Before a user visits your website, they need to know that the experience won’t be a waste of their time. It’s important to earn the trust of your visitors both before and after they visit your website so they’ll keep coming back.

Trust is the assured reliance on the character, strength, ability or truth of someone or something. Trust is what makes us vulnerable. Before a user visits your site, they trust you by believing that your site is going to help them somehow—whether it’s to buy a product, learn something, or for entertainment purposes, they are coming to your website for a reason. They are investing their time. If they don’t find what they’re looking for, or if they aren’t happy with the website, you can guarantee that they won’t be back.

So how do you establish trust with users? First, make sure your website is usable. If a user can’t figure out how to navigate your site, they won’t be able to accomplish their goals. Second, aesthetics do matter. Let’s assume you’re shopping for a backpack. You found two backpacks you like, for the same price, on two different websites. If one website has interesting graphics, a nice easy-to-use layout, and a quick checkout option, while the other has a plain white background with odd formatting, chances are you’ll buy from the first website. Why? Because the first website is more trustworthy.

When it comes to trust, consistency and familiarity are also very important. Everything about the website you build is a promise; from the font, the content, and the layout. Consistency is important because it tells your users what to expect through every step of the process. Unexpected messages or a lack of a confirmation message can throw a user off. If a user is expecting a “thank you for your purchase” message to pop up on their computer after they bought something and it doesn’t show up, it’s going to leave them confused and uncomfortable. Those messages and e-mails confirm their trust in you.

Many of us hesitate when we see websites that ask for a user’s credit card information for a “free” trial of a service or product. We need to know that it’s going to be worth it. Money makes people vulnerable. If you’re selling a product, you need to make sure your user feels comfortable buying it. Are there a lot of pictures of your products? Can a user zoom in? Have you provided measurements, materials, and reviews? Do you accept returns? All these things can build trust.

Effective communication is essential in relationships. Once a user has given you a chance, you need to communicate with them and treat them with respect. The most successful websites use a friendly, conversational tone that’s almost like reading an email. Listening is important too—a user will bash you over social media if you don’t. If they’re extremely unhappy, they’ll write bad reviews wherever they can. Keeping a user’s trust is just as important as earning it.

Get to know your users. Learn from them. Follow through on the promises that your website makes. Take advantage of every single opportunity you have to make it clear to your users that you are worth their investment of time, attention, information, and money. If you can help them accomplish their goals, you’ll both get the return you want.

In order to create great experiences, you need to put yourself in your user’s shoes. You can’t do that if you don’t empathize with them. Knowing your audience is a basic first step. It’s usually one of the first questions we ask when we start designing. Empathy on the other hand, is the heart and soul of user-centered designed. It’s the path to understanding the users you are designing for. Empathy and sympathy are not the same thing. Empathy is the ability to understand what someone else is experiencing or feeling because you have felt it or experienced it at one point yourself. Sympathy on the other hand is simply recognizing feelings of distress and sadness in other people and offering comfort or kind words to them. So how can you empathize with your users? Consider utilizing method design.

Create empathy through method design

Think of method acting. If you’re familiar with the concept, actors like Christian Bale, Marlon Brando, or Daniel Day Lewis might have popped in your head. Method actors use effective sense memory and in-depth character research to effectively play the characters they portray on screen. By putting themselves through the intense process, they develop a deep sense of empathy for the characters that they play. As a result, they yield outstanding performances. Designers can do the same thing—if you design methodically, you can learn to empathize with your users.

Engage in thorough research

Method actors do a ton of research—they read books, watch movies, surround themselves with similar people, and will even put themselves in the a similar position. Sometimes it’s dangerous. Many actors today will starve themselves to know what it feels like to be hungry. Some will spend weeks at a hospital to know what it feels like to be a doctor. Actors do this just so they can understand. As user experience professionals, we should be engaging in similar research (with the exception of unsafe scenarios). The first step is observation. Look at your user’s face, their posture, and their eyes. These simple observations can tell you more about your user than words can.

