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Product Management vs Project Management

Product management and project management are both essential concepts for any company which looks forward to meeting its business goals. The fierce competition in today’s business landscape has pushed companies to re-design its business strategy and with this, the importance of new roles like product manager and project manager has only increased. While the titles are similar, project management and product management are completely two different things. This article will focus on the actual definition of these two roles, distinct differences, and responsibilities.

Product and Project

A product is anything that can be offered to a market to solve a problem or to satisfy a want or need. It can be a physical product, a software, or a service that satisfies the needs of a group of users. On the other hand, a project is a temporary endeavor that is undertaken to create a unique product or service. It has a start, an end date, and a defined outcome.

With a project, there is a clear definition of what needs to be delivered by a specified time. Products have a life cycle that consists of multiple stages. A product can only be developed within the context of a project, and multiple projects can occur within a product’s life cycle.

Product Management vs Project Management

Product management is an organizational function within a company that involves planning, forecasting, and production or marketing of a product or products at all stages of the product life cycle. Project management involves the application of processes, methods, knowledge, skills, and experience to achieve the objectives of a specific project.

Role of a Product Manager

A product manager’s role is strategic, much like a CEO, but for the specific product, instead of the company. They study and analyze market conditions to layout a product vision accordingly, to deliver a product that meets customer demands. His role covers different activities from strategic to tactical and acts as a collating force between different teams like engineering, sales, marketing, and support. They take complete responsibility for the overall and continual success of a product throughout the entire product lifecycle.

Responsibilities that fall under a product manager include:

  • Gathering and prioritizing product and customer requirements
  • Defining the product vision
  • Identifying problems and opportunities
  • Deciding which opportunities are to be addressed
  • Creating a roadmap
  • Prioritizing development tickets
  • Conducting organizational training

Working with sales and marketing teams to ensure revenue and customer satisfaction goals are met

More than handling the above-mentioned responsibilities, it involves a lot of product sense. A good product manager must have a strong product intuition to know the right time to move the product from alpha to beta tests. They do understand when should the release be delayed due to bugs or improper functioning of certain features. They also take decisions to discontinue a product or a part of it when it no longer makes an economic sense.

Product managers are also responsible for the profit and loss function of a product. A product manager works closely with various teams like sales, marketing etc. to make sure that the overall business goals are achieved and the project revenue numbers are achieved. Also, it’s their responsibility to ensure a competitive edge over others.

Role of a Project Manager

A project manager is responsible for the successful delivery of a project. They need to ensure that the project is delivered within the pre-decided deadline and approved budget. Project managers work in tandem with product managers and manage the development of the product by arranging all the resources required during the product development period. Risk mitigation and solution of any issues roadblocking the project also falls under a project manager’s responsibilities.

One of the most difficult tasks for a project manager is managing the scope of the project. Striking a balance between costs, quality and time is a tough job and requires a logical approach with decision-making capabilities. In situations wherein they have to cut down on the costs incurred during a project, they have to increase the scope and deadline of the project. Similarly, they need to increase the cost if they wish to shorten the deadline to deliver the project. In any situation, their core objective is to maximize quality while minimizing risk.

Some of the responsibilities that fall under a project manager include:

  • Leading the team to deliver a successful project
  • Planning and resource scheduling
  • Risk management
  • Issue management
  • Creating new versions or extensions of a product
  • Managing a team of designers and developers, and tracking their work
  • Managing the scope of the project
  • Keeping the project on time and within budget
  • Client handling
  • Using project management tools to accomplish tasks

Conclusion

Project management focuses internally to achieve specific objectives and complete a given project on time and under budget. Product Management takes a broader view and focuses externally on the customer and the overall and continued success of the project. Product managers deal with technical issues while project managers handle more functional issues. It’s possible that a single person performs both the roles, however, in an ideal situation, it’s best to separate these roles in order to enhance the performance and avoiding conflict of interests. Talk more about it with our industry experts.

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Blog Brand & Identity Design Web Design

Hiring A Product Manager? Read This

In our recent blog post, we highlighted the role of a Product Manager, their primary areas of contribution and how a Product Manager builds a brand. In today’s world, companies have identified the importance of a Product Manager and how crucial is their role in deciding the future of a company. That’s why companies need to be really careful while hiring the right people for this job role. In this article, we will discuss how you can hire a great Product Manager for your company; what are the traits and capabilities to look for in a candidate during the interview process?

Let’s go!

The most important aspect of hiring the right people, especially as a Product Manager, is to zero-down on certain skills and traits which help them justify this challenging job role. These attributes can be further categorized into must have, need to have and good to have. Here are some of the important characteristics that one must look for while hiring great Product Managers:

1. Must Be A Problem Solver

A Product Manager faces a lot of challenges, roadblocks, and problems on a day-to-day basis. It’s their problem-solving skills that come to rescue here. A lot of product leaders and CEOs have told us that problem-solving ability is the most valued trait of a PM. Product development is a tricky role. Everyone needs to be on their feet during the entire product cycle and must be ready to face unseen challenges. Successfully driving a product into the market requires plenty of creative solutions to unexpected problems.

