Full On Design

Overview: Call to action

February 27th, 2009

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.

Facebook

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?

No Comments »

Securing publicly available folders

February 23rd, 2009

Anyone who has ever developed a website which allows users to upload files will tell you “It’s best to think everyone is out to destroy your server”, which unfortunately is the best mindset to be in when setting up any website. One of the main methods used to by hackers to breach security on your website is to upload a file which allows them to execute code.

Here is a very quick and easy solution to stop potential hackers executing files in certain folders.

Open the .htaccess file in the folder you wish to protect and add the following code:

Options -Indexes Options -ExecCGI AddHandler cgi-script .php .php3 .php4 .phtml .pl .py .jsp .asp .htm .shtml .sh .cgi

This will essentially stop the folders returning an index of what is inside them and stop various files from running.

Useful Links

PHP File Upload Security
Apache Tutorial: .htaccess files
Apache, MySQL, and PHP Web Development All-in-one Desk Reference for Dummies

No Comments »

How many characters per a page is normal?

February 21st, 2009

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.

1 Comment »

Dealing with Clients who don’t Pay

February 21st, 2009

Here is a really easy check-list of how to deal with clients who don’t pay for work.

Send them an email

Your clients are very busy people, luckily they tend to have email also. A polite reminder to their email should jog their memory. Here is an example template email:

Hey [Name],
I done some work [describe work] on [date] and I have not been paid yet ([amount]). Please could you look into it?
From,
[Contact Details]

Call them

A Clients could have problems using computers (for example slow typing or poor vision), a phone call it a quick and easy way to remind them to send you money. Again, stay polite there could be a very fair reason for late payment.

Recoup your losses

If a client is still not paying up, it could be more worthwhile selling the work. Give the client a certain amount of time (such a 5 business days) and state they will lose all rights to the work and the work will be sold. Here is an example email/letter:

[Name],
I have called and messaged you over the last few days regarding [work]. You have failed to pay. You have 5 business days to pay or you will lose all rights to the work and I will recoup my losses.
From,
[Contact Details]

However, check your contact’s obligations. You could need to wait a certain amount of time.

Consider legal action

If the work you have done is unique and you have a contract, you should consider legal action against the client. However, consult a lawyer before taking legal action.

Related Links

Unpaid invoice, client ignoring me – advice please – DesignersTalk – A forum post which is a lot more in depth then this post.

A Guide to Copyright and Intellectual Property Law: The Easy Way (Easyway Guides) (Paperback) – A really useful book on copyright and various other legal things.

1 Comment »