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Category Archives: Design

Design

Increasing Readability in Web Design

Web design has come a long way in the twenty years since the first website was published. The ease of use that today’s users experience on sites like Google and Amazon.com necessarily resulted from the trials of the early days. While design techniques may come and go, one overarching goal of our efforts is increased usability. Here are a few ways to improve the readability of a web page. Split up the content. What Google did: Google isolated the most frequently-used part of the page … Continue reading

Design

DBS>Interactive wins multiple honors from Horizon Interactive Awards

DBS>Interactive’s designs for St. James Court Art Show, University of Louisville Physicians and Leadership Louisville were all award winners at the 11th Annual Horizon Interactive Awards. More than 1000 entries from 25 different countries were judged in this year’s competition.  The awards were announced April 15th. DBS>Interactive won a Gold Award in the Websites-Responsive/Mobile Design for the St. James Court Art Show website. The panel also awarded DBS with a Bronze for the same site in the Advocacy/Non-Profit category. The web design for Leadership Louisville … Continue reading

Design Marketing

Why email marketing is old school but still relevant

Sometimes, the term “old school” is a compliment; a term of affection or respect. It’s rarely used in a positive manner when describing online marketing. The ever-changing, minute-to-minute world of online marketing and SEO allows little room for anything “old school.” Some marketers and their clients consider email marketing an “old school” method, but with a solid approach, it can still be effective and relevant. According to the Direct Marketing Association, email marketing has a Return on Investment of around 4,300%. When properly executed, an … Continue reading

Design

DBS receives another Best in Class award

The Interactive Media Council has awarded DBS>Interactive a second Best in Class award for 2012. The DBS team won Best in Class in the Nonprofit category for the design of the St. James Court Art Show mobile site. Organizers of the St. James Court Art Show asked DBS>Interactive to overhaul its website, so we created a responsive site viewable on a variety of devices, including tablets and phones. We also created a unique mobile site that integrated GPS mapping, which allowed visitors at the show … Continue reading

Design Programming

DBS>Interactive wins Gold at the Louie Awards

DBS>Interactive is the recipient of the Gold Louie Award from the Louisville Advertising Federation for its creation and design of the St. James Court Art Show website. The award was presented at the 39th Annual Louie Awards at the Seelbach Hilton February 22nd. DBS was the lone award winner in the Digital Creative Technology, GPS and Location Technology category. “The St. James Court Art Show website was designed with responsive design in mind, meaning it is viewable on phones and tablets as well as conventional … Continue reading

Design Programming

DBS>Interactive wins Best in Class award

DBS>Interactive is proud to announce the Interactive Media Council has presented us with the 2012 Best in Class – Medical award for our design of the University of Louisville Physicians website. The Best in Class award is the highest honor bestowed by the Interactive Media Council. It represents the very best in planning, execution and overall professionalism. Our redesign of the previous site included a custom database, custom site search, as well as the integration of a third-party medical library application. The custom features of … Continue reading

Design

How to Use Sprites in Web Design

In the world of fantasy, the term “sprites” can refer to a wide variety of small, super-natural beings — from  ”fairly-like” creatures, to “insect-like” creatures, to “flower-like” creatures. Because of their many forms, sprites have an inherent mystery to them, which often results in them being misunderstood. Although the web definition of a sprite differs greatly from it’s fantasy-world counterpart, the air of mystery and confusion that surrounds them is quite similar. Although the name suggests that the item may be small in size, in … Continue reading

Design

Designing for M-Commerce

So, you’ve been convinced that designing websites with mobile commerce in mind is a great way to improve business. The next step is to ask ourselves the big question: how are we going to put the principles of mobile commerce into action? The principles of good mobile commerce design overlap with those of any website whose purpose is to call upon the visitor to act in some way (in the case of M-commerce, this action is a purchase). Many of the difficulties associated with M-commerce  stem from … Continue reading

Design

DBS>Interactive and Leadership Louisville Center share top design award

The International Association of Business Communicators-Kentucky and the Bluegrass chapter of the Public Relations Society of America awarded DBS>Interactive and the Leadership Louisville Center an Award of Excellence for Graphic Design: Web Design at the Landmarks of Excellence Awards Ceremony October 16th. DBS and Leadership Louisville Center teamed up in the spring of 2012 to design and launch a new website (www.leadershiplouisville.org). The revamped website showcases the Leadership Louisville Center’s activities using photography across a platform of cleanly-designed pages. DBS implemented intuitive navigation programming and … Continue reading

