NetGains Marketing

Woodrow Wilson once said, “If you want to make enemies, try to change something.”  Nearly a century later, the GAP learned these words still ring true.

The American retail clothing manufacturer suddenly introduced a new logo on thegap.com a week ago, with intention of integrating it across their marketing campaigns starting next month.  Following the logo’s reveal, which GAP Brand North America President Marka Hansen called, “more contemporary and current”, there was a strong backlash within the online community. Facebook and Twitter exploded with feedback, and the conclusion was clear, people did NOT like the new look.

In response to the overwhelming feedback, the GAP pulled an about face and announced via its Facebook page,

“Ok. We’ve heard loud and clear that you don’t like the new logo. We’ve learned a lot from the feedback. We only want what’s best for the brand and our customers. So instead of crowd sourcing,we’re bringing back the Blue Box tonight.”

The whole event has been a lesson in how the online community can influence a company’s brand message.

Going forward the GAP stated they will use this as a learning experience. “There may be a time to evolve our logo, but if and when that time comes, we’ll handle it in a different way.”

Flash can be beautiful. There are many design advantages that come with a flash website. When done well, the movement and interaction on a flash-based website can be mesmerizing and engaging.
But there are drawbacks - big ones - that may outweigh the design benefits of having a 100% flash-based website. Here are just a few:

1. FLASH WEBSITES ARE OFTEN INVISIBLE TO SEARCH ENGINES
Most business owners have website's developed with one goal in mind: to attract new customers. Most potential clients for your business begin their buying process on a search engine. Even when they already know your company name or website url, many will enter it into the Google Search Bar rather than directly into their browser. Many business with Flash based websites have found that they don't even register on Google's search results under their own brand. Why does this happen?

When you enter a search term into a search engine such as Google, the search engine will scan for the website for information, process it, and try to bring in the best matches for your query. The problem is, even with improvements in the search engine's algorithms, Search Engines aren't very good at "reading" images, and Flash is, in simplified terms, a series of images. There is often very little textual information on a flash based site, and crucial elements, such as internal links, are often hidden within Flash based navigation.

While there are things that can be done to improve the search engine friendliness of a Flash-based website, there are newer and more seo friendly coding practices, like HTML5, that can be used which mimic the visual impact of Flash, but are search engine friendly.

2. LONG LOAD TIMES CAN FRUSTRATE USERS AND CAUSE THEM TO LEAVE
Your website has a very short window of time to engage your user. Not everyone has access to high-speed internet, and if you website takes more than a few seconds to load, chances are high that a visitor will leave without ever seeing your website.

In addition, many web users have started to disable Flash in their web pages in order to avoid flash based advertising, and/or to improve their page-load times. You may have CUT OFF a segment in your market before you even start.

3. APPLE IPAD AND IPHONE DO NOT DISPLAY FLASH
Surely you've seen the new iPad. Lately I can't walk into a coffee shop without spotting a few. With over 5.5 million units sold worldwide, and Canadian retailers being nearly sold out within only 4 days of the products launch, they are a hot item. But, did you know that you cannot view flash on an iPad? The same is true of iPhones. In fact, Apple products will not support Flash at all.

With more and more consumers embracing the mobile era, flash-based sites will leave you out this market entirely.

4. FLASH WEBSITES ARE NOT COMPATIBLE WITH MOST WEB ANALYTICS TOOLS
Last, but certainly not least, on our list of Flash drawbacks, is the fact that Flash based websites are extremely difficult to track using website analytics. The next time you visit a 100% Flash based website, keep an eye on your browser as you click through the pages. Most flash based websites do not provide unique url's for each page within the site. Even though you see different pages, such as home, about us, contact, you're actually seeing layers of images. Your web analytics tool will not "see" any of those clicks so long as the actual url isn't changing.

We are always saying that having measurable data about the performance of your website is crucial in shaping your online strategies, having a website that can't be tracked will only leave you guessing where the opportunities and limitations of your site performance lie.

So if you have a 100% Flash Based website and are wondering how to improve your search engine placement, increase your website accessibility, get more visits from mobile devices, and start capturing valuable web analytics data, it might be time to consider a website redesign.

When it comes to creating a visually appealing web design, there are many things to take into consideration. Each website is created of a huge amount of different elements, and some are more important than others. Take a look at your website. Your web designer likely created your site to give certain elements more significance than others; however this it is very tricky to communicate the importance of relationship between items visually. A skilled designer will do it through the use of Contrast.

Simply put, contrast is the difference, often visual, between two or more elements. It is the web designer’s job to create this contrast which will create visual interest for the viewer and, if done well, direct the viewer’s attention in the desired location.  A webpage that looked entirely the same would be boring, and soon viewers would grow disinterested, exactly the reaction you do not want. This is why contrast is an essential part of web design. Without it, it would be nearly impossible for web visitor to gain any value from the site.

Contrast can be developed three ways: size, color and alignment. Take a look at your site now and see how your web designer created contrast through these elements.

Color is one of the primary ways to achieve contrast, and it is often the most common ways that people think of. Almost all well designed websites have a clear visual distinction between the background, content area, and header and footer area, using color. Colors are also useful to set apart, featured areas or calls to action.

Size is another easy way to create contrast. Through size of text or size of images themselves, it is an easy way to create and control contrast without using color.  Larger images or elements will draw the viewer in first, which sets them apart as the important elements on the site.

Alignment is also an important way to create contrast, however, because everyone seems to have a different opinion about what is visually appealing when it comes to alignment, it should be used sparingly. Some people favor a very straight line up while others like things to be off set, so it is largely a personal opinion.

So, now that you know a bit more about contrast and how it should be used on your web page, take a good long look at your web site and see if it is portraying the right image, enhancing the proper areas.