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Reactive Graphics has launched a new WordPress website for Labatt Construction, a highly regarded building company based in West London. Labatt Construction specialises in the high-end refurbishment of residential properties and commercial spaces. They have over 20 years of experience in the building industry. Their company has established a reputation not only for high-quality design but for their first-class delivery of projects.

The new website has been designed to appeal to both architects and private clients. This has been achieved by incorporating the use of full-sized imagery and revised photography. Our Minimalist web design guides users with subtle animations and simplistic navigation elements. Allowing users to move around the website to view a ‘snapshot’ of Labatt’s extensive construction portfolio. The design of the website also included a re-design of Labatt’s brand identity. Exchanging ‘A’ lettering with an original and modernistic apex design; we created a sophisticated and purposeful roof-like illustration within their new logo. This impressive photography on the Labatt Construction site allowed us to balance the site with a monotone theme. Striking a perfect balance between visual design and accessible user functionality.

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Striking video content and fabulous photography

The world is full of outrageously brilliant photography and video content these days. Not only are top of the range DSLR cameras absolutely cheap as chips at the moment, but if you are the owner of a smartphone, then chances are, you are also a pretty awesome smartphone photographer. We are a society obsessed with selfies, Instapics, filters etc. and our collective eye for detail is growing more and more fixated on the perfect pic. Whether it be for your Facebook profile pic, Snapchat story or a Pinterest pin.

So, if your website is lacking perfection when it comes to imagery, it’s probably time to shut up shop and move back to the 20^th Century. Back in simpler times, pixellated pics were considered arty. The fear of falling victim to ‘false internet advertising’ was less real and more humorous. Like when you ordered cowboy boots for your autumn winter wardrobe and they arrived in a matchbox instead of a shoebox and looked just perfect on your nephew’s Woody doll.

So, striking video content and photography is not only about aesthetically pleasing imagery. It’s about accuracy and being true to the services and products you provide. This is vital for building a trusting customer base and providing a service that people would be happy to recommend. Being transparent online is an extremely useful business tactic. If consumers know what to expect from you, then the likelihood of them being let down or misunderstanding what’s on offer is dramatically reduced.

Amazing content not only does wonders for your customer base but also helps significantly with marketing your business. This can be through unrelated ‘sharing’ of your content or reusing your imagery. Either way, you are getting YOUR brand out there, potentially into a different demographic of potential customers.

The hamburger and other delicious icons

The hamburger menu icon is one of those simple symbols, which will go down in history as one of the most effective. Consisting of three straight horizontal lines stacked one on top of the other – the top and bottom lines being the bun and the middle line being the burger – the hamburger takes up little space and is not restricted by language and can be rendered on all web-enabled devices.

The hamburger really is an icon of our generation, something that has gone from ‘what is the deal with those three lines in the corner of that website?’ ‘Where the heck is the menu?’ to ‘……….’ That’s right, silence. Because everyone now, knows exactly what the function of that simple little icon is. We don’t know how these sorts of transitions take place, from something being completely new and ineffectual, to them being a full-on part of our digital lives. From social media icons, the search magnifying glass or the microphone icon, all of these tiny images are now part of a digital language that we all recognise. Despite them all being, for the most part, is less than a decade old. Awesome, effective icons are set to stay and this brings us straight onto our next point about intuitive design…

Intuitive User centred design

Your website design should always consider the user/customer as the most important person in the whole process. If the interface for your website is not user-focused, then is it unlikely that your customer base will be able to interact with your online business without a hiccup, if at all. A glitchy website that doesn’t do what it says on the tin, is the most annoying thing ever. Equally annoying is a super stylish website that is completely dysfunctional and totally style over substance.

As a website user, you want to feel that your web browsing experience has been developed with you in mind. A slick, easy experience that allows you to do whatever you need in about 4 clicks. Maximum.

Intuitive design means that the customer doesn’t have to do too much leg work to get what they want. YOU as the business owner are supplying THEM a service. By making their experience easier, you are doing yourselves justice.

2018 is the year when slow load page times are just unacceptable. Websites that require flash or any other random plugin to work are completely obsolete. As well as low-quality design, these simply will not be tolerated. So there you have it, it’s the intuitive way or the high way!

Card design ala Pinterest

The card design has been around for many moons and is set to be here for quite some time yet. With its simple, yet effective layout and structure, card design offers a clean, off-beat style of web design that is very ‘Skandi’. Which is very on-trend. Paired with simple sans serif typography and muted colour palettes, card design can take your website from tired to contemporary. Without having to reshape or redesign the whole concept of your site.

Think cool mood boards, retro colours and clean typography. Card design is a minimalist’s dream and set to be a favourite amongst web designers and developers in 2018. Not only does the simplistic design of a card designed website make it easily navigable, but it also allows your content the space to shine.

Long-form content

For years, businesses have refined their content into snappy, short form-focused nuggets of information that are easily digestible. But the times are a-changin’!

Well, not completely, but this trend of making content so short and focused that it could essentially fit into a tweet. This is something businesses are now reconsidering when they design content for their websites. We think the long-form text approach is, naively, something they do because they anticipate it will increase organic web traffic. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. Sometimes the best way to approach content is simply quality rather than quantity.

So, here we are, our top 5 predictions for web design trends 2018. If you want to be ahead of the curve and redesign your website or create a site from scratch then please do get in touch! We’d be happy to help!

P.S we are also now on Instagram so come say hi!