A natural problem-solving aptitude along with creative thinking is the key to success for a Product Manager. That said, don’t throw random riddles and aptitude questions at the PM candidate during the interview. It will simply set them off and then there’s only one direction the interview will go – southwards. Instead, give them some breathing space; ask them about their previous role. Let them tell you about their background, what and how have they achieved something in the past. Later on, introduce them to the company and the product. Ask them how will they manage and improve it. Problem-solving and creative thinking will gradually and naturally surface during this conversation.

2. Communication Skills Must Be Above Par

Effective communication skills are very important to be a good or great PM. Even if a candidate possesses skills like solid product management background, experience in the relevant industry, strong technical knowledge, that PM is likely to be ineffective if he cannot clearly and effectively communicate with professionals across a wide range of disciplines and teams in your company.

Product managers spend a lot of their time communicating ideas, plans, tasks, and designs to their teams. The communication includes emails communicating decisions, presentations communicating product roadmaps, specs communicating product designs, bug tickets communicating errors in the product and a lot more. Moreover, it is important for a PM to effectively communicate his vision, ideas, and strategy to various stakeholders in the company. Mastering effective communication is critical for this role.

3. Strong Product Instincts Will Do Wonders

It’s a little tricky and difficult to evaluate when it comes to product instincts. But, these are very important traits that make a great future PM. Some people are born with inherited product instincts. They just know what makes a great product. They may not be always right, but they certainly sense the right direction and correct path. It’s an essential trait in Product Managers.

Apart from the big thinking, long-term goal setting and formation strategy, there are a lot of other small decisions that a Product Manager needs to take. A strong product instinct enables them to take the correct decisions and suggest product approaches.
You can ask questions like:

  • Tell me about a great product you’ve encountered recently. Why do you like it?
  • What do you dislike about my product? How would you improve it?
  • What problems do you think our product will encounter in the near future?
  • What’s one of the best ideas you’ve ever had?
  • What is one of the worst?
  • What was your biggest product mistake?

4. Should Have Natural Leading Ability

A natural ability to lead is something which is essential in almost all critical roles when you have a large team to work with. Product managers have the difficult role of coordinating and leading a large cross-functional team. They must possess natural leadership skills. A great PM will have the ability to build a strong bond and generate enthusiasm among the various teams and departments which are responsible for developing the product. This is an uphill task. Often the PM will have to say no to requests from these teams or push them to work on tighter deadlines and deliver with limited resources.

Give them some hypothetical situations where leadership skills are required. Try to find out how they react and lead from the front.

5. Should Be Able to Learn From Mistakes

It’s not necessary that you’re always right, or you always take the right path. Failure is an inevitable part of life. Smart, visionary product leaders take a holistic view and a long-term view. They understand and realize that any product, strategy or idea can fail in any specific market for a number of reasons.

It’s important to gauge how a PM will react at the first product disappointment. They should not totally fall apart, instead react appropriately, analyze the reasons for failure, and then start gathering useful learnings that can increase chances of success the next time you launch the product.

How would you react to an underwhelming product launch or a new product that received a negative reaction from the market? This could be one of the interesting questions which you can ask during the interview. Some of them will tell you they’d be devastated by a product failure, some will not be so much disappointed. However, the key is how are they going to react after accepting the failure.

Hopefully, this information will help you in hiring an amazing Product Manager. To know more, discuss with our industry experts.

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Brand & Identity Design UX Web Design

Design Arrest: A New Way To Design Your Dreams

Design Arrest

To grow an in-house design team or get the services from a professional design agency is a heated topic of discussion. While there are still people who believe that it’s best to have an in-house team, the majority of experts from the industry strongly believe that a professional design agency is the best option and drives the business growth.

With changing times, the design needs, trends and philosophies have also witnessed a makeover or revamp. With these changes, the process to cater to design needs also needs to upgrade, in order to provide 360-degree design solutions in the most viable manner.

Design Arrest is one such creative job-stop that revolutionizes the process of designing graphics. It is a creative agency that aims to transform your ideas and thoughts into captivating designs. Here are a few differentiating factors of Design Arrest which make it stand out from other creative agencies.

Personal Graphic Designer

The biggest challenge while dealing with creative agencies is to find a single point-of-contact. Often the person working on your request is different from your point-of-contact. Moreover, multiple people work on your project which makes it difficult to strike consistency in the design language. It’s a tiresome and time-consuming task to again and again convey your thought behind designs, brand vision and requirements to different people, every time when you make a fresh request. At Design Arrest, you don’t need to sweat it out. A personal, dedicated Graphic Designer is assigned to you, who will be available round the clock to fulfil unlimited design requests.

Design Your Dreams

 

Flat Rate

Generally, the cost of every design request is calculated basis the type of request, required efforts, time required and nature of the request. This leads to variable costing and often shakes the planned budget for designing. Design Arrest understands the importance of budget-forecasting and values your money. They charge a flat fee, $300 per month, for all your design requirements. There are no hidden charges, taxes, or service charges at any given point-in-time. They believe in clarity, trustworthiness, and developing mutually benefitting, long-term relationships.