Employing empathy

In order to effectively empathize, you need to play the role of the person you want to empathize with. As designers, that means we need to play the role of the consumer. Are your users on a mobile device? Where are they when they’re accessing your website? What is your main concern when you’re trying to complete a task on a mobile device? Can you remember a time you couldn’t make a transaction on a mobile device? How did it make you feel? You can even take it a step further—seek a website or an app similar to the one you’re creating. Go to the mall and try to use the interface. Notice what works and what impedes the process in the tasks that you’re attempting to complete.

Dig past the demographics. Learn your user’s backstory. Find opportunities to empathize for the people you design for. If you do, you’ll understand your users more than you thought you could. Without direct observation, research, and understanding, it’s impossible to empathize with your users.

Finding the right website design company to create the perfect website for your business can be a daunting task. Particularly, when there are many factors involved such as, design, layout, and software development. Not to mention being able to easily market your website and access it so you can update it or make changes, when necessary.

When looking for a design company, the best place to start is by reviewing the portfolio of potential website Design Company’s to get an honest perception of the types of websites they create.

Choosing which website design company to hire is one of the most important decisions any business has to make with regard to their online presence. A good website design company will significantly enhance your online business, while a bad choice may bring disastrous results that could potentially ruin the reputation and revenue of your business.

What to Look for in a Website Design Company Portfolio

The first thing to look for when researching a website design company is whether or not they even have an online portfolio. Unfortunately, even in today’s online market, not all companies bother to have a portfolio displaying their previous work. If you get in touch with them, they can have many reasons why they are lacking a portfolio. However, the reason usually is that they are not experienced, or their work is not worth showcasing. In either situation, it is probably best not to hire them.

The best way to evaluate a website design company portfolio is by reviewing how many websites they’ve created. Numerous projects demonstrate that the design company has a lot of experience. It is obvious that a company with double digit completed projects is probably more experienced than a company with only two websites in their portfolio.

When you review the portfolio of a website design company you also get an indication of the types of online companies and businesses they have created websites for in the past. Whether or not they have created a website that is a similar business to yours, you can envision how your company website will look if the company designs it for you.

As you go through the website design company portfolio, pay attention to the quality of their work. You can do this by going directly to the websites that they have created. While you are doing this, look for the following:

• Are the web pages attractive, eye catching and easy to look at?
• Is the website user friendly?
• Does it download quickly, or take a long time?

The software industry is competitive, and there are numerous companies that offer excellent professional services at affordable prices. However, a website is too important to only look for the best deal. It is important to hire a website design company that will deliver the best results.

Therefore, the best place to start when searching for a website design company is their portfolio. It is a mirror that reflects their past performance. As well, it tells you what you can expect from them when they create your website. If you need a professional website, make sure you check out our portfolio at Dburns design (http://www.dburnsdesign.com/).

The process of hiring a website design agency is akin to finding the right accountant, real estate agent, or business partner; all of these are individuals or businesses that have a direct impact on one’s future wealth and happiness. The website of a business or company is the window into which potential customers can look to see if they might want to purchase the product or use the service being offered; how appealing this window is made is vital to making sure these potential customers become repeat visitors. To do this properly, a website designer must have intimate knowledge of the goals of the site, and the business as a whole.

In order to find the right website design agency for one’s business, it if first a good idea to ask around to fellow business owners or individuals who have used an agency. Ascertaining whether or not friends and family have utilized a certain designer and had a good experience may not necessarily result in usage of their direct contact, but could lead to gaining other contacts. In order to truly assess the quality of any agency however, one must be willing to ask many questions, and be able to distinguish an appropriate answer from an inadequate one. Any potential client wishing to have a website designed should spare no time in asking questions of the experience and quality of an agency’s work.

