Month: January 2019

Reasons Why Being Creative is Important for Your Business

Posted on by Mario

SEO and creativity

I used to be scared of being creative. I once joined a community called Second Life community. It is basically a virtual game with a virtual life where we can create our own avatar and live inside that virtual world. In that community, I found many people, blessed with creativity. They created so many creative events and when I was talking to them, I felt so left out. I mean, they are really creative and very fast when it comes to opportunities. I was like, “Oh I can never be that creative.” And they felt that I was not one of them. It is understandable though; sometimes you can’t get along well with creative people if you are not in the same pace as them. For that reason, I accepted the fact that I wasn’t creative. Until one day, I started working at a creative agency that provides SEO services for businesses and I am required to write English articles for them. At the moment, all I thought about was, “If I only have to write English articles, then I guess I can do it.” Then, after working there for at least a month, I realised that even writing English articles needs creativity. What’s even bizarre is; all of my co-workers think I’m creative. I felt confused, but then I looked at my portfolio and this was what I came up with: I am good at writing. I used to think that I studied all about English during my university’s life, so it was natural for me to write English articles, since, well, that’s what English department graduates do, right? It turns out, I was wrong. In that agency, my friends always count on me when it comes to creative things, especially words. Yes, I realised that creativity isn’t always a natural talent. We are all born with creativity. The only difference is that the time it takes for us to realise we have the potential and that all we need to do is to find it. And it’s true; I have discovered my true creativity through the string of words, in that office. We need to be creative in order to create innovation, especially in a world filled with businesses. If you are a business owner, being creative is important. Why? Find out in this article!

There will be more competitors

There is nothing more effective than being creative when it comes to getting ahead of your competitors. As businesses are always growing and developing, we are required to always keep up to date with the trends and latest news, because ideas and innovations are born from adjusting creativity to the current situation. Therefore, being creative is a more effective way to create new innovations that can make your business standout among other businesses in your industry.

There will always be new creations

New Year comes, so does new thing. But new thing doesn’t come by itself. The source of the innovation comes from creativity. From single ideas developed by creative insights and turned into a plan for innovation. That innovation leads to a new creation. The problem is; who is going to lead a better new creation in the future?

Things change

As time goes by, things will change. If you are not on the same or better pace as everyone, you will get left behind. The most effective way to overcome changes is by being creative. When you are creative, you can adjust your pace to almost anything in this world. When you are creative, your mind is always working to fit others and make the most of your ideas to make better progress for your business. If things didn’t go your way, you would try to find new solutions based on the current situation and predict what is likely to happen in the future, so that you can think of better ideas to solve it.

Being creative is not always about producing things. Sometimes being creative is needed to solve problems. When you lost your favourite book and at the same time, your friend who happened to have the same book also lost it, the creative way to know which one was your book is by finding the “signs” you left in some pages of your book. When both books were found, you already knew which book was yours. This trick is simple but a creative way to solve a problem. When it comes to business, we are not only focused on creations but we are also focused on preventing problems from happening and solving the existing problems. For that reason, we need creativity to balance our work and creations. Want to get creative with your business but don’t know where to start? Do not hesitate to contact us now and let our creative team help you.

In 2019, Things Change: Why You Should Upgrade Your Business Web Design Quality in 2019

Posted on by Mario

web design tips

Having a website is an essential part for every purposes or activities, especially for business purposes. A website helps consumers find what they are looking for and what they want to know about a business that is selling what they might need. A website can also help businesses be found easily by their target consumers which can increase the business’ brand awareness. However, building a basic website in this year of 2019 will get you nowhere. Why? That’s because building basic websites is not enough to attract customers because of the quality that doesn’t provide clear navigation to make it easier for the users. That’s why quality in a web design is the most important part for achieving your business goals and in this year of 2019, if you are a business owner who owns a website, maybe it’s time for you to upgrade your website design. Keep reading to find out why!

Users need easier navigation on your website

One thing we should learn from 2018 is that our mistake for neglecting navigation design on our business website, so don’t make the same mistake in 2019. Easier navigation on your website will help users find your products or services easily. Don’t forsake the easy use of navigation for the sake of cute design. Sure we need to create good looks and styles for your website, but if the design makes your website navigation difficult for users to use, then what’s the point in that if your customers can’t find and buy your products?

You need to think in users’ perspective

Sometimes we don’t understand people because we are not trying to be in their shoes. When it comes to having a website for business, it is important for you to have a website that provides what users need and want. For that reason, you should put yourself in their shoes and ask yourself: If I wanted to buy something, what would I search on Google? What kind of phrase would I use on Google? What kind of content that would help me find what I wanted to buy? When you outline those kinds of questions and think carefully of a plan to answer those questions, it will help you create a targeted, persona-centric website that attracts the right visitors, directs them to the right content and delights them with a seamless user experience.

Change the look, but not your business identity

Remember the time when Instagram logo used to be a simple camera with light and dark brown colours? After the update about 2 or 3 years ago, Instagram totally changed their look into a combination of gradient pink, yellow and a little bit of purple. They may have changed the look, but not their identity. The logo is still a camera, right? If you feel that the face of your business should be changed, then do it, but never change your identity and your purpose.