Flat Rate

Unlimited Requests / Revisions

Here comes the best part. There are absolutely no bars on the number of requests you raise or the number of times you request revisions. Until you are fully satisfied with their work, the team will not rest. The objective here is to completely satisfy the design needs. Putting a cap on the number of requests will require clients to hand pick the requests, normally the most critical and significant would be passed on, however, a lot of essential requests may not come through only because of the restriction on the number of requests. But, with unlimited requests and revisions, all your design requirements are bound to be fulfilled.

Daily Output

The design process is not a one day job. Some projects last for weeks or months, and some may even be a continuous task for years to come. It becomes difficult for project managers to track the progress and status of the design requests, especially when there’s a provision of shooting unlimited requests. The team at Design Arrest allows you to raise requests every business day and get them served with desired output on a daily basis. This makes your job easy to track the progress and analyze how the work is going on.

No Commitment, No Contract

Unlike many creative agencies, Design Arrest doesn’t bind you in any kind of contract. In case you find any reason to end its services, you’re free to discontinue from that moment itself. You are not at all bind by any regulations or conditions. You are billed on a monthly basis, get the services on a monthly basis and can stop any time you want. Everything that is created by Design Arrest for you is completely editable and belongs to you. They claim no ownership even after you discontinue its design services. Also, they do not disclose or share any information related to your project or business with anyone else.

One-Stop Design Hub

Design Arrest simply designs everything. Be it websites, banners, downloadable, brochures, or anything on web or print media, they design it for you. No matter how diverse or intricate your design needs are, you are sure going to get the solution, with its widespread services ranging across logo design, business collaterals & literature, promotional merchandises, mobile apps, web pages, e-stores, social media creative, presentations and infographics.

Design Arrest certainly stands out in terms of delivering high-quality design solutions at a reasonable price with feasible payment options, and is backed by result-oriented, trend-driven, highly enthusiastic creative brains who are striving to create a difference. You can check out their work here.

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Blog Brand & Identity Technology

How A Product Manager Builds The Brand

Products Manager

Product Manager has become a common job profile over the last decade or so. With changing trends and innovation of different business strategies, the importance of a Product manager has been recognized by the industry. Product management is a complex, challenging role that needs to manage requirements and deliver quality products that align with the business’ goals.

Who is a Product Manager?

A Product Manager is someone who is responsible for understanding the market, audience and demand for a software, hardware or service. In more technical terms, they are the ones responsible for creating new products, its purposes, assortment policy, pricing, market analysis, product requirements, promotion and KPI planning. They are a connection between the market and the product team during development, representing the voice of the customer. They manage the portfolio of products they are responsible for, in order to maximize sales and profitability.

Key Responsibilities

It’s a Product Manager’s responsibility to drive the product’s or service’s success. They often are required to manage a cross-functional team whose members are directly or indirectly contributing to the development of the product or service and are constantly a part of the success journey. The role of a Product Manager is especially important for IT companies. The product manager determines the strategy, important functions for the product or the product line and visualizes a roadmap. Often, this position includes marketing functionality, forecasting profits, and possible losses.

Key Skills Required

Product managers have in-depth knowledge of the products necessary to lead the team and make strategic decisions. Additionally, they must possess some professional and personal qualities to justify their role.

Professional skills include marketing strategies, project management of product, service development, financial modelling, pricing, budgeting, qualitative and quantitative research, technical documentation, user documentation, product promotion, PR etc.

Personal qualities include business negotiations and presentations, professional communication skills, time management, high level of managerial decision-making, customer-centricity, multitasking, high responsibility, leadership in setting tasks and delegating, team building skills, the ability to motivate, self-development etc.

There are certain key areas wherein a Product Manager primarily contributes:

1. Idea Generation

Every company strives to develop the best ideas for implementation. In the process, a lot of new ideas come up and one has to choose ‘the idea’ from them. It is not always easy to determine priorities. The product manager’s responsibility is to study and analyze ideas and manage their priorities.
A good Product Manager will have the ability to analyse and decide that which of the many ideas is most feasible to be converted into a product, within a reasonable time frame.

2. Building Strategies

Once the idea is ready, a Product Manager must be able to create a vision for the product lifecycle and set a global strategy. The important task is to justify the business value of the product for the team so that everyone understands the importance and usefulness of releasing a new product.

Then comes the product road-mapping. Product managers coordinate all the ideas in the product roadmap and decide the priorities. A smart product roadmap helps product managers to collate and systematize all ideas and initiatives, plan the implementation and share with everyone involved.

3. Market and Competitor Analysis

The Product Manager constantly surveys and monitors the market to effectively identify customer needs and trends. He also maintains awareness of competitive products, potential competitive products, competitors and competitor capabilities. The data collected through these analyses is converted into meaningful information by the Product Manager, which is then utilized during the development of a new product. Study of competitive actions and the strength/weaknesses of competitive products help in the development of sales projections.

4. Product Forecasting

The Product Manager takes a reasoned and sensible approach to develop forecasts around customer demand and ensures that the forecast is maintained even as the customer demand changes. The variances between forecasted and actual product demand is regularly monitored and analysed to make changes to the forecasting approach, if needed.

5. Features Analysis

Product managers analyze the features, comparing them with the strategic goals and initiatives of the company. This often requires the adoption of complex trade-offs, because efficiency must be high both for customers and the company. Therefore, the interaction with the development team and product manager’s technical background are quite important.

