Give me a day or two, and I am 100% confident I can give you a design or layout for your web project that you will love. The job is easy when I get to start with a blank page that has no limits. It’s even easy when I get to start with a page you already have, and I am just providing a nip/tuck or facelift. But in the past five years of web design, a new question has become part of my design process: “How is this design going to look once I turn it over to the client, and they are controlling the content?”

Many of our clients want to sell products on their websites. Making those products appear in an appealing way in a custom layout is easy when I have ultimate control over the size and shape of each product photo. But what happens when the client is uploading product photos that may or may not follow our guidelines?  This is why now, more than ever, we are designing just as much for what’s not there yet.

This trend has resulted in a page layout that is more open, white and ready to accommodate an array of image styles, shapes, etc. We’ve used these design elements on sites like GiveSimple.com and AllSeasonPlants.com. More white space, a logo on the top of the page and a grid of products to shop – it’s one way to keep an otherwise busy page less hectic. 

If you’ve looked through our portfolio, you know that here at Wright Strategies, we love Flash! What you may not know is how much goes into our decision on where and how much to include in each page.

When we’re contemplating when to use Flash for a little more pizzazz or for added interactivity, we generally ask the following questions:

1)      Will the addition of a Flash element enhance the user experience?

2)      Can we achieve the same value with a more lightweight approach?

3)      Will the final result be appropriate to the audience?

4)      Can we implement the feature without distracting from the brand or main message of the site?

Judicious use of Flash is what we preach here. When the opportunity presents itself to make a site more enticing, energetic, and fun, we create the best and most effective communication tool to meet the unique needs of our clients, while following the guidelines above.

We're excited to announce the launch of a new Wright Strategies game developed for PG tips, London's favorite tea. Users are able to join Monkey, the official PG tips mascot, on his journey from the tea farms in Kenya, across the ocean and home to England, for tea with the Queen. Each level of the game is a different leg of the journey, offering new and exciting challenges. 

See how quickly you can master our newest advergame by clicking here! 

Looking for ways to get on the social networking bandwagon? Here are our top six tips:

• Start a Facebook Group (and MySpace page). Keep it updated with authentic, not antiseptic “insider” information about your company.

• Have someone at your company Twitter. I can’t overstate the prevalence of Twitter at SXSWi. It was mentioned in every session I attended. Have them tell about tradeshows, seeing new styles, plans, etc. (Interested in trying it? Feel free to follow me, teambuilder99.)

• Have someone (or people) at your company contribute to a company blog. Again, authentic and customer-centric, not antiseptic. At Dell, the head of PR and Micheal Dell himself are involved in the Dell blog. (Google loves constantly updated content, and therefore has a particular love of blogs.)

• Have places for your customers to communicate with you on your website. Forums are still viable (and are also loved by Google).

• Make social strategy the responsibility of every employee. Involve everyone in the company in some way, maybe not blogging but monitoring, getting customer feedback, etc. Everyone at Wright Strategies contributes to our blog.

• Start small, grow fast. Increase your risk tolerance. The groundswell is fairly forgiving, and not getting involved just makes you look trite. Remember – your customers are talking about you, and it will hurt you if you’re not part of the conversation.

Do you have an idea not included here? Include a comment, and we’ll address in a future post.