The iPad, Apple’s iconic tablet device, has sold in excess of 15 million units since its launch less than a year ago and the iPad 2 – the much vaunted follow-up – will be released in this country on March 15. With the second version expected to sell even more than the first, what are the implications for web design?

Essentially, the prominence of the iPad may demand a new perspective on web design principles. Given that way users generally view the iPad vertically, despite the option of a landscape mode, websites for tablets may become taller, and designers will need to accommodate large pixel widths designed for the monitor to the smaller width of the iPad.

Given the use of fingers and the general tactile ethos of the iPad, website interaction is completely different to using a computer and web designers have to account for this. Can creatives conjure up multi-touch capabilities for the iPad? Will larger click buttons be a standard feature sooner rather than later?

The iPad does not support flash, so websites that need animation and videos must be built in HTML5. Google has already openly adopted HTML at the expense of Flash. Is the demise of Flash as an element of web design a given as the iPad is used by more and more consumers?

It may be speculation at this point, but it’s certainly looking likely the iPad and other devices like it will make significant changes to web design as we know it.

Speculative Design work (Spec work) is something that we’re often asked for – either informally by clients who are promising to commission us for a web design and development job on the back of it, or formally, in web design tender documents, where a requirement of our response to tender is to include design ideas and/or mockups.

Spec work is never a good idea, and we’ll nearly always say NO.  Good design is based on a response to a problem, not on quickly pulling together something which looks nice, and might impress a client.  We’d much rather wait until you did actually commission us, and then work with you to design something that’s 100% suitable for your needs, not waste time (and ultimately your money) on something that will (and should) never end up getting used.

If you’re asking us for design spec work so you can evaluate our design skills, then just ask us for relevant examples of work; which we’ll gladly hand-pick from our extensive portfolio of happy clients for you.  Surely you want your design to be the best it possibly can be, and designing things on spec will never provide you with that.

I could go on, but instead I’ll just point you to the No-Spec website if you’re wanting to know more!

If you watched Tuesday’s BRIT Awards you’ll have noticed an interesting clash of styles near the start of the show.

Adele took to the stage, dressed in black, with the lights down low and accompanied by only a piano. She stood on the spot and sang a song she’d written herself. There were no dancers or costumes – just one woman baring her soul and displaying her incredible talent for singing.

It was one of the highlights of the night and almost moved host James Corden to tears.

“You can have all the pyrotechnics, the dancers, laser shows you want but if you sound like that, all you need is a piano” he said.

Adele’s performance was followed by Rihanna who delivered the complete opposite.

She performed a medley of songs all of which were written by a team of producers. She had a dozen dancers, a light show, a backing track to boost her vocals, a steel drum band, and she prowled and gyrated her way around the stage. There was also a bonfire in the middle of it at one point. And half way through she made a costume change.

Two very different approaches, both brilliant in their own way. But how are Adele and Rihanna’s styles represented on their official websites? It’s likely each picked up new fans on Tuesday night – so what’s in store when they get there?

www.Adele.tv has a mood in keeping with her BRITS performance. It’s simple and minimal. No frills. The splash page is relevant with quick links to get hold of her new album and another if you want tickets for her live shows which have just been announced.

There is an argument in web design circles that splash pages with heavy sales messages should be avoided but this has to be balanced with the need to anticipate what visitors want from the site and make it easy for them to find what they’re looking for.

Inside the main site the plain black and white theme continues with content spread across 3 main columns.

I like blogs and it’s always a shame when they’re buried in a hard to find sub menu. Adele’s blogs are well written, funny, and interesting and it’s good to see them given a prominent place. It’s content fans can only get from her official website so they’re right to make the most of it. It builds that feeling of a relationship between fan and star.

The middle column is official news and this is where the record company makes sure fans know what’s going on with release dates, ticket sales and special performances, competitions and events.

The third column is more interactive with a box to sign up to her mailing list, links to Adele’s forum, and her Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and iTunes Ping feeds. No matter where you click on the site this third column remains in the same place and that box to sign up for the mailing list never goes away.

There’s clarity and accessibility to this site and it’s clear someone’s looked at all the content available, chosen the best and given thought as to how it should be displayed throughout the site.

Pictures are well organised and a good size. There’s original content and insight into Adele’s life. I get to see special video clips and I feel I’m rewarded for visiting the site.

One thing very few celebrities get right is providing a means for their fans to contact them. They’re never going to give out their home address and mobile number, right? Well, Katy Perry did give out a phone number on her site a couple of years ago and invited fans to call and leave her a message.

