Design Spike®, Inc. Blog | Industrial strength creative services

April 30, 2013
by Justin Garcia
0 comments

Successful Companies Use Responsive Websites

No Mobile Site, No Responsive Design

You’re on the move. You’re getting things done, being productive, and then you remember you need to pay a bill by 5:00 and it’s already 4:55! What are you going to do? First, don’t panic. Thanks to that handy smartphone this should be a cake walk right? After all, the most successful companies and brands have a responsive website, don’t they?

Wrong.

The site you are trying to use doesn’t work correctly on your smartphone, no mobile site, no responsive design. By the time you wait for the website to load, stretch and skew to find the right page, log-in, and pay the bill you have spent a good 10 minutes trying to accomplish your task when it would have taken two minutes on your laptop. Congratulations, you’ve just become the latest victim of an unresponsive website.

Enjoy that late fee.

Let’s Switch Roles for a Second

Imagine you’re a company or a business that didn’t feel the need to keep up with the mobile internet boom and your website is not optimized to display on mobile devices. After all, people are using your website, right? You’re getting plenty of customers and leads. What more do you need?

Wrong again.

About 79% of people will quickly leave a website due to poor performance, especially when viewing a non-responsive website on a smartphone . So when 28% of the traffic coming to your site is coming from mobile devices, a responsive web design is essential. If you’re a company using an unresponsive site, say goodbye to your revenue. Your customer left your site within the first three seconds of landing on it on their smart phone.

If you don’t already know. Responsive web design, not to be confused with a mobile site, allows websites to be easily viewed across multiple platforms including desktop, tablet, or smart phone.

To All the Nay Sayers

Wait. You still don’t think that the mobile world will affect your bottom line? Okay, all you nay sayers, before you go back to that hammer and chisel sitting on your desk, consider these facts:

In 2011 $241 billion was generated via mobile transactions; forecasts say that by 2015 that number will go as high as $1 trillion
86 percent of adults own a mobile phone, and 53 percent of use it to access the web
91 percent of U.S. citizens have their mobile device within reach 24/7

If you’re not seeing the big picture yet, then let me help you out. If everyone has a mobile device and is using it to surf the web, you should have a website that is easy to navigate and use across multiple screens. You have the power to be everywhere your customers are. The chart to your right shows all the ways people are using their smart phones.

To App or Not To App

At this point you may be asking yourself if you should have a mobile app? Aren’t they still being used? Don’t worry they’re still around, are heavily used and growing. Mobile apps work in the right scenarios, The problem with a mobile app is that it doesn’t allow a customer to access the full functionality that is offered by the actual website. This doesn’t just apply to retail websites either. About 60 percent of tablet users prefer reading news articles on the mobile site rather than an app. An app may not be right for you. Again we come back to the importance of responsive design.

Let Them Eat Cake (or buy it on their phones)

Anyone who has worked in sales will tell you that it is necessary to design an ad that appeals largely to the majority of people, or design a multitude of specific ads for specific groups. The same is true for your website. Think of your home page as the ad that appeals to many, and landing pages as ads that appeal to specific groups. While there are people who use the internet but don’t necessarily make purchases via the internet, at some point those brick and mortar enthusiasts will succumb to the convenience of doorstep delivery. And you need to be ready for them. Do you really want to give up those potential sales?

The case for responsive web design is simple. As the number of mobile web users grows each year so does the potential for any company to increase their presence in these peoples lives. The better the functionality of your website, the longer customers stay on the site generating and increasing your profits, all from the comfort of a smart phone.

So, do you have a mobile optimized or responsive website? No? What are you waiting for? Remember, you have folks who want to eat their cake after they buy it on their phone!

April 22, 2013
by Laura Bracken
0 comments

So You Think You’re A Web Designer

Oh, My Sister Can Design My Website

After 17 long years of being in the web design business, I’m still surprised by the friends and family programs. It goes like this:

“I have a friend who can design a website. S/he just graduated from high school.”

“My sister is a programmer at [company name goes here], and she can design anything.”

“My father is a print designer who’s been in the business for 35 years. He knows everything about designing a website.”

