Every website out there today has a conversion goal, yours may be trying to encourage your users to sign up to your newsletter or buy your product or even just read your blog posts. As you can imagine, many companies spend a vast amount of time coming up with ways to improve their conversions through tweaking their website. In the industry this is termed Conversion Rate Optimazation (CRO). Using split testing on your website as a tool for CRO can help you to easily work out what helps to increase your conversions. The great thing about this is that, unlike many online marketing techniques you don't need to spend loads of money, it simply requires that you be creative and put yourself in your target audiences shoes. There is no golden rule which will lead to instant traffic however…

Ok, not strictly web design. But its a title that has got you a little intrigued hasn't it? And rightly so – its an interesting tale non the less! Let me begin somewhere in the deepest darkest recesses of a Welsh shipping town in the latter half of the 19th century. My great, great grandfather Leonard Hook began the family studio – Hook Signwriting. Specialising in hand painted signage and advertising for local business & the community. Fast forward 120 years and HookSigns are still trading and remains family run. Whilst still retaining the same traditional hand painted techniques that his forefathers have used for generations... But what has this got to do with today's dynamic technology driven creative industry? Surprisingly more than I thought... As a child I…

As regular clients of Design Fusions can probably tell, we have had something of a facelift recently. So let me be the first to welcome you to the all new and improved Design Fusions website. So why did we choose to redesign? And specifically this design? Well, let me begin with a short history lesson... Design Fusions began life as a bold creative initiative sprung from the minds of the design team for a burgeoning web 2.0 start up. And since we conceived Design Fusions its been something of a roller coaster, with us growing rapidly to keep pace with interest & demand. And as our portfolio has grown so have we - not only in confidence, capability and credibility but also ambition. In the last 6 months we have had the privilege to work with some inspiring and high profile…

One of the mosts challenging things when you first start a new company is coming up with an appropriate name. Having a great name can make a huge difference to your company and can add value. Hundred of new companies startup everyday and therefore it has become even more important to make your company stand out from the crowd and your name is a big factor in this. In this article I am going to try and talk you through what I see as the best process for coming up with a great, memorable name. 1. Determine your criteria It is a good idea to set out some clear criteria which your chosen name should adhere to. It is not always possible to achieve all of these but the more the better. You will notice that many big companies do not actually fulfill these criteria, however, I would…

Whenever I get a spare minute here at Design Fusions, I often browse the Internet looking at new site designs. There is often so much new material published each day that it becomes very hard to take it all in. I have recently found that, as a designer, I am often subconsciously influenced by what I have seen on the web. I find that by looking through all of these designs it is a great way to spot new trends on the web. One of my favorite trends at the moment is the crossover between online application design, widget design and website design. It appears to me that many designers have come to realise that a thing or two can be learnt from the usability which is so often built into User Interfaces within online applications and widgets. Many of these techniques have now started to be…

For me, striking a balance between a great website design and seo practicability is one of the biggest headaches I face in the industry. After all, whats the point in spending the time to make a beautiful website that the client and the customer will love, if the potential customers cant find the website in the first place? Search engines such as Google eat content for breakfast, lunch and dinner and if you cant create that magic recipe then your client is quickly going to start knocking on your door. So the million dollar question is how do you strike a perfect balance between beautiful web design and brilliant seo? It may sound like a challenging thing but with a little improvisation its more than possible. Blogs Blogs are a brilliant way to house a whole load of content without…

Having graduated last year with a degree in Communication Design from the University of Portsmouth I experienced a big transition from being a design student to a design professional. I felt that I should pass my experiences onto anyone else who is in or going to be in the same situation. Firstly, I would suggest that having a degree in the field of design is definitely not an essential when it come to finding a job in the design. When I started applying for jobs I quickly learnt that a degree doesn’t count for much, an employer will usually assess you by the quality of your portfolio. I have met many great professional designers who didn’t go to university but are equally skillful as those who did. However, although a degree may not be taken into consideration in your early stages…