I’ve long been a fan of Forza, not just as a racing simulator, but also as a design tool. It only provides basic shapes, but with a little skewing, scaling, rotation and transparency, you can create some really effective designs.

The two cars I’ve been painting are unofficial pieces of work – they’re not affiliated with any Virgin Money PR or marketing activity – just me having fun. They have been created using purely layer upon layer of circles squares and rectangles.

In all they have taken around 5 hours to create and consist of a total of 2,101 layered shapes.

The Virgin Money Aston Martin (1,351 layers)

The Virgin Money Mini (750 layers)

If you’re Forza 4 fan, maybe you’ll see these two tearing up the track!

To keep the style sympathetic to the graphics used by website designer Andy Bryant (lessfussdesign.com), I chose to create a vector based illustration. Produced using Adobe Fireworks (and a mouse – my graphics tablet had given up the ghost!), the final piece contains around 300 layers. The image below shows just a few of the steps involved in creation.

The finished article

A few months back I was approached by a local beautician looking to start a new business – Essential Beauty for Cassie. At the time she was just looking for a logo design to put on letterheads and a simple door-drop mailing. I’m pleased to say that business has gone well for her, my logo design has been well received by clients and she’s really standing out from the local competition.

So much so that I’m glad to say that Cassie came back (which is always the sign of a happy customer!) and threw down the gauntlet for me to produce a pricelist brochure and business cards to give to existing customers and hand out at up-coming events.

Ordinarily I’m no a print designer but I’ve been really pleased with the outcome and more importantly Cassie is ecstatic.

Pricelist brochure

The primary brief of the brochure was to tell customers about avaiable treatments and what they cost. I added an ‘About me’ introduction and photo to tell new customers a little about Cassie, creating some level of familiarity even amongst customers that had never previously had treatments. The brochure also includes a cropped composition of products used in the various treatments.

Business cards

The Essential Beauty business cards carry the logo on the front with Cassie’s contact details on the reverse. The reverse of the cards also double as an appointment card for customers.

Both cards and brochure carry a consistent brand colour scheme and the introduction of a new floral overlay adds visual interest to blocks of colour.

Who said print was dead? It turns out that there’s going to be more print work on the horizon for me – so watch this space!

Whilst my son asks for a varied mix of cool characters: Ironman, Spiderman, Sonic, Transformers (the list goes on), my daughter insists on just 2 – Disney Princesses and Hello Kitty!

It’s not that I have anything against Disney Princesses or Hello Kitty, in fact I admire many different illustration styles and these characters are no exception. But I do find the sickly sweetness of each drawing a little tedious. Unfortunately it’s tough for a doting dad to say no. So amongst the latest suite of flowers hugging, cloud riding, gut-wrenchingly cute Kitty drawings, I slipped in an illustration more to my own tastes.

(Don’t worry – I didn’t share it with my daughter, she is blissfully unaware of teddies demise!)

This illustration combines 3 members of legendary Fantastic 4 with Roger Hargreaves classic Mr Men characters – Mr Tickle, Mr Strong and Mr Bump. Enjoy!

Absolutely!

Take a moment to think about how many times you’ve searched using Google, clicked on the first, second, third results, only to find yourself clicking the back button because the content isn’t quite what you wanted, is poorly presented or the design of the site lacks credibility. Until now, the presentation of a site may have impacted it’s ability to convert once it’s got a visitor, but providing the site owner had a sound SEO strategy it is still capable of driving search traffic to it.

Instant Preview introduces a visual factor into the decision making processes, with a user now able to choose not only based on search ranking and meta descriptions, but also based on whether they like the look of your site or not.

An example of Google Instant Preview in action. The preview clearly shows that the site is still under construction despite it ranking highly. Sites like this could lose out on traffic if users perceive them to lack quality or content.

Now I don’t profess to be an SEO expert but here’s my attempt at putting this into some context based on my understanding…

A user who may have previously had to click through eight of the first ten results to find a site they liked the look of, can now preview all ten and then only click through to the eighth one; the one that captured their interest. In doing so this tells Google that search result eight was more relevant to the user (no longer purely because of rank or content but also because of appearance). Times that scenario by thousands and Google starts to understand that the search terms 1-7 aren’t all they’re cracked up to be (the content may be spot on but users just aren’t attracted by them) and search result eight begins to earn more authority and improve its search position.