And on and on and on and on. Of course, all of the above may be true, but chances are minimal at best. You may end up with a “Frankensite“.

A Brief History Of Time (er, I mean Websites)

Designing a website has changed tremendously . It used to be really simple. Web Design rules were to keep graphics slim (10k or less) so that they would pop quickly on a 14.4 baud modem (Do you even know what that is?). The design was originally 640 pixels wide and, consequently, leaned toward heavy, unformatted text. (The available fonts were pretty much Arial and Times.) When we went to 800 pixels wide, everyone was blown away. We had so much additional room to design a site. Unfortunately, the problem was that most people’s monitor resolutions didn’t allow for that width or, alternatively, people didn’t know how to maximize their viewing area.

Space Jam circa 1996

Talk about a Revolution: The real revolution hit when the standard jumped to 1024 pixels wide and the bandwidth leaped forward to T-1s. Wow! The design space was huge, and designers could do just about anything. And they did. Many web designs were encumbered with heavier graphics and text was often left to “free float” over the width of the site. Consequently, many sites were hard to read and/or the design didn’t fluctuate as planned.

Now, with seemingly unlimited bandwidth and responsively designed websites, many designs are quite large. In fact, it is not uncommon for the total number of graphics to be over a MB in size. This movement allows for some of the most beautiful designs on the web!

It Is Still About Design

A well-designed and well-functioning website goes a lot farther than the old days, but the complication factor has been exponentially increased as well. Confusing the issue are website templates, intimating that they are easy to design and build a multilevel site. If you have the skills, this is certainly true. If you do not, you essentially get what you get: a site that looks like thousands of others with a content management system that is sometimes more serpentine than originally thought.

Now, toss in the friend, sister, father, brother, mother, sister, aunt, uncle, etc., etc., who can make a website. Is that really the direction you need to go? Keep in mind that if a website is difficult to use, is poorly designed, poor navigation, doesn’t function well, customers may not come back. That could equate to a monetary loss. Plus, you only have 8 seconds to attract customers and keep them on your site.

Consider these factors:

Are you a professional business who can live with a poorly designed or templated site?
Are you trying to attract new business?
Has the designer made the site user-friendly and easy to navigate or not so easy to navigate as the case may be?
Does your web designer know what is important to your return on investment?

I love having friends, family and neighbors who can design a website. After all, everyone can do it. But if your website is one of your largest marketing tools, do you really want someone who is not a professional building on your behalf?

Think about it. Hard.

And for all of the people who call me about the standard size for a website, learn more about responsive designs. You have a ton of freedom to design an exciting and functioning site that will translate to multiple devices, such as a table, phone, or other monitor. Otherwise, once again, the standard has shifted.

April 11, 2013
by Ally
14 Comments

Back When Twitter Was a News Source

(sticky note: this is pure commentary on a social media medium from Queen Narcissa. Didn’t want to mislead you in any way.)

I Used Twitter for News

Used. During that time, I created a local Spokane news list of tweeters who were local broadcasters, reporters, journalists and in general, distributors of the news. I also followed Nicole Hensley’s Spokane Media twitter list. That was back when twitter was a source for news, locally, that is. Those days were the best of times and now, our local news tweets have become the worst of times. When once, we could scan for the latest updates, we now have to wind our way through a minefield of tweets about the color of a news anchor’s shoes, the height of their high heels, the type of coffee in their cup, how much they love each other, and the latest hair-do they are sporting. Alas. News is no longer the news. It wouldn’t be so bad if these “news folk” were mixing it up and tweeting some actual news, but this seems to be rare at best.

Before You Yell

Before you yell, it is true, my sample is not random. Perhaps there are other news tweeps and I should search a little harder, however, it does not change the fact that my Spokane News twitter list was a disseminator of news up until a few months ago. For those of us (an there are oh, so many) relying on social media for news and for business, high heels and coffee are not cutting it. Moreover, the fact that the Twitter handles used for these accounts contain the station call numbers or letters, leads one to believe these are news approved tweets. Now that said, the beauty of twitter lists is that as quickly as tweeps can be added, they can be deleted. So, yes, I am the master of my twitter list and I can change this local news fail, but sometimes, it’s like a train wreck and I cannot stop watching. Perhaps, the time has come for a new list: Spokane Real News vs Spokane Not So News. I may find some time to work on that today.

