be 50% more than last Christmas.

People are more comfortable now than they have been with the idea of ordering on line. More and more businesses have set up ecommerce websites and are cashing in on this new buying trend. However, there are still weak areas that prevent the ecommerce businesses from achieving their full potential. The main issue that I want to discuss in this blog is:

Unpredictable Delivery

It is simply not convenient to have a package delivered at an unannounced or unpredictable time. Delivering goods to people’s homes during office hours whilst they are at work just doesn’t make sense.

I have had plenty of these little notes through my door saying: “Sorry we missed you…”. You then have to wait 48 hours for the package to get back to the depot before you can retrieve it. This not only delays getting your shopping but you then have to drive there yourself to pick it up. Great! That hardly takes the stress out of the shopping experience does it?

Another annoying delivery trick is when a courier company just leaves the package on your doorstep for all to see. If it hasn’t been stolen by the time you get home from work it has probably been damaged by torrential rain.

Some ecommerce websites allow you to put special instructions on your delivery details when you order which is certainly on the way to being helpful. This gives you the chance to specify a trusted neighbour to take it for you or a safe secret place where they can leave it. But it is still not ideal.

My delivery choice wish list

How about ecommerce websites giving a full range of delivery options? People like choice, it makes them feel like they have a say in the process. The range of options could look like this:

1. Free delivery – arrives 2–4 days
2. Standard delivery – arrives 1-2 days
3. Express delivery – arrives next day
4. Super Delivery – Arrives within a specified time slot of customer’s choice.
5. Special Evening delivery – Arrives after 7pm at night.
6. Weekend Delivery – Arrives at a specified time on the weekend.
7. Flying carpet delivery – Arrives at exactly the moment the customer specifies.

Well, if you had this many options for delivery you would certainly be spoiled for choice.

I have covered many ecommerce web design and business issues in these previous articles:

Types of Successful Ecommerce websites

Ecommerce peeves and must haves - Boost those conversion rates.

Anyone got any other ecommerce delivery solution ideas out there? Anyone want to rant about ecommerce delivery issues?

Toni

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Tattooing has been used throughout history for many different purposes and has strong roots in many cultures. Recently there has been a surge in the popularity of tattooing in Europe and the USA, mainly as a form of self expression. These modern tattoos take their artistic influences from many places. I find the Japanese style of tattooing to be particularly beautiful. We are talking serious art here folks, fantastic isn’t it?

Please excuse my heavy use of pictures in this blog but I know you are finding it just as fascinating as I am!

A big Thank you to James who works for Total Tattoo magazine for allowing me to use his pictures of the London Tattoo convention 2007.  

The recent growth in tattoo culture has inevitably led to advertisers jumping on the band wagon, particularly where the brand is designed to appeal to a young audience. Levis are always on the ball:

Converse use a similar style of advertising, but here you can see that the model has actually been ‘branded’ with the Converse logo. The advertisement suggests the consumer’s  loyalty to the Converse brand by him ‘wearing’ it permanantly.

It is not just the ’street wear’ brands that are doing this either, have a look at the Chanel eyewear advert below:

However, talking of brand loyalty I thought I would include this picture that I find absolutely hilarious, especially in the light of Google’s recent behaviour with the Blogger platform. See Randa’s blog: Google is getting to big for it’s britches. I suppose if you are going to tattoo your favourite brand on to your body you had better hope that you are always going to like it!!! (I think the font is a bit wrong too?)

I absolutely love this advert for Fransesco Biasia purses and handbags. Obviously it is not a real tattoo but they are still cashing in on the idea.

These Brazilian adverts for sandals are certainly eye catching:

Gisele, the model, is not really a heavily tattooed girl but they have certainly made it look very realistic.

I would just like to include one more advertising picture for Playstation that is great fun although a little dark. Even though it isn’t really about the tattoo; the image still emulates the sub culture:

Thanks to Ads of the world for providing all the advertising pictures.

Can you think of any other examples of advertisers cashing in on trends? How do you feel about the increased popularity of tattooing? Are you a heavily tattooed person who is annoyed by the trend ruining your individuality?

Toni

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The short answer to this question is NO, they certainly shouldn’t! For a web or graphic designer there are always going to be deadlines. They are a part of any brief; a client always has a timescale in mind. The question is whether the client’s idea of a realistic timescale matches the designers and their workload. No good designer will take on a job where the quality of the design would be compromised just to meet an unrealistic deadline. It is just not worth his/her reputation.

Project Management

A good designer will, however, be able to meet a tight deadline with effective management of the project.  To manage a design project a designer needs to be aware of the following:

1. How long it will take to do each particular part of the design and how that will fit in with the internal scheduling of all the design projects that are current.

2. How long will any outsourced parts of the design take? For example a print job will be heavily reliant on the printer’s schedule so this will need to be checked and factored in.

3. How much of the project will rely on the client? – for example if the client is required to supply copy for the website design, they will need to be made aware of when it is needed and the consequence of that deadline being missed.

4. If the design project is for a larger company that will require multiple sign offs for approval it is probably worth allowing a little more time for this in the schedule.

5. For very large projects where there are many parts or stages to the design it is always worth allowing extra time for the inevitable changes or additions. These will often happen as the project moves forward however meticulously it has been planned out.

Timeline

A very effective way to ensure that the project is managed properly is for the designer to agree a timeline with the client before work begins; this can be done as part of the contract. The timeline should include:

1. Production deadlines

2. Approval deadlines

3. Deadlines for the supply of content including copy and images from the client.

4. Testing deadlines

5. Launch/delivery dates.

Be sure that the client is aware of the importance of the timeline and how each milestone deadline that is not met will affect the overall project.

Communication

If the project management and the timeline are executed properly there will be little reason for a project to run over time. It is very important, however, that the communication between the designer and the client is good. It means that any hiccups or delays can be resolved straight away; everyone is in the loop.

Respect the deadline

If the timescale is very tight and the designer has any doubts that the deadline would not be met then he should not attempt to take the job on. Sometimes in this situation the client has an unrealistic idea of how long a project will take and if they have not left themselves enough time to complete it then the designer would be wise to steer well clear and keep his reputation intact.

It is always possible to ask if a deadline can be moved before a project starts. But the designer will loose the respect of the client if he suddenly asks for an extension halfway through the project. Deadlines must be respected at all costs and should never jeopardise the quality of the design work or the reputation of the client.

Toni

Related articles:

Are we there yet? Meet your design deadline

The Tao of deadlines

Deadlines kill inspiration

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