Every website we build has its own unique challenges. But the tools we use can help us tackle them head on.
WordPress, and its never-ending ecosystem of plugins have helped web designers tame even the most difficult client requests. Pretty much everything we need is just click-and-go. And if it doesn’t exist, we can build it ourselves.
But for each of these solutions we implement, there is a hidden consequence. One that only rears its head when we dig a little deeper for user-specific data. Only then do we realize the tangled mess that sits beneath that pretty outer shell.
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A Simple Start
In a default WordPress installation, user data (at least, the kind you might want to export) is actually pretty neat and tidy. Data is stored in the wp_usermeta database table. Inside, you’ll find the basics like the user’s name, along with their role/capabilities and their account preferences.
Combine this with what is in the wp_users table (username, email address, password), and you can grab a lot of useful information for every user on your website. Plus, you can easily import a CSV list of new users if need be.
Of course, most websites don’t stop at a default configuration. On the contrary, we often add any number of plugins so that users can do more with our site.
We want them to do things like have custom profile information, keep track of orders and belong to specific groups. Plus, features like forums, support portals and learning management systems are also widely used these days.
And that’s just scratching the surface. There’s a whole lot more that can be added to a typical WordPress site. That’s a good thing, until you have to try and wrangle the data.
Data, Data, Everywhere
The issue at hand is not so much the fault of WordPress itself. It’s that where a particular piece of data is stored is, in many cases, left up to plugin developers. That can result in the user data you want to gather being stored all over the place. It’s the nature of the beast.
Let’s use a recent website I worked on as an example. It uses a membership plugin, which allows people to join the client’s organization.
Collected Data
When they sign up, we ask them for more than just the standard WordPress user metadata. New members are asked for information such as:
- Mailing address;
- Phone number;
- Their preference for how they receive newsletters (email or postal mail);
Generated Data
Beyond the information we ask users to supply, there is also a plethora of data generated by the membership plugin itself, including:
- Membership status (active or inactive);
- Membership level;
- Membership expiration date;
There’s nothing over-the-top about the configuration. It’s probably not much different than the tens of thousands of other sites running the same membership suite.
While the site itself isn’t too complicated, that doesn’t mean its user data is easy to find. Let’s look at how a seemingly-simple task can become a time-consuming challenge.
The Challenge
The client had a very basic need. They wanted an export of all active members who prefer a hard copy of the organization’s newsletter sent to them. Based on what we have, this should take just a few minutes to cobble together. I was way off.
This was much more difficult than I envisioned. The data we needed was right there in the database. But trying to piece it together proved to be a near-monumental task for someone who isn’t a database-querying wizard.
However, that’s why we have plugins, right? And there are a ton of different options – both free and premium. But, no matter what I tried, I couldn’t seem to get exactly what the export required. Here’s why:
- The custom data we ask members to provide us is easy enough to get. It’s in the
wp_usermeta table, which user export plugins are generally able to find. So, generating a list of users who wanted that hard copy of the newsletter was fairly straightforward.
- The other member-related data, however, is stored in another table that is exclusive to the membership plugin. Even a rather robust commercial plugin I used couldn’t help me here.
The result was that I could find out who asked for the postal edition of the newsletter, but I couldn’t tell if their membership was active – not very helpful.
Sure, that info was stored in an adjacent table in the same database – but it may as well have been on Jupiter for my purposes. It felt like searching the house for your keys, only to find that your neighbor is holding them for ransom.
Eventually, I did find an export plugin – one that included an add-on for the membership plugin – that was able to help me put together the data I needed. If that hadn’t existed, I’d still be stuck with only a half-solution.
Can the Experience Be Improved?
This all left me to wonder how these situations can be improved or avoided in the first place. It’s a tough call.
First, I admit that these types of challenges aren’t my strong point. Someone with plenty of expertise in PHP and MySQL could probably come up with a custom solution. Me? I’m left to experiment with plugins and groan when they don’t work as I’d hoped.