A Few Points to Consider

A fairly old blog post on Poynter, lists 5 twitter tips for television anchors that some may find valuable.

#3 – Add a personal touch. Great idea. Be human. Your audience connects with you. But, there is sharing and there is oversharing.

#5 – Don’t waster your audience’s time. In this case, the author is referring to spamming with link backs to your news site. But I take it one step further and suggest tweeting a little less about shoes and more about news.

News is No Longer News

And of course, this all leads back in to the old argument about how journalists are using twitter as a news source and as a way to disseminate news.

Now, we are unfiltered in what we report.
Now, we share bits of what truly is news wrapped by what we ate for dinner and what we drank at happy hour.
Now, the news has a unfettered avenue for their narcissism (judge all you want on that one).
Now, our news sources have been reduced to trite commentary.

Then again, there are some who eat this drivel up and suddenly all this talk about coffee and hair becomes one of the greatest marketing tools news stations have in their arsenal. Perhaps, I’m simply looking at the wrong source for news and have expectations for twitter that it cannot deliver. After all, as one person pointed out to me this morning:

So, what do you think? Is twitter a worthy news source, or has it been reduced to puff filled tweets. Should I be looking in another direction and have I set my expectations too high?

April 3, 2013
by Will
0 comments

Shopify: provide your client with multiple content regions within a page template

We wanted to enable our client to have an optional, editable sidebar on some plain old content pages. But, the Shopify page editor only provides two content fields:

title
content

We needed something like this:

title
content
sidebar

To achieve this, we used a workaround. The sidebar content will be stored in another page, and automatically retrieved. Here are the steps.

Create a new template called something like page.with-sidebar.liquid

Give it some content like this (see below for explanation):

{% capture sidebar_page_handle %}{{ page.handle | append: '-sidebar' }}{% endcapture %}

<h1>{{ page.title }}</h1><div class="content">
{{ page.content }}
</div>

<div class="sidebar">
{{ pages[sidebar_page_handle].content }}
</div>

Create a new page that has the same title as your main content page, but with Sidebar appended. I.e. “Cool Page” -> “Cool Page Sidebar”.
Check both pages’ handles by hovering over their titles in the page list. Check that the sidebar content’s handle is the same as the main content page’s handle, but with “-sidebar” appended. I.e. “cool-page” -> “cool-page-sidebar”.
Change the original page’s template type to “page.with-sidebar”.

When you visit the content page, it will automatically pull in and display the sidebar content.

Bonus: Shopify liquid template code dissection

Let’s go over the interesting parts of the above code using the features of the liquid template language.

{% capture sidebar_page_handle %} ... {% endcapture %}

Captures the content between the tags, assigning it to “sidebar_page_handle” instead of outputting it.

 {{ page.handle | append: '-sidebar' }}

Passes the page variable’s handle attribute to the append filter. This concatenates the values into “cool-page-sidebar”.

{{ pages[sidebar_page_handle].content }}

Selects the sidebar content from the pages list and outputs it.

February 20, 2013
by Ally
0 comments

Manners Count When Cultivating Twitter Fans

Basic Twitter Manners and Suggestions

So, you’ve decided (or perhaps are considering) joining the ranks of those that tweet. Welcome I say. Beware, I say. Be on your best manners, I say. Have a plan in place, I say. Be ready to cultivate new fans and followers Depending on what your goal or strategy is, my guess would be that you have joined Twitter to:

Increase brand (personal or professional) recognition
Cultivate advocates, supporters and super fans
Capture some leads
Convert said leads
Therefore, increase sales from said leads
Become somebody (?)

Whether those are your reasons or not, some basic Twitter manners and an understanding of how to grow your fans base will pay off handsomely.

