Web Typography Tools
Every now and again you need a little help with getting the right font for a website. The following online tools have been a help to me one way or another in getting the right look. The great thing about some of these tools, they also generate the css code for you.
Typechart
lets you flip through, preview and compare web typography while retrieving the CSS.
Flipping Typical
A way to explore the popular typefaces you have on your computer.
CSS Type Set
Enter your text that you want to style, choose your style and get the css code.
PXtoEM
PX to EM conversion made simple. This site is helpful, but I’m more of a pixel font size guy.
Type Tester
The Typetester is an online application for comparison of the fonts for the screen. Its primary role is to make web designer’s life easier. As the new fonts are bundled into operating systems, the list of the common fonts will be updated.
Although, my list doesn’t compare with other lists out there, but they are tools I actually use.
Do you have any other tools you use, let me know.
Sell Solutions, not products
image courtesy of Shutterstock.com
For the last little while I’ve been reading The Smashing Book. It has been a good read and a lot of great pointers and reminders in there. There was one area that impressed me since I’m in the middle of a project that deals with this. It is in the chapter, “Design to Sell: Increasing Conversion Rates. The beginning of the chapter talks about things that sell.
To sell effectively, you have to sell solutions, not products.
It talks about customers aren’t looking for services or features: they’re looking for a solution to their problems. When it comes to having a product that people are going to pay for, simply throwing up a list of features isn’t going to convince them to buy the product, it needs to show them how it is going to save them time or money or how they can benefit from the product.
One example that is brought up is the iPod Nano. Telling consumers that it has 16 gigabytes is one thing, but what does that mean? It would be more effective to say that it holds 4000 songs. That provides an easy to understand solution to someones problem.
There are so many reason for not purchase something and if there is not a good reason to move forward, visitors to your site will leave. It is important to grab their attention and then move them through the process and create more of a desire so you can eventually get them to act. I have worked a lot with direct mail and the process isn’t that different. You need to create a reason for them to pick up this piece of mail, grab their attention, show them how you can provide a solution to their problems and then get them to act by calling or going online.
In the book they go into the AIDA process, Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. This is a great concept to remember when you are trying to sell anything. Also, it doesn’t stop there, you need to Satisfy your customers so they become advocates for your product.
Luckily, I’m in the early stages of this project and can help the client rethink the direction they should be taking.
What I have been working on
It seems to be getting harder to post on a regular basis. That is something I’m hoping to change. When it gets busy, blogging is the first thing off the list, and once I’ve been away from blogging for awhile, it’s hard to get going again.
There has been a lot going on with my day job as well as freelance projects. One year ago I took a job with 3point5.com, now Swarmbuilder, and it has been going well. I’ve had the chance to work with a lot of great brands and create online trainings. Some of the brands I’ve worked with are The North Face, Brooks Running, Skullcandy and Timbuk2. It has been great working on these projects because it gives me the chance to create a good user experience. All of these sites are created using Flash, html/css, and jsp. Here are some of the home pages from the trainings.
You can also view more project on my Evernote collection.
Recent Work: Rocky Mountain Family Chiropratic
I’m a little late on posting this, but one of the most recent projects I got to work on was for Dr. Green of Rocky Mountain Family Chiropractic. I was contacted to help with establishing a look and feel for what his company would be. We started with the logo that was to incorporate the Rocky Mountains and have a professional feel to it. Although, different colors were shown, we ended up using green to play off the last name.
The website was built to give the company an online presence and give Dr. Green the ability to connect with his patients through a blog and other social media. It is also a place he can refer potential clients for information about his services and allow them to access the forms they need to fill out. The site was built on the WordPress platform so it can easily be changed and information added to it.
Here is a little bit of info about Rocky Mountain Family Chiropractic.
We are changing lives for the better; EVERYDAY. Your health is important and complex and you need a doctor who is passionate about health and also has the breadth of skills to help you. We at Rocky Mountain Family Chiropractic love what we do and strive to give the best care possible. It’s a different kind of health care, a different kind of chiropractic, all to make a difference in your life.
Rachel Thurston Photography
I’m the first to admit that I think the whole “giveaway” concept is a bit too much and I rarely enter them because of that, but when I can across this one, I thought I would post something. My reason for doing so isn’t to win the contest, although that would be nice, but because the quality of work that Rachel Thurston does.
Go check out her work at rachelthurston.com and visit her blog by clicking here. She recently posted some images of the Neon Graveyard in Las Vegas, which are amazing.
December has Arrived
December is finally here and as December starts so does 24ways.
24 ways is the advent calendar for web geeks. Each day throughout December we publish a daily dose of web design and development goodness to bring you all a little Christmas cheer.
Check it out, it is always a good resource and a way to keep up on new techniques.