Art Archives | A Cultivated Mindset

Why Everybody Should Care About Website Maintenance

January 2, 2021 in Art, Education, how to

In the early days of the internet, website maintenance isn’t a concern. All you have to do is hire a web designer, pay them in thousands, and they deliver. The website sits on the internet and generates leads. During this period, websites requires zero or little attention to get into top shape at all times.

When carrying out maintenance, it’s usually to change wordings or update information on the website. Then, websites were not at risk as they were today. Of course, this was all in the past as thing has changed drastically now, and a website without a maintenance plan heads for the rocks.

Think of a website as a car; you need to do an oil change every three months or 3000km, whichever comes first. Aside from oil change, there are also other maintenance schedules your car will need to stay functional.

Just like your car, without schedules and regular maintenance, your website will wobble and struggle to achieve the goals for which you’ve created it. In this blog post, we’ll devote space and attention to why website maintenance should interest you;

1. Security

The number one problem of every website lies in its security. You’ll find yourself making the headlines (all for the wrong reasons) when your website security is breached.

Hackers globally are always lurking around a website, hoping to find a vulnerability to explore. They are only going to succeed if you fail in conducting regular and scheduled website maintenance.

Putting an eye on security when conducting website maintenance will save you resources, pain, and anguish. You cannot afford to put your business and your customers at risk by running on outdated software and security patches.

Imagine going to bed at night with your door unlocked. That’s a direct invitation for thieves into your home.

2. Customer Experience

Every interaction a customer has with your business matters. Right from their first visit to your website to speaking with your customer support team.

There are always new versions of web browsers on both desktop and mobile platforms. However, you are still stuck with website themes and templates made for a 2010 browser and device in 2020.

The implication is that your website may not function and display properly on the new browsers and devices. However, your website can deliver fresh, relevant and exciting information to your visitors with regular website maintenance scheduled.

Not forgetting that your links and forms will be working at their best. While you’ll have updated contact information through which you can be reached by a customer ready to take the interaction offline.

3. Search Engine Optimization

The cornerstone of any SEO strategy involves regular updates and maintenance of the website.

As part of your website maintenance routines, ensure that your contents are 100% correct and updated. You stand a chance of being ranked highly on search engines by paying prompt attention to updating your website.

On the other hand, search engines are liable to remove your website from being displayed on search results if it’s infrequently updated. One of the important ranking factors for search engines relies on optimization for mobile devices.

In this case, if it’s been a while you’ve carried out website maintenance, there’s a high likelihood that search engines have left you behind. When a user is looking for information from a mobile device, your website will be nowhere to be found.

4. Engage Current Customers

Obsessing over your current customers starts by delivering enormous value through your website. This starts by delivering value through your website all year round.

While there are myriad of ways to keep your customers engaged and excited, providing them with offers about your product and services has proven effective. This is best done through your website.

Update your website with interesting, exciting, and engaging content that keeps them coming back to your website for more. This could be by publishing content on your blog, publishing an online version of your newsletter, and letting your customers know that you care about them.

Final Thoughts on Website Maintenance

We believe we’ve made a sufficient argument about why you should take website maintenance seriously for your business. You’ve got to invest in website maintenance as much as you’ll take care of your automobiles. Never let it run out of fluids; else it’ll knock.

With regular and scheduled website maintenance, your website will attract fewer hackers and more customers.

Step By Step Guide To Prototyping A Mobile App Using Adobe XD

September 17, 2018 in Art, Cultivate, Design, how to

Designers connected with UX generally use multiple tools for the different tasks connected to prototyping. Often switching between these tools can impact on the pace of your working. Adobe HD gives you a single tool to facilitate a connected workflow. Hence you can bank on this invaluable tool to design and prototype your experience within minutes. Follow these steps once you have installed Adobe XD on your computer. To start with, click on ‘Start a new design’ with an iPhone artboard template.

Create a second artboard

Create a second Artboard with the Artboard tool (A).

On the property inspector, you will find on the right side, you can change the Artboard Background color to black.

Download tutorial assets

Go to Finder and drag the iPhone-status-bar.svg’ to the top of Artboard 1. Copy paste it onto Artboard 2. This will display the status bar on both the artboards. Click on cmd+L to lock the status bars on both the artboards so that the properties cannot be modified. You can use the same shortcut anytime or click on the ‘lock’ icon to unlock them.

Draw a rectangle

Use the Rectangle tool (R) to draw a rectangle without any borders. On the property inspector panel, you will find on the right, set the dimensions to 375 x 230.

Reorder objects

Click on the ‘eye’ icon for turning the border or fill on and off. To be able to change the colors using hexadecimal values, click on the color icon and select the second tab from the list. Change the drop-down to ‘RGB Sliders’.

Create a header

Use the text tool (T) to create a header for the team page. Draw a grey color square for the team member’s photo to sit.

Add another rectangle

You will have to create a white rectangle without borders to include the team member’s name on the header and job description as the sub-header. For the time being, you can use the placeholder text and customize it as per your taste.

Add an arrow icon

Including an arrow icon can help to show that the box is a tappable area. To do this, go to the finder and drag ‘path.svg’ onto the XD canvas. Reposition it to x: 330, y: 279.

Place the headshot

Go to Finder and drag a headshot into place on the grey square.

Create the list

The Repeat Grid feature can help you create the list of team members. Copy paste the top item, move the copied version down and adjust the margin. Repeat the process for new items. For changing the margins, you must work on one by one manually. If you want an item to repeat, click on ‘Repeat Grid’ on the property inspector.

Edit the text fields

To edit the text fields, first, drag all the headshots onto the grid and then edit the text fields displaying the member’s name and job description.

Create artboards for all team members

Once the details page is ready, you can duplicate it for all the other team members.

Test the prototype

The changes made to the design will show up immediately in the preview.

Interface Designing is More Than Visual Artistry

February 8, 2018 in Art, Cultivate, Design

If you have been designing products and features for your clients, you already know that visual appeal is everything when it comes to creating a good design, but is that all? Is there nothing beyond the colors and drawings that you work with? Do you like to create a scheme that has limited consideration of the type of the product and even the specific business requirements that the client may have?

Well, designing for a product is more than simply visual artistry because it is you who will be making sure that the functionality and usability of a product become easier and smooth for the users. It is your creativity and understanding of the product that will enhance its appeal to the users—the degree of ease will also be delivered through a good design.

So, as a designer, you hold the key to building a good interface connecting the product and the user.

Some considerations you have to make before designing an interface:

Does your design solve problems and make it easy for the users to use the product?
Is it feasible for the client to develop your design or is it going beyond the scope of resources or the budget that the client has?
Are the visual elements rolling over the usability factor?
Is it unique or are your creating look-alikes of other products?

All the above considerations will be significant for every product that you work with. Every company or client will have a different set of requirements, vision, and the resources to develop and implement the design that you will be building. So, as a designer, you need to think beyond the education and experience that you have, and almost think as a product manager or wear the shoes of the client itself.