6. Product Releases

Planning and managing the actions of the product and development team is also a Product Manager’s responsibility, regardless of the development methodology the team works with. The manager is responsible for the release process and coordination actions before the product enters the market. These actions include removal of obstacles, bugs fixing, marketing, support and sales teams.

7. Manage Product Lifecycle

Based on product performance, the Product Manager determines when actions are needed to upgrade, improve, revise or re-position products, or when actions are needed to revise promotions and pricing. They also determine when to discontinue existing products and migrate customers to a new product.

The role of a Product Manager is pivotal in driving the success of a product or service and implementing the business strategy. There are many other areas where a Product Manager contributes. Talk to our experts to know more.

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Brand & Identity Design UX Web Design

UX and UI: Connected, But Completely Different

UX and UI

User Experience, or more commonly known as UX is not a new term for the world of graphics and designing. It has been around for as long as the modern day revamping of the design techniques, ideas, tools and philosophy has evolved; so is the case with User interface or UI. They both do compliment each other and often go hand-in-hand, however, a lot of us think that they are the same thing, which is not true. User interface is, let’s say, a part of user experience. Not clear yet? Let’s clear the smoke and try to understand what are the basic differences between UX and UI designs. Let’s go!

User Experience

It refers to a person’s interactions with a product, application, website, or operating system. Which means, creating a UX design involves defining the way a product operates and how it meets a user’s needs. Some of the obvious benchmarks are that a UX should be clear, comfortable and user-friendly. Moreover, a great UX is cautious and elaborate; you will most probably won’t even notice it while browsing through a website.

A good UX aims at simplifying the user journey. It makes the website navigation simple; simple enough that even a layman finds it a walk in the park. If a user finds it difficult to perform some of the most basic functions on a website, like to sign up, change their password, or get to their shopping cart, then there’s a clear problem with the UX. An effective UX smoothly guides a user through a website or an application.

A UX designer is responsible for all aspects of a user’s interaction, which means a UX designer is not just responsible for the technology behind a product, but they’re responsible for how a user interacts with a company, both online and offline, including customer service and other aspects.

User Interface

While User Experience is the accumulation of tasks specifically focused on the optimization of a product for enjoyable and effective use, User Interface Design is its complement; the look and feel, the presentation and interactivity of a product. User interface (UI) is anything a user may interact with to use a digital product or service. This includes everything from screens and touchscreens, keyboards, sounds, and even lights.

A UI designer’s responsibilities are more cosmetic than a UX designer’s. A UI designer is mostly responsible for the presentation of a product. That said, it’s not that a UI designer randomly picks some pictures and logos and use them blindly.

A UI Designer takes care of the Interface design, prototyping design, interaction design, user testing and optimal design. Towards the end of development, a UI designer takes control over the app’s appearance, including on-screen forms, images, buttons, links and icons. Without a user interface designer’s intervention, a design would not appear beautiful and appealing.

Key Differences

UX enhances the usability, UI enriches the visual appeal

The core objective of UX design is to make the product more useful for users. UX designers are responsible for ensuring that the company delivers a product or service that meets the needs of the customer and allows them to seamlessly achieve their desired outcome. On the other hand, UI designers are more inclined towards creating a visually appealing and aesthetically pleasing website design for users. Additionally, UI design must help users navigate through the website by designing buttons in different sizes, to show priority. UI designers take care of minute visual details to make the site look attractive.

UX Design is first, followed by UI

Normally, UX design and research is the first thing that designers dive into when deciding whether to build a product or application. They start with a competitive analysis and market research to come up with insights which improve site functionality. UI design comes much later; once the prototype has gone through several iterations and is almost finalized, all the wireframes are in place, then the UI designer steps in. Here is where the creative spirit of designers is put to test. They work on the visual design and micro-interactions.

UX pertains to products, services and interfaces, but UI only pertains to interfaces

 

The scope of UX is much broader than UI. UX design is garnering a lot of attention and is becoming more popular day-by-day. It’s no longer restricted to the companies with a web presence, but many others that develop products or provide services are identifying the importance of researching the market, users and validating them before they build. The scope of UI is however restricted only to user interfaces. That said, it doesn’t mean that UI is limited to graphical user interfaces of computers, tablets and mobile devices. A lot of other products also need a touch of UI designing these days, like watches, washing machines, car dashboards, vending machines etc.

UX has a social component, UI has an artistic component

UX is more about people; it has a social component as it deals with market research, analysis, identifying a customer’s pain points and how the product will solve these problems. User personas, journey maps and product user scenarios are accounted through UX research like contextual interviews, focus groups and prototyping, involving people. UI design has an artistic component as it relates to the design and interfaces with the product. It is about the aesthetic value and visuals. It affects what the end-user sees, hears, and feels.

Concluding notes

It is evident that UX and UI are completely two different things and focus on different aspects. But, they both complement each other and go hand-in-hand. It is almost impossible to bail out UI from UX and UX from UI. In a nutshell, UX design helps users accomplish meaningful tasks across platforms and services, while UI design makes compelling and aesthetically pleasing interfaces that connect with humans.

