We’ve recently made some AshWorthy improvements to the website for New Image, a medical spa in Lagrangeville, NY. “[Blending] the safety and security of a professional medical facility with the peace and tranquility of a spa,” New Image provides a spectrum of cosmetic and therapeutic services, including:

• SmartLipo™ – a gentle, laser-assisted liposuction procedure
• Laser Treatments – including anti-aging skin tightening, treatment of superficial veins, photorejuvenation, and laser hair removal
• Botox® & Dermal Fillers – injection therapy to reduce the formation of wrinkles
• Aesthetic Services – including chemical peels, facials, microdermabrasion, and waxing
• Massage Therapy – a variety of massage types to improve emotional, physical and spiritual health
• Spa Packages – a combination of services
• Teen Services – facials, aromatherapy, and massage therapy treatments tailored to teens

We really enjoyed this project and working with the New Image/DRA Imaging team, and we’ve certainly learned a lot about spa treatments throughout the process. The Ashworth Girls – Eve, Auden, and Kaitlin – are looking forward to a New Image Signature Massage to relieve stress. Bryan wants to get his eyebrows waxed, and Chase is partial to a facial. The web development team is definitely in need of a deep tissue massage.

Negative space, that is… also referred to as white space, which plays a major role in design. White space isn’t always actually white in color, but it is defined as the space within a design that does not contain imagery or typography. Some examples of websites that make good use of white space are Tiffany & Co., Apple, Tumblr, and Google.

So, what’s the point of white space? As famed designer and typographer Jan Tschichold said, “White space is to be regarded as an active element, not a passive background.” White space isn’t merely blank, wasted, or unused, but it actually can enhance a design. Paul Boag recently wrote an interesting article in which he pointed out a few benefits of white space:

1. Improved legibility – When text has room to breathe, and typographic elements aren’t running up against each other, legibility is greatly improved.
2. Higher comprehension – As Boag shared, a research study conducted in 2004 revealed that white space around sections of text can actually increase comprehension.
3. Increased attention – White space around a particular element can help to make it stand out, such as the iPhone 4 announcement in the Apple screenshot above or the search bar in the Google screenshot above.
4. Creating a tone – The use of white space can create an impression of elegance, sophistication, and/or freshness. This clean look can set a particular tone for a brand, such as in the Tiffany & Co. screenshot above.

Again, white space doesn’t mean white in color, and it certainly doesn’t mean boring. Tumblr’s white space is a gradient blue, Apple’s includes both gray and white, and Tiffany & Co.’s is Tiffany blue and white. Even the white space on our own website isn’t white at all.

So, don’t be afraid of negative space – don’t try and cram everything you want your viewers to read “above the fold” of your homepage. Rather, utilize white space to grab their attention and appeal to their senses and they’ll be glad to scroll down and/or click through to find out more.

Remember, white space is nice space!*

*(via Paper Leaf)

Have a lovely Valentine’s Day!

Love, Ashworth Creative

See more photos from our Valentine’s Day photoshoot on our Facebook.

Do you know what “good” content is? Does your website and/or social network’s content engage your consumers or increase your online awareness? If you’re not sure, you may want to take a good hard look. Content plays a vital role in marketing – it gets attention, increases search ranking, keeps people coming back to your website, etc. As Lee Odden described it on TopRank, “If Social Media and SEO fit together like peanut butter and jelly, then content is the bread that holds them together.”

Odden continues, explaining, “Consumers expect content from brands. They expect ease of discovery (via search or social), the ability to interact with and socially share content and to interact with others with similar interests (social networking). These aren’t ‘nice to haves’ anymore, they’re expected… Content fuels customer engagement at all stages of the customer life cycle.” By creating content, either on a website, blog, or social media page, a company becomes a publisher of unique content. As web strategist Paul Boag recently wrote, “You’re a publisher, start acting like it.”

So, how do you become a good “publisher?” How do you create “good” content? Creating content isn’t merely the act of publishing it – content is developed through strategy. Some companies publish too much content, with no added value. Others publish only occasionally and briefly, simply to satisfy the need to “do it” and “get it out of the way.” In both scenarios, the content is ineffective.

For good (successful, effective) content, David Callan of AKA Marketing says, “Generally, the more useful and interesting content a website has the more successful it will be… the first trick to creating good content for your website is to be sure that your content will have specific appeal to your target audience.” Social media strategist Kyle Lacy also has some suggestions regarding “creating meaningful and thought provoking content,” including “tell a story” and “be human.”

Ultimately, your content will be influenced by your company, your brand, and your consumer. Regardless, most marketers and strategists would agree that putting time and effort into creating appropriate, relevant, and engaging content is worth it.

Effectively, [information architecture] helps us to make sense of a world where data is being generated at an unprecedented rate. Our ability to make sense of all this data is heavily influenced by how it’s accessed, organized and delivered. The numbers, words and pictures have to manifest as something you can interpret, understand and act upon.
- Osric Powell, Econsultancy

As those who have worked in web development/design know, information architecture is one of the first – and most important – steps in creating a website. Regardless of how great the content is, or how perfect the design is, the site will do poorly without proper information architecture. The purpose of information architecture, or IA, is to effectively connect content, context, and the end user.
More specifically, information should be organized in a way that makes sense (given the context), and the organization should be easy for the user to navigate. Ultimately, the goal is to create a structure in which visitors to the site will have no difficulty finding what they are looking for. A good reference for the significance of information architecture is e-commerce; e-commerce websites sort products by category, type, price, recency, etc… On a site where hundreds of products may be sold, information architecture makes it possible for visitors to find what they are looking for without having to browse through all products.

As Powell points out, “How many visitors leave your site because they cannot find what they are looking for, or because the information is poorly presented? What is that worth in terms of lost revenue? What is the cost to maintain, develop and innovate your IA and what are the benefits worth to your business?”

Riley Cran created this interesting infographic on cell phone usage in the U.S.

If you’re considering delving into mobile marketing and/or branded apps, now’s the time.

As a side note, Android has now become the #1 smartphone platform worldwide.

Ever been to the Freer in DC? The National Gallery in London? What about the Palace of Versailles?

Google’s already made it possible for us to explore streets all over the world, constellations in space, and the depths of the oceans, and now it’s making it possible for us to visit 17 of the world’s most renowned art museums – as always, from the comfort of our own home. Access to the museums is being made available thanks to the 20% Project of Google’s Amit Sood, called the Art Project.

For those unfamiliar with the 20% Project – Google encourages its employees to spend 20% of their time working on a personal project. Sood explains, “[The Art Project] started when a small group of us who were passionate about art got together to think about how we might use our technology to help museums make their art more accessible—not just to regular museum-goers or those fortunate to have great galleries on their doorsteps, but to a whole new set of people who might otherwise never get to see the real thing up close.”

Thanks to their innovation, users can:

• Browse incredibly high-res images – 7 billion pixels per image – of famous works of art housed in museums throughout the world, with the ability to zoom in with approximately 1,000 times more detail than the average digital camera
• Take virtual tours inside the museums, with an interactive street view interface, allowing 360 views
• “Create your own art collection,” saving  images into a personal gallery, adding comments, and sharing

Fast Company points out that this “democratizes art collecting,” and Julian Raby, director of the Smithsonian’s Freer Gallery, says that it “deepens our desire to go in search of the real [artworks].” Could this increase attendance, maybe even funding, at galleries and museums? That will take time, but as The Next Web accurately concludes that “the Art Project is perfect for students, geographically disadvantaged folk, and lovers of art everywhere.”