Thank You - Cigar Galaxy, Messier 8 Greeting Card

A gorgeous best-selling design. Click to customize or personalize. How would it look with your name or monogram on it - why not have a look-see right now?

Thank You - Cigar Galaxy, Messier 8 Greeting Card

tagged with: stars, thank you, saying thanks, grateful, chandra, cigar galaxy, hrbstslr agmet, hubble space pictures, cosmological astronomy, outer space exploration, messier 82, active galaxies

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series Composite of images of the active galaxy Messier 82 from the three Great Observatories: Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-Ray Observatory, and Spitzer Space Telescope. X-ray data recorded by Chandra appears here in blue, infrared light recorded by Spitzer appears in red. Hubble's observation of hydrogen emission appears in orange. Hubble's bluest observation appears in yellow-green.

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image code: agmet

Image credit: Hubble Space Telescope, Chandra X-Ray Observatory, Spitzer Space Telescope

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How Design Impacts Blog Readership

Blogging with purpose

original post »

This is a guest contribution from Damion Wasylow.

You have things to say, ideas to spread and concepts to share. That’s why you’re a blogger.

But, if you’re like most bloggers, you’re much better with words than visuals. As a result, many bloggers’ sites are poorly designed or rely on simple templates. Your content may bring people to your blog, but poor design and usability can seriously limit your readership.

First Impressions are Everything

Studies show that new visitors develop an opinion of your website within 50 milliseconds. That’s 0.05 seconds. In that time, they make judgments about credibility, professionalism and quality of information – all without ever reading a single word you wrote. If the first impression isn’t positive, they’ll almost certainly bounce away, and it’s unlikely they’ll ever return.

It’s human nature. Picture a restaurant with a rusty door, broken sign and trash in the parking lot. The food could be incredible, but you’ll likely never venture inside to see the menu.

Get Real Feedback

It’s nearly impossible to honestly review your own site’s design. You’re biased, and so are your friends and family. After all, they don’t want to hurt your feelings and your dad probably isn’t your target audience. So, turn to a third party.

UserTesting.com is an excellent resource for gauging user experience. I often use UserTesting.com’s Peek Tests to gather initial feedback. Peek allows you to watch and listen to five-minute videos of real people encountering your site for the first time.

Testers answer three questions:

1) What is your first impression of this site?

2) What is the first thing you want to do on this site?

3) What stood out to you and what frustrated you about this site?

While this feedback isn’t comprehensive, it should at least offer some insight into whether your site’s design is on the right track or completely off-target.

Design Changes to Consider

You don’t have to be the world’s most talented web designer to create a visually impressive site that retains users. You simply have to understand the core elements of design and how they work together.

Color – Your color palette should be simple, consistent and reflect the overall tone of your content. Too many colors can be overwhelming, and the wrong colors can confuse your audience. Use standard color theory to select a palette that matches your blog’s personality.

Images – Users embrace photos and illustrations as a way to quickly get the gist of a story without investing too much effort. Effective images therefore leverage white space, contrast, color, interruption and other techniques to intrigue and draw the reader in. Images may not be worth 1000 words, but a recent study by Blog Pros showed that the 100 highest-ranking blogs on the Internet use at least 1 image for every 350 words.

Shapes – Chunky, square design elements evoke dramatically different feelings than free-flowing organic shapes. Circles are soft and inclusive, while angles can help carry a reader down the page. Partitioning content within shapes is a valuable way to help users segment information into digestible sections.

Typography – Typeface, font size, leading, kerning and placement all play significant roles in affecting user experience. Great typography conveys emotion, while also allowing users to focus on your message instead of struggling to interpret the structure of the letters before them. Note: never use Comic Sans or Papyrus.

Highlight Your Call-to-Action

You created your blog for a purpose, presumably beyond simply having individual visitors read your articles. Perhaps you want them to share your writings with others, purchase your product or service or download your e-book. Whatever the goal, design your site to highlight that call-to-action (CTA).

Use color, contrast, whitespace and size to make your CTA standout from the rest of the page. But keep it classy. Nothing undermines credibility faster than a flashing rainbow starburst. Here are some great examples of web pages with effective CTA designs.

Make it Mobile-Friendly

Mobile traffic accounts for nearly 60% of all web traffic, so you’re missing out on a lot of readers if your site isn’t designed to accommodate mobile visitors. And, really, even more if you count on social or email sources. When a mobile user lands on a site that offers a standard desktop design, they are far more likely to bounce away.

Ideally, your blog should be responsive, meaning that elements restack to match mobile screen dimensions when the site identifies a visitor on a mobile device. This makes your content easier to read and navigate on mobile screens.

Google recently announced that mobile-friendliness will be an increasingly important ranking factor. If your site isn’t mobile-friendly, there’s a good chance it will dramatically drop in search engine results.

The importance of blog design cannot be overstated. Take the time now to improve your site’s aesthetics and usability. You’ll attract more visitors, keep them engaged and drive them to actions that match your goals.

Damion Wasylow writes for University of Florida’s Web Design and Online Communication master’s degree program. He has more than 20 years of experience in graphic design for publications, agencies and non-profits.

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger


How Design Impacts Blog Readership

How Design Impacts Blog Readership
 #bloggingtips 

The Sketchbook Project Publishes a Printed Glimpse Into Their Global Sketchbook Community

Fun and Random

The Sketchbook Project began in 2006 by co-founders Steven Peterman and Shane Zucker as a way to disseminate hands-on art making via the virtual world. Since its inception in Atlanta, GA and move to New York City in 2009, the project has grown into a massive crowd-sourced library that features 33,724 sketchbooks from over 135 countries. This extensive collection can be viewed in person at the project’s exhibition space at the Brooklyn Art Library, online in their digital archive, and at pop-ups around the country in their mobile library.

Now entering the project’s ninth year, the co-founders have published a compendium of their collection of sketches from around the globe titled The Sketchbook Project World Tour. Peterman and Zucker believed it would be unfair for the book to represent the entirety of the project, and rather aim for the publication to serve as a glimpse into the community they have supported for nearly a decade. “Sketchbooks over the years have served as shared memoirs to cancer survivors, inspired some to return to art school, and have been a daily practice to re-inspire the dormant or budding artists. You will read accounts by people you have never met,” they explain in the book’s introduction.

The book’s foreword is written by our very own, Christopher Jobson, who in 2012 had the opportunity to curate a selection of sketchbooks for The Sketchbook Project’s first national Mobile Library tour. The book, printed by Princeton Architectural Press, is available today in the Colossal Shop.

Update: The Sketchbook Project is also having an event and panel discussion hosted by the New York Public Library on May 20th.

 
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Double Exposure Animal Portraits by Andreas Lie

Fun and Random

Norwegian visual artist Andreas Lie merges verdant landscapes and photographs of animals to creates subtle double exposure portraits. Snowy mountain peaks and thick forests become the shaggy fur of wolves and foxes, and even the northern lights appear through the silhouette of a polar bear. Lie is undoubtedly influenced by his surroundings in Bergen, Norway, a coastal city surrounded by seven mountains. Many of these are available as prints and other objects on Society6. (via Beautiful/Decay, Blu)

 
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