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Blog Design Technology UX

Golden Rules of Modern Day Navigation

navigation

Users access websites to get access to various kinds of information. Whether they want to learn more about an organization, purchase an item, donate to a cause, or access a resource, they are dependent on the site navigation to find out what they’re looking for. However, navigation on websites is seldom as smooth that it should be in an ideal condition. It somehow manages to lead the user to the information that they’re looking for, and that too after some struggle. That’s why it becomes important for designers to follow some best practices which allow them to create more effective, clearer navigation experiences. Navigation is more important than search on a website. If the words that the users are looking for matches the words in the links, it is more likely that they will click on that link. So what are the rules for designing great navigation? Let’s check it out.

Plan Out for Consistency

Navigational inconsistencies are sometimes a result of content that doesn’t fit properly into various sections of the site, and that’s why it’s listed on its own. Other times, people may need to quickly access something that sits way deep within the website, so the designers add quick links to the navigation. However, there are other solutions that avoid making inconsistent additions to navigation. Subpages and landing pages are one example. But, consistency should be maintained here; either all navigational elements should display their subpage links or none of them.

All primary navigation items should link to landing pages, or at least all should be section headers for secondary navigation links. If only some primary navigation items are links, people will try to click on non-links, they will be confused and get frustrated. The visual design should also clearly indicate whether the primary navigation items are links or are only headers.

Effectively Use Breadcrumbs

Another important aid for navigation is Breadcrumbs that help orient people within a website. This kind of orientation is especially important if people are directed to deeper pages on the site from external sources. But breadcrumbs must accurate to be effective; they can’t miss levels, or misrepresent the hierarchy of pages. For small websites with only two levels, breadcrumbs aren’t necessary, but when they are required, they need to be consistent.

Interactions Must be Clearly Identifiable

When a site visitor is confused about which items are interactive, or what interactions to expect, it creates a problem. Therefore, thoughtfully designing interactions to be clear and understandable is the best way to go about it. Visual changes clarify what interactions to expect on a site. For example, swapping an expand icon for a collapse icon indicates that something has changed, and how to reverse the change. When the icon doesn’t update, people may miss the result.

Differentiate Icon Links

Sometimes icons can replace text links. Including a label with an icon will reduce ambiguity. According to a study, users are roughly 37% faster at finding items within a list on a web page when visual indicators vary both in color and icon compared to text alone. Differentiate icons that are links from icons that are purely informational or categorical. Varying the color of the icons, in addition to the icon design itself will help people to more easily and quickly process that the icons serve different purposes.

Opt for Flat Navigation

In order to create a great navigation, the Information Architecture (IA) and hierarchy of the website must support it. As the sitemap is developed, go for flat navigation, where the user can access the deepest nested page in the site within a few clicks. Menus need to be short enough to scan, but long enough to be clear. Ideally, the fewer levels people need to click through, the quicker and least confusing it should be for them to access what they want. Most often, there are three or four levels of hierarchy for most websites. This keeps things accessible while making sure the site navigation isn’t too broad.

Design for Responsive Compatibility

Great navigation translates easily to mobile and tablet. Design a navigation that works across all devices, or consider two similar navigations that don’t require people to adjust to a different mental model when moving from desktop to mobile. Primary navigation often displays the secondary links on hover; however, it doesn’t always work for mobile. Utilizing a hover interaction that can’t be used on mobile introduces inconsistency between the two devices.

People will not know instinctively how to access something on mobile that they used a menu hover to access on a desktop. If you need to provide two interactions in association with one link, consider having two distinct places to click associated with that link. While it may seem like extra effort to design and develop separate designs for the devices.

Ease of navigation adds to the user experience of visitors. Discuss more with our design experts and get answers to your design needs.

Categories
Brand & Identity Design Web Design

5 Web Design Tips To Boost Your Business

Boost Your Business

It’s a difficult task to start and business; more difficult is to grow it and ensure that it keeps growing. There are thousands of aspects that you need to consider if you really want to boost your business. Marketing strategies, product creation, growth plans, promotion campaigns and the list goes on and on. With so many ongoing tasks, it can be far too easy to let a little thing like digital presence fall by the wayside. However, that can really prove to be fatal. According to a study conducted on the subject ‘what exactly makes people want to complete a purchase from a particular website’, the results came out to be resounding “trustworthiness.” By making consumers feel safe, comfortable and at ease when they visit your online destination, you stand a much higher chance of not just encouraging them to complete a purchase, but convincing them to become longtime users.

A strong website design is paramount in creating this trustworthiness. By presenting an online destination that is straightforward and easy to navigate, users will have a more positive experience throughout your website, making them more likely to complete a purchase. Other things like company transparency, great testimonials, and a solid product are obviously important to potential customers, but website design clearly sits on top of these aspects to ensure that customers feel that the website is trustworthy. In order to stand out from the crowd, there are a few tried-and-true design elements that will transform your website visitors into loyal customers. Let’s check out some web design and UX trends that will help you to grow your business.

1. Video landing page

Including a video into your website design is a no-brainer. 78 percent of internet users watch videos online every week. That said, don’t just embed any random video taken from YouTube. Instead, take your website design to the next level by creating a video landing page. This video can act to be a strong tool for your website. You could target this video to a direct call to action on a particular web page. Else you could create an immersive video that auto-plays on your homepage.

