Watch Out – Google TV Is Coming
Google TV is coming and it promises, as do most of Google’s products, to be very cool, user friendly and cutting edge. Quality video and quality content is quickly becoming the king of the internet. What is Google TV? Google TV is a new product that will combine your TV, DVR and the internet. Simply put, it will turn your TV into a giant computer screen allowing you to access videos (and the internet) from all over the world!
Here are a few things to know about creating a website optimized for Google TV. Many of these are great things to keep in mind when creating a website for any delivery method. The section on perceived vs. actual performance is spot on.
This information is provided by Google at http://www.google.com/tv/developer/ if you would like to read more about it.
Designing for TV: A Primer
Here are a few tips for those who haven’t designed for TV before. In a television environment, you must:
- Understand that content is king.
- Remember that TV is social. – Offer ways for individuals to use your site or apps in social settings.
- Learn the pros and cons of TV screens and audio.
- Make it easy.
Simplicity above all
Successful TV interfaces are simple in both concept and design. Very simple. Here are some ways to achieve an interface that is easy to understand and to use:
- Identify the vital parts of your interface before you start work. – Group content, controls and interactions by priority.
- Stick with one visible mode of navigation or one information hierarchy.
- Make the primary action reachable in one click.
- Avoid the temptation to use abstract icons.
- Limit vertical scrolling.
Navigation is critical
Getting the navigation right is essential for success. Users will quickly abandon a screen whose navigation frustrates them.
Remote controls, arrow keys, and directional pads
All input devices for Google TV will have QWERTY keyboards, but users will often navigate using a directional pad. Like remote controls, these limit the navigation model to up, down, left, right, and enter.
Users need interactions that are fast and easy to do—at a distance, with one hand, in the dark. When designing a navigation scheme:
Mouse navigation
On a TV screen, the mouse moves a pointer that is small and far away from the user. Mouse control is difficult.
To assist your users:
- Make each click target (link, button, and the like) large with ample padding for an expanded target area.
- Add a hover state to links and buttons to highlight when the pointer has hit its target.
A new kind of screen
TV screens and computer screens differ in canvas size, aspect ratio, safe areas, resolution, cropping, and pixel shape.
When designing for TV screens, you should:
- Avoid highly saturated and very bright colors.
- Make UI elements slightly larger, specifically:
- Make buttons and other click targets larger.
- Take advantage of the wide screen.
- Design for 1280×720 and 1920×1080 resolutions.
- 1280×720 resolution. Recommended width is 1152×648.
- 1920×1080 resolution. Recommended width is 1728×972.
If you must choose one resolution, design for 720p resolution and Google TV will scale it up on 1080p resolution.
You can specify a property that controls the width of the page in your CSS.
Color
TV screens have higher contrast and saturation levels than computer monitors. Follow these guidelines when working with solid colors:
- Use pure white (#FFFFFF) sparingly. Pure whites cause vibrancy or image ghosting in TV displays. Instead use #F1F1F1 or 240/240/240 (RGB).
- Bright whites, reds, and oranges cause particularly bad distortion.
Even TV needs text
For TV, avoid lightweight fonts or fonts with both very narrow and broad strokes. Use simply constructed sans serif fonts and apply anti-aliasing to increase readability.
- Limit each paragraph to no more than 90 words.
- Break text into small chunks that can be read at a glance.
- Keep line length at about 5–7 words per line. Never go shorter than 3 or longer than 12.
- Remember that light text on a dark background is slightly easier to read on TV (compared to dark text on a light background).
- Target body text to be around 21pt on 720p and 28pt on 1080p.
- Don’t use any text smaller than 18pt on 720p and 24pt on 1080p.
- Add more leading (larger line spacing) for onscreen text than print text.
Sound matters
Google TV will often be connected to the best speakers in the household. Sound is not disruptive on TV (as it often is on a computer), So think about ways to use sound in your interface.
Keep in mind:
- Sounds should be appropriate to the living room environment.
- By default, the volume should be low.
