PolkaSpots Online Business Solutions

Successful Web Design Takes Practise

Simon Morley - Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Running a business can be like running up an endless hill; legs weary, cold rain beating on your face, exhausting.

But no hill is endless. It takes grit and determination to run long distances. It takes time, practice and willpower. Above all, you have to want it. It's not easy to strip down and don a pair of shorts, when you're warm and cosy, and head out in to a lonely, dark evening.

Half-way round you think, I need a break. I need to rest my legs. Maybe I'll do a lap less this time, after all, it is snowing. But you don't, you carry on up that hill, round the park and eventually get home. Exhausted but exhilarated.

Running your small (or large business) is sometimes like this. It can be a lonely affair with often no reward for months. It takes determination to carry on, to not to cut corners and take the short cut. If you do, you're only cheating yourself.

You're promised that one day it will be worth it; and it will. When you get to the top of the hill, and you will if you're determined, you might not even notice, because it doesn't suddenly get easier - you don't suddenly recover. But with time you will and you'll realise it is worth it, it's exhilarating running a business. 

The same goes for your website, you need patience, grit and determination. Don't attempt it all at once, your shop, blog, forum, gallery and more. Try them one by one and see what works. Break it down and you'll see how easy it can be.

Design inspiration for non-designers

Simon Morley - Saturday, January 16, 2010
"No wonder designers get paid a lot, they study for years and they have natural talent"

Yes and no. Designing a beautiful website isn't about who you hang out with on a Saturday night, where you went to college, what clothes you wear, the lifestyle. In 2010, beautiful web design is more about beautifully functional sites and what they look like.

Start with these things on your own website:

  1. Increase your body font size to at least 13px
  2. Make your headings 1.96 times larger than your body copy (according to smashing magazine)
  3. Put more padding on your pages and around your text
  4. Reduce your copy by removing all the junk - shorten your sentences
  5. Don't use things that don't do anything
It's not about minimalism: it's about functionality, readability and a clear message.

Once your message is clear, your copy written, it's time for the design to be applied. And no, not everyone can do it. For example, I'm not allowed near colours - I'm seriously colourblind (not that you can prove it)!
 

1,750 online shop purchases a minute

Simon Morley - Saturday, January 16, 2010
"November 30th 2009 was the UK's busiest online shopping day, with approximately 1,750 sales happening a minute."

A study conducted by the Hut group suggested that 81% of all our Christmas shopping would be done online last year.

Understanding your business opportunities is no easy task. Can you comprehend what 1,750 sales a minute actually means? It's like saying the moon's 238,855 miles away - you don't know what 238,855 miles really is until you've travelled that far, and not many of us have. 

But you don't need to be able to fully comprehend that figure, all you need to do is understand that there is a huge market for online shopping and you must capitalise on it. And, sometimes it's better to focus on your local market. We don't all need to take over the world - there's plenty of people on the planet, most of which are (online)shopaholics.