Call 1-800-870-3721 for Houston Web Design!

Infographics are pictorial representations of information used by brands that would like to break down complex information, relay statistics or tell a story visually. While they have long been used in newspaper journalism, many online magazines and brands are using these fun images to tell a story or showcase their data. Our Houston web professionals find that this is a great way to “go viral” and encourage the sharing of your information and brand.

According to LinkBuildr.com, “Marketing your infographics properly is a sure fire way to snag natural links, build brand buzz and gain social media followers. It’s a form of content creation that is relatively inexpensive to do and can continue to bring in links for years to come.”

How Companies Are Using Infographics

• To Compare Then & Now, Side By Side

  

  Infographic by the US Census Bureau

• To Compare Two Seemingly Unrelated Things

  

  Infographic By GOOD

• To Show A Complex Process In-Depth

  

  Infographic by DNAPolicy

• To Provide A History Lesson / Show A Timeline

  

  Infographic by Jesus Diaz

• To Organize Lots of Statistics

Infographic by Mint

• To Entertain / Make People Chuckle

Infographic by Infographic World

How To Make Infographics

Sure, you could… use Google Docs, Google Refine, Apple Numbers and Textmate to refine your data. Then you could spend time sketching your concept, using scripts to generate vector graphics, learning JavaScript, playing around in PhotoShop and exporting to Adobe. But hey, that takes up a lot of time and energy! Instead, why not outsource this task to our Houston web company? We’d love to help organize your statistics or story in a visually compelling way!

For example, here’s a cool infographic we made:

What clients love most about our Houston web developers’ approach to infographic designs is that we break everything down into a simple, digestible and compelling graphic. Sometimes you see infographics that are way too detailed or too dense — to the extent that they look cluttered and no one wants to look at them, let alone share them! Our Houston web designers aim to make infographics that are for the masses, rather than an elite group of geeks.

 What We Can Do For You…

Not only can we create awesome infographic designs for you, but we can also work on any Houston web development project you have. It’s true that we’re based out of Houston, Texas — and that we love when clients drop in to hang out — but we can also service any brand in the United States, so don’t hesitate to contact us for a quick, free quote on your project.

Call 1-800-870-3721 for Houston Web Design!

Houston web design is not just about making a website that is professional-looking or functional, necessarily. Sometimes it’s about making your website fun and memorable enough to leave a lasting impression! These days, people aren’t just interested in your products or services — they are interested in your brand… your back-story, your people, your ethos. As Meredith K. Schwab, a world-class Etsy jewelry designer explained, “ I discovered it was beneficial to market myself… in addition to my business.  People respond to ‘behind the scenes’ information about my work and me as an individual.” This holds true on your website as well.

You Can Be Fun, Without Being Silly…

You want to maintain an air of professionalism, of course. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t allude to the fact that you have some colorful characters at your workplace. Check out some of these super fun “About” pages…

Andrew tells you just what he’s about, gives you info on his skill sets and makes you chuckle with his “facts.” That’s just the sort of personality people want to work with!

How can you not love that Mail Chimp? They made this cute mascot the heart of their business, but also has a customer-centric “What We’re All About” section. Experts say the best “About” pages are not necessarily about the company… but rather, about the customer. That is certainly true here.

This team photo is just priceless! Immediately, you can tell this is a young, hip company with employees who love what they do and have a lot of fun at work.

You have to love a company where every employee gets his or her own bobblehead! This unique “About” page definitely fits the bill for out-of-the-box thinking and is very memorable and fun.

Fun Can Be An Experience Too…

Our Houston web design firm occasionally receives a client who wants a website that is engaging and fun. For instance, here is a dynamic site that you really have to visit to get the full effect of…

The Converge site is cool because there is a radical dinosaur illustration… but as you scroll down to the “meat” of the story, layers strip away from the dinosaur as well, so you can see his muscles and his cyborg underbelly. How cool!

Another website we absolutely love is this one…

Going to the interactive MediaBoom website is like riding the tram at DisneyWorld. The music, movement and narration make you never want to leave. It’s easy to see why this firm has won Webby Awards.

If you’d like to turn a complex idea to break down, then an interactive website like Slavery Footprint might be a better way to tell your story and make an impact.

Visitors click to learn more about slavery worldwide and even take a quiz to see if any slaves may be working for them.

Are You Looking For A Fun Web Design?