Essentially this enables Google to rate pages not only on hard metrics like content and link equity, but also on the subjective metric of visual appeal.

Given that people are by nature attracted to things that aesthetically please them, it is likely that consumers searching with Instant Preview will naturally be drawn to sites stimulating that visual interest; with sites that have focused on the presentation of their content being the main beneficiaries.

In testing, we’ve found that people who use Instant Previews are about 5 per cent more likely to be satisfied with the results they click. The previews provide new ways to evaluate search results, making you more likely to find what you’re looking for on the pages you visit. (Source: http://www.justsearching.co.uk)

Whether users embrace instant preview is yet to be seen, but in my mind Google Instant Preview represents a major step toward enhancing the design quality of the search result for users.

It’s fair to say that when I first visited the Metro Bank website I was a little more than surprised – And not in a good way.

What greets you at metrobankonline.co.uk wouldn’t look out of place on a late night infomercial and watching the video’s from various key stakeholders, I found myself waiting for the Cilit Bang guy to pop up and a shout “BANG – the site is gone”.

Unfortunately he didn’t and the site is, much to my dismay, most definitely still there.

All joking aside, the Metro Bank site does little to promote the bank as anything more than a business built on gimmicks.

Sure, dog bowls, free lollies, longer opening hours and exchanging my coins for cash are great ‘nice to have’ features (although last time I checked coins are still cash in my little part of England!) but I want to know about my product and how my bank is looking after my money.

The website lacks any useful content. There is no detailed information about the products that Metro provide and the ‘Great Online Banking’ that forms part of the Metro Bank promise hasn’t even been launched yet.

The look and feel of the site seems rushed and lacks the polished finished you’d expect from brand looking to make a big splash. Poor font usage makes the site look untidy, some pages using in excess of 10 different fonts/styles. Combined with the use of tacky images and animations, it does little to provide any assurances of quality – instead making the site seem dated and low budget.

If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say that the site had never been within spitting distance of a user prior to it’s launch. And in the hurry to be first to market with a new high street branch, Metro Bank seems to have taken a somewhat reckless ‘That’ll do’ approach with the website.

With Metro Bank not currently planning to launch branches outside London (at least not publicly), the majority of the UK interested in this new bank will use the web to find out more. In my opinion, Metro Banks failure to deliver a strong online proposition could leave a bitter taste in the mouths of potential customers should they wish to expand in the future.

Whilst only time will tell if Metro Bank will be a success in the UK, what is clear is that they’ll have invest significant time and effort into their website if they stand any chance of going toe to toe with the big 4 banks online.

Lets pray they react quickly and make a fight of it.

The cost of properly developing, testing and implementing accessible solutions can be time consuming and costly, particularly if there are legacy systems and software that may need updating. For even large organisations with big budgets and the best intentions, accessibility can quickly drop down the list of priorities.

So if you’re a small business with a finite budget and resource – why would you want to blow a chunk of it on accessibility? Well, making your website accessible is more than just a legal requirement – it can be an important marketing strategy.

When planning an online strategy it’s all to easy overlook the benefits of having an accessible website in favor of delivering something where the results can be more easily quantified – such as search engine optimisation or other marketing spend. The fact is that having a strong accessible website could benefit your pocket as much as the disabled users it’s built for.

The facts speak for themselves…

• There are 9.8 million people with a disability in the UK, which represents one person in seven, and is more than the combined population of Wales and Scotland. (Source: Disability Rights Commission)
• This group’s annual spending power totals £50 billion. (Source: Disability Rights Commission)

For any business that’s a pretty large audience to alienate and an awful lot of potential revenue to shut the door on. But the advantages of having an accessible website aren’t limited to an increase audience, it can also help with the overall performance and optimisation of your site.

The wider implications of accessibility

Search engine optimisation
Current search engines don’t understand a lot of the content commonly used on websites. They can’t read text in images, can’t understand Javascript and don’t see multimedia content in the same way that the human eye does. In that way search engines have a lot in common with disabled users.