Businesses should look for a website design agency whose portfolio shows a wide range of skills and artistic fortitude, but also provides long lasting designs> It is often helpful to see whether or not previous clients of an agency continue to use their design and the results that the site has garnered. After all, the purpose of designing a new website is to increase traffic and consumer base; conversion rates should be readily given by an agency. Once an agency is found that fulfills all the necessary qualities desired, the process of collaborating with the designers must also be one filled with in depth consultation.

A professional website design agency will be willing to consult on any given site project to the extent that is desired so that they might better design a tailor made site that fulfills all the needs of a client. When consulting with a design agency, a client should provide them with as much information as possible, so that they might be armed with your entire wish list before proceeding with the design. This not only results in a better finished product, but saves time in the editing stages. Information that is vital for the website design agency is the budget, time frame, the main content components required, color and layout preferences, as well as examples of websites that the client wishes to resemble and, most importantly, the goal or aim of the website. Generally the aim is to increase traffic to the site, but every business has unique needs, and these must always be expressed upfront. This ensures that both the client (you) and our website design agency will go into the process with the preparation necessary to provide you with the stunning product you imagined.

Are you thinking of designing your own website? If so, you should seriously reconsider. Many people in Los Angeles make the mistake of trying to design their own website without having any plan of action or web design experience. If you search on the internet, you have surely seen one or more of these websites. Chances are high that, you have also left them as quickly as you landed on them. This is why hiring a Lost Angeles Website Design artist is essential. Los Angeles website design artists know where to place products properly on a web page for optimal effect. As well, artists know exactly what software is required when they create websites, and this includes CMS development.

Los Angeles Website Design Artists Use CMS Development

CMS development is a web program that designers use to manage the content of a website by publishing, modifying and maintaining it. It can be a complicated system if someone doesn’t know how it works.

Los Angeles Website Design Artists Create Usable Websites

Creating a website and creating a usable website is two different things. Close attention to the layout is critical in order for the website to make sense. For example, the navigation bar of a website must be done properly so visitors can easily move around the website.

Los Angeles Website Design Artists Assure that all Links Work Properly

Along with the navigation, it is imperative that all links work properly on every page. When links are broken visitors can become frustrated quickly. As well, they may not trust your website.

Los Angeles Website Design Artists Know how to use Special Elements

Professional artists know how to use special elements such as flash. For example, if flash is not integrated properly, some hosts won’t support it.  The worst case scenario in this situation is that your website may contain blank pages when it’s published to the internet.

Los Angeles Website Design Artists Plan for Changes

Artists know that eventually you’ll have to make changes or additions to your website, as your business grows and technology advances. As a result, they know what elements need to be put in place for you to easily make the changes.

Los Angeles Website Design Artists Know the Importance of Brand Awareness

Low quality websites never capture the brand awareness of an online business, because they don’t target the needs of its visitors. In order for a website to be successful and drive traffic the business brand and products and services it sells must be immediately visible to the webpage visitor. This also includes knowing what customers the business caters to. For example, an exclusive country club member wants to feel exclusive when they go to the website. A child expects to feel happy when they visit a Santa Claus website, and young adults like to feel relaxed and cool when they go to Facebook. As a result, these websites have to give their target audience what they expect and want.

If you need a website and want a professional Los Angeles website design artist to create it for you, go to our website at Los Angeles Website Design (http://losangeleswebsitedesign.com/) and request a quote. 

With almost 4 million people living in Los Angeles, if you are an owner of a business you need to market it with a vengeance. To do this, you need to have the support of a Los Angeles web design company and not just any company will do. You have to hire a web design firm that not only understands your requirements and needs, but one that will help you reach your goals via a well-designed professional website and marketing services.

Without a website, your marketing efforts will not amount to anything in today’s world. A Los Angeles web design firm with proven expertise and experience in a wide range of web design projects is the only way to boost your marketing efforts. This is done by the creation of a highly-effective website, together with a marketing plan.

For most people, by the time they start looking for a Los Angeles web design firm, they have an idea of what they want their website to look like. However, only a professional web design company can put these concepts into reality by ensuring that they create a distinctive online presence. The failure or success of any online marketing plan is determined by the quality of a website’s design. This is why the company chosen to develop a website is very important, and only the best will do.