I doubt she ever sat and listened to the tens of thousands of messages that were left but it was a nice, original touch and certainly of more interest to her fans than Adele’s “Contact” page on her site which looks like this…

I think everyone with a website should think very carefully about the “Contact” option.

Getting it wrong – and it’s the only area of Adele’s site where I think she has got it wrong – and it changes the whole perception of the site. I’ve gone from thinking this is a personal, intimate, revealing site that Adele herself is involved in, to wondering if it’s actually all about the record label and the management and there’s no way to get close to Adele herself.

Even saying “Adele’s e-mail address is….xxxxx, but she receives a great many messages and can’t respond to them individually” and THEN listing PR, management, and booking contacts would demonstrate that they’d at least thought about what the fans expect from a “Contact” page. They could also explain that Adele DOES interact via Twitter and Facebook.

Here’s an example of a business getting it right. The Glasgow Rocks basketball team on their website…

Perhaps you have a view on how to handle the “contact” option – share your thoughts in “comments” at the end of this blog.

Now let’s check out www.rihannanow.com

I’m expecting big things after that BRIT Awards performance. I want fireworks! And although there’s more action than on Adele’s site, it’s not what I was hoping for from Rihanna. I expected more sizzle than this…

There’s not much going on at all. In fact some of the sites made by her own fans are better than the official effort. The first thing that catches my eye is a giant sign up form for Rihanna’s newsletter. Down the left column there’s the official news feed which consists of PR type material flagging up awards she’s won, upcoming performances and sales figures.

It’s like an official news feed with a decent design budget and some extra stuff thrown in.

There is nothing on the entire site that even gives the suggestion that it’s come from Rihanna herself. There’s no blog, no diary, no message to the fans.

Even the audio player which streams her songs is so tiny I almost missed it, squeezed in as it is between the newsletter sign up form and a long list of box ads for her new album, an offer she’d doing with Kodak, her embedded Twitter feed and a link to lyrics for her songs.

The whole feel is impersonal and there’s too much of a sales message.

This mention of her fragrance is typical.

Things improve in the “Images” section with high quality well organised pictures of Rihanna on her travels round the world and a great section featuring shots of her fans.

Unfortunately the community feel doesn’t go any further because the “community” page on the site simply says “coming soon”.

This is another mistake lots of businesses make with their websites. I don’t care if something’s “coming soon”. If it’s not available now it’s no use to me. Better off not mentioning it until it’s ready and working. You get one chance to make a first impression. If you insist on mentioning something that isn’t ready yet tell me when it will be – and be specific.

In the modern digital world “coming soon” is worth nothing whether you’re an international celebrity or a business covering a small corner of Scotland. I’ve seen too many examples of things “coming soon” which never come and the phrase has no meaning for me.

Perfect example – that blog I wrote 3 weeks ago comparing football clubs’ websites – I highlighted a competition section on www.hibernianfc.co.uk which was “coming soon”. Guess what… it still is!

After a spectacular performance on Tuesday night Rihanna’s website doesn’t do her justice. It’s impersonal, there’s no wow factor and it’s too commercial. Her website creators haven’t considered what people want or expect when they visit her site.

Adele and her team clearly have. The site is in keeping with her identity and something simple like prominent blog posts deepen the relationship between artist and fan and will get me visiting again to see what she’s saying again.

If you’ve got a business website ask yourself if you’re a Rihanna or an Adele. If you offer a sexy, glitzy high impact product then your website should reflect this. If you’re simple, reliable, high quality then the site should leave visitors with that feeling.

Ask yourself “Is the site doing what visitor’s expect?” and if there’s anything you should change to make it more relevant and to deepen the connection with your customers.

Now – imagine you’re a web designer (maybe you are!) and you’re given an unlimited budget to create a new official site for Rihanna – what would you do and how would you make sure it reflects the performances she gives on stage?

Let your imagination run riot (maybe she’ll read this and give you the business!) share your ideas in “comments”.

An unhappy web designer put a company in an uncomfortable situation after it refused to pay the bills for his services.

The Winona Chiropratic Center in Winona, Minnesota, was the victim of the creative (whose name has not been revealed), who stressed: “Please note that I have waited years for this business to pay”.

The web designer, who posted his feelings on the website he redesigned under the heading ‘Our web designer has a childish sense of humour’, went on to say:

”Winona Chiropractic has, as of January, 2011, failed to pay any of their total web design bill, despite repeated attempts by their web design agency to collect. It’s kind of sad that they seem to think that their website wasn’t worth any money. Their web designer is hoping that Google will show them otherwise.