Source: Hunted

Either of these approaches can provide information or elevate the brand’s identity. Moreover, both will improve UX and users’ impression of your company as a whole. A survey in which 159 professionals and entrepreneurs participated revealed that 69 percent of website traffic will be video, while 70 percent of professional participants reported that video converts better than other forms of information and content.

2. Parallax scrolling

There’s no doubt about the fact that digital experiences have improved many aspects of our daily lives. It has simplified our lives to a great extent, however, it has made people very lazy. So lazy, in fact, that clicking a button is often too far out of the realm of possibility. That’s where parallax scrolling comes in. This uneven-like scrolling effect has combated consumers’ general laziness while remaining engaging and visually appealing. With a simple swipe, users can easily consume your information while making their way down the page.

source: simply modern

The popularity of parallax scrolling has increased the use of deep-scrolling and single-page website designs. Parallax scrolling helps users to easily access the important information, while letting them see what’s below, as well. You can prioritize your content and place the content that is more likely to be appreciated by users at the top, followed by the less related content. Parallax scrolling can include effects like an illustrated timeline that goes both horizontally and vertically, ensuring it captivates users.

3. Animated Calls to Action

It’s normal for a user to get lost while navigating on a website. A lot of times it is not clear to them as to what action is required. Therefore, a website needs a clear and precise call to action tabs that constantly remind them of what needs to be done. However, simply telling your consumers what to do is just not enough anymore. When they access the web, they get instructions from all around, therefore you need to something extra to stand out of the crowd.

Adding a little animation to your important action items is a good way to differentiate. Whether it’s a micro-mini interaction or a simple effect to catch users’ eyes, consumers are more likely to execute the action you’re pushing when the call to action grabs their attention and provides confirmation of completion.

4. Custom Typography

Context and text are the pillars of any good website. It’s no longer the times of boring Times New Roman, Arial or any other basic stock font. Instead, take your message to the next level with unique typography that encompasses your brand identity while simultaneously communicating to users. Unique typography and distinct typefaces can take many shapes and can be found in different areas of your design.

Some brands may choose to utilize this in their logo design, while other businesses will use custom font throughout the entire design to draw attention to important content, The choice is yours; utilize this trend whichever way you want.

5. Artificial intelligence

No matter how much technology has evolved and advanced over the years, there are still some human elements which cannot be ignored. Yes, it’s true that the wave of ecommerce sales over brick and mortar storefronts, people still crave connections. This is likely one of the reasons that artificial intelligence in all its forms is so popular.

AI in website design can take many shapes, but some popular examples include machine learning, personalization and chatbots. Machine learning and personalization are cut from the same cloth to a degree and ingratiate a feeling of “being special” with users that, in turn, fosters brand loyalty.

Designing a website that differentiates itself from the crowd and boosts your business require attention. Attention to details and an experienced brain. Why don’t you discuss your website design needs with our experienced designers?

Categories
Blog Design Web Design

Efficiently Using White Backgrounds in Website Design

Web Design

There were days when dark-colored themes and flashy colors were all over the internet. However, over the last few years, designers have identified the importance of blank spaces, white spaces and have been increasingly using the white color. White backgrounds have gained huge popularity these days. Gone are the dark backgrounds and patterns that have been a big part of the design process for a while. Using a white background may seem like the easiest and the safest path to a clean website design, but that’s not the case. White backgrounds need to work with both your text and image choices. They need to sync in with the overall Website Design and should not look like an afterthought. So what should designers do to best use white backgrounds? Let’s check it out.

Why Use a White Background?

Using a white background is fairly an easy way to go about designing as it is the default setting when working in HTML and CSS, however, colors did gain popularity over a period of time. White as a background color for blogs and e-commerce sites is a staple, but nowadays more and more designers are using white backgrounds for different projects which are more on the creative side. A couple of years ago, the trend was to use a black or dark-colored background, but that trend has surely flipped, and there’s not one particular reason for that.

White backgrounds have a strong correlation with Responsive designs and Flat & Minimal styling. White background regained popularity because it is easy and always looks natural. In some responsive layouts, sites lock to certain pixel-width grid stops and everything outside of those shows a background edge. With a completely white background, this edge becomes invisible without any extra design thought. Simple is still a major trend and a white background is the epitome of simple. White also makes it easy to pair and use many of the bright, bold colors that are symbolic of flat design styles.

Website Design

More About ‘White’

White is a simple color, or we can say it is the absence of color. While it has some meanings of its own, it can take on the context of its surroundings. White is the color of purity, faith, light, cleanliness, possibility, softness and generally denotes positivity. As a background color though, white is more of in a supporting role. White maintains some of its own color associations, but the hue also absorbs what is around it, allowing the full meaning of the design around it to come through. For example, when a white background is paired with pink and script typefaces, it takes on feminine attributes. White as a background color emphasizes clarity and removes visual obstacles and clutter. The hue is used to add visual emphasis to other important parts of the design like color, text or images. It is frequently a part of the overall visual aesthetic that is simply designed and minimalistic.