A well-designed professional website is the beginning of a successful online marketing plan, because it is essentially the facilitator. When you hire a Los Angeles web Design Company, it is important to research that they offer marketing services as well. Some firms only design and create websites. As stated earlier, a website is important, but unless you are an experienced marketer, in order to stand out in a city the size of Los Angeles, you also need a boost from your designing firm to market your website.

As a Los Angeles Web Design company, our team is made up of a group of online marketing specialists who create custom designs that are composed of a complete marketing package that we create to work with your unique needs.

One marketing package doesn’t apply to every online business, as any Los Angeles Web Design firm will tell you. In order to be effective, a marketing plan needs to be custom built to reach the right market. To accomplish this, the web design needs to be optimized so it will rank high in a Google search. As well, a marketing plan needs to include the proper social media outlets.

The key to successful online marketing is Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Without it, there is no way for a website to get consistent long-term traffic. Due to this fact SEO is crucial to your marketing strategy; and must be included in your website. Therefore, any Los Angeles Web Design firm you hire needs to incorporate it into their design.

At Dburns Design, our Los Angeles Web Design experts know how important all these aspects are and we have a proven track record of success. However, you don’t have to take our word for it, you can go here and see the results in real time.

Banks need to start meeting their customer’s expectations.

Back in the “old days,” if you were applying for a bank loan you would have to dress up, suit and tie, cap in hand, and make an appointment with the manager at your local bank. Now however, online banking makes applying for accounts, loans, and other financial-related issues much easier—or does it?

Customers expect everything they do and interact with online to be as easy as placing a bid on Ebay or buying something off of Amazon. Customers expect the same “easiness” from their bank institutions. People don’t buy things off Ebay or Amazon necessarily because it’s the cheapest option or because they give the user free gifts or free shipping—customers prefer these websites because it’s pleasurable to shop there.

It’s simple. It’s quick. And it’s fun. So why is it so hard to deal with banks online?

Most banks have mobile apps, responsive websites, and some have even gone as far as mobile payments services. All of these things are good, but banks are still missing some of the rock-bottom basics. If a user has to make a minor change to their account, there’s a good chance they might have to make a phone call. Despite already having an account with a particular bank, users are often expected to fill out page after page of questions, terms and conditions, and tick-boxes to apply for an additional account or product. If a user relocates, their bank often requires them to change their address for each account or product. Why can’t banks have a central account management system? Wouldn’t that be the easy thing to do?
Here’s why: banks think they “know” what their customers want, without even talking to them.
Big banks aren’t getting the customers experience. Banks need to listen to their customers and design their products to be more helpful. Here’s a quick example: what if your bank gave you certain recommendations like: “Customers just like you spend X amount of dollars less on car insurance each month, these are the types of providers they use,” or “Have you considered moving some of your savings into one of our X accounts? You would make $X more in interest this year than if you kept your money in savings alone.”

Banks could provide a variety of services that are beneficial to the users. What if banks could map out your average monthly payments and include social networking data such as birthdays, life events, and upcoming invitations into each month’s projection? This type of information would be a win-win for both the users and the banks.

Hopefully banks can start implementing easier-to-use programs and services that can enhance a user’s overall online banking experience. Banks should begin to understand what must be done to get the basics right. They need to create and implement an un-surpassed customer experience that can change the way customers perceive banks in the future.

There are many challenges to keeping a project on track and within budget. By taking a few precautions and by having a specific plan in place, you can lead your project to guaranteed success. Here are 6 tips and tricks to help ensure your project goes as planned:

1) Communicate, communicate, communicate
Always ensure that the lines of communication are open. As the project manager, it’s your job to be the operator of the communications system. Make a plan and stick with it. Keep everyone informed by creating status reports based on a project’s information and updates. Good project managers will document everything. If it can be documented it should be documented. Any information is pertinent to the team—even the comment from the CEO about how he strongly dislikes the color you’ve decided to use—is important. Relay any and all information to the team, you never know what might become an issue later.