But one question worth asking is, should such expertise be required to export a complete set of user data? It seems like there should be a more user-friendly way to make this work.
The fact that WordPress allows plugins to create their own database tables is both understandable and even beneficial. It ensures that we can install and uninstall plugins without fear of breaking something.
Yet, while this all works seamlessly to the naked eye, it’s anything but to those of us trying to access the underlying data.
Perhaps there needs to be an API that allows us to grab everything related to a specific user, regardless of where it is stored in the database. But I’ll leave that discussion to those who know the pros and cons of such a feature.
Until then, I’ll just keep on piecing together things as clients need them – hoping for a much cleaner process in the future.
The post Why Wrangling User Data in WordPress Can Be a Nightmare appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.
Perhaps no choice is as vital to marketing as color. Whether you are selecting the color for a product or for your email marketing campaign, color has a tremendous impact on all of us. Subconsciously, we associate different colors with different things.
This infographic examines the psychology of color and looks at some common associations of different colors. It shows the overall importance of color to consumers and characteristics of many individual colors, and it also helps show the connection between graphic design and psychology. The numbers are pretty fascinating!
While color can be appealing to us visually, a lot more is going on behind the scenes than just an aesthetic. Powerful psychological cues are triggered when we view different colors. Colors evoke emotions, moods, and feelings. Whether you are a designer or a consumer, knowing the power of color psychology can help you make better decisions.
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The psychology of color directly plays into consumer behavior. Nearly 85% of consumers name color as the primary reason that they purchase a particular product. 93% look at visual appearance when they buy a product and color improves comprehension, learning, and readability.
When you are looking at the best visual choice for your next project, this color infographic should be a handy guide. Whether you are painting a room at home or designing a web site, color matters. Be sure to do some careful research!
Video: The Psychology of Color Explained
Dan Shaffer explains the psychology behind color and how companies can use it effectively.
Marketing with Color Psychology
Knowing the psychological connections to certain colors can increase the effectiveness of your company’s branding methods. By analyzing how colors psychologically impact others, you can make branding and advertisement decisions that will allow you to reach your targeted audiences on a whole new level. You can even interpret it as graphic design psychology and let it help your decisions on how to color everything on your website. Colors psychology can be used in nearly any visual discipline.
What colors should you use in your marketing?
Using orange lettering in your calls to action is a good strategy because orange psychologically represents a friendly and confident brand, and will tell potential customers that they should purchase your company’s products and services. Orange is also very attention-grabbing when used in bright hues.
On the other hand, utilizing green in your advertisements signals a link to nature, wealth and tranquility. Green is a good choice for your ads if you want to relax your customers, or if you want to indicate that your company can bring them wealth. Another way to get a sense of whether a color might be a good choice for your brand is by taking a look at the kinds of brands already associated with it. Whole Foods, Animal Planet and Starbucks all use green to indicate a link to nature, which is something consumers want from organic grocery stores, animal shows, and quality coffee products.
Colors develop specific connections for consumers over time, which may be why many social networking sites create their branded images using the color blue. This is because blue relaxes people, but also creates a sense of security and trust in a brand. Sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Skype all use blue in their branded images to show their trustworthiness to site visitors, while also creating a relaxing atmosphere in which their social media users can post and tweet until their hearts are content.
By understanding the subconscious psychological effects of colors you use in your branding and advertising campaigns, you can better target your niche audiences and effectively market your company’s image in a visually stimulating way. This is especially important when you are redesigning a website or brand image. The psychology of colors is a very powerful tool in web design, graphic design, and other areas of your business.
And, when utilized properly, you can use the psychological impact of color to your advantage in branding, design, marketing, and promotion materials to get the best possible results from every strategy.
The post Psychology of Color [Infographic] appeared first on WebFX Blog.
The natural world has always served as a great source of inspiration. And we can see some of its most amazing wonders by looking up towards the heavens.
