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Tag: web designing

Important Keyboard Shortcuts of Photoshop CS6 – Mac

The entire population is definitely not a bunch of  Windows users, and that is a fact. For those you opted to buy Mac Book or Mac machine, they’ve lavishly knocked on the gates of the walled garden of Mac and find it much comfortable in that environment. The thing is, aside from default applications, shortcut keys, and the operating system itself, Mac holds a different keyboard shortcut for Photoshop.

It is still vivid to me when I had my first encounter with a Mac laptop. It felt so foreign yet inviting. The interface is very endearing and it makes you want to work with it. But as I had my hands on it, did some typing, and executed the same keyboard shortcuts that I knew from using applications from Windows — I was terrified! There are key combinations that set it apart from Windows, and not knowing it felt embarrassing and frustrating for someone who has been accustomed to the fast and efficient use of keyboard shortcuts for years.

To make it easier for Mac users (which I am definitely not) who are brand loyalists, below is a rendition of our previous cheat sheet just for CS6 just for Mac users who are heavily reliant on graphic design.

 

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The current playing field among brands and business nowadays is more focused on content marketing. It is starting to be a core marketing strategy for both consumer goods, durables, and even services. And If you are looking for help with your content marketing, from write-ups to graphic design, call us and we’ll configure how to do it for you. All you need is to click the button below or use our contact details below.

Emails: [email protected]/ [email protected]/ [email protected] / [email protected]

Telephone numbers: (02) 490-0000, 01, 03 or at (02) 959-4807

Mobile number: (+63) 917-8476005

Important key board shortcuts of Photoshop CS6 – Windows

 

Graphic designing is a tough job. The process of carefully choosing the right imagery to be combined with tasteful design styles to summarize the entire idea in a single imaging takes a lot of work. This job requires a superior talent for design, substantial skills in manipulation images and design, and mastery of the editing software to produce a quality output.

However, in today’s competitive age where marketing relies mainly on quality content to effectively send the right message to the right market at the right time, efficiency in doing graphic design is the new battle ground. No matter how compelling the content is, if it was too late a hero, it is not effective anymore.

Content are now like news; they have expirations too. And usually, the expire as fast as the news. The next day, you’ll see a new trending content, and if you can speed up your content production, you’ll lose.

To make sure that your creatives can work efficiently using their well-loved Photoshop software below is a helpful cheat sheet of keyboard shortcuts to cut every additional second in every click and navigation in Photoshop. By the way, this is a window’s version.

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If you are looking for help with your content marketing, from write-ups to graphic design, call us and we’ll configure how to do it for you. All you need is to click the button below or use our contact details below.

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Emails: [email protected]/ [email protected]/ [email protected] / [email protected]

Telephone numbers: (02) 490-0000, 01, 03 or at (02) 959-4807

Mobile number: (+63) 917-8476005

Website Credibility Signals You Need to Have

A website is considered the most important online asset for businesses and organizations. But with more than 1.2 billion published websites, how can you tell your target audiences that your website (which represents your business) is credible?

In marketing, despite having a remarkable product or service, if your website doesn’t convey the superiority of your business, then there will be a disconnection between your brand and your market.

To clearly understand the credibility signals online audience look on a website below are the critical factors that you should look out for:

  • Image of the business owner

One of the ultimate trust signals that will give credibility to your website is an image of the owner in about us section of the website. No matter how awkward and uncomfortable for business owners like you, putting your image will boost your website’s credibility.

  • Thorough contact information

One thing is common among online users nowadays – and that is getting the information they need in just a few steps and few clicks. To be able to increase your website’s credibility you should include all contact information that your audience or your market needs to know to reach you. And that is not just putting them on the website, but also making easy for your audience to see it.

related:  Usual Mistakes SMEs Do with Their Website

  • Testimonies

Nothing is more convincing than good words from people who have tried your products or services. People love a recommendation from people that are not part of a business organization. Their recommendations are highly valued as they had a first-hand experience with your brand. Now, putting the most compelling and believable testimonials from your current and past clients will surely help in building your website’s credibility.

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  • Social Links

Another means of validation of the credibility and also the legitimacy of your website is through social links. As the online community gravitates towards socials, they are expecting a consistency in your brand from the web to socials.

  • Web design, Branding and Information Architecture

This one is a big chunk to swallow for beginners as this includes three dimensions that work as one. All three are part of the improving user experience. A good branding yields a comprehensive guideline that can be used to create a remarkable web design.

