Seminar panelists included Bruno Dickman of Dickman’s Designs, Stephen Yagielowicz of XBIZ, Rick Muenyong of The Best Porn and Brandon Ramkey of BRAMA Media. The seminar was moderated by XBIZ President and Publisher Alec Helmy.
The discussion kicked off with a question about implementing a clean and effective website design. Panelists suggested putting the webmaster in the shoes of the surfer to design a page that loads easily, is visually pleasing and easy to navigate.
“I think users would rather scroll than click when viewing a webpage,” Muenyong said. “You want to have a lot of info on the page, but spaciously arranged so it’s not overwhelming. Too many images and too much text lead to confusion. Use a few dynamic images to capture people’s eyes. Porn surfers have attention deficit disorder.”
He added that branding a logo can be an effective marketing tool because it creates a familiarity with the surfer so there is an instant comfort level with the content and usability of the site.
Dickman, a Sao Paulo, Brazil-based web designer who has a 20 person staff and has successfully assisted Hustler, Playboy and Vivid design its web presence, talked about the role a design firm should play in working with its clients to produce productive, and ultimately lucrative, websites.
“For a design firm its not just about providing a product, it’s about providing a solution,” he said. “I tell webmasters not to leave money on the table. A 10 percent boost to spend on a quality design will have them earning a lot more revenue over time.
Dickman and the panel also emphasized in practicing good client care by forming one-on-one relationships, and to help webmasters understand their true needs so the constructive criticism comes from someone who has worked on the design every step of the way, from conceptualization to realization.
Helmy also stressed to check for references and portfolios of a prospective designer not only to asses their credibility, but also to confirm it is capable of designing what the client exactly wants.
Pertaining to profitability, Yagielowicz, a longtime webmaster and current XBIZ senior editor, suggested designing a couple different tours to see what is converting surfers into paid members and adjust their business model accordingly.
“I like to tell webmasters to study a test case of a program or site that is very successful,” Yagielowicz said. “They should try to work with this design and improve upon it instead of trying to reinvent the wheel every time.”
Different aspects of design were debated including the presentation of tours, access to free content and surfers’ viewing habits for optimum visual effect.
On the topic of design software the panel was in almost universal agreement that freeware is not a cost-effective option because most webmasters spend too much time trying to make it emulate paid software.
The Adobe suite of software including Dreamweaver, Photoshop, Illustrator and Macromedia Flash earned a consensus thumbs up. Dickman added that digital pens on a tablet work well for complicated designs.
While Frontpage and Dreamweaver can be efficient, Yagielowicz advised writing all HTML by hand to avoid any bugs, compatibility issues or coding problems with the software. He recommended using a free service called Poodle where webmasters can plug in a url, and the service highlights problem areas where there are HTML errors on the page.
Perhaps the best advice was given at the end of the session when a panelist commented, “We sell porn to guys who want to buy porn. Let’s find the best way to facilitate that and we’ll all be happy.”