A crystal-blue sky on a sunny day, the stars twinkling at night. Then too, the thoughts of space exploration and our galaxy also ignite our imagination. What’s above us brings both an everyday reality and curiosity of the unknown.
It’s no surprise that some very creative developers have used the sky and space as a subject of experimentation. The potential use of light, color, movement and the latest web technologies are all a natural fit.
Today, we’ll introduce you to some amazing examples that, in one way or another, utilize the sky and space. They run the gamut from scientifically accurate to pure fantasy. Enjoy!
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Scroll Down the Sky
The parallax scrolling effect is just about everywhere these days. It’s one of those trends that has taken on a life of its own. However, this is one of the most unique and compelling examples we’ve seen. Scrolling down the page results in a 3D shifting of clouds, while a changing background color makes it seem like you’re falling towards the Earth.
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Canvallax Demo: Parallax Sky Background by Shaw
Map to the Stars
What makes this star map so interesting is the CSS and JavaScript-powered interactivity. Click on a system and it comes into focus, complete with silky-smooth transitions. The map also shows a simulated orbit path and some fun emoji as icing on the cake.
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CSS Star Maps by Scott Weaver (@sweaver2112)
Northern Lights
One of the true wonders of the universe, the northern lights (aurora borealis) is something not many of us get to see in person. But we can at least try to recreate the experience. Here, a pure CSS version of a glowing green and purple night sky can light up your screen.
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Pure CSS Northern Lights? 😎 by Jhey
The Sun Sets on the Web
A stunning sunset is, on the contrary, something just about everyone can experience. But that doesn’t make it any less stunning. This snippet allows you to put the sunset in motion anytime of day, just by clicking the great yellow sphere. The changing colors make for a attention-grabbing effect.
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Sunset by Aleksandra
The City of Lights at Night
Want to know when the full moon will shine on Paris, France? This delightful animation tells you, and gives you a bedroom window view of the Eiffel Tower. The only mystery here is whether the cozy black cat does anything special when the event arrives.
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Full Moon in Paris? by Paulina Hetman
Pure CSS Saturn
Saturn’s rings are a massive source of fascination among us humans. This CSS-only rendering of the planet offers a slightly different take. It’s dark and the rings aren’t quite as prominent as usual. But it provides a beautiful example of how CSS gradients can help us produce some amazing art.
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Saturn 🪐 by Luciano Felix
Approaching the Sun
The use of WebGL makes this solar animation otherworldly. As the sun drops down from the top of the screen, notice the blurry effects around its edge. The level of detail here is just incredible. Thankfully, no heat makes it through the screen.
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Solar by Scott Weaver
Colors for Every Sky
Rounding out our collection is a snippet that is a bit more utilitarian. It’s a set of beautiful CSS gradients you can use to reproduce several different sky color combinations. You’ll find everything from the dead of night, sunrise, sunset and the perfect blues of midday.
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Sky gradients by zessx
Exploring the Heavens Through Code
As the code snippets above demonstrate, the sky and outer space can add elements of fun and beauty to the web. Whether they recreate our world or aim to show us new ones, they offer a unique way to enhance the user experience.
Interested in seeing more examples? Check out our CodePen collection!
The post Celestial Code Snippets That Celebrate the Sky and Outer Space appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.
Your website is your virtual business card and it often provides the first impression of your business to future customers — making it one of the most important aspects of your company.
But if your website still has cobwebs from the 2000s, it’s time to put together a website redesign process.
A website redesign process can help bring your site to life and engage potential customers. Not only that, but it can even help to convert them if you do everything right.
But how do you put together a website redesign strategy and what does a typical website redesign process look like?
On this page, we’ll outline the website redesign process to help you give your website the glow up it deserves.
If you’d like to speak to a professional about a website redesign, feel free to give us a ring at 888-601-5359! Otherwise, keep reading to learn more!
Does your website need a redesign?