Other Shades of White

Other colors or words that represent hues that are white or almost white include snow, milk, ivory, pearl, paper, corn silk, seashell, linen, cream and alabaster. These include a pinch of another color, typically black, to soften white with an undertone for reading on screens. Some users and designers argue that pure white is harsh on the eye. However, in print projects, pure white is often standard.

Website Design

Tips to Use White Background

Keep it simple: The essence of white is simplicity. To create a powerful, beautiful impact, choose a simple or minimally-styled design scheme.

Create contrast: Choose dark or bright colors against the white background to create a meaningful visual impact which will entice the users. Black is the most common and preferred choice for type on a white background; even dark gray creates an almost equal impact. Black and dark gray over a white background enhances the readability and is easy on viewers’ eyes. The same goes for images as well. Select images that aren’t overly white in focus or consider using a black border around images to set them apart from the whitish background.

Use simple images: Photos, graphics and illustrations should blend smoothly within the overall design. Refrain from using complex, loud, confusing images. Use simple images which are easy to comprehend and do not stress out viewers.

Wisely choose the types: Beautiful type is of the utmost importance in a design outline where everything is simple. A visually appealing font will accentuate the simplicity of the overall design. It will help in creating a visually stunning white-based website.

Plenty of space: Remember, white backgrounds are part of an overall look and trend. Wisely use them and give plenty of room to everything that is displayed on the screen. Add extra space around objects if required, leave wider margins between text and menu items and focus on the space as much as the objects within it.

Focus on an accent color: Pick an accent color and use it against white backgrounds with black type to create a visually appealing website. The splash of colors brings focus to certain parts of the design in a more subtle way. Moreover, this works with any hue.

Conclusion

White backgrounds aren’t new, they have been around for years now. Only the way of using them has changed and opened new doors to visually enhance web designs working on white backgrounds. This can bring a modern, sleek and clean feel to almost any type of web design project. So go for it! We’d love to see what you are working on. Share your thoughts with us and discuss your design needs with our experts.

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Blog Design Web Design

Use Video And Movement To Exemplify User Experience

User Experience Video

The ever-changing world of UX web design has witnessed a plethora of changing trends over the last decade. With a new year, we expect a lot more changes, and new design trends will come to the surface. If you look back to your user experience with websites over the last year, you would probably be able to think of a few websites which really stood out and few which were absolutely shady, in terms of user experience. A bad user experience leads to a negative brand image. Therefore, it’s very important to move along with the changing trends, in order to keep up the user experience level, or even enhance it.

You might have noticed that a lot of designers these days are taking help of video, visuals and movement in order to enhance the UX of a website. It not only enhances the user experience, but it also makes the website more appealing. Here are some of the ways in which you can use video and movement opportunities to grab the users’ attention and keep visitors on the page for longer periods of time.

Non-Traditional Scrolling

More and more websites are now experimenting with different scrolling techniques to create a unique user experience. Instead of using the conventional vertical scroll designers can try out other non-conventional scrolling patterns like long scrolling, fixed long scrolling, infinite Scrolling, or tasteful parallax scrolling. Creative scrolling patterns let you adjust the pace, delivery, and interactivity of the content. Considering that our attention span on the web is less than 10 seconds, a delightful scrolling experience certainly prolongs user interest. Take a look at the imgur website. It uses infinite scrolling pattern, which loads the content as needed to provide a more paced experience. Infinite scrolling proves useful for single-page sites with more than a few screens worth of content, especially with multimedia galleries.

User Experience Video

Rotating Animations

The best web design strategy that will keep users coming back to your website is the Switching Strategy. The more you keep switching your content, more the people will be intrigued. See the Disruption company website. It leaves users curious for more because every time you refresh the homepage you’ll see a new and innovative brand video they’ve created for the homepage. We’ve seen some brands rotate the titles of articles or call-outs as well. These options could leave users with a unique experience on your website every time they visit.

User Experience Example 1

Interactive Web Designs

The inclusion of user interactivity has become more popular and will only continue to grow. Users are spending more time on pages of responsive websites that utilize features with user interactivity. The hindrance with this UX design trend is that the clients hesitate to pay for the advanced interactivity. Even if their own team wants to include features like these, they still shy away. Our team predicts more automated development processes will appear and will hopefully cut the cost for clients who want unparalleled, interactive features on their sites. A great example of user interactivity can be explored on Cocainenomics from the Wall Street Journal. This type of web design not only showcases a visual design talent, but it increases the website’s time on page and brand awareness.

User Experience Example 2

UX-Driven Diagonal Lines

Over the years, it has been a common trend to use straight, horizontal lines to distribute sections on a website’s page. A lot of UX research was done on the topic by various design experts and their teams which discovered that using diagonal line design is not only visually intriguing, but it facilitates the visual flow of users. it guides them to follow down the page or to points to a call-to-action. Using diagonals in your designs will increase the number of users that scroll through the entire length of the site. TaxiNet has beautifully implemented this trend on their website to enhance the user experience.