Whether you are in Houston or not, we’d love to help with your next web design project. Our Houston web design firm loves when clients drop by the office to hang out, watch a few YouTube videos and tell us how business is doing. But we understand if you’re just perusing the internet looking for a company that understands your needs from afar. We can help you too!

Call 1-800-870-3721!

Houston Web Design Trends

• 3-D effects — like shadows or texture

Personally, we like the way inserting subtle texture into a background can really give your Houston web design added dimension. Suddenly, your static web page looks as though it has been painted with a brush or printed on paper. When we work with textures, we’re careful not to “over-do” it, as too many textures can be chaotic. Texture may be used to direct the eye to a certain piece of copy or it can just subtly improve the look of your background.

• Single Page Website Designs

On a quest for simplicity and affordability, many web designers began offering single page websites. Instead of loading a whole new page, the browser will just skip down to the appropriate section on the page. It’s sort of like an appendix of Q&A’s, where you click on the question to jump down to the answer, which happens to be on the same sheet. You may find this handy for your Houston web design if you’re a minimalist.

• Unique Typography

Type was long overlooked. It seemed like every website just picked an easy newspaper style font like Times New Roman, Arial, Garamond, Georgia, Courier New, or Verdana. Yet, modern Houston web design gurus know that varying the styles, sizes and colors of fonts can really guide the eye and improve the digestibility of one’s site.

• Vintage Web Design

There is something undeniably fascinating about an old advertisement. It’s amazing how certain styles of illustration, typography or color use can whisk the imagination back to the 19th century. What better way to emphasize how long your company has been in business than with retro / vintage  Houston web design?

• Vivid Colors

Bold is beautiful. People are tired of seeing plain white backgrounds with blue borders. Vivid, contrasting colors have made a resurgence. We have loads of different color schemes we could show you if you’re still deciding. Our Houston web design team can also test out a couple different options to see which gets a better response from your visitors.

• Muted Tones

Not everyone is terribly flashy. Some people prefer light, muted tones for their site to add a splash of watercolor, without overdoing it. These Houston web design sites are easy on the eyes and allow your illustrations and web copy to take center-stage.

• Hand-Drawn Illustrations

Illustrations are so much more interesting than clip-art or stock photo images. A great way to make your Houston web design stand out from everyone else is by commissioning independent artwork. There are limitless styles you can choose from, whether you decide on cartoon or photo-realistic.

• Over-sized Header

With Facebook’s new Timelines format debuting recently (2012), we’re likely to see many more Houston web designs switch to feature over-sized headers to maintain continuity between the homepage and social media design. You can make a statement and dazzle people with a large photo header that better enables you to tell your story and share your vision.

There are so many Houston web design trends to consider. We really only have space to discuss a few.

Call 1-800-870-3721 for more information on our Houston web design. We’d love to help you with your first or next venture online!

What Your Houston Website “About” Page Needs

1. A Digestible Company History – Give a brief timeline overview, highlighting your major achievements.                       What is your company’s narrative? Where have you been? Where are you going?

2. Meet Our Team: Provide a few relevant bios to humanize your company, build trust and bring your company to life. People often buy from someone because they like them, personally.

3. Products & Services: Offer a brief introduction to describe, in a nutshell, what you do.

Best Practices For Your Houston Website “About” Page…

One of the newest trends we’ve seen is the rise of the INFOGRAPHIC. (We make custom infographics here, in fact!) If you want to explain your business in a dynamic, visual way, you can transform your “About” page into a graphic like this page or this page.

This is a creative visual page that very simply shows the character of this particular designer with flip-through images.

The best “About Us” pages are well-organized, clean and simple, in our humble opinion. Like this one:

We also like this clean, straightforward page:

Here is an example of an “About” page that has a lot of personality!

Here’s another neat one that features live action shots to give an “insider glimpse” into the work…

And look at how friendly this “About” page is!

So, What Does All This Mean For YOUR Houston Website?

Here at Nuesion, we design custom WordPress sites for your business. We choose to work with the WordPress platform because it is the easiest dashboard for our customers to make any updates or changes to their site. In just a few clicks, you can add another tab / page or blog. You can change the images, the colors, the fonts, the template, the header, and a number of other facets of the site. There are also all these neat add-ons to improve the Search Engine Optimization or performance of your website. The world is your oyster!

Just getting started? Nuesion also provides domain registration and hosting services. Anything that you need to get your website up and running as quickly and cheaply as possible, we can provide for you. Surely you’ve heard of popular shoestring budget providers like HostGator and GoDaddy. Well, we use their same provider — only we don’t charge you all the fees they do! Last summer, we ran a special deal… and it was so successful, we kept it going ever since.