Design Programming

How to: Creating a Custom Facebook Tab

So you want to create a custom Facebook tab for your page, but have no idea where to begin? As you may or may not know, custom tabs on a Facebook page are actually simple Facebook apps. The structure of Facebook apps, like many things in Facebook, has evolved and changed over time. One of the most significant – and for some, most confusing – changes took effect October 1, 2011, regarding secure hosting of pages for Facebook app iframe content. Since October 1st, all … Continue reading

Design Marketing

Infographic Marketing

You’ve probably seen them and may not know what they’re called. You know, those graphics-rich and fact-laden “posters” on a website that quirkily tell you about a particular subject. They’re called infographics, and they’re the fastest rising content trend on the Internet, according to a recent IDG Enterprise survey. WHY INFOGRAPHICS? Google’s constant algorithm changes regarding how it ranks sites continue to put the focus on content. Google wants to eliminate shady and outdated SEO practices, like mass directory submissions, buying links and keyword stuffing. … Continue reading

Design

Retina Displays: Good for Web Design?

Although Apple has made the Retina display a household name the term “retina quality” can roughly be applied to describe screens with resolutions exceeding 300 pixels per inch. These ultra high-resolution screens have transformed the way users experience the web, offering 3 million more pixels than your average HDTV. But are these huge resolutions an improvement for web designers? Sure, they have their benefits, but are the advantages great enough to outweigh the apparent challenges of designing for a post-retina Internet? More Pixels for Your … Continue reading

Design

Four Ways to Draw a Circle in-Browser

At first glance, learning to program a circle in a browser is a task that to many would seem senseless. But believe it or not, creating a circle in a browser is a task that offers a lot of value to web designers of all skill levels. Why take the time to render a circle with code, when we could simply use an image editing program like Photoshop to create the circle? By rendering the circle in-browser, as opposed to embedding an image or coding it … Continue reading

Design Marketing

Facebook Timeline for Brand Pages

Businesses who manage a company Facebook page should brace themselves as Facebook is scheduled to change the capabilities and appearance of brand pages, again! On March 30th, all pages are switching over to Facebook’s new timeline page format. So what is changing, and what does it mean for your brand page? The Facebook timeline places more emphasis on visuals, providing a more attractive and image heavy layout. The timeline allows content to be viewed by time period, highlights popular stories and milestones, enables private messaging … Continue reading

Design

5 Online Tools Every Web Designer Should Know About

Every web designer has their own set of tools that they use with every site. This core set of tools maximizes efficiency and reduces the time spent performing mundane tasks.  With the vast amount of web apps / plugins popping up every day, there are a lot of options web designers have to choose from to help them in their workflow. But these tools, I’ve listed below, are the 5 tools we think every web designer should know about.

Design

Tips for Type: Web Font Styling

In the early days of the web, designers were very limited in the number of options that were available for styling type. Web designers were basically left with two options, neither of which were particularly attractive solutions. Font Stacks – The first option was to specify a group of fonts from a tiny selection of web-friendly font stacks. A common example of a font stack would have been “Futura”; “Century Gothic”; “Sans-Serif”. In instances where a visitor did not have the first specified font in … Continue reading

Consulting Design Marketing Programming

DBS V5.0 is now live!

DBS>Interactive has seen and experienced a lot of change throughout our 10 years as an interactive agency. So much so, that it’s sometimes funny to think about how things used to be. We were building websites when a dial tone was required to access the Internet. We were building websites when Yahoo was the #1 search engine. We were even building websites when floppy discs were the industry standard. Throughout all the change in the industry, however, our core values have never altered. We still … Continue reading

Design Marketing

My X-mas Wishlist: The Semantic Web

Although Santa has just barely had enough time to complete his journey back to his elf-filled, ice fortress in the North Pole, as a technology-loving fool, I’m already hard at work preparing my Christmas wish list for next December. Reflecting back on the past year, it’s hard to deny the significance that 2011 had on the online and tech community. 2011 brought with it three of the largest changes to Google’s search algorithm since it’s incorporation in 1998; changes that vastly improved the relevance and … Continue reading

Design

Web Design Trends of 2012

Fueling Trends The end is nigh for 2011! It’s time to start preparing for snow, holiday parties, and the upcoming web design trends of 2012! We all know that technology is growing exponentially, and that change is generally fueled by necessity. The Internet changed a lot in the last year, and we can only expect that it will change by leaps and bounds again in 2012. Making your website stand out amongst the crowd will depend on your ability to identify the upcoming web design … Continue reading

Design

CSS Transitions Explained

Individuals familiar with film editing programs such as After Effects, Final Cut Pro, or iMovie have long understood the power of incorporating transitions into their films. Without transitions between camera shots, movies have the tendency of feeling fragmented and unpolished. Applications such as Flash and JavaScript were revolutionary in that they brought rich media experiences such as animation to the web, but they came with a significant problem. Search engines spiders had difficulty (and in fact, still have great difficulty) indexing this content and many … Continue reading