- Some users will be listening to music from a player application running in the background. Provide a simple way to mute your website or application, and don’t make interactions entirely dependent on audio cues.
Flash on Google TV
Google TV is capable of playing 720p and 1080p Flash videos. For best performance:
- Avoid adding continuous-playing, Flash-based banner or sidebar ads on a page that includes a video. If you cannot avoid such ads, unload or stop them when a user starts watching the primary video or goes to full screen.
- To ensure a smooth video-watching experience, make sure your content uses only one instance of the media player at a time.
- Handle errors or crashes gracefully with proper recovery messaging.
Perceived vs. actual performance
Users are the ultimate judges of whether your application performs well. Developers may measure application performance in terms of how long certain operations take or how many instances of objects are created. However, those metrics aren’t important to end users. Sometimes users measure performance by different criteria. For example, does the application operate quickly and smoothly, and respond quickly to input? Does it have a negative effect on the performance of the system as a whole?
Ask yourself the following questions to measure perceived performance:
- Are animations smooth or choppy?
- Does video content look smooth or choppy?
- Do audio clips play continuously, or do they pause and resume?
- Does the window flicker or turn blank during long operations?
- When you type, does the text input keep up or lag behind?
- If you click, does something happen immediately, or is there a delay?
- Do other applications respond poorly when the application is running?
The distinction between perceived performance and actual performance is important. The way to achieve the best perceived performance isn’t always the same as the way to get the absolute fastest performance. Make sure your application never executes So much code that the runtime isn’t able to frequently update the screen and gather user input. In some cases, achieving this balance involves dividing up a program task into parts So that, between parts, the runtime updates the screen.
eye9 Design…Your Denver Web Design Company!
HTML sites…Dying On The Vine
HTML is sooooo 1990’s. The days of having your website online, with the same content, images, thoughts and videos are over. Making website changes, being fluid to your business’ changes and creating your brand has everything to do with a dynamic website, not boring HTML. Our Denver Web Design customers know, as do our out of state and international customers, CMS is the only way to roll.
OK…so we are overdramatizing it, we know. The fact is, to be “in the game” on the internet and to compete in your markets you have to have a dynamic website; enter the CMS (content management system). Anyone who can use facebook or type a word document can update a website. A properly built CMS like WordPress, Joomla or FireAnt can empower you to be your own webmaster.
CMS websites are the best choice for businesses that require lot of changes. We also believe if your site has more than 5-7 pages you should consider using a CMS. Don’t all websites have more than 5-7 pages? Yep…and why we rarely build HTML only sites.
- Add, remove and edit web pages
- Easily upload images and videos
- Host Fascinating Web Design Blogs =)
- Sell products
- Clean the house (wishful thinking)
- Easy-t0-use
- Make changes at 2am in your PJs
- The list goes on and on!
When should I use HTML? Well it is the exception to the rule for sure. 99% of eye9 Design’s websites are CMS or ecommerce websites. HTML sites are valuable for quick micro sites that serve a very specific brand or advertising purpose. HTML websites are really a thing of the past and before long will hold their place in history next to the rotary phone.
eye9 Design is a leading Denver Web Design Firm providing web development and Colorado SEO.
Focusing on Google still the best bet for SEO
Google continues to gain market share and widen its lead against other search engines, as reported in PC World .
Google was used 63 percent of the time in August, compared to 61.9 percent in July, according to figures released Friday by comScore , which tracks online trends.
Yahoo came in second in August at 19.6 percent, down .9 percent from July. Microsoft garnered 8.3 percent of traffic in August, down .6 percent from a month prior.
With our seo optimization process we focus on getting your website ranked in Google’s search results. These techniques will still allow you to gain rankings in the other search engines as well. However, Google’s dominance makes it clear that they are still the best bet.
Which Content Management System is the best?: CMS Series part 3 of 3
In part 1 of this series we answered the question “What is a Content Management System? ” In part 2 we covered “Why you need a Content Management System .” Now we are looking at a question we are asked frequently: “Which content management system is the best?”