“Personally, I wouldn’t trust a doctor of any kind who couldn’t pony up for what, in the grand scheme of things, is a small charge for their web design. Do what you will, though.”

If this seems a little harsh and perhaps not the best example of professional practice, then the web designer had a change of heart and took the site down not long afterwards. However, this has still not stifled the chuckles on message boards. Screenshots of the designer’s wrathful work are still doing the internet rounds.

Football clubs, the web and social media. What can we learn from them? How does your team fare? And is there any correlation between the quality of the team’s on-line presence and their performance on the pitch?

Football’s been in the news all week so I reckon it’s a good time to investigate how the SPL clubs are performing in the on-line world.

Every team has a large community of fans who follow it. You’d think that would be the perfect starting point for a successful social media strategy!

So who’s taking full advantage and what can we learn from them?

Watch the video clip to find out more…

So who is at the top of the on-line league?

Excellent
Motherwell, Rangers and Celtic belong here.

Celtic beat their Glasgow rivals in the style stakes. www.celticfc.net  is beautifully designed with large high quality pictures given the space they deserve. Celtic lead the way for Scottish football on Facebook with a link to their official page which has 34,716 people who LIKE it. Video clips from press conferences are added here, the club responds to tabloid rumours and Celtic’s Facebook is moderated meaning any inappropriate material is deleted. They say Twitter is “coming soon”.

I’d give Rangers www.rangers.co.uk  the edge for content. Fans can sign up for a weekly e-mail from the manager, and a video clip started playing immediately when the page loaded giving me a preview of the next match. A cluttered design means they might not get the credit they deserve and the SPL champions are missing out by not having an official Facebook presence. An unofficial Rangers page has 54 thousand LIKES but a lot of abusive content.

So the Big 2 can learn from each other, and we can all learn from Motherwell.

They bring it all together very nicely. Great design, good content although someone needs to persuade new manager Stuart McCall to do a weekly blog like his predecessor Craig Brown did.

The Fir Park side do something clever with their “Latest News” section. Each story gets a one paragraph outline. To read the full article you need to register for free. It takes seconds but there’s a range of optional questions which give the club powerful information about who’s using the site. They can capture this and turn it into targeted marketing.

Motherwell clearly have a strategy and things they want to achieve on-line. Their Facebook has 3,831 LIKES and there’s a Twitter feed which follows other people and interacts with them. It has personality and there’s even a Flickr feed embedded on www.motherwellfc.co.uk which means fans who take their own pictures have them featured on the main page.

Good
Well done to Hearts and St Johnstone for thinking about their communities. www.heartsfc.co.uk includes a section for “new fans” (Motherwell do this too) and www.perthstjohnstonefc.co.uk has an area for Polish supporters.

I get the feeling from Hearts’ page that the commercial team have the edge over the content providers! The advertising and promotion just feels a bit full on with box adverts breaking up news stories after a single paragraph and this takes away from what is some pretty good content. Although there IS an official Hearts Facebook page, there’s no obvious link to it from the main site and this could be costing them followers.

St Mirren suffer from limitations in site design but are ahead of the game with social media and all the teams in the SPL provide full match reports with high quality pictures from all their games.

St Johnstone’s “newspaper” style site is one of the most innovative designs in the entire league. It’s brilliantly thought through and a great example of how to do things differently. Making the site look good and easy to use has clearly been a priority.

Hamilton also deserve praise for innovation at www.acciesfc.co.uk Although I wonder if the down to earth domain name and unusual look of the page might make some people wonder if it’s a very professional fan page rather than the official club site. But it’s sleek and minimalist and very easy on the eye and if it could be livened up a bit with some social media it would be right up among the best sites.

Aberdeen have a particularly strong “blogs” section with some excellent writing. It’s buried away in a sub menu and I reckon if they made it more prominent and tied it in with social media they could get some great comments and debates going and people sharing them throughout the wider internet.

Hibs promise a competition section “coming soon” and helpfully type out full quotes from managers and players in news stories. This means fans who don’t want to pay for the premium video subscription content can still at least read exactly what was said.  

Could Do Better
Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Kilmarnock and Dundee United all suffer from the same problem – design limitations on the main site.

I found the pages looking dated and difficult to navigate around. This took away from some good content. All 3 had strong match reports with high quality action pictures from the games.

Dundee United also have a superb weekly e-newsletter which fans can sign up to. It’s brilliantly put together but if you don’t know it exists it’s hard to find it on the main page. It has a box linking to it but I’m not sure tangerine and black are the easiest colours to read on a computer. However, anyone considering an on-line newsletter would get some great inspiration from the way they do it at Tannadice.