Design

DBS Reveals New Bourbon Heritage Center Website Design for Heaven Hill

DBS>Interactive announces the newly redesigned Heaven Hill Bourbon Heritage Center website, www.bourbonheritagecenter.com. The Bourbon Heritage Center is an award winning destination on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, located in Bardstown, Kentucky. Their site redesign includes a section that informs visitors of the rich history of Bourbon in Kentucky and an extensive timeline with profiles of key players who helped Bourbon become what it is today. Website visitors can learn about tour options, reserve their space on a tour, and purchase tickets online. Tour options include free … Continue reading

Design

The Box Model Explained

What is the box model? Designing for the web requires two frames of mind. The rational side of the brain writes out the code, in the order it should appear in the final project. Next, the creative side determines how the elements of a web page appear. Without styling, a website appears to be nothing more than text in predefined sections. These sections can be a heading, paragraph, image, etc, but the browser considers each element a box. As a default, these boxes have a … Continue reading

Design Programming

The Box Model Explained

What is the box model? Designing for the web requires two frames of mind. The rational side of the brain writes out the code, in the order it should appear in the final project. Next, the creative side determines how the elements of a web page appear. Without styling, a website appears to be nothing more than text in predefined sections. These sections can be a heading, paragraph, image, etc, but the browser considers each element a box. As a default, these boxes have a … Continue reading

Design

Mark Shelton Promoted to Art Director

DBS Interactive has promoted Mark Shelton to the position of Art Director. Mark will be responsible for overseeing the continued success of the DBS Web Design department. In his previous position as Lead Designer Mark was influential in positioning DBS as a prominent Web Design company in Louisville. His interest in design extends beyond the workplace environment and is one of his passions in life, one he shares with his wife Joanna who is also graphic designer. Mark said “What I find so fascinating about … Continue reading

Design

Mark Shelton Promoted to Art Director

DBS Interactive has promoted Mark Shelton to the position of Art Director. Mark will be responsible for overseeing the continued success of the DBS Web Design department. In his previous position as Lead Designer Mark was influential in positioning DBS as a prominent Web Design company in Louisville. His interest in design extends beyond the workplace environment and is one of his passions in life, one he shares with his wife Joanna who is also graphic designer. Mark said “What I find so fascinating about … Continue reading

Design

DBS>Interactive Announces the Launch of PopCosmo.com

DBS>Interactive announces the launch of PopCosmo.com, the premier online fashion and style magazine for teen girls. PopCosmo was created by mother-daughter team Kim and Chloe Gordon. PopCosmo is the savvy teen’s go-to guide for the scoop in her city and on the web. PopCosmo is a nationwide site, with a city guide for Louisville’s teen girls to find the coolest hangouts, shops, and events. PopCosmo plans to expand to other cities in the future as they grow. Teens have the option of keeping up to … Continue reading

Design

DBS>Interactive Welcomes Brian Maier

Brian Maier joins DBS>Interactive as our newest web designer and front end developer. Before working at DBS, Brian resided in Cincinnati, Ohio and worked at Mindbox Studios, and was a freelance designer. He has worked on a variety of designs for companies small and large. Some prominent clients he has worked on include Wal-Mart and Proctor & Gamble, as well as many startup companies for Continuous Web, a community showcase for startups and tech professionals. Brian brings 4 years of design experience to the DBS … Continue reading

Consulting Design

Google+ from a Designer’s POV

For the past two weeks, our marketing department has combed through Google’s new social network, Google+ and provided their expertise and opinion on the various features. Overall, our marketing department is overwhelmingly positive in their opinion of Google+ and believes that it is a promising alternative to social media giant, Facebook. While I also agree with them, as a designer, I tend to see things from the perspective of a designer. Improper spacing, padding, and kerning of letters is more of a pet peeve to … Continue reading

Design

The Rise of the CMS and the Fall of the ‘Webmaster’

The rapid growth of user-friendly social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook has attracted a plethora of new users to the web, as well as increased the frequency of which an “average” user browses the Internet.  Such growth has prompted websites to regularly deliver their audience with fresh content to capitalize on each visit, and that demand is where modern-day content management systems (CMS) have come into play. Content management systems are no recent development, but in recent years the development of their usability, … Continue reading

Design

HTML5 – Practical, or a Vision of the Future?

Strongly endorsed by both Apple and Google, HTML5 is on its way to becoming the online development language of the future. Although the language is not scheduled to be finished until 2022, there are plans for it to be implemented by all major browsers as soon as 2012. So what does it mean for the web development community as this historic milestone grows nearer? Should you be using HTML5 in your designs right now? The answer to that question, as with many things, is it … Continue reading