Cultivate Twitter Fan Base

In order to achieve any of the above, one should aim to increase valid followers and supporters. I say valid, because, yes, Virginia, there are those who purchase followers. Or, basically let any silly twitter bot follow them so they can claim a high follower count. For you see, it is not your follower count that carries your message across the Twitter waves. Rather the fans/super fans are the ones who carry your message to the rest of the Tworld (yes, sorry, I said it.) Now, you might be happy and satisfied with your current twitter fans and followers and perhaps, think you should continue to cultivate from this same group, but have you considered the fact that the reach of said group is limited no matter how many fans or followers you gain from this select group? Think about it.

Let’s say your goal is capture the bacon fans and advocates and you have cultivated a healthy following from a subgroup of bacon freaks. And you continue to grow this same group of bacon freaks who all end of tweeting and retweeting the same messages over and over and over. Have you noticed that things have become insular? That your reach has diminished (Side note: using analytics to measure this is a smart move however, keep in mind that one tool does not adequately measure your reach. Use many. Design Spike favorites include: SocialBro, Buffer, TweetReach, good old Google Analytics, and Tweet Grader)? Have you maximized your twitter fans and superfans? Or are you beginning to peter out? Take a look at the real stats and numbers behind your Twitter account before you decide.

Bottom line, if you are a good Tweeter, and you have a solid brand with a good reputation, and you put out some quality tweets, the Tweeple (yes, I said it) will follow. So, let’s move on and talk more about your Twitter manners and you can grow your follower count.

Grow Your Twitter Fans Using Twitter Manners

Stop retweeting your own retweet or at least do it less often. It gets old. Boring.
- RT @SchmuckADuck: RT @SuperFan#1: RT @SchmuckADuck: bacon beer is all the rage at www.buymybaconbeer.com. Check it out.
Don’t buy Twitter followers. The quality of your follower body does count. If it’s all cleavage, eggs, etc., fans will notice. And they may bounce. In fact, while you are at it, check your followers – are they real?
Talk about other people. Reciprocate. Support your fans and your online community. If they RT you, find something they have tweeted that fits within your brand and RT it.
Don’t forget to ask for a retweet when you need it. And do not abbreviate. You’ll get a greater reach if you use “please retweet” versus “pls Rt” or “please RT”. Check out Dan Zarrella’s Science of Social Media webinar for details.
Control your hashtag addiction and abbreviate less. If your tweet reads like some super secret military acronym filled message, chances are, the average Twitter fan doesn’t have a clue what you are trying to say.
Keep your tweets short, say around 70 to 100 characters. Makes it way easier to RT.
Creatively, thank your fans and followers for supporting you. Do this frequently, do it privately, do it publicly do it with more than just a “thank you for the RT”. Try adding them to a list you have created, show them as an authority on something, try the occasional group thank (occasional being the key word).
Above all, avoid being cheesy. And, really, be authentic. Fake humility won’t get you anywhere. Nor will spouting out too much about your expertise.

That’s a Good Start on Manners and Twitter Fans

Now, the key is, what will you do with this advice? You can ignore it. You can become stale. You can wither and die on the Twitter vine (not the video sort of vine, mind you) or you can mind your Twitter manners and grow and cultivate fans and super fans.

What are your favorite ways to thank your followers? What methods and manners have you used to cultivate fans and followers? I’d love to hear ‘em.

Play N Stay Doggy Day Care Website Design

February 6, 2013
by Ally
0 comments

New Website: Play N Stay Dog Daycare and Boarding

Play N Stay Dog Daycare and Boarding Launches New Website

Play N Stay, a local Spokane dog daycare, hired Design Spike®, Inc to design and develop their new website. The new Play N Stay website is playful, bright, fun and in keeping with the overall Play N Stay brand. The redesigned website is quick to load, user friendly, easy to navigate and meets every one of the Client’s requirements.

The Client’s Requirements

Every Client is different and our job is to figure out how to build them the best, most functional website for their budget. Play N Stay’s previous doggy daycare site was a little hard to maneuver through despite minimal navigation and the lack of contrast made content difficult to read. Play N Stay wanted a new website that their Spokane clientele could navigate through quickly. Play N Stay also wanted to encourage new clients or potential clients to contact them via phone as much as possible (rather than email or social media). By making the phone number easily noticeable and accessible and positioning it in both the header and the footer, well, it’s kind of hard to miss.