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Here you have it folks!

Reactive Graphics are popping their video content cherry and we’ve decided not to keep the good stuff all for ourselves.

We are now offering a video service to add to your bespoke web design, to fit with your branding and to enhance your marketing campaign.

Enjoy!

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Be warned, it is extremely contagious.

By 2018, every second, nearly a million minutes of video content will cross the web according to Cisco, which means it would take one individual 5 million years to watch just one month of published video content. With this sheer volume of visceral material massaging our eyeballs daily, we are forced to conform and recognize the staying power and potential of engaging video content.

You would think that the World Wide Web would feel crowded with that amount of visual stimulation. However, we are constantly sharing video content across the web like it is going out of fashion and with big guns like YouTube predicting that in the not-so-distant future 90% of internet traffic will be solely video, we can see why businesses and web developers are jumping on the band wagon.

So why is video so engaging?

The human brain is naturally drawn to visual content that is relatable, emotional and easy to digest. Online video content offers the perfect platform to do just that. For the past couple of years the rise of online video content has been vast. Now that video production costs are becoming more manageable and various social media platforms are creating easy to use apps, there really is no excuse to not include video content as a major player when planning your content marketing strategy.

Vine for example, the rapid-growing video app baby of social media giant Twitter has businesses and marketing professionals recording video content to increase professional engagement. With an inherent limit of 6 seconds you don’t have to be a highly skilled cinematographer to capture a Vine. With the ease of use and the time restrictions, businesses are coming up with innovative ways of selling their brand in short and sweet video recordings. It’s mobile and it’s social with users having the ability to record, edit, watch, share and comment within the one neat package.

Getting involved…

From advertising your product, to selling your brand and services, video content really doesn’t have to be super flashy. It can be about human interaction, offering an alternative experience of what your company offers in concise manageable chunks. Video content offers you the ability to show your audience what’s on offer, rather than just tell them. According to Forbes we are hot-wired to interact with the human face and voice as a point of believability and source of important information.

In 2014 we saw the rise of the vlogger. Video + Blogging = Vlogging

Although the name doesn’t exactly role off the tongue, it has become apparent that the Vlogging phenomena are achieving something that brands have long tried to achieve with their target markets – long term engagement. Regular video blogs serve as a sort of weekly meeting with audiences, where the viewer can comment and post questions directly to the vlogger, essentially creating a hive of interactivity and therefore lots of loyal hooked-on-the-honey worker bees. Sparking interest in whatever topic they are addressing, vloggs are not just for fresh faced 20 something’s talking about lipstick but can be a powerful communicator of brand identity and personality for those businesses with something to say.

Recording interviews is another extremely savvy way of getting your company out there. Lead creatives or company execs can share a slice of their working life offering insights into how they generate ideas or how they interact with clients or even what they look for when searching for a new employee. By offering this type of video content, it allows viewers to see that you are an active and dynamic company. Even global giant Google shares an ‘inside look’of their offices, offering audiences more intimate familiarity with the company, its products, and what it stands for.

Essentially your website serves as your online identity with potential customers visiting your site for a taste of your brand and to view previous work. Video content could potentially boost the value of the information that is already there. Whether you record short testimonials from previous clients, or include video tutorials explaining the sustainability of one of your services, you really can use the simple vlogging style of recording to your advantage. Plus it is easily sharable through your already existing social media sites such as YouTube, Twitter, Vimeo and Facebook. With YouTube alone gaining 1 billion new visitors monthly there’s potential for massive SEO growth and more online shares. You may even go viral!

How can your business benefit from video content?

Creating video content is much more than just lights, camera, action. If you decide to include video content on your website it is extremely important that you define closely what your goals and intentions are. Is it to increase the number of viewers on your site? Is it to generate new leads? Is it to show off one of your products or pieces of work? By understanding your video target audience (which may differ from your usual demographic) you may be able to shape the type of video content you want to include.

By creating video content you can deliver lots of information in a very concise and visual way. You are offering viewers the chance to become involved in a different type of interaction with your company that moves from basic white paper script to quick, snappy informative video shorts.

Creating video content can however be rather time consuming and if badly done, detrimental to your brand. Not good! If your content is monotone with bad edits and terrible lighting, then you risk the possibility of coming across as unprofessional and a bit of a digital dunce. You must allow the video content to be a different digital voice speaking the same language of your brand. Remember you want to engage viewers, show off what you’ve got and be consistent. Reactive graphics follow this same process when designing a website or logo.

If you want to be noticed in 2015 then video content creation is a sure fire way of doing that. Think beyond one-sided points and focus on top-of-the-funnel customer/consumer engagement. Video can offer that multi-dimensional user experience that may potentially set you apart from competitors and make you as a brand much more desirable.

If you would like more information of how we could support you in uploading video content to your website then please take a look at our video services page or contact us

#wearereactive

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This one page scrolling web site enables the viewer to progress effortlessly through each section, particularly suitable for iPad users. The web site incorporates Fifty Fifty’s latest work in HTML5 video display ensuring compatibility with tablet and mobile devices. Full screen background images give a contemporary feel. Last but not least..it’s all built with a WordPress Content Management System giving the client full control over all editorial.

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We are also in the process of re-designing a web site for Armourers’ Hall. We have also designed web sites for two other prestigious Livery Companies. These are The Leathersellers’ Company www.leathersellers.co.uk and The Horners’ Company www.horners.org.uk

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