05/02/2012

5 tips on how to design for a CMS and stay sane

Do you like to be in control of your artwork? Of course you do.
That’s one of the characteristics of a designer, you are responsible almost with your life for the way projects turn out and you will do anything to make sure it’s perfect.

But what can you do with websites where you allow your client to manage or modify the content, grow the site and add whatever they please?
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Make pages long but not deep

Have you ever been into a maze? It’s almost the same as public speaking handbook tells about speaking in front of any audience. At first it seems fun, you talk every next step with excitement but after a while you start hoping that every next turn will take you closer to a way out or a place you are going to but in most cases it only takes you deeper and deeper into the labirynth. And what is even worse, there seems to be no escape from it.

What is your reaction to that, frustration, irritation, fear? Well one thing is for sure, you want to get out as quick as possible and you would use all the magic you can think of to do so. Unfortunately many websites these days are mazes like that. They take you deeper and deeper and sometimes a close button on your browsers window seems like the only way out.

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Why it is important to design well but communicate first

As many of us I love browsing the web and in most cases I wouldn’t be randomly jumping from site to site but rather looking for a specific information. And as I generally won’t get satisfied with Google’s first three search results I continue digging in but not every site of the many I would visit will make me stay to explore it fully.

Those that will immediately end up in my bookmarks. But some are so confusing that I have to stop and think what my next move on the page will be. Sites like that usually make me to take a break or simply move on to another site. Just so that I do not lose reason.

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5 questions you should ask to find out if a website is successful

I guess there’s nothing easier for a web designer than to isolate himself from a visitor. To drown in the design process and forget that the site will be viewed by number of people who will judge it not in the same way as he would.

The fact is that visitors categorize or remember sites based on how easy it was for them to find the information they were looking for, how pleasurable the experience was and whether they actually found what they came for.

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