Nuesion is a creative thinktank. If you need inspiration or help conceptualizing, we’d be happy to help. For the last 10 years, we’ve spent the vast majority of our lives perusing the Internet, so we’ve collected all sorts of ideas, best practices and designs to make your Houston website stand out.

Call 1-800-870-3721 for more information!

The Daily Economy Report - Custom WordPress Design

*Don’t live in Houston? Don’t worry! We love having clients stop by our office, but we can also work remotely!

]]> http://www.nuesion.com/web-marketing-tips-and-trends/how-to-create-a-great-about-us-page-for-your-houston-website/feed/ 0 http://www.nuesion.com/newsroom/study-reveals-7-most-important-items-for-houston-website-design/ http://www.nuesion.com/newsroom/study-reveals-7-most-important-items-for-houston-website-design/#comments Mon, 20 Feb 2012 14:00:16 +0000 jenn http://www.nuesion.com/?p=1127 When people come to your Houston website, what are they looking at?

A newly released Missouri University of Science and Technology study found that Houston website designers have only 2.6 seconds to make a first impression on their clients’ audiences. If people do not like what they see or find the information they’re looking for within that very brief window of time, they are gone for good! Using eye-tracking software, researchers were able to pinpoint the seven most important areas to focus Houston website design efforts.

Your Logo

The average person spends about 6.48 seconds gazing upon your company logo before moving on.

Your Navigation Menu

We’ve long known that navigation is the heart of a Houston website. On average, people spend 6.44 seconds assessing this portion of your site.

Your Search Box

Users focus their attention on the search box for an average of 6 seconds.

Your Social Networking Links

Most web users will spend about 5.95 seconds browsing your links to Facebook and Twitter.

Your Main Image

A website’s dominant image fixates the gaze of users for about 5.94 seconds.

Your Written Content

Users will peruse what you have to say on your homepage for 5.59 seconds before navigating to another page to learn more.

Your Bottom Navigation

User spend about 5.25 seconds looking over the navigation links at the bottom of your website.

What Does This Study Mean For Your Houston Website?

Note: It’s important to note that this study was completed by college students viewing law school websites, so their increased attention to the social networking links may be skewed toward greater importance than if your demographic were 40+ year old web users. Also, study participants noted that “pleasing colors” were very important to their overall browsing experience.

These results are helpful when prioritizing where to spend  more time and money on designing your Houston website. For instance, you may not want to spend a quarter of your budget on copywriting if people are only going to briefly peruse your text — or you may want to have your writer create a short paragraph that sums up your core, rather than the long manifesto you had originally planned. You may want to invest a little more in your logo creation that you had asked one of your partners to sketch real quick, rather than a professional artist. You also want to find a Houston website development firm that values simplicity and clean navigation, as this area draws the most attention overall.

Why Nuesion Houston Website Design & Development?

We’d like to be your #1 resource for Houston website design and development. We work quickly and efficiently to create a customized WordPress-based website that is inexpensive and easy to update. We also deal with domain name registrations and cheap hosting solutions if you need it. We’re here for you, day and night, to provide the best customer service possible, as we are a small company that values relationships.

 Call 1-800-870-3721 for a quote within 24 hours!

A Design That Doesn’t Suck!

If you hire an amateur web designer, outsource your work to another country, or go the D.I.Y. route with a template site, you could very well end up with a site that appears to be designed by a lab chimp. Case in point:

(Sorry, Bob! We're sure your ideas are perfectly valid! But this website's gotta go!)

You’ll be happy to know, we don’t have any lab chimps working here at Nuesion (that we know of, anyway… there is always the odd chance someone may have left a back door open…). Your custom web design will be handled by seasoned veterans (web design veterans, not war veterans) who know how to make a clean, easy-to-navigate, professional-looking page, sort of like this:

Do we know how to make Political WordPress Websites look good, or what?!

Back-End Support!

By “back-end support,” we’re not talking about adult diapers or Tucks pads. We’re talking about the time you try to install a new WordPress theme and the whole site goes kaput — including all of that content you never bothered to back up. It’s suddenly as if your site never existed… like a giant black hole just opened up and swallowed you whole. This doesn’t feel good, trust us! Worst of all, you have no one to blame but yourself! Who wants that level of responsibility? Well, we’re so crazy we don’t mind it. We back up all your data and we know HTML like the back of our hands (which we are currently looking at and admiring right now!) You can feel comfortable knowing that you can IM / Skype / Text / Call / Email us at any time for answers. Heck, you can even show up at our doorstep like a bedraggled puppy dog and we will let you in. Nuesion is noted for quick solutions, not just fully functioning custom web design.

