Part 1
on Visuals Creation and Management?
We may find ourselves, feeling overwhelmed while creating content for our websites. A large amount of time can be spent on finding, creating, optimizing and generally managing visuals that will enhance and support our content. Today, content visualization is a process that must be followed since the general audience is increasingly engaged with visual elements. Aiming to attract new leads, we need to regularly nurture our web presence by creating related content to our audience needs. This process includes a lot of visuals creation for our websites as well as for our social media. That kind of work brings plenty of graphics-specifications on the table that we need to manage without losing our creativity.
The good news is that there are ways to manage our web graphics by establishing an effective working system in our content creation process. We can apply specific tactics to work faster and be more organized with a piece-of-mind. We can use practical workflows to create beautiful content that will promote and support our online brand identity and networking activities.
This post is the first part of an in-depth guide, on how to create a visuals-management system that you are going to love working with.
What Types of Graphics Do You Need?
for enhancing your web-presence
- Brand Identity graphics
- Website basic elements graphics
- Website Content Graphics
- Product / Services Images
- Social Media Graphics
- Promotional Material
Not all types of visuals should be treated the same way. Each type will be used either as is in its initial format or it will need to be converted and adapted to in a specific format or dimensions to suit in its final position or element.
For example, o logo may be used as a pure vector file (.ai or .eps) when you add it on another creative project such as a promo banner or on an infographic. But if you use it on the menu header of your website you’ll have to convert it into a .png format and in specific dimensions.
In order to work effectively with your visuals here are some best practices to use per type of graphics:
Where can you Find Graphic Elements?
41 Resources for your Content Creations
How to obtain your visual files is a strategic decision you have to make. Whatever you finally decide depends on your actual types of projects, skills, available budget, and your time management.
Some of the common choices you can make are shown amongst the 41 resources listed below:
Create them yourself on your Desktop using free or premium applications:
Create them yourself using Online Apps
Buy ready-made visuals from Online Graphic Designers Markets
Download them Freely from various online communities
Hire a Graphic Designer
How to Decide What Kind of Visuals You Need?
Build the Foundation of your Communication Strategy
Before even start searching or sketching your creative elements there is something very important you should do. Consider this part as the foundation of your online communication strategy:
Get in the right Mindset
- Your content should have nothing to do about what you want or what you like to design
- All your efforts should be set on what does your Audience/Persona need
Before designing anything you should tune in to "WIIFH"
"WIIFH" = What's in it for him/her
- “What” refers to your Persona’s pain and relief considerations when being on a specific stage on the Buyers Journey
- “Him/Her” is your Persona
Having your Persona in mind, you’ll be able to combine the ideal visual elements with the right content and together, convert them to strong visual messages.
A Few Words About Personas
example
Melissa’s habits and attitude will influence your decisions
- What does she like to wear?
- What she is sharing and discussing with her “tribe”
- What is her main challenge and what is the relief
- Designing new products
- Creating web content
- Deciding about Ads, Social Media and Promotional campaigns
Your visual elements and your content keywords are hidden in Melissa’s world.
- Your Brand Identity
- The style of your website
- Your Content Strategy
- New Product Development
Everything should “love” and attract Melissa.
Your blog, social media posts, pins, and all your website identity should have that kind of style and content that will match Melissa’s lingo, behavioral patterns, interests, and needs.
A Few Words About the Buyer's Journey
All actions for an effective web presence should be ruled by a number of little things you can do repeatedly and consistently.
Working with Keywords
Keywords are the main ideas of our content – visual material or descriptive text. A keyword can be either a single word i.e. “graphics” or a short phrase i.e. “create the best web graphics”. As soon as we set up our keyword(s) then we can easily build all our content elements around them. While creating our visual content, we should aim to engage our persona. This means that our persona will understand the key-takeaway of our content and may share it, or positively react to it.
If the Keywords match our persona’s needs then we’ll gain his/her engagement.
Accessibility - A11y - Factors
Web content should be readable to a wide range of audiences. When designing elements for web, we’ve to be short of predictable, clear enough and color conscious for our audience benefit.
For example, using blue color for links – is something predictable or using clear color contrasts to help readers easily preview and understand our message. Accessibility consideration is about welcoming a wider range of people in our platforms. Very useful information about “ALLY” can be found in the following interesting video: Accessibility in Design Systems by Allison Shaw (36 minutes seminar the rest is a discussion)
Responsiveness
A beautiful layout should also look beautiful in all kinds of devices. We always have to make sure that our graphics and web page layouts are nicely displayed when viewed upon a wide range of devices.
SEO: Optimized Files
- How should I name my file before uploading it on the web?
- Should the name include a keyword or the post title?
- In which format (SVG, PNG, JPG…) should I export it and on which quality (% or dpi)
- Is it small enough for speed page-loading
Brand Identity guidelines:
- Do we display our visuals consistently across the platforms we use?
- Do we respect the general style-guide of our brand?
- Are the fonts, shapes, patterns, and colors we’ve used, in line with the general style and tone of our Brand?
If we skip any of those factors we’ll find ourselves going back and forth to edit, retouch, correct, optimize or rename your files.
