This week in the Ph.Creative design studio we've come across the weird & wonderful of web design. In this weeks’ design blog, we've picked out the good, the bad and the down right ugly of websites.

We've come across loads of great looking sites this week but the one that stands out for us is the events.carsonified.com. As if Carsonified weren't cool enough as an agency, the events site continues to push the creativity and userbility. It not only looks great but is packed with tonnes of videos of seminars from all areas of the industry. The bold colourful typography and the use of different illustration styles in the mast and the footer is really refreshing and a nice change from the standard free vector graphics that are flooding the sites nowadays!  For us it’s the attention to detail that makes the sites stand out, the old 'less is more' theory. This is a great site. Nice & simple yet very informative! 5 out of 5!  
 

The site we've chosen for this wins hands down. If there was a room 101, this site would be first in the queue! www.genicap.com. The designers of this site, for us, broke every rule in web design. From the homepage, the user has no idea of what they do and its just doesn't engage the user at any stage. In fact, it’s so boring that the web designers couldn't even be bothered laying out some of the text so just dropped in dodgy jpgs of the copy! Poor work guys. We've come across lots of bad sites but this one is right up there.

This is almost tongue in cheek. We actually wanted to email these guys and ask if its a joke? At least on this site we know what they do, they're a driving school but how bad is it!
http://www.drivingskills.on.ca/ has more clipart on a site than we’ve ever seen. The nasty background, lack of understanding of colour and typography has to make this the ugliest site on the web.

So that’s it for this we, our small collection of really bad sites. If you’ve seen any howlers out there that deserve to be in our blog, please feel free to send them in to us.

In today’s world with everyone & everything eco-friendly what else can save the planet?

Well, it’s the simple font. The font, overlooked by many but used by everyone is now doing its bit for the planet.  The Ecofont, designed by dutch designers, SPRANQ, is surely the next generation in fonts. Ecofont has been designed to not only increase environmental awareness but to save you money.  The font has been designed by cutting out the maximum amount of black area from the font whilst still remaining legibility. The result is a ‘holey’ font that uses up to 20% less ink thus giving printer cartridges a longer life.

The image above illustrates how the Ecofont works. You’ll see it has been created by cutting out parts of the letter. At 60 point it’s not that appealing however at a more useable point size of 10 or 11pt, it looks great. The Ecofont is based on the Vera Sans, an Open Source letter, and is available for Windows and Mac OSX.  By introducing the Ecofont into your font library is going some way to help save the environment.

Other cost effective ways are;

• Print only when necessary
• Use a modern, efficient printer and use unbleached paper
• Paper choice, take the environment into account. Look at recycled materials
• Invest in environment-conscious innovations 

The Ecofont is based on an Open Source font and is FREE to use. You can download your FREE version by visiting:- http://www.ecofont.eu/downloads_en.html

So goodbye comic sans, hello Ecofont Sans. Enjoy and use responsibly!! 

We’ve noticed recently the amount of offer based emails we’ve been receiving and how some companies need to think a bit more about the end goal or the offer and how others companies simply don’t think at all! The amount of daily emails received that get deleted straight away because they’re either too text heavy, written poorly, too confusing or just designed badly with no call to action is actually quite scary and just wastes everyone’s time.

So, here are a few tips to for email templates…

Keep the Design Simple - Too many emails try too hard. The most effective templates are the simple ones. A nice mast image that reflects the brand is sufficient. Keep it clean. Keep it simple. But most of all, keep it clear.

Strong Call to Action – The   main reason for sending the email should be obvious as soon as the email is opened. Don’t hide the offer, shout about it. Make sure the recipient can see it. If you’re using a button to link to a landing page, ensure the button stands out enough and makes you want to click it.

The Incentive – Its all very well having a strong call to action but the recipient does need the incentive. Make sure its inviting enough to action. Would you want it? Everyone loves a bargain or even better a freebie. Make it worth their while!

The Landing Page – Now that you’ve got the recipient to the landing page, don’t bog them down with too much information. You’ve got them interested, you don’t want them frustrated because they can’t find out what to do next. Use the principles that you’ve learnt in the email template. Present the information is a clear and informative way with a clear set of instructions on the next step.

This is all fairly obvious but surprisingly overlooked by lots of companies. If you can follow these principles next time you’re designing an email, you’ll probably find your email has a bit more sticking power than others!