Everything You Want!

Well, almost everything… If you wanted artificial fireworks going off, an animated marching band banner, and the “Star Spangled Banner” auto-playing, we might try to talk you out of it. That’s just the wise-cracking designer speaking. Yet, a custom web design team can really give you so much more functionality than the basic WordPress comes with. If you want added analytics data, SEO tools, a photo slider, or automatic social bookmarking tools, we will make sure your site is equipped with all these goodies. Most people choose custom web design to have this level of personalization and functionality, so their sites have a leg up on the competition.

 So there you have it! Tell your friend your custom web design is what gives you all that you want. It’s not just quicker and easier, but it’s also practical. Call Nuesion at 1-800-870-3721 for a quote within 24 hours.

Here are 10 WordPress site looks that caught our eyes recently…

10 Favorite WordPress Site Designs

1. We love the N-Design Studio’s unconventional use of color and tattoo-like artwork…

2. We like the easy navigation and oversized images on the Creative Ad Awards WordPress site…

3. We feel URB really nailed the magazine theme layout on this one…

4. We liked how the colors pop and dazzle the eyes with 101 Holidays’ custom web design…

5. It’s wonderful how Shawn Groves put his latest blog front and center with this WordPress site layout…

6. Logo Realty Associates created a nice aesthetic through use of illustration, widget size and font choice…

7. Lake Nona is an attractive WordPress site that creates a sense of place that makes you want to be there…

8. Don’t you just love Bear Grylls? His Live WordPress site doesn’t disappoint. The header, the wording: it’s epic.

9. We love how the use of color and imagery of this Egyptian travel WordPress site evokes a certain mood…

10. Well, okay… we had to sneak at least one of our sites here!

 Here’s a WordPress site we did for our friends at Chicken Kitchen Houston. (If you haven’t been there, the “Fajito Wrapito” is out-of-this-world!) Anyway, what we wanted to do with this WordPress design was use an uncommon color that would stand out from the competition. Gold adds a sort of opulence and sophistication that says: “This isn’t your local KFC or fast food joint!” We wanted a clean navigation menu and a way to showcase all the dynamic, changing content their site offers. We loved their mission statement and thought they had quite the food photographer, so we wanted to put their “About” page front and center.

If you’d like a WordPress site or custom web design for your business, please contact us for a quote within 24 hours. We work with businesses big and small! Call 1-800-870-3721 or contact us any way you feel comfortable.

About WordPress

Currently, there are more than 70 million WordPress websites worldwide. Of course, that number will change quickly, as about 100,000 new WordPress websites are created each day. Over 327 million people read more than 2.5 billion pages each month. On an average day, 500,000 new posts are created and 400,000 people comment on a website in WordPress. Many well-known publishers have chosen WordPress as their Content Management System of choice, including Tech Crunch, NBC Sports, CNN, UPS, Gigaom, and CBS Radio, to name a few. I guess what we’re trying to say here is that WordPress is really, really popular!  Of course, that doesn’t tell you the whole story.

#1 Benefit of A WordPress Site: It’s User-Friendly!

Once upon a time, you couldn’t add a blog or a page to your site — or even update the homepage content — unless you had an in-depth understanding of computer programming languages. So, more often than not, what would happen is you’d call up your website developer and ask them to implement the changes you need. Not every Houston web company is as responsive as us, so you can imagine all the aggravation business owners would endure while waiting for their content to be updated! Worse yet, imagine if you had hired a totally unscrupulous character to design your site at the lowest price… and he dropped off the planet altogether, leaving you with no option but to create a whole new website since you had no way of ever updating the old one!

Anyhow, the good news is that you will never have this problem with a WordPress site. Once you login with your user name and password, the sidebar menu makes it easy to add pages, testimonials, multimedia, blogs, images, links, or whatever strikes your fancy. You can edit any page and add all these goodies without any knowledge of HTML or web programming whatsoever! So by creating a WordPress site for you, we are giving you all the tools you need to update your website whenever and however you want.