Before we jump into the website redesign process, it’s important to determine if your website needs a redesign in the first place. After all, why fix something that’s not broken?
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Your website probably doesn’t need a redesign if:
- You’ve redesigned it within the last two to three years
- It’s effectively driving leads
- It sees a lot of traffic
- You saw an increase in traffic, leads, and conversions after your previous redesign
- You’re happy with how your website performs
- The functionality works seamlessly
If you’re the owner of an already-successful website that fits the above criteria, you probably don’t need to worry about a website redesign.
Now, let’s talk about how to know when it’s time to put a website redesign process in place!
If your website fits these criteria, it’s time to create a website redesign process
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On the other hand, if your website fits the criteria below, it’s time to consider creating a website redesign process.
- You haven’t redesigned your website in the last five years
- Your logo and branding changed
- The functionality is out of date or doesn’t work
- You’re dissatisfied with traffic, leads, and sales
- Your website isn’t mobile responsive
Let’s talk a little more about each.
You might need a website redesign process if: It’s been 5+ years since the last redesign
A lot can change in five years, including what users expect from a website. What passed as a great website five years ago likely won’t stand up to the competition present day.
That said, if it’s been more than five years since you put together a website redesign strategy, it’s time to freshen up your site.
Chances are your brand style and product offerings have shifted slightly, so it’s crucial that you keep your website up to date, too.
You might need a website redesign process if: Your logo and branding changed
Your logo and branding are two things that make your business recognizable. Loyal customers look for these elements and they play a huge role in what makes your company unique.
If you shifted your logo and branding, changed the color scheme of your brand, or even shifted the style completely, it’s time to put together a website redesign strategy.
Your logo and branding should always match your website since you can easily confuse visitors if they don’t match.
You might need a website redesign process if: The functionality is out of date
If your buttons don’t work, your navigation bar isn’t accurate, or your links are outdated, it’s time to put together a website redesign strategy.
Users will stay on your site only if it functions well. For example, if your navigation bar doesn’t take users to relevant pages, or the links don’t work, it’s a great time to put together a website redesign process.
Not only can you update the functionality, but you’ll brush up your navigation bar design and rethink your most important pages.
You might need a website redesign process if: You’re dissatisfied with the performance
Although you can’t blame low site traffic completely on a website’s design, it definitely affects the metric.
Google wants to serve users with the best possible sites that fit their queries. To determine the best sites, not only does Google look at relevant content, but they also want to determine what website will provide the best user experience.
WebFX offers website user experience analysis services to help you determine where your site falls shortUser experience plays a role in your search engine ranking, which is extremely important to achieve improved site traffic.
You might need a website redesign process if: Your site isn’t mobile responsive
Mobile responsiveness means that users can access your website from their phone and have the same experience that they would on a desktop. If your site isn’t mobile responsive, users likely won’t be able to click buttons, and photos will appear skewed or too large.
From 2013 to 2018, mobile traffic increased by 222%, and it shows no signs of stopping. With so many users accessing your website from a smartphone, it’s more important than ever that your website is mobile responsive.
If you don’t have a mobile responsive site, it’s time to put together a website redesign process.
Not only is it important to users that your site is mobile responsive, but in July 2019, Google stated that they started using mobile-first indexing. This change means that Google uses the mobile version of a website for both indexing and ranking — making it even more important for you to have a mobile responsive website.
Typical website redesign process in five steps
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After reading this far, you probably have a good understanding of whether you need to create a website redesign process for your website.
If you’ve decided that you do, we’ve got you covered with our five website redesign process steps.
1. Take a deep dive into your current website
The first step of any website redesign process is to audit your current site. It’s impossible to know just what your website needs if you don’t know what it currently has.
That said, you’ll want to scrub your site from top to bottom — looking for anything from design inconsistencies to broken links. Here’s what you should look for during step one of your website redesign process.