User Experience Example 3

Large, Eye-catching Titles

Today, we live in a hustling and bustling society, which is always on a move. Users seem to have less and less time to spend on websites due to their busy lives. Therefore, designers have identified the need of creating a design which instantly grabs attention and conveys the message right at the start of user interaction. They are adapting and including large, bolded titles and shortened messaging to capture their audiences and expedite their time to convert. The increased size of these heading tags is usually matched with much smaller sub-text copy if more information is desired. Austin Eastciders demonstrates this alliance of font sizes throughout their homepage design and uses a video in the background to showcase different occasions to enjoy their tasty ciders.

User Experience Example 4

A lot is changing in the world of design. Rich user experience is no longer a luxury; it’s more of basic and elementary. Speak to our design experts and learn how you can infuse visually appealing design elements which elevate the user experience.

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Blog

Top 5 UX Trends Prediction For 2019

UX Trends Prediction For 2019

The web design world is highly dynamic and fast-paced, especially the UX. With every new year, comes new ux trends and techniques which drive the designing industry. 2018 was all about data-driven UX, accompanied by the rise of the UX researcher role. Privacy by design was also talked about a lot in light of the GDPR. In addition, a new concept popped up – DesignOps. What will be driving the UX industry this year? Whether it will be DesignOps or something else? Here are a few predictions from us for the UX trends in 2019:

1. Businesses Will Be Driven By UX

It’s a known fact now that UX is a major driving force for any kind of business, and this will continue to be a central topic in 2019 as well. In recent years, a lot of studies have been conducted to measure the business value of a good design. It’s crucial to realise the importance of UX and to incorporate it on a strategic level. As we move into 2019 and beyond, designers will start to develop more empathy for businesses and not just for users. In the coming years, a lot of designers will aim to make data-driven decisions, to measure the effectiveness of their designs, and to optimize their processes in a way that makes sense for business. Prototyping, testing and customer research are pivotal tools in starting new business ventures. UX designers will become a valuable resource for entrepreneurs.

2. Storytelling Will Be More Important

From a consumer perspective, good UX is no longer considered a unique selling point. From being ‘good to have’, it has now become a ‘must have’. In today’s world, if a product or service provides a below-par user experience, the user will discard and replace it in no time. Designers will have to focus on creating a truly memorable user experience rather than just decent user experience. As brands seek new and innovative ways to differentiate, we’ll see a growing trend towards storytelling in UX. Scientific research has shown that, as humans, we get fascinated by stories. When we hear a story, the neural activity in the brain increases up to five times, meaning that we are much more likely to remember the story and the message it’s trying to convey.

The same goes for products and services. It’s no longer enough to simply signpost a user throughout your product; more and more brands (and UX designers) will need to tell a memorable story. In 2019, UX designers will use storytelling to translate user value into reality, creating products and experiences that consumers relate to on a deeper level. Learning how to incorporate storytelling into the design process will be one of the biggest areas of opportunity for UXers next year.

3. More and More UX Writers

2018 was about the rise of UX researchers and this year too we will see an increase in the popularity of specialist job titles. One particular role that’s earning plenty of attention is that of the UX writer. Giants like Google, Amazon and YouTube already have identified the need and importance of UX writers, and have got them into their design teams. Try searching UX writer on any of the popular job portals; the number of results will amaze you.

There are several reasons why the demand for UX writers continues to grow. As mentioned above, brands are seeking new ways to stand out; looking for ways to fine-tune the user experience as thoroughly as possible. In doing so, they are realizing that copy is as crucial to the overall design of the product as wireframes, prototypes, and UI elements. Be it a CTA on a button or the message that pops up when a user makes a purchase. The voice or tone of a user interface is just as influential as the colors, typography, and information architecture. So, it makes sense that writers and designers work closely together.

4. Voice-Driven Interfaces Will Be a Hit

Voice continues to be a talking point, with rapid growth on the horizon for 2019. Deloitte Global predicts that the smart speaker industry will be worth US$7 billion in 2019, signalling a 63 per cent growth rate from 2018, and making smart speakers the fastest-growing connected device category worldwide in 2019. At the moment, people are mainly using their Alexa and Google Home devices to play music, check the weather and perform some basic tasks. However, if the market grows continually and has a truly valuable impact on people’s lives, voice-first devices need to become more useful beyond these basic functions. That said, the industry will now need designers who can create useful, user-friendly voice applications; designers who can take the voice experience from average to fabulous.

5. The Latest Term: Device-agnostic

Along with DesignOps, there’s a new buzzword that’s trending, and will be ruling the charts in 2019: device-agnostics. The modern-day answer to responsive design, the device-agnostic design is taking seamless user experience to a whole new level. With the rise of wearables and voice assistants, it’s no longer enough to simply cater to mobile and desktop. The UX mindset is shifting, and in 2019 and beyond, designers will think in terms of the user journey as a whole, not just in terms of the devices being used. Device-agnostic design creates a continuous user journey that can pass through different touchpoints; be it a smartphone, a laptop, or a smart speaker. The device-agnostic design is dynamic and adaptable. It lets you complete your user journey in the most convenient way possible.

Much like storytelling, brands who focus on holistic user journeys rather than devices will set themselves apart in 2019. Therefore, designers will need to adapt their approach in line with the direction the industry is taking. On the whole, 2019 looks set to be another exciting year for UX. You can speak to one of our UX experts to learn more.