Much of the assistive technology used by disabled users works in a similar way to search engines, interpreting the content on your site as best they can. Screens readers, for example, read the content of your site in much the same way that a search engine spider will; looking for links, properly marked up well structured content and metadata.

So optimising your site for accessibility naturally enhances the readability of your site for search engines.

Cross platform compatibility
Developers – How often have you been asked “Does it work on an i-Phone?” (a few I’d bet!), and how many times have you been asked “Does it work on a screen reader?” (probably never!) – the fact is the two almost go hand in hand. With more users now accessing the web on mobile devices, cross-browser compatibility is more important than ever. Developing well structured accessibility web content means that your site should be usable on the latest browsers and technology (smart phones, netbooks etc) while also degrading gracefully on older technology, PDA’s and mobile phones.

Enhanced site usability
Many of the solutions you develop to make your site more usable for disabled users may also significantly benefit your other users. Good site structure, easy to use navigation, clear sign-posting and labeling of content all make you site more usable for able bodies users. Enhanced website usability significantly improves online sales conversion.

Developing an accessible site

It is imperative that your business sees accessibility as more than just a solution for a minority group. It’s about delivering a website that appeals to a complete audience, no matter how they ‘have to’ or ‘choose to’ view your content.

Making your site accessible isn’t going to happen overnight (particularly if you’re working with a site that has never had it as a consideration in the past) but the benefits make it worth while. Investing time in site accessibility now could reap the benefits in the future

Useful resources…

W3C Website Accessibility Initiative – A complete accessibility resource providing an introduction to accessibility, help guides, evaluation tools, latest developments and more.

Guild of Accessible Web Designers – A worldwide association of professional organisations, web designers and developers working together to promote the use and preservation of accessible design standards.

Shaw Trust – One of the leading providers of Web Accessibility Services in the UK and the only web accessibility organisation to employ our own testing team; every member is an experienced assistive technology user.

Accessify Forum – An online discussion forum focused on all aspects of website accessibility.

Snook.ca – Colour Contrast Checker – It is estimated that 8% of men and 1% of women suffer from colour blindness (various sources on the web). This tool can be useful for establishing that your chosen colour palette has adequate contrast.

Unfortunately that’s meant I’ve not been able to do as much on the Ske7cher front as I might have liked and I haven’t even have much time to slob around watching the World Cup and Wimbledon… well not every night anyway!

Earlier this week I gave the Facebook page a little TLC. I’ve not given it much attention since setting it up but I’ve always felt that Facebook pages can look a little drab. Inspired by the grand job that Oxfam have done on their pages, I’ve given the Ske7cher Facebook site a face lift with a new welcome page that carries through the main site branding.

You can see fruits of my labour at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ske7cher/. This is just a starting point, there’s loads more that can be achieved to create a more integrated Facebook user experience using XFBML and JavaScript SDK but that will have to wait for another day.

If you haven’t got the time or inclination to learn more about developing in Facebook, all you’ll need to create a branded landing page is the FBML app, some HTML, CSS and a place to store your images online.

If you’d like some help why not contact me.

What’s coming up…?

I’ve got a few exciting things on the horizon. I’m due to start work on a flyer for a local beautician next week, which will allow me to branch out into some print work for a bit of a change. My Unlikely heroes illustration have also caught the eye of a local media agency who are looking to commission me for an online creative piece – can’t give too much detail at this stage but needless to say I’ll update the blog as and when thing happen.

Staying on the subject of unlikely heroes, I’ve also been working on a couple of new illustrations which I’ll be popping up on the blog over the next few days.

In an act of good will to my fellow man, I thought I’d pop them up on the site for all to use. You never know, they may be just what you need to add that finishing touch to your project.

The zip file includes 14 icons in 3 sizes: 120×120, 64×64 and 40×40. There are icons for: Blogger, Digg, Facebook, last fm, MySpace, Reddit, RSS, StumbleUpon, Technorati, Twitter, Vimeo, WordPress, Yahoo! and YouTube.

Please feel free to use these on both personal and commercial projects.

Download the set