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Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is concerned with helping to raise your website on a list of returned results when people perform a search for your business. In other words, when customers search on Google for a business like yours, how far down the list will your business appear? The closer to the top, the more likely potential customers are to visit your website. Read more »

Whether you’re an employee or a consultant, it sometimes falls to you to drag an organization into the 21st century—and that often means convincing a company to adopt social media. Someone might even be asking you about some new web tool their son or daughter is using.

“Any individual or organization that sells products or offers services should value open communication as a goal. If your client or company does not have an existing communications plan, or even a mission statement that includes nods to openness or transparency, a social media strategy might be a good starting point for developing one.” Read more »

Small companies should consider outsourcing the facilitation of their usability testing projects.  On the surface, it makes sense to have a designer/developer who has a deep understanding of the project be in charge of usability testing, but in fact this can cause serious problems. Read more »

In a recent blog post discussing the importance of link building for search engine optimization, I asked people to share how they build links to their website. I recommend you go read the responses. I also recommend you read that article so you know how to construct inbound links so they affect your search rankings for individual keywords that you want to rank for. Read more »

If you ask most Web developers about Section 508 they will respond with something about their site being accessible to the blind. Most people don’t realize that 508-accessibility is not just about making Web sites accessible to the blind. Section 508 is about removing barriers and making Web site information accessible and usable to all. Read more »

With a new year on the horizon, it’s time to pack away the old, worn web designs and prepare for the brave, new face of tomorrow. Although trends don’t start and stop on January 1st, there is a definite shift from what we craved at the beginning of the year to what we are seeking tutorials for at the end of the year. Most of the time, this shift is subtle. It’s a perfection or re-interpretation of a currently hot trend. Trends help us evolve as designers. As we master the skills of design aesthetic, we continue to push forward to what’s next or what needs to be fully discovered. Read more »

A user’s perception of a Web site can evoke a wide range of emotions and attitudes.  These emotions and perceptions impact the user’s attitude towards the Web site’s content, advertised products, company, credibility and site usability.

The design and presentation of a Web site is strongly visual and users are known to make aesthetic judgments of a site very quickly. As the Web site likeability and credibility increases so does the likelihood of purchasing from the site. Since the site’s aesthetics can influence brand perception and credibility, the importance of design and color treatments must be considered. Read more »

As many of you well know, designing a Web site can be very difficult. Part of that difficulty is in creating an information architecture that represents your content and labeling the links to make that content easy to find.
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Your website is designed, the CMS works, content has been added and the client is happy. It’s time to take the website live. Or is it? When launching a website, you can often forget a number of things in your eagerness to make it live, so it’s useful to have a checklist to look through as you make your final touches and before you announce your website to the world.

This article reviews some important and necessary checks that web-sites should be checked against before the official launch — little details are often forgotten or ignored, but – if done in time – may sum up to an overall greater user experience and avoid unnecessary costs after the official site release. Read more »

A group of students in China produced the image montage software, and had the following to say about it:

We present a system that composes a realistic picture from a simple freehand sketch annotated with text labels. The composed picture is generated by seamlessly stitching several photographs in agreement with the sketch and text labels; these are found by searching the Internet. Read more »

Work with a reliable web-design company that can help you meet current and future needs.
by Michel Ann Sharritt

People are often in a rush to get something, anything, up on the Internet. Because the average business owner is inexperienced at web design and related terminology, website companies that are anxious to offer a cheap, yet profitable (to them) service, bring up a website on the Internet that may or may not help the client generate additional revenue…the goal of commercial websites. Read more »

Advertising for a  business in this economy can be tricky. More and more I find myself helping local businesses optimize their companies for local search exposure. One item that really grabs the attention is the Google Map listing using the Google Local Business Center. Read more »

Users should not have to think too hard when they are using your website. They should not have to refer to help screens and they shouldn’t be made to feel stupid. Simply by observing your customers you can avoid this. Read more »

A landing page is a website page that is created for one purpose – to persuade the site visitor to convert into a customer by making a sale, completing a form (thereby becoming a qualified lead), signing up for a newsletter, etc.

We provide this landing page quick reference so you can pull it out every time you are creating a persuasive landing page. It is divided into 4 sections and is intended to be an all-inclusive tip sheet. Read more »

To completely answer the question ‘How much should a web site cost’ it is useful to review specific Web design and web site development projects. This is a guideline from the National Web Design Association. (These are not our prices, our prices are much lower than the national standard) Read more »

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Thank you for attending today’s webinar. Usually I would post questions here but we didn’t have any today. So instead I will be posting our contact information as I could not show this slide in today’s webinar. Read more »

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Here are all of the questions from Friday’s webinar. The low number of questions leads me to believe I answered most of your questions during the session. If you missed Friday’s webinar or would like to watch it again please visit:

http://www.situatedresearch.com/webinars/#recordings Read more »

User-Centered Design

User-centered design (UCD) is an approach for employing usability. It is a structured product development methodology that involves users throughout all stages of Web site development, in order to create a Web site that meets users’ needs. This approach considers an organization’s business objectives and the user’s needs, limitations, and preferences. Read more »

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Here are the questions that I received today during the webinar. If you missed the webinar please visit our homepage on our company website to view the recording at:

http://www.situatedresearch.com/webinars/#recordings Read more »

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Here are the questions that I received today during the webinar. If you missed the webinar please visit our homepage on our company website to view the recording at:

http://www.situatedresearch.com/webinars/#recordings Read more »

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Here are the questions and answers from May 22 Webinar

Social Networking: How to Get Started Read more »

Many small businesses are trying to get a good deal on their web design needs. A good deal does come with a huge price tag. Many web design companies simply want to collect a big check in order to slap something up on the Internet for you. Read more »

As more and more customers rely on Internet search engines and online directories to locate sources of products and services, Web sites are increasingly becoming a ‘must’ for all types of small businesses. But it’s not enough to simply have a presence on the Web.  Unless your site is set up with the customer’s needs in mind, it may be doing very little to benefit your business.  Read more »

Situated learning focuses on learning in situ, in the environment or context for which that knowledge applies. At Situated Research, we focus on examining technology in the actual environment in which it is used, in order to uncover user practices and behaviors that suggest ways in which technology is expected to behave. Read more »