View Apple’s iPod Shuffle Website | Buy it on Amazon
I’m not sure what to make of this, either someone at Apple has gone crazy or they released it’s next wave of geniuses.
The Specifications can be found here.
Future Stuff : 4GB iPod Shuffle in the works?
SNL Envisioned New iPod Shuffle in 2005
Apple’s redesigned iPod shuffle hits 4GB, talks to you
Here is a basic overview of little things that really bugged me on “professional designers and developers” websites.
This is from a real designers website…I haven’t the heart to contact them about it.
Seriously, as soon as a client sees something which has possibly been stolen from another person website, they will just assume you will screw them over and they will avoid you.
I love seeing a lovely portfolio with some clearly fantastic work, but it sucks when I can’t get a quote. Clients will tend not to bother poking around (or doing a WHOIS) for a way to get in touch.
Make sure you have a big “Contact me for a quote” link somewhere.
Clients tend to like to see you can do to check that you can actually do what you say. Make sure you have an accessible portfolio of work. If you need to build a portfolio, do some work cheap or even free.
Be honest with clients, if you’re a one man band, tell them! Clients will not punish you for not being a large corporate company (in fact, most companies will see you as lower cost labour).
Try and make your website reflect the amount of people who you work with. In some cases being a small company (or even a sole trader) can allow you to have a blog, twitter or even be a little more informal.
If your website does not work in the client’s browser (which will always be IE6, because clients are idiots) it is unlikely the client will think your worth £500 per hour. Make sure you cross browser test and use good CSS (also, advoid tables).
A “Call to Action” is marketing jargon for an action you wish you users to complete, for example “Sign up now” or “Add to cart”. Without them users will be confused about what you want them to exactly do on your website, but too many will frustrate users and possibly confuse them.
Below are some examples of good and bad calls to action.
Only 2 calls to action, but the login button fit in seamlessly with the layout (not taking attention away from the sign up, especially for new users). The page also only gives the information required to know what Facebook does, sign up in 1 click and login.
Note: the “Sign Up” button is the only green button on the page (it stands out like a sore thumb).
MySpace
6 Calls to action (too many), the user is somewhat overloaded with information. The tabs are inconsistent and link to unnecessary information.
Amazon
No clear login or sign up button (Seriously Amazon, you make it look like I am logged in but I’m not). However there is only 1 clear call to action (Search).
eBay
3 calls to action, essentially “Search”, “Register” and “login”.
Useful Links
Your Web Site Needs a Clear Call to Action
10 techniques for an effective ‘call to action’
Call To Action Buttons – Does Size Matter?
Web Design – Have You Forgotten the Call to Action?
As the title suggests, in this brief study I’m going to try and find out how many words, paragraphs and characters is normal for a web page.
Below is an overview of the results I obtained from a bot I wrote (Which analyses web page content*):
| Words Per a page | Characters Per a Page | Paragraphs | Characters per a Word | Words Per a paragraph | |
| BBC News – #1 | 402.00 | 2,000.00 | 10.00 | 4.98 | 200.00 |
| BBC News – #2 | 764.00 | 3,476.00 | 17.00 | 4.55 | 204.47 |
| BBC News – #3 | 663.00 | 3,359.00 | 34.00 | 5.07 | 98.79 |
| LA Times – #1 | 943.00 | 4,904.00 | 30.00 | 5.20 | 163.47 |
| LA Times – #2 | 1,045.00 | 5,163.00 | 20.00 | 4.94 | 258.15 |
| Yahoo News – #1 | 524.00 | 2,565.00 | 15.00 | 4.90 | 171.00 |
| Breitbart.com – #1 | 319.00 | 1,576.00 | 11.00 | 4.94 | 143.27 |
| Average (News Sites) | 665.71 | 3,291.86 | 19.57 | 4.94 | 177.02 |
| Mashable – #1 | 222.00 | 1,083.00 | 4.00 | 4.88 | 270.75 |
| Mashable – #2 | 710.00 | 3,703.00 | 9.00 | 5.22 | 411.44 |
| Average (Blog) | 466.00 | 2,393.00 | 6.50 | 5.05 | 341.10 |
| Wikipedia – #1 | 5,241.00 | 28,681.00 | 45.00 | 5.47 | 637.36 |
| Wikipedia – #2 | 2,757.00 | 14,415.00 | 34.00 | 5.23 | 423.97 |
| Average (Information) | 3,999.00 | 21,548.00 | 39.50 | 5.35 | 530.66 |
| WMT Post – #1 | 85.00 | 342.00 | 1.00 | 4.02 | 342.00 |
| WMT Post – #2 | 472.00 | 2,240.00 | 6.00 | 4.75 | 373.33 |
| Average (Forum) | 278.50 | 1,291.00 | 3.50 | 4.38 | 357.67 |
| Average (Overall) | 1,204.86 | 6,296.24 | 18.85 | 4.97 | 296.67 |
So overall, the average number of words per a page is about 1,200 and the number of letters per a word should average out to roughly 5. However, this number various depending on the web page type and target audience.
*The content analysed excludes navgation, headers and footers.
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