Also, while doing the design, the information architecture (or the correct arrangement and careful selection of content to be included) of the website is also a crucial factor in giving a better user experience. It is a must that you need to make highly sought information easily accessible to your visitors, and that is part of a good information architecture.

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Bottom-line is, your website is the face of your business online. Making sure that it represents your brand well, and that it looks completely credible is essential in making your online marketing a success.

For inquiries about website revamp, develop and design, you can contact iManila at (02) 490-000. You can also send an email via [email protected] or via [email protected].

Things To Know Before Running an AdWords Text Ad

There will come a day when all businesses in the Philippines will shift online. And as of today, there’s a big chance that a sales executive will knock on your door and tell you, “Ma’am/Sir you need to advertise your business online, it’s the best way for you to get noticed without a big budget.”

What comes after are the feelings of amazement and confusion. Questions like, “Does it really work? Will it really work for my business? Do I need to allot more budget? How will I know if I am getting more from it?”

I am pretty sure that these are the things that you have in mind and you’re probably seeking for someone to guide you in making a decision whether to go or not.

At iManila, we encourage you to go for it. However, we first make sure that our prospective clients know the following things before we actually proceed to do the Google Search Ads for them.

  • First Mandatory: Website

One of the primary goals of a Google Ad is to bring web traffic through web clicks. The ads serve as a portal to bring them to a website of the client. If the client doesn’t have a website, we advise them to consider having one before we proceed with the ads.

A website serves as a primary online contact point of any online searchers to a prospective firm or business. The website must contain all vital information about the business including all contact numbers, email addresses, and physical address. We also highly recommend that the website contains all the offerings be it products or services.

Having a Website is NOT Enough

The website is mandatory but that doesn’t mean that having one is the end of it all. A website should be regularly updated. It should be well-designed and easy to navigate; otherwise, visitors will just bounce off.

The experience visitors have with a website is what matters to Google. If visitors are having a hard finding what they need to see on your website, then that means that the website is not well-made or it lacks content and substance. In return, Google will remove you from ranking high in the Google Search Engine Results Page, and it can also affect your ad rank in Google ads.

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  •  Second Mandatory: Research

We ask our clients if they have an accurate knowledge and sharp business intelligence about their competitors and their industry. This is for them to brief us about their positioning, prices and same with their competitors. If they don’t have one, we do some research to better understand their business and the competition within the industry.

What do we mean by competition?

We do not limit our research to offline must-knows such as location, prices, and their offerings. We also try running some keywords about the business and see if they are doing Google Ads as well. This will help us determine how tight it will get for our prospective clients should they push through with the service. And that’s how we adjust in terms of budget suggestion, keywords and even the landing pages of their ads.

  • Third Mandatory: Landing Page

A landing page is a specific page in the website that serves as a catch basin of incoming traffic from the Google Ads. It is the first page that they will see, hence the importance of having a well-designed and well-written one.

A landing page should be well-made and simple to understand. Moreover, it needs to have one explicit and achievable goal. Goals could be sign-ups, purchases or downloads. These landing pages offer valuable materials that are needed to be a downloaded from a portal going to an e-commerce page to convert them into a client.

What we always tell our clients is: Landing pages should contain a relevant and easy to understand core message. It either instructs to download, persuades to buy or begs for sign-ups.

  • Fourth Mandatory: Budget

Launching an ad means you are willing to pay a certain amount to post the ad. The same goes with Google Ad. It is universal for all ad platforms (both online and traditional) that an ad budget is required.

The difference between Google and other online platforms is that you have the power to dictate what budget works for you, unlike the traditional ones.

Fifth Mandatory: Understanding the Idea of the Bidding Scheme and PPC

Google Ads are created to operate on a specific model which is the pay-per-click type. Pay-per-click or PPC means that the advertiser gets charged for every click. If there are fewer clicks, there will be fewer charges as well. However, if there are a greater number of clicks, the higher is the possibility of spending your maximum allocated budget.

The bidding scheme, on the other hand, pertains to who gets the top spot in the allocated areas on the first page of Google based on the willingness to spend greater amount. However, Google rationalizes their bidding rules by incorporation of a quality score. Those advertisers whose ads obtain a high-quality score gets the spots.

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How to Achieve Better Quality Score?

Quality scores of Google ads are computed using the following elements:

  • Bid – refers to the amount the advertiser is willing to spend
  • Ad Relevance – The resonance of the ad message to the online researchers. It is sometimes evaluated by Click-through rate. Click-through rate is the number of clicks your ad gets over the number of times it was shown by Google.
  • Landing Page experience – The behavior of the visitors as they land on your page. The higher the bounce (quick and unexpected movement of visitors out of the website) rate is considered as bad landing page experience.