Killie and Caley need to find a way to get the action from their games transferred to their home pages. Every match report has great pictures within it but the site design needs to adapt so this hits the viewer in the face when the page loads.

Of course fans want results on the pitch rather than fancy websites and perhaps it’s no co-incidence that these clubs are higher up the SPL table than some of their rivals with better websites. Maybe they’re deliberately putting a bigger slice of the budget towards the team itself.

If that’s the case all the more reason to invest in social media. Even after investing some money in training and time to manage the page it’ll still be cheaper than paying for a re-built site and the way the web’s going it could end up much more effective.

Killie in particular have a thriving unofficial Facebook page where 2,711 fans post news articles, make comments and share pictures and memories. They’re missing out by not even linking to it from their main page.

Action points!
The NS Design door is very much open to any SPL club (or any other organisation or individual) who’d like to discuss how to improve their on-line presence through a better website, or improved social media strategy.

Gary and the team would be delighted to chat with you.

But here are my free, handy hints to each SPL club on things they could do straight away to improve their on-line league position…

Rangers www.rangers.co.uk – get an official Facebook page, moderate it and link to it from your main site.

Celtic www.celticfc.net   – get on Twitter and use that big Facebook community you’ve built up to enhance your content with official blogs and podcasts.

Hearts www.heartsfc.co.uk  – cut back a bit on the commercial content and give the good stuff room to breathe.

Kilmarnock www.kilmarnockfc.co.uk – some action pictures on the front page and consider giving that unofficial Facebook page some official recognition – or at least a link.

Inverness Caledonian Thistle www.ictfc.co.uk – same as Kilmarnock and think about explaining what fans get when they sign up to the premium subscription service. At the moment there’s no explanation until after I click “Register”.

Motherwell www.motherwellfc.co.uk – very good as it is but ask that new manager if he’ll do a blog!

Dundee United www.dundeeunitedfc.co.uk – make the e-newsletter stand out on the front page of the site. It’s excellent but too hard to find.

St Johnstone www.perthstjohnstonefc.co.uk – Top marks on a great layout but make the audio clips in the news articles more prominent and consider reaching out to the 2 thousand or so fans on the unofficial Facebook page.

Aberdeen www.afc.co.uk – Do more to promote your blogs. There’s some very high quality writing there and it’s buried too deep in the site.

St Mirren www.saintmirren.net – With Motherwell, the only other club on Facebook and Twitter but the Buddies need to realise it’s a 2 way street! Don’t just use social media to issue news stories and alerts, think about engaging with the fans and talking back to them. Follow some people on Twitter and try to give it some character and personality.

Hibs www.hibernianfc.co.uk – Get the fans more involved and think about social media and more interesting content.

Hamilton www.acciesfc.co.uk – you’re much higher up the on-line league than the SPL table! Could you integrate the high quality pictures into the match reports rather than keeping them separate? And dip your toe into the social media water!

Now, play the video clip for my closing thoughts…

Thanks for reading and as ever, I invite you to post your comments below. It’s all about opinions so have YOUR say now! Have I been too harsh on your favourite team? Maybe there’s another football club or sporting organisation doing great things on-line that you want to highlight. How do you feel about clubs keeping their best content back and making fans PAY for it?
 

HTML5 is no more, the specification having been ditched just two days after the logo was revealed to the web design industry and the general public.

W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), the standards group that steers the HTML specification, launched the new HTML 5 logo to endorse next-generation web technology. But the WHATWG (Web Hypertext Application Working Group) – a related quality watchdog that broke from the W3C in 2004 – stated that HTML5 should just be called HTML.

WHATWG’s Ian Hickson claims that given the fast changing nature of technology – and the demands of the users of this technology – new and updated features would have to be added on a near unending basis, making more sense for the move to a “living document” that can be amended more easily.

Hickson said the WHATWG had wanted to alter the HTML5 name previously, but resisted since the tag encouraged advocacy aims. However, WHATWG decided to enable the name change after the mix-up caused by the release of the W3C logo.

In a blog post, Hickson said: ”The term is now basically being used to mean anything Web-standards-related, so it’s time to move on!”

Meanwhile, Ian Jacobs, head of marketing and communications at the W3C, has apologised for the confusion as a result of the new W3C logo. In a blog post, he said: ”Clearly the mixed message – ‘high visibility launch’ along with ‘not yet official’ – was confusing to some and caused others to feel slighted. I understand and apologize for that.”