Originally, Play N Stay did not want a content managed website but as development of their website moved forward, they saw the benefit in being able to edit their website on their timeline rather than ours. Additionally, the savings from managing their own site simply made sense. Thus a custom content management system was created to give Play N Stay the ability to select images, update content, and add/delete pages as needed. A “doggy tool” (what else do you call a feature created for a dog daycare website?) allows Play N Stay administrators to chose from over eight different dogs and over four different text boxes to highlight featured announcements and important information. An integrated third party doggy cam allows Play N Stay clientele to spy on their fur kids as they frolic and play.

The Old Site Meets the New Site

It’s a little like East meets West. And right now, we like the West.

The Old Play N Stay Website

The New Play N Stay Website

February 1, 2013
by Ally
2 Comments

Tweet Seats: the battle rages on

To Tweet Seat or Not to Tweet Seat

And so the battle continues. This debate rages over on Twitter using the hashtags #tweetseats and #2tweetornot2tweet. The National Endowment for the Arts sort of started the whole thing by tweeting about Vermont’s Flynn Center encouraging patrons to tweet during a performance. While it looked like the Flynn Center tweet seats folks were having a heck of a good time, other tweeps began weighing in and things started going south albeit in a rather genteel way. The majority of theatre goers are NOT fans of live tweeting during a performance, especially if that performance is theatre. Then again, there were more than a few supporters of live tweeting.

A few years ago, the Spokane Symphony took on “tweet seats” (well, actually it was Facebook, but close enough for now) and did a fabulous job. They opened up a Facebook Page and those attending that night’s symphony were encouraged to post directly to the Facebook page. Great decision and smart move. Those Facebooking folks also cross posted on Twitter. And for those of us sitting at home in our arm chairs, it was almost as if we were at the symphony with the tweeters. That said, as one tweeter put it in a tweet to the National Endowment for the Arts, “it depends on the performance. Performance art or concert, prob okay. Ballet, symph, or theatre, prob not.” And I think she makes a good point. So, do most of the performing arts community in Spokane it seems.

Spokane Weighs in on Tweet Seats

I’ve spoken with Yvonne AK Johnson over at Spokane Civic Theatre who was open to tweet seats during the last dress rehearsal, right before opening night of a performance. Oh, and did I forget to mention, only in designated areas? Ms. Johnson stated that she found the idea of a glowing phone in an all dark theatre to be potentially distracting. There was also mention of issues of filming during the show. You see, during most shows, one cannot shoot video of more than 30 seconds (or something similar to that amount) of an actual production. So, do you allow someone to tweet and trust that they will not film anything?

Best of Broadway has specific rules regarding their tweet seat program (which, yes, some of our staff will be enjoying said tweet seats this Thursday, opening night and tweet seats night for Rock of Ages. What I did there was just called disclosure.) and does not allow any tweeting during a performance, no pictures, etc. However, they are huge proponents and supporters of tweet seats within the ground rules that most of the touring companies impose on them. Both Civic and Best of are looking for the same thing out of their versions of tweet seats, to use social media to create buzz around their product. Heck, good or bad, buzz is buzz, right. And, for the most part it works. At least from where I sit, however, I might have a slight bias being a) a theatre lover and b) a tweet seater. According to Best of Broadway, they are one of the few theatres in the country who are actively perusing a tweet seats program and seeing success.

So, What are The Issues?

Every show has its own regulations meaning some shows might allow one to film or take pictures at the beginning of a production while other’s do not at any time.
Tweeters get on non-tweeters last nerve. Think about sitting next to the glowing blue screen during Rock of Ages Every Rose Has It’s Thorn. You’d not be pleased.
Can you really multi-task? Can you tweet and watch Les Miserables for example?
Do you plan on checking your phone during a show just to see who responded to your latest tweet about the performance?

