Design
You only have a split second to impress your website's visitors. Don't forget to think about them when you are designing your website. Check this section out to find out how to design for your visitors.
Weird Asia News Design Contest
Written by Neil Patel on May 22, 2008 | 39 comments
I was just reading Weird Asia News and noticed that they are having a design contest. If you are a designer and are looking to win a PS3 I highly recommend checking it out. The contest seems like a fun thing to do and it would be interesting to see what type of designs people come up with do to the theme of the website.
Creative commercials that you'll never forget
Written by Neil Patel on October 24, 2006 | 30 comments
Chances are you spend hours everyday watching TV shows, which means you watch hundreds of new commercials on a daily basis. The worst part about watching all those commercials is that most of them are dull and humorless which is why they are not memorable or effective, but every once in a while a few companies take the time to come up with creative commercials that are worth watching.
5 ways to optimize your design
Written by Neil Patel on October 22, 2006 | 23 comments
Everyday thousands of websites are being created based on the needs of website owners and not the needs of their visitors. Visitors are being ignored which is the biggest reason most websites are not successful; here are 5 ways to optimize your design...
Creative advertising that makes you look twice
Written by Neil Patel on October 18, 2006 | 31 comments
Advertisements usually have a negative connotation associated with them and because of this most people don't like taking the time look at and even read advertisements. The good news is, not all advertisements are bad and some companies have taken the time to design some very clever advertising campaigns.
Casinos and Conversion
Written by Neil Patel on October 10, 2006 | 2 comments
Last week, Matt from 37signals wrote "The casino experience" that analyzes a casino from a design perspective. Matt hits on points such as the fact that casinos have no windows, no clocks, and they are hard to navigate, which are all great ways to keep people gambling. From a marketing perspective you can actually take many of these principles that casinos use to help improve your conversion rate.
My experience with Dell's homepage
Written by Neil Patel on October 1, 2006 | 11 comments
Recently I was roaming around looking for computers and landed on Dell's website. I noticed that their homepage had been realigned since the last time I saw it. Obviously, Dell.com gets a lot of traffic, so I started wondering why their homepage has gotten worse with this recent change.
Discovering a new Google design
Written by Neil Patel on September 19, 2006 | 7 comments
As some of you may have noticed, I am addicted to stats. Every couple of hours I have to look at my blog stats or else I go crazy. Today I noticed that my Google traffic went up drastically and my referrers showed that I was getting traffic for terms such as "soesman", so I decided to do a Google search and check it out. And lucky me, when I did a search I saw a newly designed Google search result page.
My 50 favorite design resources
Written by Neil Patel on September 11, 2006 | 20 comments
There are thousands of design resources on the web which can lead to an overwhelming experience when looking for inspiration or ideas, so I created a list of resources that I use on a regular basis. Here is a list of 50 design resources that can be helpful to any designer or marketer.
Everybody thinks they know everything
Written by Neil Patel on September 5, 2006 | 6 comments
Last week a guest speaker came to one of my marketing classes at Cal State Fullerton. The college has guest speakers quite often and this time they brought in Boris Bugarski, the CEO of an email marketing company called mUrgent. ...
Technorati's new design
Written by Neil Patel on July 25, 2006 | 2 comments
Yesterday Technorati launched its' new personalized homepage. With the pressure from the competition (Sphere, IceRocket, Google Blog Search), and another round of funding, it makes sense why Technorati redesigned their homepage...
Yahoo answers to no one
Written by Neil Patel on June 13, 2006 | 2 comments
Yahoo has recently launched Yahoo Answers which has been getting a lot of buzz around the blogosphere. The concept of Yahoo Answers is very similar to Google Answers.
Riya: Photo search can be simpler
Written by Neil Patel on June 7, 2006 | 2 comments
Riya is one of those sites that impressed me with their idea and at the same time has been devastating me with their execution. They make photo organizing simple and photo searching seamless.
Usability: Yahoo, they can do better
Written by Neil Patel on June 2, 2006 | 3 comments
Yahoo Video is getting a lot of hype right now. Everyone is talking about how great it is and all of the good features, but no one is really talking about how they messed up. They are Yahoo, a big search giant, so you would think they know what they are doing.
Usability and SEO
Written by Neil Patel on June 1, 2006 |
A good rule to keep in mind these days is that nothing stands alone. When it comes to website optimization, a lot of people conduct effective SEO campaigns but don't bother to put time and effort into the usability side of their website.
Usability and Ajax
Written by Neil Patel on May 14, 2006 |
Just because you can, doesn't mean you should. Using Ajax on your website can be a good thing, but don't just slap Ajax in there to ride the hype. Ajax should improve your website and make it better for your customers.
MSN's new home page
Written by Neil Patel on April 22, 2006 | 9 comments
There has been a lot of talk lately about realigning high traffic homepages. MSN is currently testing a modified homepage design. There are some major differences then just a new look. The new homepage makes better use of screen space, primarily by changing the placement of several sections.