It’s a bit like asking “what is the best hammer for me?” Well, what are you going to be doing with that hammer? Are you framing out a two story house or putting up a picture frame? Those are two very different tasks, and two hammers that would be a “best fit.”
There are two main kinds of CMS: open source and custom. Both allow you to easily manage content, media, and users. Both are stable, secure, and scalable for future growth. However, each have their benefits and drawbacks:
Open Source CMS
- Definition: software created by a community of developers , free to use and adapt to your purposes
- Benefits: extensive documentation, countless modules, easy to find developers
- Drawbacks: website pages load slower (more queries), one size fits all approach limits customization, complicated administration area includes unused features
- Options: Joomla, Drupal, Wordpress (all on PHP)
Custom
- Definition: CMS which is constructed around your specific task, workflow, or technology requirements
- Benefits: faster page loads (fewer queries), everything you want and nothing you do not
- Drawbacks: no extra features
- Options: Keep it Simple CMS
What feature or characteristic is most important to you?
- If you want open source software, extensive documentation, a community of developers: Drupal or Joomla
- If you want the site completely customized to your workflow, quick loading pages for visitors: KIS
eye9 Design is a Colorado web design company providing website design and web development services to clients in the Denver metro area and across the nation.
What is a Content Management System: CMS Series Part 1 of 3
First off, what is a content management system (CMS)? As the name implies, a CMS is a tool that allows you to manage your own website without any design or development experience. There are a number of great CMS, and we build your website on top of this platform so you can update pages, menus, pictures, users, and more.
Sometimes metaphors are helpful to explain concepts more clearly. Let’s say you need to get from Denver to Phoenix, so you need a car. Toyota has spent millions of dollars in R&D to make sure the car is dependable, efficient, and easy to drive. You may never understand the principles of aerodynamics or torque. However, if you can push the gas pedal (and the brake!) and steer the car, you do not need to understand all that.
Just like your investment in a car allows you the benefit of easy transportation, a content management system allows you to manage a website without any programming knowledge. Like Toyota, developers have spent countless hours developing dependable, efficient CMS that are easy to use. Similar to the car example above, you do not need to understand the technical principles behind the tool. You just need to know how type some text, insert a picture, or upload a file…basic tasks you likely perform every day on your PC!
Now that you know what a CMS is, check out part 2 of this series: Why you need a content management system .
eye9 Design is a leading Denver design firm .
Our SEO optimization philosophy: proven, tested techniques
There is, unfortunately, alot of snake oil in search engine optimization (SEO). We only use proven, tested techniques. Effective SEO requires both on-page and off-page optimization. Search engines look for keyword dense content and tags (on-page), but even more so to how many sites are linking to yours (off-page).
A consortium of the two dozen leading SEO professionals ranked the 10 most important Google ranking factors . Here they are, with on-page factors in bold , and off-page factors in italics.
- Keyword Use in Title Tag
- Anchor Text of Inbound Link
- Global Link Popularity of Site
- Age of Site (neither on-page or off-page)
- Link Popularity within the Site’s Internal Link Structure
- Topical Relevance of Inbound Links to site
- Link Popularity of Site in Topical Community
- Keyword Use in Body Text
- Global Link Popularity of Linking Page
- Topical Relationship of Linking Page
We address all of these factors thoroughly with our complete seo optimization packages . Contact us today about search engine optimization for your website.
eye9 Design is a leading Colorado SEO company providing effective seo optimization services.
Size matters: What screen resolution should my website be designed for?
The wild world of web design quickly changes with the evolution of the hardware and software it runs on. A five year old car still has a long life ahead, while a five year old website is long past its prime.
One of the most significant hardware changes in the last 5 years is the ever-increasing screen resolution (measured in pixels, such as 800 pixels wide by 600 pixels high). Big, bulky CRT monitors have given way to sleek, thin flat-panel LCD’s . With this transition, screen resolutions have also changed, most notably the emergence of 1024×768 and the disappearance of 800×600.
W3C Schools, part of the main international web standards organization (W3C) , reported that in 2003 almost half of its visitors were on the 800×600 screen resolution. That number has now dropped to 8%. The statistics for our website for 2008 put the number even lower at 2%.