2) Be the leader
You are the captain of the ship. You should act like it. You need to inspire your team, you need to encourage them, and you need to carry on during the tough trials that you will face. If you don’t have good leadership skills, you may not be able to prevail over challenges that face your project. Address your strengths and weaknesses—because they will be tested.

3) Set and manage the expectations
The expectations of your project should be set by a descriptive, well-written scope of work. All team members should use and refer to this document to set the stage for what will be ultimately delivered on each project. As project manager, you should sit down with your client and review the project timeline. It’s imperative to have these types of conversations with your client—you need to keep them informed of the process for the duration of the project.
Between each deadline, set up a meeting with the client about the upcoming document delivery. Receive their constructive feedback about the document—it’ll make the final deliverable a lot stronger. It’s critical to educate your clients on the process of making a website. If you keep the client informed and involved, you’re guaranteed to build a product that pleases your client and engages your users.

4) Know who to involve and when to involve them
It’s impossible to keep everyone in the project informed of everything—and that’s a good thing because you don’t necessarily need to. It’s good to know when to involve the team to help a conversation or an idea, but you don’t need to do it for everything. A project developer should never answer design or development specific questions unless it was previously documented. Know what the client is asking: Is the question design or development specific? Is it a question regarding content? Pull the appropriate people for each question—but you don’t need to have a meeting every time the client calls with an idea.

5) Find an ally and manage stakeholders
A good project manager will find a friend on the client-side. He or she should try to do their best to build a relationship with that person. A strong relationship can help the project manager learn the politics of the company and how it’ll affect the project’s process. Having an ally can help you gain guidance: a simple, short conversation where you ask, “Who do I need to approve X project?” can give you valuable insight.
As project manager, it’s your job to predict the potential factors that could make the project go over deadline or over budget. If you know and manage your stakeholders, it becomes a lot easier for you to have blunt conversations about why and when a project might go off track.
No project manager wants to be the bad guy. But as a manager, it’s part of your role. Set everything up in your favor so you can be in control about the risks—at least most of the time.

6) Encourage your team
Simple, encouraging sentences like, “Wow, you did a really good job!” can really go along way. A great project manager is one who enforces the rules, keeps everyone in-sync, and supports and encourages the process, the team, and the client.

The user experience is complicated business. It’s important to have a natural curiosity in your user’s behavior. Doing so can help you create more successful websites and apps.

Developers and designers should look at basic cognitive psychology and other behavioral sciences to gain a deeper understanding of how our users think and act. Understanding how our users behave is the first step we need to take before we start developing and designing. Here are a few easy-to-do techniques to help you get started:

Trigger their emotional response

Have you ever had a life-or-death experience? Do you remember the best meal you’ve ever had? Can you recall an entire conversation you had years ago? If you can, it’s because your emotional memory was triggered during those particular events. Humans can recall anything that happened during a heightened emotional state.

So how does this information pertain to designers and developers? We need to create an emotional response. We need to get our users to remember our site, our app, and form a connection with it. The PhotoJojo store is a great example of a company that does this. Everything from their fun fonts to their “happy” and “sad” shopping cart engages their users. PhotoJojo’s quirky site portrays a strong personality for itself—users love interacting with it. Users connect their own personalities with the site. Because users feel the site is an extension of their own personalities, they’ll happily recommend the site to their friends.

Keep everything easy

Frustration and aggravation is a sure way to kill your company. If a user is stressed out, annoyed, or has to work too hard to get what they want, you aren’t doing your company any favors. By putting our users in a state of happiness, you set them up for “breadth-first processing.” When humans have happy experiences, our limbic system releases a powerful neurotransmitter called dopamine. Dopamine aids memory and information processing. Keep everything delightful and easy—don’t let your users run into usability issues.

