The most recent facelift has taken place on Gmail and other sign in pages of Google products.

If you don’t remember, this is how Gmail looked earlier.

The trend today for web layouts is clean and uncluttered. It makes a lot of sense when you consider the information overflow that we are seeing today across many platforms and media.

Research shows that most people scan web pages before settling on an element for further exploration. Therefore, a lot of emphasis is put on optimizing important web elements that a webmaster wants to promote. However, this is a hit or miss thing. Your audiences may like or hate your user interface (UI) elements depending on their preferences, gender, etc. This is not an easy thing to overcome and on top of that, getting UI elements right is a huge affair. Have you ever heard of the $300 million button? If not, that article should be the first thing for you to read after reading this.

One of the biggest challenges in web usability is keeping people on a web page. The balance has to be perfect on content, usability and interactive elements. At the best of times, this is a tough task. Since it is very challenging to strike a good balance, what most designers tend to do is crowd too many elements on a web page. This leads to a web page that looks very busy. A busy web page is not one of the best places for conversions.

The new way of design thinking is driven by wanting to make a website look simple. This involves a lot of things. For example, some web pages have multiple objectives to achieve. In such instances, ‘simple web process’ calls for re-evaluating and prioritizing these objectives. The design process is driven by these re-evaluated objectives.

The Gmail sign in page is a perfect example for the ‘simple web process’. When you compare the two layouts it’s perfectly clear that Google evaluated what’s important for their audiences. In fact, the number of elements on the page has increased; yet it’s hardly noticeable. A good design should be like that. People have to see it only when they want to see it. This design philosophy is something that’s going to drive our web design work in the future.

If there are any websites that you like, share those on the comments section. We’d love to see those websites you like and get your feedback.

Millions of us rely on a printed newspaper as a way to read the happenings in the world. A newspaper is in fact, a very good example of a static media. Once a story has been printed on a newspaper, it cannot be changed as its type has been set. You will simply have to wait until the next edition is printed in order to receive the latest news. Much in the same way, a static website cannot be changed until the webmaster or someone familiar with HTML or flash edits and/or updates the content.

A dynamic website, on the other hand, offers the owner the ability to upload information on their own, usually via a password protected interface. It is not a requirement that the owner knows HTML or website design. He can simply change the site as he pleases.

If you are attempting to rent out a cottage on a beach somewhere, and you just need to show a few photos of the outside and interior of that summer home, provide the rental rates and your contact information, a static site would be perfect. On the other hand, if you were in the real estate business in a very competitive market, you need to keep your information updated on a regular basis with your new listings. In this case a dynamic website is the perfect solution.

You may wish to go with a static website when:

• Your objective is simple. You will provide some text and some images in an eye-pleasing manner
• You do not plan to change the content often, if at all
• You are quite sure that you will not need to change or add any functionality to your site for some time well into the future
• You are not all that concerned with optimizing your site for the search engines
• You have no plans to enhance your online business

If you are serious about getting your site ranked well, you will have to update and refine your content on a regular basis. It is possible to change and update the content on a static website, but it is not convenient and does require that you know HTML.  A static website can be looked at as an online business card as it is a good way of providing additional information about your existing business.

Advantages of a static website:

• Very quick to develop
• Inexpensive to develop
• Inexpensive to host

Disadvantages of a static website:

• Web development skills are required in order to update the site
• Not as useful to the user
• Content can become outdated

You may wish to go with a dynamic website when:

• You plan on selling products online
• You plan to update your website on a regular basis
• Your site will be updated by more people than just yourself
• You may want to add some functionality to your site at some time in the future
• It is very important to you to optimize your website for the search engines
• You want to gain visitors to your site

Advantages of a dynamic website:

• A highly functional website
• Very easy to update
• Fresh content draws visitors back to the site and helps in search engine ranking
• More than one user can develop/work on the site

Disadvantages of a dynamic website

• Takes longer to develop
• More costly to develop
• Costs more to host

Summary

If you are a small business owner or if the services and/or products you offer are few and easy to explain, then a static website would suit you just fine. But, if you have a lot of products and/or services and you want to allow your site visitors to be able to search through your inventory, a dynamic website is best.  A static website is rather limited in its functionality while the dynamic site has a great deal of potential in terms of functionality, but it can be complex to use.

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Some complain that this is a breach of privacy because the Google algorithms seem to be reading email content as it is being written. But this is no different than what Gmail does when it’s serving up ads while you type your email.

“…Ad targeting in Gmail is fully automated, and no humans read your email in order to target advertisements or related information. This type of automated scanning is how many email services, not just Gmail, provide features like spam filtering and spell checking. Ads are selected for relevance and served by Google computers using the same contextual advertising technology that powers Google’s AdSense program.”
Ads in Gmail – Google Help

Gmail also presented some advanced features to its service such as the much ‘celebrated’ (by some of course!) Drunk Email prevention tool called ‘Mail Goggles’. This is a service to prevent emails being sent through Gmail while one is “under the influence”. The service can also be customized to apply at different times and dates. Once activated, Gmail presents a set of mathematics problems to be solved before any emails are sent by the Gmail user. An example of the tool is given below.

With Google’s current domination of the global search market and aggressive expansion in many spheres of the internet, many are skeptical as to whether Google will keep true to its privacy policies.

In general, it would appear that many Google tools and features are geared at improving the overall user experience and maximizing the utility of Google products.  How much privacy you are willing to concede is of course entirely up to you.

Retaining a customer is by far a more difficult job since the audience keeps comparing your site to that of your competitors. If their product or service offering is better than yours, chances are that your customer may get disenchanted and eventually seek a better option. Bleak stories aside, let us see what you can do to improve the customer interaction.

Concentrate on usability

If you are not running the Smirnoff or Johnnie Walker website, the chances of your audience waiting for that huge Flash file to load is very very low. Audiences need quick relief for their needs and you as an online business need to understand that fact.  So simple is the best way to go forward. This is true for website navigation, content placement, shopping carts and gathering information.

It is also important in SEO. Neither the users nor the search engine spiders like to wait or look hither and thither for information. Keep it simple. It’s a lesser burden on your dev team as well.

Offer good, usable information

You have a great design and possibly killer marketing content that can make audiences drool. But what if your audience looks for something more than the marketing yada yada?

A buying decision is a long process. Let us refresh our memories.

1. Problem recognition

2. Information Search

3. Evaluation of Alternative

4. Purchase decision

5. Purchase

6. Post-purchase behavior

This process is something that you have to keep in mind when arranging your content. If you offer a product or a service, make sure that your audience is retained within the site on all these aspect.

Simplify the purchasing process

Most websites require a customer to register him/herself before any purchase is made. This is cumbersome and the chances are that a particular customer may not make repeat purchases unless the overall product offering is above par. So why capture all intricate details of a customer. Make it simple. EBay or Amazon having thirty odd data fields to capture doesn’t mean that you have to do the same.  Capture only the most important data to successfully process the transaction and then encourage the customer to register to get better deals or other incentives.

Writing a straight forward frequently-asked-questions (FAQ) page

FAQ is usually an accepted format of questions followed by answers, with the goal of reducing unnecessary customer interaction. FAQ sections are best done on a single page using HTML to allow readers to navigate quickly top to bottom. They can save your more savvy online customers a lot of hassle, and build business.

For more snippets on improving your online business, visit our blog regularly. Else, you can bookmark us, subscribe to our RSS feed or let us send a email once new blog post is available in our blog.  Keep reading!