The Upward Path

your message matters

websites

Does your website need a spring clean?

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Here in the UK it feels like we’ve been waiting a long time for spring this year! But now that sunnier days are here, thoughts naturally turn to clearing out the old and bringing in the fresh and new.

Are you looking at your website and thinking it could use a sweep through, but not sure what needs attention? Here’s a quick look at some important things to check.

Change the welcome mat so they know they’re in the right place

When visitors arrive, does the site show them clearly who you are and what they can expect to find inside?

That first screenful is critical in drawing in cautious passers-by, which you do with a combination of things – title, subtitle, the navigation menu text, the page heading, images…

Although that might sound like a lot to think about, the key for most of us is to keep it simple and effective. Try to put yourself in the position of a visitor who doesn’t already know you. Can they see what the name of the site is? If there’s important text or a logo, can they make it out clearly? (For instance, watch out for text on busy background images.)   [Read more…] about Does your website need a spring clean?

4 alarm signals that drive website visitors away (video)

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Hi folks. This one’s a video I shot spontaneously the other day, prompted by the bees flitting between flowers in my garden.

It made me think of web users flitting between sites. We’re all quite skittish and protective of our time and attention, so if your site gives us alarm signals we won’t hang around. I’ve written about this in one of my products. Here’s a condensed version of what those alarm signals are.

(I’m still very much a video learner. So apologies for not zooming in on the bees, and for the muffled sound quality in the first minute.)

 

 

How to get nice spacing round images in WordPress

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When you add images to a post or page using ‘Add Media’, WordPress jams them pretty tight up to the text.

image spacing graphicYou can tell it to align the image left, right or centre, but you can’t control the spacing. You can see how that ends up in the image opposite.

I don’t like that as a piece of visual design, and it’s not the best experience for the reader.

So I’ve adopted a standard operating procedure of setting the spacing manually for each image. Read on to find out how.

Quick notes

Note 1. If you’re comfortable with the idea of going into the files for your theme and altering stylesheets, you can set your own default options for WordPress to use. (Info here if that’s you.) But for most people that’s too hard to work out, and there’s a risk of messing things up. I’ve never been motivated to do it myself.

Note 2. Do try it the standard way without fiddling first, especially if you’re using a purchased theme. It may be that the folks who designed your theme have improved the standard spacing.

Note 3. If you want a text caption displayed with your image, eg for a photo, you might find this technique makes it go a bit weird and it’s easier to rely on default formatting.

Putting on the style

First, add your image via ‘Add Media’ and get it in basically the right place. Then we’ll tweak it so it ends up like the version here, which I hope you can see has more breathing space.

image spacing graphicIn the window where you write your post or page, there are two tabs at the top right: ‘Visual’ and ‘Text’. You’ve probably been working in Visual, which shows an approximation of what the page will look like. For this we need to go into Text.

Text mode shows you the guts of your page. Most of it is the text you’ve typed, but you’ll also see formatting instructions in <angle brackets>. Those are a blend of HTML, which tells the reader’s browser software what things go where, and CSS, which tells it the styles to use when it displays those things – size, colour, alignment and so on.   [Read more…] about How to get nice spacing round images in WordPress

You’ve found your purpose – now how do you show it to people?

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Hole in the wall graphic

I’ve come across loads of people who are helping others find their purpose, their story, their passion, the work they were meant to do or born to do, and so on.

There’s clearly a great hunger for it.

Old stories are breaking down. The world is not the way they told us when we were kids. The tracks we let ourselves be convinced to travel in have become too small. Communication networks tell us of wider perspectives and new adventures. Social straitjackets have loosened.

More and more people feel that calling to reconnect with the fire inside and bring it out to make a difference.

What happens then? You’ve been on a journey and got help along the way and found a bright new framework for your next chapter. You come out the end with a plonk ready to bring your gifts to the world.

How do you do that?   [Read more…] about You’ve found your purpose – now how do you show it to people?

Why web designers suck (and how to spot good ones)

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When I talk to people about their websites, it’s surprising how often they have a story of a poor experience with their web designer.

Surprised at screen graphicSome of them feel unsatisfied with the results, or bruised by the process, but powerless to do anything about it. Granted, those stories may have another side that I don’t hear.

But there are certainly all too many examples of sites that have a design company’s name at the bottom but are doing a poor job for their owners. (Who may not even realise it, assuming the designer has done it the best way.)

It singes my stoat to see good messages getting short-changed. So this post is to help people understand the territory better, hopefully leading to better working relationships and increasingly fab message channels.   [Read more…] about Why web designers suck (and how to spot good ones)

How to make great word graphics for social media sharing

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Word graphics image

Images like the one above are a great way to share little pieces of your message. If you get them right.

You can spread them on social media. They’re like message sweeties that people can share with their own contacts. Images like these are also good for putting in web pages, to show up when people share that page. (And you can’t share a page on Pinterest if it has no images.)

The point of these ‘word graphics’ is to be visually attractive, with a message the reader can take in quickly. Then they can have a smile, or a pause and think, and then carry on with their day. You might even change someone’s life, if they’re in the right place for your message to go in deeply.

A lot of us have discovered tools that make it easy to create these graphics: choosing from a selection of backgrounds and text styles and outputting the final image, without having to use full-blown graphics software. I use an iOS app called Wordswag that someone introduced me to. There are lots of other apps too. Some people use Canva, an online design tool.

But just because it’s easy doesn’t mean the software will automatically make good graphics. That’s down to you.

Remember: attractive, and easy to absorb. If the reader’s brain decides that processing your text will be too much like hard work – or if it threatens to hurt their eyes! – they’ll move on to the next thing and never absorb your little nugget of wisdom.

So here are some tips.   [Read more…] about How to make great word graphics for social media sharing