And On the Other Hand

Live-Tweeting really gives you an immediate take on what someone is feeling during a performance.
Creates more buzz than semi-live tweeting (only because it is so new and different – ish)
Live-tweeting makes the performance seem more personal

At some point, the theatre society will have to review its rules and regulations when it comes to social media and tweet seats. That is just how it is. Things will change. Tweeting during a performance will eventually become the norm. It may take 10 years, it may take 50, but mark our words, eventually digital during a show will simply be a part of how we experience theatre.

January 30, 2013
by Ally
0 comments

Facebook Privacy Settings Cheat Sheet (Part 1)

Facebook Privacy is in the hands of the user

Let’s face it, as soon as we decided to create a Facebook Profile or Page, we all chose to give up some (others might say all) of our so-called privacy. The very word, social, implies things like talking to others, engaging (as if that word wasn’t overused) with others, and interacting with others. Sharing a little bit of ourselves. That said, we would all like at least a semblance of control over what we share and who we share it with. With the advent of Facebook’s Graph Search, the ultimate personalized discovery engine, folks are getting or rather should be getting a little squeamish about the amount of information they are sharing. In fact, if you listened to On The Media’s broadcast last week, you’re probably familiar with @tomscott’s Tumblr “Actual Facebook Graph Searches“. If not, go read it. You will laugh and you will cringe — think “Mothers of Jews Who Like Bacon” or “Family members of people who live in China and like Falun Gong”. Yea, that. Convinced that you need to check and modify your Facebook privacy settings? Let’s do this thing.

Your Cheat Sheet for Some Facebook Privacy Settings

Let’s start with your About Settings

Look at the upper right hand corner of your Facebook toolbar

Click the little lock icon
From here, you can make changes to
- Who can see my stuff
- Who can contact me
- How do I stop someone from bothering me
Click the arrow next to the the question you wish to modify

Who can see my future posts

(sticky note: Mine is set to friends however I am famous for customizing individual posts rather than relying on Facebook to remember who I want to see what. Paranoid.) Click the drop down arrow and modify. Choose Friends, Only Me, Customize, Etc.

In my case, as I said before, I customize. I have created lists of “friends” based on my connection to them. I have “Homies”, “No No’s”, “No Links or Pics”, “Design Spike Peops”, etc.
Click Custom and you have the option to single out individuals who you do not want to share status updates with. Or specific folks you do.
You can do this on individual status updates as well.

Where can I review all of my posts and things I’m tagged in?

Click Activity Log. Activity Log needs to become your friend who you check in with daily. (sticky note: what follows is a brief overview of activity log. The next blog post will go in to more detail)
From here you can review your Facebook posts, posts and images you have been tagged in, pages you like, apps, and more.
If you see posts you did not mean to share publicly, you can make changes on this screen. (sticky note: yes, I blurred out a post I shared with some, not all, of my friends)
Review who you have shared posts, photos, etc. with especially if you have concerns about Facebook’s graph search. On the left hand side, click on photos. You will see photos you have shared and photos of you.
If you do not wish to be “searchable” and associated with these photos, remove the tag by clicking the little world icon to the upper right of the photo, click Report/Remove, select “I want to untag myself”.
To make more modifications, click More under Comments on the left hand side of your screen. From here you can make changes to Likes, Friends, About, Following, Events, etc.

What do other people see on my timeline?

One of my personal favorites to play with.

Click View As
Select to view as the Public or as a Specific Person
Begin typing their name to see what they see
This is particularly interesting once you start customizing posts. Really. Try it.

Wrap it up. Clean it up.

Whew, that was a little more in depth than I originally intended. However, Facebook privacy settings are your own responsibility and reviewing cheat sheets like this are a must. Checking your settings, understanding them, modifying them are no longer options. The next blog post will cover updating your Facebook contact settings. friend requests, more on the Activity Log and how to cover your tracks. So, when is the last time you checked your Facebook privacy settings?

January 23, 2013
by Ally
2 Comments

Easy Ways to Improve Your Website Navigation

Think of Navigation as a Map

We, users of the great interwebs, are human. This means when we visit your website, we are trained to look for a map so we can get to our destination. When you do something weird, funky, cool, the “latest and greatest”, etc. to your website navigation, we may lose our way and you may lose a customer. There are many easy (and logical) ways to improve your website navigation and I plan on covering a few of them here.