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As mentioned from the items above, clients need to make sure that they have everything in their arsenal before actually going for a Google ad – and one of those is having a well-made website with compelling landing pages.

Taking into considerations the ‘mandatories’ above will result in a higher success rate when doing the Google ad.

For further questions and inquiries about the Google Ad or with Website Development and revamp. Contact us at (02) 490-0000 or send us an email at [email protected].

 

 

Don’t be a Scope Creep: Defining website project scope well

 

Having a physical store or an office is not enough these days as businesses move online at a faster rate. This prevailing business diaspora has made the website an in-demand business tool for most businesses who can afford to have one. But the usual pitfall of businesses wanting to have a website is that most business owners think that having one is just like setting up a social media page. Little do they know that a website is entirely a different story.

Like any other projects, doing a website isn’t just about telling your business objectives and showing your peg design, then that’s it. Many project owners, who are usually also the business owners, think that a little chit-chat with the provider is enough to keep the ball rolling. This is the most common misconception that brings a lot of confusion and finger-pointing between providers and project owners.

Now, the truth about having a website is, starting one needs a lot of preparations on the project owner’s side. And preparation usually includes extensive consolidation and finalization of the content that you need. The content should be aligned with your business objectives. Now, to give you an idea on what to do, what follows are things you should consolidate and finalize before sending out a project brief (or Terms of Reference)

  • Relax

Do not overwhelm yourselves with the ‘what ifs’. Focus on the important things that you think the website should address. Is your website merely informative and will serve as a bulletin about your company’s progress and new offerings? Or do you envisioned it to be more than that? Think clear about that kind of things – BUT, do not overthink.

Overthinking is like a last-minute packing of your suitcase. Believe me, you’ll end up having excess baggage which you won’t like.

  • Clearly define your objectives

All projects begin with series of objectives; otherwise, what’s the point of doing so, right? On a website context, the business objectives always serve as the cornerstone of your website. The design, the content choices, the content architecture, and functionalities are all anchored to your objectives.

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  • Keep the non-negotiables and weed out the wish lists.

Drafting the scope and the brief for your website project is like making a list of the things you need to buy for your new house. Certainly, not all of things you want can be bought all at the same time. You can proceed with the essentials first, then buy the other stuff when the time is right.

The same thing goes for the website. You should always begin with the aspects that matter most to your websites like products and services page, and the compelling story about your company.

Fancying some cool transitions and functionalities? Or maybe drooling over the e-commerce module? Stop right there! Think again. Is this something that you really need to up on your website? If YES, then write it down and explain briefly the rationale of this element in your website.

When you’re done, go through it again. Does including it make any sense to your business and urgency? If it doesn’t, then weed it out.

  • Coordinate with other stakeholders or business unit people

The scope of your project should include all-encompassing business objectives from various business units. It shouldn’t just include yours as the project proponent, but also the other project owners. Get their feedback and seek what they intend to include or remove from the initial scope. Set up a meeting or a brainstorming session if you need to. That will be helpful in trimming down the scope to the most important ones and to keep the objectivity in the brief.

  • Make it official

Brainstorming is not the end of the line for the brief. Make sure all key people involved in the planning – even those who will benefit from it – are acknowledged with all indicated items.

This will also help the project proponent avoid blaming and finger-pointing internally.

  • Oops, make sure you are ready with the materials.

This is what most project owners and proponents tend to overlook – securing materials to be uploaded such as service/product specs sheets, images, and articles. They think that all of these should be under the website developer and provider. In most cases, it isn’t.  Clients provide content and other materials necessary for the success of the website.

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As a matter of fact, 75% of website project delay is attributed to insufficient materials for uploading or the lack thereof.

If you do not have these materials, web development companies like iManila provide content writing service for an additional cost. In some cases, even photo shoots can be provided too. However, like content writing, it comes with a premium cost.

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Nothing beats a well-written website brief. It is helpful for both the developer and the project owner to track the progress of the development. Also, it will serve as a binding document to check if everything in the website is well-delivered. After all, a happy developer has an equally fulfilled client (project owner).

Thinking of putting up a website? Or perhaps a revamp? Leave it to us! We’ll make sure you’ll get the website that you want. Just shoot us an email containing your project scope at [email protected] or call us at (02) 565-4064 to schedule a face-to-face meeting.

 

Web Design Crystal Ball for 2017

 

Since the Chinese New Year is nearly approaching, it is the best time to rub the 2017 crystal ball for web design.  Know what design trends to follow and what to leave behind the past year. Here are some web design guides and predictions to consider this 2017.