Limit choice

We’ve been taught that choice is good. However, with too much choice, people stress about making the right or wrong decisions. Have you ever been to a restaurant with an extremely long menu and ordered what you always order after 20 minutes of weighing the pros and cons of each entrée? You were probably happy with your choice…but maybe you still wondered if the Swiss and bacon cheeseburger would’ve been the better entrée.

By limiting the number of possible actions, you decrease the risk of user error. Search forms and travel sites are huge offenders. Choice is important—but there is a certain threshold when choice can hurt you.

Quid pro quo

In Latin, “quid pro quo” roughly translates to “this for that.” The law of reciprocity is similar. If someone buys you a present over the holidays, you naturally feel compelled to give a gift back. The same can apply to almost anything.

A good example of a this is a company that gives its viewers “awards” for that they do. One exemple of this is rewarding viewers with stars for every video they watch, for a website video. This subtle form of encouragement makes the user want to sign up instead of merely re-visiting the website every time they want to watch a new video. These awards, yet small, are a great example of quid pro quo and the subtle laws of reciprocity.

These basic techniques can help you enhance your user’s experience. Try to follow these techniques and track the effect they have. Remember, user experience is something that should support and follow your business goals, not something that should distract from them. By understanding your users and developing to their most basic human nature, you are guaranteed success.

Have you ever been in a situation when a manager, boss, or client shows up to a meeting with a huge folder of handwritten notes, photographs, or even worse—hand drawn images? When asked what the material is, they haughtily reply, “It’s content for the website!”.

Managing content is a problem that all developers encounter at one point or another. However the problem isn’t with the client — the problem is accepting the content in whatever shape or form the client submits it in. Let’s look at some common issues regarding the management of content and how to avoid them:

Problem #1: the content is organic

Content is constantly evolving—if it’s to succeed, we need to implement well-managed support systems. You can’t leave content to manage itself.

The solution is simple: begin auditing early. Content management should be something that happens over the course of the entire project—not something that can be done in a few hours before a deadline. Identify all issues no matter how small they are. Ask yourself questions: Is it outdated? Is it unlinked or broken? Is the content relevant? Addressing these simple easy-to-fix problems is a good way to start trimming the hedges on the shrub that is organic content.

Problem #2: the content is disconnected and/or fragmented

Many clients and/or content producers are told what type of content is required. Once they’ve been told, they create and submit content that they feel meets the initial requirements. It’s more of a problem of communication more than anything. Instead of discussing content together, each department will go and “do their own thing.” The main problem is that it becomes really difficult to track and update specific chunks of content—because you may or may not know where it came from.

The solution is to centralize the content. By putting the content at the core of the project, you eliminate the hassle and confusion. It’s critical to have focused, detailed discussions with all the departments involved. Collaborate together. Brainstorm together. Work together—you’ll be surprised how easy this task will become.

Problem #3: the content isn’t consistent

We’ve stressed this before: consistency is key! Without consistency, it’s difficult to keep track of different versions of content, cross-reference documents, or specific projects from a bird’s-eye view.
Consistency and content models go hand-in-hand. Voiceandtone.com is a great example of setting a solid foundation for consistency. A basic map of your content is another quick solution that makes this easily accessible to everyone. By grouping and storing your content online, your content will be connected.

Problem #4: the content is hard to maintain

Content is like a living thing—it requires constant attention and constant maintenance. Content is a continuous process. Developers should consider the updating and testing of content from this perspective.
Luckily, content doesn’t have to be hard to maintain. There are some great tools available online that can test the content of websites. Page Trawler and Content Insight are two great resources. If you have a smaller organization, Perch is a CMS that helps find and update content. By simplifying the process, developers can allow clients and non-technical employees to help out.

Content shouldn’t be collected—it should be developed. By adopting a consistent strategy of experimenting, testing, and regular maintenance, you can create content that’s better suited for your designs. Clear, well-managed content is the first step in being able to define the websites that you create.