Easy Ways to Improve Your Website Navigation

1) Just because it is flashy and cool, don’t do it.

I had the opportunity to work with another web developer on a project. Design Spike®, Inc. was bring social media strategy to the project and they got to handle the website itself. While showing them valuable content on the website that could be used as part of their social media campaign, I was unable to find one very important piece of the pie. Here I was on a photographer’s website, and I could not find their portfolio. They hid it in non standard navigation — off to the left hand side of the screen attached to a rotating gallery. Exactly where no one would be looking for it. So keep your navigation standard and your visitors will spend more time on your site.

2) It’s a good idea to make your logo clickable to get to the homepage.

Again, standard. This is how we humans behave on the web. We mouse over your logo anticipating it will get us back home — like clicking our little red heels three times. Site visitors like to be able to quickly return home and when they can’t, they might get a little miffed.

3) Avoid images in your website navigation bar.

Use actual text which helps make your site more easily indexed. And again, it is what we humans look for when we arrive on your landing page – words. in fact, words that tell us what to do.

4) Leave behind those catchy terms and labels.

Again, we’re human. You may think Our Gardens or Your Resting Place is a cool navigation label for Cemeteries, but while those words might mean something to you, your site visitor is looking for familiar terms. And in this case, Cemeteries, Plots, etc. are familiar terms for a funeral home website. Stick with things like Services, Products, Projects, About Us, Contact, etc. Don’t try to be too cool.

5) Even though you have a lot of content you want to share, keep the number of navigation items down.

Less is more. The less words my brain has to translate in to something meaningful, the less chance I will scan right over some important content. Keep the clutter down. Do not be a website navigation hoarder, make your website visitors time with you pleasant.

6) Think of your website visitor as Hansel and Gretel. Leave some breadcrumbs.

Breadcrumb website navigation lets us human website visitors know how we got to a certain page, how to return and where we are. No more getting lost in the website vortex!

Remember, your navigation is your visitor’s map. Without it, your visitor will get lost. Be helpful and mark all of the signs to help them find their way. I bet if you clean that navigation up and standardize it a bit, you’d increase conversions or sales.

Have you run in to examples of terrible navigation? Did you get lost and bail? I usually do.

January 17, 2013
by Ally
12 Comments

Facebook Page News Feed Vanishes: the Solution

The Rallying Cries Heard ‘Round the Interwebs

Many of you may have noticed that when you log in to Facebook as a Page your news feed is not updating correctly. In some cases the most recent posts are from three days ago and in other cases, the news feed completely vanishes. And the cries for help go on:

My Facebook news feed is gone. What’s going on?
My Facebook news feed vanishes!
I can’t see my news feed. What happened?
Facebook business page news feed disappeared.
Is your Facebook news feed broken too?
When logged in as my Facebook Fanpage, the news feed is not updating
And our very own, vanishing Facebook news feed.

And one solution for the vanishing Facebook news feed

We have had pleas and requests for solutions. Many a fine folk have admitted to emailing Facebook to no avail (shocking, right?). We offered what solutions we could find, but none were permanent fixes. That is until one of our Design Spike®, Inc. blog readers commented on a post and yes, they sorta did find a solution to the disappearing Facebook Pages feed. Turns out, in order to see only Page posts (whether you are logged in as your Page or Profile), you simply need to set the parameter for Page posts. And you do this by:

login in to Facebook as your Page
paste: https://www.facebook.com/?sk=pp in the addy bar
your feed displays all recent Facebook Page updates from other Pages that you have liked

VS.

Note: you can also log in and use the same url as your Profile. You will only see the most recent posts from the Pages that you have liked not posts from friends.

So, go on. Log on to your Facebook Page.

Go on. Log in. Let’s see what happens. It’s a bit of a work around. And it takes a little more time. But this is Facebook, folks. They do not necessarily aim to please. Do you have any other suggestions for the vanishing Facebook Page news feed? We could use em.