So long, stock photos!

Stock photos are the heroine of web design — a few clicks away ready to save websites from looking all dull. However, designers are starting to give unique visualization to each website now, emphasizing the individual characters through personalized website photos. The result? Lesser use of online professional curated images. This is a great way to drift brands away from its competitors’ branding direction, defying web design resemblances.

Voluptuous fonts call for a revival

Web designers are expected to use bigger and bolder typography fonts this year. Aesthetically speaking, bigger font size balances the minimalist web design trend that is continuously rising in the design circle. Doing so also gives users a not-so-much and a not-so-less perspective. In the digital marketing scene, bolder font style instantly catches the eyes of website visitors. This leads visitors to the information that brands intend. Double-purpose, yes.

 One vibrant color palette, to-go!

Bid goodbye to the basic colors the web visitors have been seeing for a couple of years. Defy color blandness. Go for the extremes. 2017 demands braver designs that keep the minimalist look buzzing. Website elements with vibrant colors equalize the UI’s unfussy layout. Perfect combo, ha!

Think motion pictures

Animations and videos will seem to reign this year. With more and more tech trends rising online such as live streaming, boomerangs, GIFs and VRs, 2017 is going to be a very interactive year for web designers and web developers. More than being interactive, videos and animations are indeed more appealing to users. These media narrate. These provide stories that make the users enjoy and stay longer on websites.

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Design is subjective. What may look pleasing to one may not look pleasing to others. However, web designs are not just created for the satisfaction of the brand owner, but for the eyes of its market, of its website visitors, above all. And like crystal ball results, these up and coming web design trends may or may not work on a specific brand. Some of it may be of help yet some may overkill the UI. That’s why iManila has been here for more than two decades – to guide the brands what elements to integrate in their websites. Expect it strategically done without compromising the design. Learn from the best, reach iManila now for a free consultation.

Why You Should Have a Website Revamp This 2017

 

Change is inescapable and life fads transform before we actually know it. Yet, the choices we have are… Uhm, no. We have no choices but to cope.  To cope for our own sake.  Like how we choose to cope up with that one powerful thing that consumes our lives – technology. Those technology-based techniques we used three to four years ago are now considered vintage, and as humans who couldn’t afford to be left out of the trends, we should always be on our feet to keep up with the coming changes.

Alright, let’s get to the point. We here at iManila deem to give you an eye-opening tip for your business, and specifically, your website. To cut to the chase, we highly recommend a website revamp for your business this 2017, and here are the reasons why you should definitely do it.

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Your website design is so ancient it could pass as an artifact in the National Museum.

The first time you launched your website ages ago, yeah, you were the cool one. The vivid color scheme, screaming bold typographies, text-heavy first fold, and pop-ups. You certainly lead the game. But not today. Not in this period of minimalism and simplicity. Web visitors prefer seeing clutter-free websites. They need information. You must provide it to them in the easiest way that their eyes could see and their mind could understand. You know the old saying that simplicity is beauty? It applies. So, a website revamp will definitely be ideal.

Your website lacks conversions like an unrequited love.

One of the reasons why websites are created is to be a profitable online medium for businesses. Why spend money if it won’t deliver results, right? So, if you want conversions, think if your website really deserves any. Does it contain high-quality photos? Does it have compelling content? Is it easy to navigate? Whether it’s for brand awareness or leads generation, you have to determine what your website goals are for you to measure conversions.

Your website has to move-on from the desktop era.

Mobile usage increases each day. Even ten-year-olds and people in their sixties are part of the increasing statistics, causing the unstoppable growth of mobile browsing. Given this, you have to go with the trend and make your website mobile-friendly. Getting a website revamp to have a mobile-responsive web design automatically adjusts your website interface from desktop to mobile, viz. Meaning, whatever device you are using, you can still view the site as it is. No need to zoom it in or out just to read the text properly.

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Your website couldn’t even get awards or nominations for the SEO-friendly website of the year.

You have probably encountered the term Search Engine Optimization once in your life. But, have you considered applying this modern marketing tactic for your business? If not yet, you better do so. You can start by redesigning your website first. Good ranking in search engines is a result of a good integration of meta tags, title headers, compelling content, AND great website design. These strategies always work BEST together.

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Revamping your website is not just a luxurious gesture, but more of a necessity. A need. A must. Whatever term you use, you just got to do it for your business, for your market, for you – as it mirrors the quality of your service and products digitally.