RESEARCH AND REFERENCE MATERIAL

Online Strategy & Design

Web-Site Usability: Usability On The Web Isn't A Luxury
On the Internet, it's survival of the easiest: If customers can't find a product, they can't buy it. It's cheaper to increase the design budget than the ad budget, and attention to usability can increase the percentage of Web-site visitors who complete a purchase.

The Business Value of Web Standards
More with less seems to be the mission impossible for web designers: Addressing more customers, a broader audience, more diversity in terms of browsers, more accessibility, users asking for more speed, while spending less to maintain or redesign a web site. Caught between a rock and a hard place, web designers face a formidable challenge. Yet they are finding an unsuspected ally in the battle: web standards.

This article discusses how adhering to web standards, and leaving behind proprietary markup and technologies, can contribute to a company's business goals.

First Impressions on the Internet
First impressions are very important in today's world. Such initial thoughts can determine whether we like someone from the start, whether or not we want to purchase a particular car, whether or not we like the house a Realtor is showing us, and whether or not we get a particular job. It is also true that first impressions mean a lot when people look at web sites.

What Makes A Web Site Credible?
A report on a large quantitative study; Stanford University Persuasive Technology Lab.

Why someone should be in charge of your Web site
If your Web site is important to your business it needs to be managed professionally.

Customer Experience Meets Online Marketing at Brand Central Station
A brand is not a name. A brand is not a positioning statement. It is not a marketing message, a jingle, or a logo. A brand is the culmination of all of the interactions that all the people in a marketplace have with the firm.

Client's guide to design
AIGA's design for business. If you are an individual in need of graphic design services, you should read this paper from the American Institute for Graphic Arts.