Like everything else, web design does age and will periodically need a revamp to ensure your website stays current and attractive to your target audience. Redesigning your website goes well beyond updating your content . Considering design issues which may involve branding, navigation, and colour schemes, among others, are all essential in ensuring that your site remains as effective as possible.

This can be a costly  and time-consuming project, so before embarking on a major revamp, it’s best to test the waters and ensure it’s the right time. Begin by considering who the website is aimed at, is it your clients, suppliers, current and potential employees, or all of the above?

Once you’ve highlighted your target audience, start garnering opinion. Obviously, this won’t be possible in every circumstance, but where you feel able to ask for feedback from people, especially external parties such as clients, you should do so. The more specific your respondents can be the easier you’ll be able to pinpoint exactly what it is that requires updating. This will help you target your resources, ensuring maximum impact for minimum input.

After you’ve done your research, you’ll be in a stronger position to determine what form of update your website requires, whether it is a simple update to content, or if there are more serious issues, such as a difficulty with navigation, or whether company developments have left your branding out of date.

It’s at this stage that you might like to consider approaching companies like NS Design for a free, no-obligation quote on making your website reflect your modern-day business.

Google has recently added a visual preview of web sites to their search results that could very well call for real change in the way we view SEO. Now, when you type any query into Google, you’ll see a little magnifying glass next to the page’s title. Hover over this icon and you’ll see a preview of the homepage for the selected site.

For once, Google are not leading the trend here; however their implementation of the preview feature is more integrated and easier to use than previously seen versions and also affects the majority of UK search results, where Google is by far and away the market leader.

This means web design just shot up the priority list. Gone are the days when you could attract visitors to your site with relevant content, placing emphasis on the written word rather than design. Google preview means that potential customers will be judging the site before they even click on it, and to ensure they do click through, sleek design is going to become increasingly important.

It’s too early in the process to say if there are hard and fast rules designers need to apply for the new system, but it is likely that sites which have striking and uncluttered home pages will be popular; while those which suffer from information overload on the front page are likely to suffer as the previews won’t do them justice, possibly making them look confused and irrelevant.

The good news is that Google’s testing of the system found that people are 5% more likely to appreciate the site they click on having used preview, than a site that they blindly selected. So hits which do come through are more likely to convert into business.

When designing your first website, it can be difficult to keep track of everything there is to consider. So, just for a change, we thought we’d look at those things you can forget about – the five elements of web design that can put off customers and mar an otherwise excellent composition.

Multi-sensory sites: Background music on websites gets very irritating very quickly, and can potentially embarrass customers, especially if they are trying to use the web in a crowded or quiet place. If you feel sound will add to your site’s ambience, create an opt-in button so visitors can choose to listen.

Stick to the map: Once you have decided on your navigation system, stick with it. Ensure that your menu is in the same position on each website, so visitors don’t have to waste time re-orientating themselves on every single page.

Don’t be too flash: Flash is brilliant for embedding graphics and animations which can really make your site stand out. The downside is that they are time-consuming to load and won’t catch the eye of search engines. Flash is non-indexable, so while it may look great on the site, it isn’t visible outside, greatly reducing the number of visitors you receive.

Don’t get dressed in public: Under construction sites add nothing to your SEO and frustrate customers looking for answers. There’s nothing worse than thinking you’ve found the solution to your question, only to click and find out that answer is ‘Come back soon’.

Make sure your content can be read: You’ve spent ages making sure that your site says what you want it to, so make sure it produces the maximum impact by choosing the right font at a readable size.

As fan pages for businesses have become increasingly popular on Facebook, the social networking site has decided to offer more flexibility in the way a company represents itself. When a business fan page is created, the default setting takes any visitor directly  to The Wall, which is exactly the same as personal Facebook pages, offering easy access to the latest updates, information and photos.

Custom tabs allow you to step away from this and create a wall that reflects the individuality of your business. They allow you to increase business branding, create an easy action button that encourages people to ‘like’ your business, or give extra prominence to any current promotions you may have. An exceptional example of how custom tabs can work is Coca Cola’s current Facebook page; this is the epitome of how tabs can work for business and cost mega-bucks, however there are plenty of steps you can take on an SME budget.

To create a basic custom tab requires nothing more than a basic knowledge of HTML and access to Facebook’s application FBML (or Facebook Mark Up Language). These tabs can help develop your web page into something akin to a secondary website, and popular extra tabs include an ‘About’ page, with company biography or a ‘Clients’ page, to demonstrate previous success. As these are HTML based, you can also add in pictures to create visual interest.

So if you are looking to make your Facebook page stand out from an increasing number of competitors in the social media arena, then invest some time in developing custom tabs and allowing your own personality to shine through.