- Broken buttons
- Design inconsistencies
- Places where you need to update your logo
- Non-responsive images
Beyond that though, there’s one huge step that you must accomplish during your website audit: Checking Google Analytics to see how specific site pages perform.
By looking at the traffic metrics on Google Analytics for your site pages, you can piece together what’s working and what’s not.
For example, if your blog gets hardly any traffic, but your main article pages perform well, you’ll want to ask more questions to figure out why.
Here are some questions you should ask:
- Does your blog have little traffic because of the design?
- What do users click on when they visit your article pages?
- How long do they stay on the page?
- What pages do they look at next?
From there, you can begin to piece together what makes certain pages successful, and what you need to tweak on other pages to make them equally as successful.
Goal of your website deep dive: When everything is said and done, at the end of step one, you should have an idea of pages that need help in the design department, where your branding needs an update, and what you want to update in terms of functionality.
2. Determine the goals you want to accomplish with your website
Often, the design of your website helps you complete your goals. When users visit your site, they often make a first impression based on organization and functionality — making your design extremely important.
You should take care to redesign your website based on the goals you want to accomplish. For example, if the main goal of your website is to sell products, you should design your website to lead users to your ecommerce pages.
If your goal is simply to keep users on your site pages, you should design your site with engagement in mind — featuring videos, images, and interactive elements.
When you determine your goals, it’ll help you create a concrete plan for your website design, since your goals determine site elements, functionality, and more.
Goal of determining your objective: Without a clear goal in mind, it’ll be nearly impossible to create a website that accomplishes it. When you do have a clear goal, it’ll be much easier to craft a website that allows you to reach it.
3. Gain inspiration from your competitors
Let’s make it clear up-front that you should never copy your competitors’ designs. However, there is no harm in drawing inspiration from them. After all, they’re your competition for a reason — because you share the same customer base.
Check out what works for other companies in terms of functionality and content.
Ask yourself these questions:
- Do they feature a lot of images?
- What kinds of topics do they include in their navigation bar?
- How is their navigation arranged?
- Do they have a blog?
- What functionality do you really like about the website?
Answering these questions helps you gain inspiration for your own site and what elements you’d like to include.
Goal of gaining inspiration: Without inspiration, you’re wandering blindly into your website’s design. By looking at your competitions’ sites, you’ll be able to glean some inspiration that will help you create site elements that you may not have thought of before.
4. Create a map of your website hierarchy
Before you start your website redesign, it’ll be helpful to create a hierarchy of your site pages to determine how you’ll classify each of your pages.
You may want to create a different design for sub-pages, and a different design yet for pages within your sub-pages.
For example, if you sell clothing for men, women, and children, you might design a few “general” pages about each category. This design will likely be different from the design you use to show off each individual product.
When you create a website hierarchy or a map of your site pages, you’ll be able to determine how many different designs you need.
Goal of creating a website hierarchy wireframe: The goal is to end up with a list of designs that you need for your website. For example, your list might look like this:
- Homepage design
- Contact page design
- About us page design
- Category page design
- Sub-category page design
- Product page design
5. Hire a website redesign company
When you’re running your own business, it’s difficult to think about anything other than doing just that.
That’s why it’s in your best interest to hire a website redesign company that can take care of the process for you. Not only will it take the stress off your shoulders, but you can be certain that the job will be done right.
When you hire a website redesign company, you can rely on them to take care of all the steps we mentioned above — from looking at competitor sites to creating your website hierarchy.
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WebFX can help you work through your website redesign process
WebFX is a top website redesign agency that can help you create and work through your website redesign process. We’ll get to know your goals, your competition, and your industry to create the best website redesign process possible.
We’ll work with you to help you create a website that drives traffic and results, and we won’t leave any stone unturned when it comes to creating your dream design.
If you want to learn more about the website redesign process steps that we use for our clients, contact us online for a free quote, or give us a call at 888-601-5359!
The post Website Redesign Process: Your Website Redesign Strategy in 5 Steps appeared first on WebFX Blog.