Since both of the above statistics are for sites in the web design industry, I looked at the statistics for 2008 for several of our clients in a variety of industries
- Printing company for financial industry: 3%
- Non-profit serving the disabled: 6%
- Business management consulting firm: 3%
- Marine exploration company: 6%
Why is this important? Size matters because increased website widths allow for the user to see more content without scrolling down the page. As you can see above, throughout a variety of industries the 800×600 screen resolution is fading into obscurity. We recommend the 1024×768 resolution to all our web design and website development clients in order to “future-proof” the sites as much as possible.
Are there larger screen resolutions coming? Of course! In fact, some 70% of our visitors have screen resolutions greater than (and not equal to) 1024×768. However, on other site reports we looked at 1024×768 is as much as half of the traffic and this resolution does not show signs of disappearing soon.
This Denver design firm calls the browser wars in favor of 1024×768!
What is good design worth?
In today’s business world, websites are no longer in the periphery. Businesses are using their websites as the cornerstone of their marketing efforts, even replacing brick and mortar stores.
So it begs the question…what is good design worth? What would you pay for a website that attracts new visitors, reflects your company’s unique values, and converts visitors into customers?
Here is what one customer had to say about what our design means to her small business.
The most impressive thing about working with eye9 is their ability to respond to my requests and develop a site based on my personal design tastes. Not only is the site aestheically pleasing, but it also suits the needs of my small business
Keri Welch, MementobyKeri.com
Your Colorado web design company – Recent work
eye9 Design is a leading Colorado web design company that provides…well, let’s let our clients do the talking.
When I began working with eye9 Design I had a pretty specific idea in mind. In the end, they far exceeded my expectations. People are amazed when they look at the site! Thank you for working so hard to perfect our website. You guys rock!
Jessica Yost, T. Garrett Construction
As one of the leading Colorado web design companies, our process-driven design achieves results every time. We start by listening to your needs, and have you fill out a web design questionnaire that gets at the purpose of the website, and who you are trying to reach. It also helps understand your website design preferences, so that we start off the project in the right direction.
Links, links, links: why links are essential in SEO
Successful search engine optimization strategy has two prongs: on-page and off-page optimization. On-page optimization involves a competitive keyword analysis identifying which keywords your target audience is using, and which keywords you can best compete for. We then implement those keywords throughout your title tag, content, file names, and other meta tags.
Off-page optimization is gathering quality links to your website using those same keywords in the link (anchor) text. This step is often neglected by many clients we speak with. However, off-page optimization is as important as on-page, if not more so. The quality and quantity of links from external websites, called “inbound links,” is paramount. If you look at the SEO industry consensus, the half of the to 10 factors have to do with inbound links.
Here is practical advice on how to gather internal links
- Send individually addressed emails to your colleagues, friends, vendors, and clients. Let them know about your newly optimized site, and ask them if they would link to your site.
- Tell them what you would like the link to say. This is extremely important. Let’s say one of your top keywords is “Denver ski shop.” When you ask your friends to link to your site, say: “The words used in the link itself are important to search engines because indicates what my site is about. So please use the phrase ‘Denver ski shop’ as the link to my site http://www.example.com.”
- As a general rule, avoid link farms and paid links. Natural links from colleagues and clients are more…well, natural. Search engines are always tweaking their results to reward real, natural, quality links.
- Utilize our link building services: we provide link building services to our clients through our partnership with one of the top 10 link building companies in the world. Your links are obtained from the right partners based on a thorough research of your competitors and potential business market space. We also keep in mind these quality guidelines
- No Frame Sites
- No Java script pages
- No link farms
- No redirected sites
- No sub-domain sites
- Keywords in anchor text
This comprehensive, two-pronged approach has helped us get a variety of clients and keywords into the top ten of Google search engine results pages. Contact us today about optimizing your site for maximum search engine penetration.
eye9 Design is a leading Denver, Colorado SEO company providing affordable web site search engine optimization to clients across the nation.
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