Why is it important?

Maybe many of you are already satisfied with your business website design. Maybe you think it is enough. However, as the years go by, things always change, if not for the better, for worse. When the time comes for worse, we have to be well-prepared for that. There will be times when new businesses in the same industry will appear and outstand. If we are not prepared and if we don’t upgrade our website’s quality, chances are, they will be ahead of you in the long run. The most important part to keep in mind is that while things change in the future, you have to be prepared so that your business can keep up and grow better. Learn new things and keep up with the trends, as well as adjust to changes and new things. That way, your business will look like as if it was brand new, not monotone.

Balancing Act: How to Find the Equilibrium between Speed, Design and Content

Posted on by Mario

development tips

Not many people know this, but I can be ridiculously indecisive. Back when I first planned my first solo trip a couple years ago, I could’ve sworn I spent more time browsing through hotels and places I planned to visit than the time I spent on my actual trip. I mean, I know that preparation is key when it comes to like, everything, but I think we can all agree that I’m being excessive when even after I booked the hotel room, I still spend time looking at other hotels to see if there are better alternatives.

It’s not so bad if I’m traveling with other people since I can leave any decision-making to them and just simply use my veto power on things that are questionable but when left to my own devices, I could spend days pondering on even the smallest decision. Decision-making is always tough, especially when you’re presented with two equally valid choices as things normally are when it comes to web development in which choosing between speed, design and/or content is a universal dilemma.

Striking the perfect website balance

Style over substance, form over function; similar debates have been raging for decades if not centuries and honestly, I don’t think we’ve ever come to a definite conclusion. Sure, people would like to say that they prioritize substance over style and function over form lest they be called superficial and perhaps this is my cynicism seeping through but I think people care much more about looks than they are willing to admit.

For example, I’m the kind of guy that literally judges a book by its cover. Whenever I’m itching for a new book to read, I walk into a bookstore and just browse through the shelves for books that look interesting. If it had a cute cover or blurbs that I found to be interesting, I’m probably going to pick it up. It hasn’t actually failed me yet, I’ve fallen in love with some genuinely good writers with this principle, notably David Nicholls and Nick Hornby, and I’m probably going to keep this up until all of the bookstores around me have been closed.

The moral of the story here is that people are hopelessly superficial; the only difference is to what degree. Looks then are undoubtedly important but when it comes to website, where attractive and eye-catching designs can sometimes get in the way of speed, reining in some of your design team’s ambition might be necessary. This is made more complicated by the fact that there’s still one other subject to be considered when we’re dealing with websites; content.

So yeah, it’s not exactly a question of style or substance but perhaps style and substance or speed? Things can be quite complicated, to say the least, and finding the ideal balance between all three could be tough. If you maximize on speed, you won’t have much room to play with design and content. Maximize speed and your website would be slow while lacking in content. Maximize content and your website will both be slow and unattractive. Although, depending on the purpose of your website, it might not be necessary for you to actually optimize for all three.

Properly using images and videos on your website

To start with, there are a lot of tools out there that would enable you to compress an image with little-to-no noticeable loss in quality for your website. Full size, high-res images are great but only include them if it’s a necessary component of your business. If it’s a yes on that question, use a separate image gallery so that those images wouldn’t have to be loaded together with the actual page.

For videos, you might want to consider embedding them from video sharing sites such as YouTube. Generally, you’d want to minimize third-party scripts as much as possible but because of the complexity in videos, you can offload the work to them while you focus on optimizing your website first. Additionally, make sure that embedded videos are loaded only when they’re requested by the user. A preview image for the video will be loaded first and only users who’ve clicked on the video will be able to see the actual video.

Other technical considerations

The practice of lazy loading, in which contents are loaded only when they’re scrolled into view, should be considered if you’re considering single-page websites. I’ve mentioned that web developers should minimize the use of third-party scripts and I would like to add plugins to that idea, especially when we’re talking about WordPress. For example, including your Twitter and Instagram feed on your website used to be novel but I now think that simply including links to your social media account would be enough.

One other change you might want to consider is dropping support for older browsers. Backward compatibility tends to require certain scripts and/or files, which would just add unnecessary bloat for other users. If you’re unsure, try checking what browser your visitors are using in Google Analytics. Adding in to that, it’s a good idea to just simply minimize the use of CSS and JavaScript in general and use them only when necessary.

When to optimize and when not to optimize

The question you might want to ask yourself is the purpose of your website. For example, a law or an accounting firm would probably see little need in the high-quality images and rich contents so a focus on speed would be preferable. On the other hand, any business working in visual design would need to up their game in the design front while blogs would want their content to be as rich and attractive as possible.

The first option would be easy but it’s the latter two that would be tricky since they still have to ensure that their websites would still load properly on those without a high-speed fiber-optic connection. As a compromise, try to create a landing page for SEO purposes that isn’t as heavy as the actual main page that would offer visitors a taste of your website but without the extra baggage. By taking this compromise, you could focus your speed optimization only on the landing page without sacrificing your rich content pages, which is the closest thing you could have to a win-win situation.