#2 Benefit Of A WordPress Site: SEO-Friendliness

Our goal in creating a custom web design for you is not just to give you a parking spot online, but to drive business for you by enabling search engines to crawl your site. The thing about WordPress is that it’s one of the few Content Management Systems that is specifically designed to be more search engine friendly. These sites have especially fast loading time, which is important, not to mention a number of plugins you can add to help enhance search engine optimization.

#3 Benefit Of A WordPress Site: Versatility

There are tons of templates we can use for your WordPress site, tweaking the images, the colors and other design features to match your branding. Later on, if you decide you want a different look and feel, it is very easy to update and change the layout, without disturbing any of your content. It’s so easy to update, many of our clients browse the free and affordable templates themselves.

This is an example of a Houston WordPress site we’ve created.

The Bottom Line:

As you can imagine, all this ease of use leads to one inevitable conclusion: a WordPress site is also less-expensive than other systems! We spend less time developing your site and you can manage your content in a more autonomous way, so you can really cut out a lot of the expense in running a blog or webpage. WordPress also links with limitless hosting solutions, so you can save money there too by using your affordable provider. (If you don’t already have one, we’d be happy to help you in that department!)

Are you curious how you can get a WordPress site of your very own? Please contact us at 1-800-870-3721.

As Houston web designers, we think of ourselves as party hosts: we bring the plates of cookies and the drink trays the moment your guests walk in the front door, so they feel welcome and want to stay. Presentation is key, as it’s your visitors’ first impression of your business. Here are the four most common Houston web mistakes we see (so you can avoid the same!)

 Are You Guilty Of These Houston Web Blunders?

Here at Nuesion we offer full-service web design and hosting. Whether you need a simple cosmetic face-lift, an in-depth reworking, or your very first website for a fledgling business, our Houston web company would be happy to help! Ok, enough of the sales pitch.. lets get to the list!

Houston Web Issue #1: Poor Navigation

“Where am I? How did I get here? Why am I here?” These are the absolute worst questions a visitor can ask about your site! Most businesses say that navigation and usability is their top concern, but far too often we see creative types run wild with the design features. There are several recommendations we make to improve navigability, notably:

• Use visually appealing icons that are easy to understand
• Keep your most important links on the top horizontal navigation bar
• Stash your legal, copyright, privacy, and terms at the bottom of the page
• Use breadcrumb navigation within your text to guide people through the site

Houston Web Issue #2: No Call-To-Action

Sure, people are coming to your Houston web site for information; and yes, “Content is King.” However, you must also give the end user a call-to-action, which gives them a set of options should they decide to act based on the information you’ve provided. The 2011 Social Media Matters Study found that 53 percent of blog readers admitted they make purchases based on blogs they’ve read, and 69 percent of adult American women confessed they rely heavily on blogs to research technology they plan to buy. So, you see, it is very important that you give these eager buyers somewhere to go and something to buy! To improve this area, we recommend:

• Creating a button that takes into account size, shape, color and position when directing users
• Choosing your words carefully (for instance, it’s preferable to use the term “costs” versus “fees”)
• Deliver one call-to-action per page
• Use content to answer the question, “What’s in it for me?”
• Use the call-to-action to answer the question, “What do I do now?”

Houston Web Issue #3: Clutter

As a company, there is so much to say! This is especially true if you are trying to appeal to different target audiences. However, people browsing the web have unbelievably short attention spans. We partially blame TiVo, which lets people speed through commercials… Or maybe it’s those moving sidewalks in airports… At any rate, you need to get rid of all non-essentials on your landing page if you want people to click and explore. Here’s an example:

Chicken Kitchen’s Houston Website.. now thats a tasty looking site!

We challenge each item on a Houston web page and ask, “Does it really need to be there?” Often, it takes an impartial third party eye to make these kind of judgment calls, as it’s easy to get lost in your own mission statement and message.

Houston Web Issue #4: Content

People have arrived at your site to digest some type of content. Some pages serve up content like they are delivering filet mignon in a cardboard pizza box! What we’r saying is that you can lose a lot of perceived value if the presentation isn’t favorable. What we focus on is…

• Lots of whitespace so users can focus on the text
• Lengthy paragraphs are broken into shorter ones
• Bullets and lists are used as often as possible
• Never forget headlines
• Selecting the right text and colors is essential

Are you looking for Houston web solutions? Nuesion would love to help! Please contact us in any way you feel most comfortable so we can discuss your Houston web project. Not from Houston? No problem! We also work with companies remotely across the United States.

We love the response of the online community coming together in an effort to keep the internet free and open. We agree and hope you will do your part against SOPA. https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/
-J. Villarreal